To be more precise the history of 1:90 and 1:87 Roco Minitanks, model cars, and model railways

 as well as 1:100 and 1:87 Roskopf Minature Models

How Roco began

In 1960 Ing Heinz Rössler and his wife founded Roco, initially as "Ing Heinz Rössler". It began with modest resources but with great a vision ...

Let's look back at that time.  In the 60s the economy was expanding and there was a great confidence in the future.  Television was still young, the new, cheeky music Rock'n Roll took its way, people began to conquer space, and the still relatively young plastic material became more pominent ... The exciting idea and this new plastic material was for Rössler the signal. With sharp vision, he read the signs of the times: With the plastic injection molding - procedures could be much more detail than with metal injection - and still much cheaper!

Roco Minitank Catalogue from 1965

After an excellent team of experts was assembled, 1:90 and later 1:87 military models (short Minitanks) were manufactured. 

These were more finely detailed than ever before. adn were a great hit.  In particular in the U.S. market, which was (and still is) the key market for such models, the success was enormous. So it sounds like a fairy tale from bygone days when an American business partner wrote: "Provide as much Roco Minitanks as you can ...".

The German army, the Bundeswehr also started using Roco Minitanks heavily. Roco HO military vehicles were used in sandpit maneuver wargames.  Every barrack had its Rocos.  And they were also sold in the canteen for soldiers to take home and start a collection.   Roco Minitanks also became popular for model railway fans.  Roco started to expand the Minitanks with terrain plates, vehicle halls, helicopters and aircraft model kits, all in the same 1:87 scale.  The most famous Roco model - kits around this time were the No. 247 Combat Helicopter Bell AH-1G Cobra Huey of the United States and No. 248 attack and transport helicopters Bell UH 1 D of the Armed Forces, U.S. and NATO. Both helicopters were intensively used during the Vietnam War.

And here is how Roskopf Miniatures came about

The 1:100 RMM Roskopf military models, were produced from 1955 to 1990.  The German company Roskopf Miniature Models or RMM was founded in 1955 in Berlin by Marcel Roskopf.  He started with the production of horse-drawn carriages in HO scale (there were later produced and distributed Preiser, but that is a story for later).  Due to the growth of the company Roskopf moved in 1958 to Traunreut.  In 1974 the company moved to Traunstein into their own premises.  After an accident in 1976, Mr. Roskopf could not manage the company any longer and his wife took over many of its tasks.  Of the 1:100 Roskopf, there were miniature models including a large selection of Bundeswehr, Russian and Wehrmacht vehicles and tanks as well as soldiers and other figures.   The company also had some exotic vehicles such as the BARC landing vehicle, a gigantic, wheeled landing craft with a ramp.  It was to accommodate vehicles and tanks in amphibious landing operations and it was also used by the Bundeswehr. Roskopf also produced missiles, helicopters and aircraft kits in scale of 1:100.  Unfortunately, the military 1:100 RMM Roskopf miniature models around 1990 went out of production.

 The BARC has some decent wheels...

From 1982 the company released a new range of civilian contemporary French, Swiss and German 1:87 truck models. Soon afterwards published a series of 1:87 truck models from the 1920s and 30s.  In 1994 the company was sold to Sieper, which since 1954 has sold plastic model cars and since 1963 zinc die castmodels under the name Siku.  Sieper had earlier also bought Wiking.  Roskopf was now incorporated into Wiking.   Wiking produced a very rare series of white UN Roskopf Bundeswehr MAN trucks and the Fuchs armoured transport produced before caeasing the range. Mr. Roskopf died on 21 June 2002.

Back to Roco

The first Roco Minitanks were copies of 1:100 Roskopf Minatures:

• No. 101 U.S. battle tanks M4 "Sherman"
• No. 102 Wehrmacht Panzerkampfwagen V "Panther"
  
• No. 103 Russian tank "Josef Stalin III",
• No. 104 U.S. M40 tank cannon field
• No. 105 Wehrmacht 8.8 cm Flak self propelled Laffette "Grille" on SF Panzer V "Panther"

These first models were still in 1:90 butRoco soon move to 1:87.   What is special about the new Minitanks was that they were not glued, but  snapped together.  This made it easier to paint them as well as through the exchange of components built new models.  Roco Minitanks was the world's largest manufacturer of military vehicle models in HO and N.  For a while Minitanks were distributed by Herpa.

