Already between the 1930s and 1960s, various Austrian companies manufactured toy cars, partly models of domestic prototypes. Semperit, a manufacturer of tyres, also produced model cars from hard rubber in about 1/43rd scale, and plastic cars were released by GOWI, HG, Hoffmann, Proxima and others. Later Roco became the most important manufacturer of scale model vehicles in Austria. Roco was founded in Salzburg in 1960 and is specialized in model trains. But the company also produces some plastic model vehicles in 1/87th scale, primarily trucks, buses and off-road cars. This range also includes some detailed models of the Austrian Steyr-Puch vehicles. Less known are the plastic models in 1/45th and 1/66th scale made by Roco in the 1960s. Kleinbahn, a model railway manufacturer from Vienna, started producing 1/87th scale models of Steyr lorries in the 1980s. Another Austrian company, Trident, is specialized in American commercial vehicles in 1/87th scale, and ALO Busmodelle, a manufacturer from Vienna, has released handbuilt models of Austrian buses in the same scale. However, models of Austrian original vehicles have not only been made by Roco, Kleinbahn and ALO Busmodelle. For instance, the German company Cursor produced a 1/50th scale model of a Steyr bus and a 1/35th scale model of the 1913 Gräf & Stift owned by the last Austrian emperor. Vitesse from Portugal and Brumm from Italy have released 1/43rd scale models of the Steyr-Puch 500 (the Austrian version of the Fiat 500). Austro-Daimler models can be found in the ranges of Masterpiece (mainly in 1/87th scale, but also in 1/43rd and 1/18th scale) and Altaya (1/43rd scale), classic Steyr cars among others in the ranges of BoS and Neo, KTM sports cars in those of Siku and Spark. A whole series of historic commercial vehicles from Austria is made by Starline Models in 1/87th scale. Several Rosenbauer fire engines have been modelled by Cursor, Siku and Wiking, the Puch Haflinger was modelled in 1/87th scale by Bub, Budig released a handbuilt model of the 1952 Felber Autoroller, other rare Austrian cars can be found in the Autocult range, and the first Porsche sports car from 1948, which was not yet built in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, but in Gmünd in Austria, has been made by several model manufacturers.
Austria