Various Norwegian companies produced toy and model cars in the 1940s and 1950s. The tin toys range manufactured by Bakke included several cars and construction vehicles. Since Norway banned toy imports around 1950 in order to protect the domestic industry, the Danish manufacturers Lego, Tekno and Vilmer licensed several Norwegian companies to produce toy cars for them in Norway. The best-known of these companies was Mecline, other manufacturers were Nikrom and Minicar. Soon afterwards, Tomte from Stavanger became the most important Norwegian toy car manufacturer; the simple soft plastic cars made by this company became typical for a whole category of car models. After having released plastic and rubber models in various scales between 1/24th and 1/40th in the 1950s, Tomte introduced a range of 1/43rd scale vinyl models in 1963. This range remained in production until 1978 and included 32 car and three train models, which were available in various colours. Most models were copies of contemporary diecast models by Dinky Toys, Corgi, Solido, Norev, Tekno and other manufacturers. A few 1/30th scale vinyl models were also made. All in all, Tomte produced more than 100 million toy cars and exported them all over the world. Many companies from other countries (e.g. Plasto from Finland, Galanite from Sweden, LKE from Denmark, Stelco, NP and Vinylline from Germany) soon offered similar products. Models of Norwegian cars are hard to find since there is no notable car industry in Norway, but the electric car made by the Norwegian company Think was modelled by Maisto in the version from 1999, when Think was a part of the Ford Motor Company. In late 2015, Autocult introduced a 1/43rd scale resin model of the Troll 700 Sportcoupé, of which only five items had been built between 1956 and 1958. Several manufacturers have released model cars in Norwegian liveries; the Norwegian post sells a range of detailed 1/43rd scale models of historic and current post office vehicles made by Minichamps and Troféu.
Norway