Lincoln Logs are among a handful of classic toys made in the USA with American trees, but that’s likely to change in a matter of weeks.
Pride Manufacturing — the Maine factory that makes Lincoln Logs and other wood products — is closing in April after losing its biggest contract, to make cigar tips for another company, The Post has learned.
That leaves toymaker Basic Fun scrambling to find a new factory to manufacture the century-old brand that was founded by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, John, and has been a staple in families’ toy chests for decades.
Production of the $10 million brand will likely move overseas and cost consumers about 10% more, according to Jay Foreman, chief executive of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Basic Fun.
“We are desperately looking for a vendor here that manufactures custom wood parts,” he told The Post. “We are hoping that someone will purchase the factory or buy the equipment, but we are not counting on it for this year.”
The move comes as toy companies have been exploring ways to bring manufacturing to the US, as the vast majority of toys are made in China.
Demand for Lincoln Logs, the toy named after a certain US president, began to decline after Toys R Us went bankrupt in 2017.
The loss of the toy chain hit the toy industry like an earthquake.
Lincoln Logs had reached $14 million in annual sales before that bankruptcy and was starting to climb back up in 2024, Foreman said. Last year, demand began to dip because of “overall inflation and consumer uncertainty,” according to Foreman.
Lincoln Logs go for $50 to $70 for a 120-piece tin, depending on the time of year.
The sets will likely cost $5 to $7 more this year because of US tariffs on Chinese-made products, Foreman said.
Basic Fun, which makes other classic toys – including Lite Brite, Care Bears and Tonka Trucks – has initiated a 45-day search for a US supplier but it is also preparing a back-up plan in China to make sure it can produce enough toys for the holidays, Foreman said.
The plastic pieces that come with Lincoln Log sets – including roofs and other accessories like farm animals and farmers – are made in China. They are shipped in bulk to the US and packed into the boxes and tins of wood parts that were made by Pride Manufacturing.
The Burnham, Maine, factory made the sets starting in 2014.
For the majority of Lincoln Logs’ life, the products were made in the US, but production moved to China in the 1990s because it cost less to make them there, Foreman said. Plastic parts were added to sets around that time, he added.
Some 115 factory workers will lose their jobs at Pride Manufacturing when it closes.
It’s owned by New York City private equity firm Centre Partners Management.
“After our largest customer made the decision to relocate their sourcing for cigar tips, our highest volume product, the facility became financially unviable,” the firm said in a statement.
“While this is not the outcome Pride Manufacturing or Centre Partners wanted, this customer’s change in position is forcing the closure of this operation.”
The customer, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, is John Middleton, a downmarket cigar maker and subsidiary of tobacco conglomerate Altria Company.
Altria did not immediately respond to a request for comment about about why it yanked its business from Pride, which is the only cigar tip operation in the US, according to sources.
The tips are made from birch wood and are sold as part of John Middleton’s Black & Mild cigars, which come with FDA-approved flavored wood tips.
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