Since the 1930s several New Zealand companies manufactured toy cars, which were often made of aluminium. The best known of these manufacturers was Fun Ho!, a company producing toy cars from 1942 to 1982. Besides the aluminium cars, a range of diecast models in about 1/87th scale was introduced by Fun Ho! in 1965. Since the 1990s re-editions of these models have been available again. When the New Zealand government tightened import restrictions on toys in the late 1950s, the Lincoln company in Auckland started producing diecast models in about 1/43rd scale using dies made by Micro Models and Tucker Box from Australia and by Matchbox and River Series from England. In the 1960s, there was also a New Zealand factory producing Spot-On models from the British Tri-ang company. Re-editions of models from the Micro Models range were also made in New Zealand in the 1970s and in the 1990s. A current New Zealand model car manufacturer is Smalltorque. This company is specialized in 1/43rd scale emergency vehicles from New Zealand and other countries, which are based on diecast models made by other manufacturers. A 1/43rd scale resin model of the Skoda Trekka off-road car as built in New Zealand from 1966 to 1973 was released in two versions in the Avenue 43 range in 2023.
New Zealand