Like other East and Southeast Asian countries such as China, Malaysia and Thailand, Vietnam has also become an important production country for inexpensive small-scale diecast models. The American Mattel company started manufacturing a part of its Hot Wheels range in Vietnam around 2005, namely several promotional items for McDonald's. In 2009, Takara Tomy from Japan released their first Vietnamese-made Tomica models. This very popular range of diecast cars and trucks in about 1/64th scale and smaller had originally been produced in Japan, then in China, but due to increasing labour costs, Takara Tomy shifted production to a new plant in Haiphong in the northern part of Vietnam, where the wages were still significantly lower than in China. Within three years, this production site became the most important one for Tomica models. In addition to the standard range, more detailed models from the "Tomica Limited" series are now also made in Vietnam. The Dutch company Artitec has highly detailed 1/87th scale resin models assembled in Vietnam. A model of a Vietnamese prototype is the Citroën Dalat made of diecast in 1/43rd scale, which was issued in two versions by The Diecast Club in a series of Citroën-2-CV-based vehicles from all over the world in 2016. The original car was built in Saigon from 1970 to 1975.
Vietnam