Tyco & Mehano (IHC) Products

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Is there a connection between Tyco & IHC/Mehano? Just curious if anyone could please let me know if IHC bought out Tyco or if the two partnered in any way.

I have a few IHC products and, overall, their quality is good. I'm also curious if anyone can comment on Tyco's quality. I do have a few of those and I think it's kind of hit and miss (i.e. some are good, others not).

Thanks,
Rob
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Tyco's quality varied over the years. They went through a bunch of owners, some interested in building quality, others just looking to sell toys as cheap as possible. Mantua had some of the same problems with some of their diesels. Some had a drive similar to Athearn and were quality products, other years under different ownership, they had the pancake motor drives like the rest of the toys.

I think IHC and Mehano have been more consistent over the years.
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Tyco's quality varied over the years. They went through a bunch of owners, some interested in building quality, others just looking to sell toys as cheap as possible. Mantua had some of the same problems with some of their diesels. Some had a drive similar to Athearn and were quality products, other years under different ownership, they had the pancake motor drives like the rest of the toys.

I think IHC and Mehano have been more consistent over the years.

Thanks, Russ. I think I've definitely got 1-2 of the cheaper ones (one has a pancake motor) and possibly one of their better ones. Rob
 

Justin

New Member
TYCO's made it over to IHC and Mehanodid importing for MFG and Mehanos suck because of their cheapiness lacking off flywheels and all wheel pick up!
 

msowsun

Member
TYCO's made it over to IHC and Mehano did importing for MFG and Mehanos suck because of their cheapiness lacking off flywheels and all wheel pick up!

Justin, can you explain what you mean by "TYCO's made it over to IHC"? And what is MFG?

Also, you are a little behind the times. IHC Diesel Locomotives (made by Mehano) now have flywheels and all-wheel drive. They run quite well.

http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=1P65G410186450374DO11252UD9926

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Product Features
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Powerful can motor
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Dual brass flywheels
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Precision gear transmission
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Full 12-wheel drive
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Smooth, quiet mechanism
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Excellent low speed control
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RP25 contour wheels
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Cast metal frame
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Diode-controlled directional lighting
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Finely molded details
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Kadee ready coupler pockets
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Negotiates 18" radius curves
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
IHC's GG-1s bug me. Not so much that the paint schemes are crazy, but the shell is just dead wrong, for no apperent reason. the cab windows are slanted back wrong (it should slant the same way all the way across the cab, not pull back at the windows). Also, the nose is much more blunt, but i could live with that.
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
I have 3 IHC locos. Overall, they're pretty good. They run really well and smoothly but their detailing isn't the absolute best. These locos are quite affordable and, for what you pay, the detailing is good.

Sometimes I compare my IHC CN Hudson (which cost only $50) with a high end one that's for sale for over $800 from a LHS. The $800 one obviously has MUCH better detailing, but there's no way I'm spending $800 on a loco!

Rob
 

60103

Pooh Bah
What I remember about Tyco is that the mechanisms were rivetted together, making it impossible to service the motor or replace parts.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
The handrails aren't as thick as I feared... but I noticed some really strange couplers.

Link & pin: Those are the "pin" part! :rolleyes: :wink:
The only IHC loco that I have is the 2-6-0 Mogul, which runs fairly well, although its required starting current is a bit high. My smaller brass Mogul starts, runs and pulls better, but I often doublehead the two. Some day I'll get around to putting a can motor in her, which should be a simple job. I did turn-down the oversize wheel flanges, using a cut-off disc in my Dremel.
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Wayne
 

alexbnfan

New Member
My understanding of the situation is that Tyco went out of buisness and then IHC bourght some of Tycos moulds and equipment
 

msowsun

Member
AHM used to import Rivarossi. I think the owners of AHM became the owners of IHC.

IHC's passenger cars are vaguely similar to Rivarossi, but they are not the same. They are a mishmash of fictitious cars that do not look quite right. The heavyweights in particular are not accurate for any passenger cars ever made.
 

toys2nv

New Member
Hi all. has anyone had a look at the President's Choice sets? They are IHC
this is the IHC 2-10-2 in CNR loco 4100.

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they are not bad. Runs very smoothly, low noise. The detail is pretty good. Any price very attractive. New in the store they run about 100.00 CND. I picked up two new sealed sets with nickel silver track for 55.00 each.
 

toys2nv

New Member
they are usually in Loblaws stores or stores that sell PC products around Christmas. later on the blow them out. I found the ones I bought on the Craigslist in Toronto. He listed one. I bought it and I then found out he had 3 of them. I am picking up one more this week. I can check on the 3rd on if someone is interested?
 
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