TOGO

was a Japanese amusement ride company that built roller coasters, giant wheels, carousels, flumes, dark rides, sky cycles and other amusement rides. History In 1935 Mr. Teiichi Yamada founded the Toyo Gorakuki Company and built his first attraction, a five-foot mechanical walking elephant that was a popular attraction at one of Tokyo's neighborhood parks. Yamada reorganized his company in 1949 and changed the name to TOGO. TOGO built its first roller coaster in 1953, at Hanayashiki Park in Tokyo. That coaster is still in operation and is the oldest coaster in Japan. In 1965 TOGO built Cyclone at Toshimaen Park, which at the time, was the largest coaster in Asia. The company also began to expand its export business, selling coasters in Russia, Cuba and China. Although the company built a variety of different rides in Japan, its export business was primarily roller coasters. In 1979, TOGO installed standup trains on two of its existing coasters in Japan, Momonga Standing and Loop Coaster at Yomiuriland and Dangai at Thrill Valley, creating the world's first stand-up roller coasters. These two installations captured the attention of Taft/Kings Entertainment company, who then purchased TOGO's Astro-Comet, the world's first coaster designed from the ground up as a stand-up roller coaster, installing at Kings Island as King Cobra.