Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany

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Why there are billions of model cars in Germany

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-germany

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Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-germany

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Formerly toys, today coveted collector’s items …

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-cars

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… in Germany there are over 100,000 collectors of model cars, the vast majority of whom are male.

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-cars

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Of course, children are also impressed by the miniature models. Of course, their robust “driving style” puts an end to many a car at an early stage.

Source: Getty Images

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-model

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But more and more adults have dedicated themselves to collecting. You can meet a lot of them on model car exchanges, which can be found in every major German city …

Source: picture-alliance / ZB

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-cars

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… some of the largest used car dealers in Germany are represented at such exchanges; this stand, for example, has thousands of model cars on offer.

Source: picture-alliance / dpa

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-toys

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Christian Wohlrab from Wentorf is a special collector freak. At the age of 18, he already owns 4,019 model cars that he has collected since he was five. That broke…gave him a mention in the "Guinness Book of Records" in the "largest collection in the children’s room".

Source: picture-alliance / dpa

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-germany

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“Welt” editor Sonke Kruger, on the other hand, only has 684 models …

Source: Martin U. K. Lengemann

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-billions

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… he specializes in classic 1:87 scale models, the prototypes of which were built in the 1940s to 1970s. Shown here is a Reliant tricycle, a BMW Isetta, …a DKW two-stroke, an Isabella Coupe and an egg yolk-yellow S-Class from Mercedes.

Source: Martin U. K. Lengemann

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-cars

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The smallest example in his collection is a Brutsch Mopetta, which measures just a few millimeters in the model. The original, an egg-shaped single-seater with a 50 cubic centimeter engine, w…Was built in Germany in small numbers from 1956 onwards.

Source: Sonke Kruger

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-cars

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Many model car collectors have a specialty: for example police vehicles …

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-cars

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… or buses …

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-model

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… or historical Post car models, here in the picture vehicles from the model car pioneer Wiking.

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-germany

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Historic fire engines are also a popular collection area.

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-toys

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You can even collect hearses on a scale of 1:87.

Source: Sonke Kruger

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-there

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Among the most sought-after – and most expensive – model cars today are those made by Wiking that were produced in what was then West Berlin after the Second World War. The first ex…Emplare were designed spartan, they did not even have transparent panes …

Source: Saure auction house

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-billions

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… in the 1950s they were often used for playful traffic education …

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-billions

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… but the small Wiking models were also in demand as toys, especially since the model range included cars and buses, delivery vans and articulated lorries.

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-toys

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Wiking is the most traditional German model car company. Today the company produces over a million miniatures a year. At the current company headquarters in Ludenscheid there is …since 2012 a specially set up model building museum called "Wiking Model World".

Source: Wiking / Daniel Mock

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-there

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The miniatures are still made by hand to this day.

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-toys

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Various work steps are required before a model is ready to be cast in plastic.

Source: Ulrich Biene / Wiking

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-cars

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Historical Wiking models are now achieving record prices – at auctions that auctioneer Carsten Saure regularly organizes in Cologne.

Source: Saure auction house

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-germany

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In the Saure auction house, old and rare Wiking model cars are – fortunately only proverbially – going under the hammer. Mostly men between 45 and 60 years of age sit in the audience, …who want to fulfill their childhood dreams by buying a rarity.

Source: Saure auction house

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The most expensive model ever auctioned at the Saure auction house was this lime green Mercedes-Benz L 5000 tank semitrailer from 1962 with the imprint "Thyssen", an extremely rare advertising campaign…dermodell – it changed hands for 10,100 euros …

Source: Saure auction house

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-model

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… while a lover of this Jaguar Sport Cabrio in orange-red, a rare Wiking pre-production model from 1958, leafed through 7762 euros at an auction.

Source: Saure auction house

Toys: Why there are billions of model cars in Germany-there

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And why do adults especially love collecting toy cars? “Some remember which models they played with as a child and buy these model cars for themselves …Piece back. The others want to have models of all the cars that they have already driven, ”says Andreas A. Berse, editor-in-chief of the specialist magazine“ Modell Fahrzeug ”- himself a passionate collector.

Source: model vehicle

More than 100,000 Germans collect miniature cars. The cheapest ones cost a few euros, rare copies over 10,000 euros. Our author, himself a passionate hunter and gatherer, explains his passion.

D.he Volkswagen Auto Museum in Wolfsburg houses 140 models. Not bad. In the Mercedes-Benz Museum 160 vehicles will be presented at Stuttgart. Impressive. The collection the Schlumpf brothers in Mulhouse in Alsace, which advertises itself as the largest automobile museum in the world, consists of 437 classic cars from 97 manufacturers. You cant complain.

Nevertheless, there is at least one car museum in the world that is bigger: mine. In my eight-story garage, there are currently 684 models from 105 car manufacturers, and the trend is rising.

I should add, however, that I spent a few million less on my car collection than the Schlumpf brothers (who put so much money into their passion that they ended up ruining themselves) and that my garage is a six-foot-tall display cabinet, that fits easily into my bedroom. Because I don’t collect any real vehicles, only those in the H0 scale, i.e. in 1:87.

My first Mercedes: a plastic S-Class

And that since 1977. Back then, my brother and I got a Fleischmann train as a Christmas present, including accessories that consisted of a few plastic houses, a miniature train station and several small plastic cars, including an egg yolk-yellow S-Class: my first Mercedes, the one at Wiking in West Berlin, it said on the base plate, had rolled off the line and even as a miniature still had a tiny Mercedes star on the hood.

This detail, this perfection, had fascinated me even as a child. Model trains and houses have long since disappeared, but the automobile fleet has remained – and has grown consistently for 35 years.

