Like in Russia, several companies in Ukraine started producing copies of Western European model cars in 1/43rd scale in the early 1970s, namely Vatutin in Kyiv and the toy factory in Donetsk. Other manufacturers such as Kherson Electromash, Electropribor, Arsenal, and Chernomorskaya Igrushka released plastic or diecast models of Soviet original cars in the same scale, and the Ukrainian car producer ZAZ made several plastic models of their own small cars in 1/18th and 1/36th scale for customers. From the 1990s onwards, various manufacturers of 1/43rd scale handbuilt models were established in Ukraine. The best known are Vector Models, Techno Exclusive/Kimmeria and Kherson Model (all in Kherson), Mini Classic (in Zaporizhzhia) and ALF/Pegas Models (in Mikolaiv). The resin models made for various customers in Europe and the USA by Volodymyr Pivtorak and his company EMC Models from Kyiv since 1986 are particularly detailed. AvtoBuro was established in Kharkiv in 2013 and has specialised into models of racing vehicles. Since 2020, Homemade Die-cast in Dnipro has produced detailed metal models in very limited quantities. Various models of ZAZ passenger cars and LuAZ off-road vehicles made in Ukraine can be found in the ALF range. The ZAZ 966 and 968, small cars which were very common in the former Soviet Union, have also been modelled as diecast models by Progress and Radon in Russia (very rare, but the Radon model was later reissued by Incotex), as handbuilt models by various Russian producers and more recently as detailed 1/43rd scale models by De Agostini and IST Models. Models of the "Start" minibuses as built by small factories in Eastern Ukraine (first SARB in Severodonetsk, later LASZ in Luhansk) in the 1960s have been made by Vector Models and De Agostini, but also by Spark for the DiP range and for VMM, a model car shop in St. Petersburg.
Ukraine