Maker record
Masudaya
Masudaya, whose products were also marked Modern Toys, is a Japanese toy maker with a history reaching back to the 18th century. It has made toys in materials including wood, paper, clay, metal, celluloid and soft vinyl. Its postwar range included mechanical walking toys, dolls and character toys. In the 1950s, Masudaya developed radio-controlled and sound-responsive toys, including the Radicon Bus and Sonicon Rocket. Its products have also included tin trains, transforming toys and soft-vinyl figures.
- Founded
- 1724
- Countries
- Japan
- Locations
- Tokyo, Japan · 1926
- Founders
- Rinbei Saitō
The story of Masudaya
Masudaya traces its toy business to 1724, when Rinbei Saitō is said to have opened a toy shop in Asakusa under the name Masudaya. The shop handled toys made from wood, paper and clay. In the early 20th century it expanded into metal toys; during the 1920s the company adopted the TM mark associated with Toy Masudaya and Modern Toys. The business reorganized as Saitō Tokutarō Shōten in 1925 and moved to Kuramae in 1926, where it manufactured tin, lead and celluloid toys and began exports. Wartime conditions interrupted exports and operations; the company resumed business in 1946 and became Masudaya Saitō Bōeki Co., Ltd. in 1949.
After the war, Masudaya made mechanical toys, including a walking bear and a walking doll. It introduced a soft-vinyl milk-drinking doll and curl-haired doll in 1954, then commercialized the radio-controlled Radicon Bus in 1955. Its sound-responsive Sonicon Rocket followed in 1957. The maker’s history records five versions of its large Machine Man robot by the early 1960s, as well as export successes including Western Special train toys. In later decades its ranges included character hand puppets and soft-vinyl figures, the Mole toy, and transforming Alphabot and Numberbot toys. In 1979 the company took the name Masudaya Corporation. In 2025 it announced the return of soft-vinyl toys under the Masudaya Saitō Bōeki brand.
