Product Code Database
Buddy L (also known as Buddy "L" or Buddy-L) was an American toy brand and company founded in 1920 as the Buddy L Toy Company in East Moline, Illinois, by Fred Lundahl. ANTIQUES; A Fleet Of Boys' Daydreams, Wendy Moonan, The New York Times, 2 March 2001 (retrieved 16 September 2010)
Buddy L made such products as , , , , construction equipment, American on the Move | Buddy “L” Toy Steam Shovel, National Museum of American History (retrieved 16 September 2010) and toy train. Buddy L Trains, The Train Collectors Association Western Division (retrieved 17 September 2010) Fred Lundahl used to manufacture for International Harvester trucks. He started by making a toy dump truck out of steel scraps for his son Buddy. Soon after, he started selling Buddy L "toys for boys", made of pressed steel. Many were large enough for a child to straddle, propelling himself with his feet. Others were . A pioneer in the steel-toy field, Lundahl persuaded Marshall Field's and F. A. O. Schwarz to carry his line. He did very well until the Great Depression, then sold the company.
In 1941, Henry Katz and Company purchased Buddy L from the Molene Manufacturing Company. Buddy L Trains, The Train Collectors Association Western Division (retrieved 12 September 2023)
From 1976 to 1990, Buddy L was owned by Richard Keats, a well-known New York toy designer who went to work for Buddy L the day after he graduated from Brown University in 1948. By 1978, the company was located in Clifton, New Jersey.
In 1990, Keats sold Buddy L to SLM International. SLM sold Buddy L off in 1995 under bankruptcy protection. By 2010, Buddy L was owned by Empire Industries of Boca Raton, Florida, a subsidiary of Empire of Carolina. About Empire Industries Inc, The Action Figure Archive (retrieved 16 September 2010)
In the 1990s, Buddy L made Splatter Up, a wet version of T-ball. Splatter Up Baseball from Buddy L , Shoot the Moon (retrieved 10 February 2012)
On 31 August 2000, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a product recall for about 113,000 battery-powered children's riding vehicles, marketed as "Power Drivers" or "Buddy L", for repair. The vehicles' can overheat, presenting fire and injury hazards to children. CPSC, Empire Industries Announce Recall of Children's Riding Vehicles , 31 August 2000 (retrieved 16 September 2010)
In November 2000, Empire of Carolina and its wholly owned subsidiary, Empire Industries, Inc., filed for bankruptcy and, in July 2001, Empire Industries was sold substantially to Alpha International, Inc, also known as the Gearbox Pedal Car Company, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa (renamed as Gearbox Toys and now owned by J. Lloyd International).
Gay Toys, Inc. v. Buddy L Corp.
Buddy L sued Gay Toys for copyright infringement of a model airplane. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided in 1981 that Buddy L's copyright was violated. The case was an important milestone in the legal formulation of useful article.
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