Up to 120,000 model car collectors in Germany

My brother soon lost interest in car miniatures and preferred to invest his pocket money in Beatles records. However, I was blown away by the tiny, extremely detailed model cars, I was able to stare at them enthusiastically for hours or play – also for hours – with them secretly on my desk, where I was actually sitting to do my homework. Overtaking maneuvers and accident scenes on a scale of 1:87 were much more exciting than scrambling for prime numbers or vocabulary.

I have since found out that I am not alone with my passion for collecting. "Roughly estimated there are 100,000 to 120,000 stubborn collectors across Germany," says Andreas A. Berse, editor-in-chief of the specialist magazine "Modell Fahrzeug". Unfortunately, nobody has officially counted how many model cars are in German children’s rooms and collectors’ showcases, "but the number should be in the billions," Berse estimates, referring to models of all possible scales. In addition to 1:87, 1:43 and 1:18 are particularly popular in this country.

97 percent of the collectors are men

There is no such thing as a typical collector, says Berse: “From the child to the grandpa, from the Harz IV recipient to the wealthy, everything is included. However, almost only men are among them, an estimated 97 percent. "

The motifs are similar for many collectors: “As adults, some remember which – long lost – models they played with as a child and buy these model cars back piece by piece from Matchbox over to wiking. The others want to have models of all the cars that they have already driven. Most of them then go ahead and build their own automobile museum. "

Many collectors specialize

But sooner or later everyone starts to specialize, says Berse. After all, the market with around 150 manufacturers worldwide is now far too large and unmanageable. "Many only collect certain manufacturers, others specialize in blue-light vehicles, tractors or Formula 1 racing cars."

Or you only collect models from a certain manufacturer. The most widespread in Germany are the miniatures made by Wiking. The company was entered in the commercial register of Greater Berlin in 1936, began with ship miniatures and after the Second World War soon switched to plastic cars in H0 scale in what was then West Berlin. Today Wiking is based in Ludenscheid, and in 2012 it even opened its own museum there, the "Siku-Wilking model world".

110 million Wiking cars

At Wiking, around one million vehicles currently roll out of the factory halls every year, and a total of more than 110 million model cars have been delivered to date. The first models were spartan and unglazed, no comparison to the perfect replicas that are now being produced.

The Wiking fan base is large and some have been around for decades: "For many Wiking collectors, the models have become lifelong companions – this deeply emotional relationship usually lasts longer than with one’s own wife," says Ulrich Biene, collector since 1974 and author of now four specialist books about Wiking cars.

Area of ​​expertise: models of hearses

I am also a special collector, but not just fixated on Wiking. I liked the classic design of classic automobiles from the start. That’s why I collect models from the 1940s to 1970s in which a car still looked like a car. My design favorites include the Auto Union 1000 (a crackling two-stroke engine that my father drove in the sixties), the Isabella von Borgward and the BMW Isetta isetta.

I also find the lovingly designed hearse, of which I have models from West and East German production, great, from the black VW bus with purple curtains to the communist Skoda, which of course does not have a Christian cross printed on it.

Pronounced hunter-gatherer gene

The fact that I have remained true to my passion to this day also has to do with my hunter-gatherer gene; that is very pronounced. In addition to the want-to-have impulse, it is above all the thrill of the hunt for rare specimens that drives me. Because some models are extremely difficult to get because they have long since disappeared from the market, are extremely expensive or are only available from strange Eastern European providers.

If you want to put such a rare vehicle in your showcase, you need hunting instinct, either when bidding on Ebay or when looking for manufacturers who are located somewhere in Wallachia, do not speak German and do not have an email address to order.

Wiking model cars, the pioneers

But above all, he needs money. Even a brand new miniature in 1:87 scale of the Golf I GTI costs 9 euros, a five centimeter long Simca Marly from 1958, on the other hand, bangs in the office for over 40 euros. Anyone who buys a dozen or two dozen models a year can quickly find a few hundred euros.

But it can be much more expensive: Rare, ancient Wiking specimens cost a few thousand euros. And the market is not that small: In Cologne there is the Saure auction house, which specializes in Wiking antiques and held its 53rd auction in December 2012.

A plastic car for 10,100 euros

The most expensive Wiking vehicle ever sold there was a lime green Mercedes-Benz L 5000 tank trailer from 1962 with the imprint "Thyssen", an extremely rare promotional model – it went under the hammer in the 27th auction for 10,100 euros. The most expensive car was a Jaguar Sport Cabrio in orange-red, a rare pre-production model from 1958, for which a collector popped out 7,762 euros.

Why does someone buy such an expensive model? “Our typical customers are between 45 and 60 years old,” says Carsten Saure, company founder and auctioneer, “They played with Wiking cars as children, but they are now rediscovering them. But anyone who invests so much money in a single model is sure to have a strong collector’s gene. "Author Biene adds:" Every Wiking collector is constantly on the lookout for his very own individual blue Mauritius – a rare model, his own Collection crowns and at best no one else has. "

I can understand. And who knows: if I were once rich, maybe I would pay the price of a brand-new small car for a used model car?

An English tricycle from Bohemia

Until then, however, I’ll hunt in more modest regions. Recently I was successful again – and brought down a very bizarre three-wheeled car called Reliant, which was originally built in Britain in the 1960s and is now handcrafted in tiny numbers by a Bohemian specialist.

A few weeks ago I found it on the Internet and struck it, since then the vehicle has been parked in my garage. It’s not just standing there: Sometimes, when no one is watching, I pull it out and use it to wiggle around on my desk. Calms down tremendously when you are under stress.

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