Roco Minitanks will cease production in 2019, it has been confirmed by the company.
"Dear Mr. Creek,
Thanks for your message! However, we must confirm these "rumors" - Roco won't continue the production of Minitanks in 2019. Which company will take over the production is currently not fixed,
We are sorry, that we have no better infos for you!
Best regards,
Sales Department
Fleischmann & Roco Sales Service"
I heard a rumor that Roco Minitanks were going to go out of business and they have confirmed they will cease production in 2019. The product line has been for sale but no buyers yet.
I got my first Roco Minitanks in about 1963 and I have purchased them ever since.
This is very sad news.
Mike Bunkermeister Creek
12 comments:
Sad news indeed. I’d have thought that your Roco ‘habit’ alone would justify continued production!
Sad news 1963 was about the first time I bought mine too. I never have really completed my shopping list. My favorite were the German half tracks. I know they're a different scale but they always good with 172nd. Hopefully someone will pick up some molds and keep producing them?
Mike:
---I was hoping this would NOT be the final say-so, but the prices being asked for the current production line was getting WAY out of hand.
I also started getting the Minitanks back in the early mid-60s, when the Z-142 M38 jeep went for like TWENTY FIVE CENTS!!!
(how times have changed)
Weren't the Minitanks being made by another outfit (HERPA) for the last several years?
What's with THEM?
(Here's a chance for some AMERICAN exceptionalism)
Very sad news...there was so much potential to make MORE models of Mintanks, as well s continue the current line.
Thanks for the head up.
Carry on
Similar to bob G's question; I thought HERPA took over the Roco line? Or is that just a different name for the same company?
Another part of my childhood is dying.
As a kid I started collecting MiniTank in 1970. Back then MiniTank prices were between 39 and 49 cents. Right now I am seeing eBay prices of $14 for a new Tiger I in the package and the used stuff is just as expensive.
While not following the brand over the last two decades, I have not seen that much from them in the way of moderns. They do have two versions of the Abrams, the Bradley, and Leopard2, but I have not seen any modern Russian armor from them since the T62.
I guess this will be another casualty of computer gaming and the wargaming fanbase aging out and passing away.
Certainly I did my part to keep Roco in business. Not a year has passed since about 1963 that I did not buy Roco, often in large numbers. I am very sad.
Herpa is a different company and they had a marketing agreement to distribute the line for a few years, but they did not buy Roco. Herpa continues to sell various other HO scale vehicles, including military, under the Herpa name.
Yes, I got my first Roco in about 1963 and have hundreds of them. I certainly will miss them.
Bunkermeister
I remember that their engineering vehicles had working parts.
The first Herpa car I bought was a mid-1960s Chevelle. From time to time I have bought a few of their modern foreign cars.
Looking through MiniTanks recent catalogs, it appears they were scaling back their selection.
One of the drivers of people to buy models is new models being produced. Roco seemed to be getting a narrower and narrower focus and fewer new models over the last few years. They also never branched out much to conflicts that might have appealed to wargamers like a NATO vs Warsaw Pact or Middle Eastern conflict. I hope the molds are sold or otherwise put back into production sometime in the next few years, there are still vehicles I wanted to buy.
Bunkermesiter
Regarding Roco's failure to expand offerings and bring new products to market, I agree with you 100%. GHQ is always putting out new offerings.
I did find a T-72 in 1/87th scale that was from a company associated with Roco, but that is rare.
Shapeways has 1/87 offerings, but they are expensive. I have to admit that for 3D printing, the Shapeways detail is very good.
Decades ago Robert Petner made an HO scale T-72 in plastic, he had plans to make a series of Cold War Soviet vehicles, BMP and others. His project never paid off enough for him to make enough money to pay for the mold and the models so he could not make anything else. At some point he purchased the T-62 mold from Armortec, a company that also made only one kit. When the Armortec owner died, Robert Petner got his mold. Not satisfied with the T62 Mr. Petner had the mold upgraded to a more accurate vehicle. Eventually Mr. Petner was able to sell some quantity of models to Roco and others who re-packaged them as their own. I was able to visit Mr. Petner at his home at the time some of this was happening but we lost contact years ago. He was a good guy and I was sorry to see his project fail.
Bunkermeister
Take a look at the web-site of German company www.ARSENAL-M.de, they bought the roco/minitank moulds and produce also a wide range of resin-models(trucks, tanks, helicopters, jets, etc.).
Mostly German Army (Bundeswehr), US, GB, Wehrmacht, IDF and other. Nearly all in 1/87.
I myself bought until now around 250 T62 and T72 tanks from Petner, Armortec, Roco and Trident
for SU enemy representation (Fulda-Gap, North-German Lowlands).
Greetings from Germany
Volker Kruse-Buschmeier
Volker thanks for the comment. Yes, I have many ArsenalM models and enjoy them vary much. The last I heard from them the Roco models had not been put into production for over a year and were likely not go to into production anytime soon. I hope they will be returned to production this year, 2021. I have also heard that ArsenalM is discontinuing their resin models to focus on the Minitanks production.
250 T-62 and T-72 models is an impressive collection.
I would love to see photos of them posted here:
https://mewe.com/join/fidelismodelshoscalemilitarymodelsgroup
Or here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/244129042443019
Or you could email them to me and I will post them on this blog.
Bunkermeister45@aol.com
Thanks for reading.
Bunkermeister
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