Brand record
Mehanotehnika Tempo
Mehanotehnika, later renamed Mehano, is a Slovenian toy maker founded in Izola in 1952. It began with metal toys and later added plastic toys with electrical components. Its products included model trains, pinball machines and plush animals, alongside other toys. The company developed toys in collaboration with psychologists in the 1960s, and its train models became one of its best-known product groups. Production expanded beyond Izola to a site in Materija in 1962.
- Founded
- 1952
- Locations
- Izola, Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia) · 1952
The story of Mehanotehnika Tempo
Mehanotehnika was established in Izola in 1952 to make and sell metal and plastic products for the Yugoslav toy market. Its name came from its first in-house puzzle toy. Production began in June 1953, when its first products appeared. The early range used metal, later expanding to plastic toys with electrical parts.
In 1959 production moved to a newly built hall at the Polje site in Izola, and the company first exhibited at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. A second production site opened in Materija in 1962. From 1965, Mehanotehnika worked with the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychology on toys with psychological and educational aims; plush toy production was concentrated at Materija from 1971. The company’s products included model trains, pinball machines and plush animals, and it was oriented mainly toward exports. In 1990 Mehanotehnika changed its name to Mehano. In 2004 Mehano was acquired by LIVE d.o.o. Izola. Its later model railway work included the BR 250 Blue Tiger locomotive, developed in 2000, and a preschool “My First Train” range launched in 2010.
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