In the 1970s, when Western toy car manufacturers started moving their production to countries in the Far East, some models from companies such as Aurora, Tootsietoy, Norev and Gama were made in Singapore. The Japanese manufacturer Shinsei also produced models of its "Mini Power" range here around 1980. But the model car production was not as important as in other East and Southeast Asian countries, so models with the inscription "Made in Singapore" on the baseplate remained quite rare. At least two model car manufacturers originated from Singapore and manufactured all their products in the city state: Mandarin released a series of diecast models, most of them in 1/55th to 1/64th scale, around 1970. These models were inspired by contemporary Matchbox, Tomica, Majorette and Playart models, but their finish was cruder than that of the original products. The range consisted of road and racing cars, buses, trucks and vans as well as planes and a series of tanks called Mandico. In 1989, another manufacturer from Singapore, Miber, introduced a range of 1/87th scale plastic models, which were mainly exported to Germany, the most important market for model cars in this small scale. Miber soon offered a wide range of European and Japanese cars, including some super sports and luxury cars. Later the main emphasis was set on racing models with decals and fine prints. Since the company focused on prototypes which were hardly modelled by other industrial model car manufacturers in this scale at that time, the Miber models were quite interesting for collectors, but they were less detailed than the 1/87th scale models made by their German competitors. The production of the Miber range already ceased in 1995.
Singapore