During the Soviet reign, Norma, a large factory in the Estonian capital Tallinn, manufactured household equipment and parts for the car industry, but also plastic toys and a wide range of other products. Besides other toy cars and commercial vehicles, the range included several big scale plastic models of the Estonia racing cars, which were made by the TARK factory also located in Tallinn: four single seaters as used in the Soviet Formula 1600 racing series and a go-kart. Like the original cars, these models were released in the 1970s and 1980s and thus usually still have the inscription "Made in USSR" on the bottom. However, some other model cars were produced in the northernmost Baltic republic after it had regained its independence in 1991: In the early 1990s, some of the moulds for the 1/20th and 1/25th scale plastic promotional cars made by Finnish companies such as Stahlberg were sold to Estonia and Russia. As a consequence, Norma continued production of VW Golf, Mercedes-Benz 200 T and Saab Lancia 600 models in Estonia for a while. In 2002, Rein Rammus from Tallinn started manufacturing detailed 1/43rd scale handbuilt models of rare VW cars under the Kit Toys name. The material used for these models is quite unusual: They are made of paper and card. In addition to the Norma plastic models, there is another model of an Estonian prototype, handbuilt by Vector Models from Ukraine: This company has released a 1/43rd scale resin model of an Estonia racing car from the 1960s. Furthermore, a 1/43rd scale diecast model of the Estonia 21M was made for a Russian partwork by De Agostini in late 2013.
Estonia