Roco model railways

A few years after the successful launch of the mini-tank Roco HO - Models, Roco also began with the production of matching Roco HO railway models. Roco startet with the production of cars and field HO wagon models for based on American orginals - often to transport the Roco Minitanks.  Step by step, the Roco Model Railway program expanded. Today, Roco is one of the world's largest manufacturer of model trains in the sizes and N and HO and recently bough Fleischmann.   The company's route to success was based on very detailed models and a number of innovations (more about those another time).

Roco model cars

Furthermore, Roco was producer of a range of plastic model cars freom 1:20 to  1:90.

A Set from the 60s 'Verkehrsset 1' in 1:72 with two MAN trucks and a Magirus fire brigade vehicle

From about 1980 there was the first modern 1:87 Roco model cars - initially civilian versions of Minitank models

The range of car 1:60 scale consisted four Siku Plastic copies: 

• Ford Taunus 17M Caravan
• DKW Junior
• Opel Kapitän
• Ford Edsel - all 4 model cars were Siku plastic copies.
  

The 1:40 were half Märklin copies (the first two) and half Corgi Toys copies(the latter two):

• BMW 507
• Mercedes 300SL
• Jaguar S Type
• Bentley Coupe S2

Furthermore, there were traffic - sets in scale 1:90 (Wiking copies): No. 001 Magirus fire brigade and Setra bus, No. 002 Mercedes semi with long wooden Transporter, No. 003 truck range: consisting of a Mercedes dump truck, a Büssing truck and two VW Bullis. Furthermore, there was a DKW flatbed cars on a scale of 1:90. The color of these HO model cars was normally olive green - with black wheels. There were also HO model cars in the colors light grey and scattered in light blue.

Even petrol stations were in the range of Roco. The depicted larger gas station is a Wiking copy. In addition, there were also two of Roco ARAL gas stations in the style of the early 1960s, in this type either a self-development or copy of the French manufacturer JOUEF, Shell colors recall.  The ARAL gas stations consisted of: 1 One elongated bottom plate and two petrol pumps on the front and rear end in ultramarine blue with white unglazed cash ultramarine house and back wall. An interesting detail consisted of the wall at the back molted, on the roof of the house standing ultramarine ARAL letters. The second gas station, throughout ultramarine blue, consisted of a long floor plate with the front and rear end of the floor slab molted lantern poles, the addition of two pumps in the style of the 1960s and between the dispensers.

Frederick F. Peltzer (founder of the Winking Berlin Modelle) apparently replied to the question of whether he does not see it as problematic if others are copying Wiking models: "Why should it upset me when our models are copied. It allows me to go finshing rather then having to sell our models. " (Source: Joerg Haidinger)

Information about Roco in 2004

At the time when I wrote this article originally Roco was a Salzburg company and employed at the sites of Salzburg, Gloggnitz and Banska Bystrica, Slowakia, about 800 employees. In fiscal 2004 Roco turned over €44.7 million and built  some 300,000 locomotives and about 1 million wagon models, plus accessories such as rails and control elements.  About 80% of the production went to export. Main market for Roco was Germany with a share of 65%, followed by the home market of Austria. In July 2005 Roco unfortunately had to file for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, what remained of Roco is still continuing today under the new Modellbahn GmbH. Since 1 October 2007 Herpa does the worldwide distribution of Minitanks.

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Image + Text Sources:

• Roco Minitanks , Modelleisenbahn GmbH, Plainbachstraße 4, A-5101 Bergheim, Austria
• Jörg Haidinger, Roskopf Miniatur Modelle - today Sieper GmbH Siku - Wiking,
• Herpa Miniaturmodelle GmbH
• www.toymarkt.de

See for more info