K’Nex Moves Lincoln Logs Production From China to Maine

Toy maker K’Nex said on December 16, 2014, that production of Lincoln Logs is moving from China back to the USA, starting with the 2015 product line.

Who will make them

K’Nex, based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, said Pride Manufacturing Co. of Burnham, Maine, will make the wooden building toys. K’Nex licenses the brand from Hasbro and has manufactured Lincoln Logs since 1999, according to The Morning Call.

NBC News reported that Pride won a three-year contract and spent 17 months planning, building machinery and testing paints and strength ahead of full production in January 2015. Pride said logs for its sawmill come mainly from Maine forests.

What share will be USA-made

NBC News said the move means about 80 percent of Lincoln Logs toys will be “Made in the U.S.A.”

“With such an iconic brand like Lincoln Logs, which has been made in China for the last almost 60 years, we’ve been working on bringing it back for the last four years,” K’Nex CEO Michael Araten told NBC News.

Randy Dicker, Pride’s senior director of manufacturing, said some of the company’s retailers want “Made in the U.S.A.” products, which has helped it win business.

The toy was created nearly a century ago by John Lloyd Wright, a son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.