Proud Kraut Posted October 7, 2010 Share #1 Posted October 7, 2010 Well, we already talked about ROCO models in another thread. I think these little 1:87 tanks are worth their own thread now. ROCO, an Austrian mfr., started producing military models in 1960 he also manufactured HO trains. The military vehicle program range contained German and Allied vehicles, guns, tents, equipment, figures. etc from WW II to the present. ROCO became very popular. Among others the models were widely used by the German Bundeswehr for sand table (term?) wargaming. In 2005 ROCO was bankrupt, a German model car mfr. HERPA continued distribution of the now "MINITANK" series. Most ROCO Minitanks are already assembled, only small parts have to be added afterwards. Models are sold unpainted or painted (quiet expensive then!) They came for decades in orange boxes with blister. Let's start with an original box and some U.S. Armor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share #2 Posted October 7, 2010 Some Armored Personal Carriers, Fighting vehicles and Armored Recon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share #3 Posted October 7, 2010 Some Artillery and Maintenance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share #4 Posted October 7, 2010 Some Air Defence, some trucks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share #5 Posted October 7, 2010 Some more vehicles... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share #6 Posted October 7, 2010 There are also other manufacturers that build U.S. military vehicles, some of these are shown below. Many many more ROCO vehicles out there. Please feel free to post your U.S. Minitanks as well! Lars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted October 7, 2010 Share #7 Posted October 7, 2010 Beautifully detailed models Lars...and probably under-rated because of their slightly non-standard scale. Were you never tempted tp paint them? (apart from the ambulance!) Ian :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polski303 Posted October 7, 2010 Share #8 Posted October 7, 2010 I have been collecting and rebuilding these since the 60s. A great way to get a nice armor collection going without taking up too much room Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted October 8, 2010 Share #9 Posted October 8, 2010 probably under-rated because of their slightly non-standard scale. 1/87 (H0) is THE railroad scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve B. Posted October 8, 2010 Share #10 Posted October 8, 2010 I loved those! I had quite a few over the years, and I think I have a few left - somewhere!! My favorites were the King Tiger, and the jeep with a .50 caliber machine gun on a pedestal mount. At the risk of dating myself, I don't think I ever paid more than a dollar for any of mine! Thanks for the memories! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenthA86 Posted October 8, 2010 Share #11 Posted October 8, 2010 I remember filling my HO layout with these - I had a 24 unit consist with 20 flatcars full of Roco stuff - they were a blast! I think I blew the whole kit up with firecrackers when I was about 12 (back when they were no more than a buck each - most were about $.49) Where's my time machine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share #12 Posted October 8, 2010 Thank you all guys for your contributions. I really enjoy sharing some modeler's memories with you! $ 1 for a tank, yes, that were the days. Prices are today from $ 10 to $ 30 (for painted kits, sometimes more depending on the model). I think that was one cause for ROCO's smashup. Finally most people couldn't pay these prices. Conserning the painted models: No I didn't paint them. I stopped collecting ROCO long time ago. I have had one M 109 platoon diorama im my office, a gift that I got long time ago. Someday a buddy came in, saw the models and asked, if I would have use for more. Sure, you all know me. He gave me a box with a wild mix of everything including newer Minitanks, some painted, most unpainted. I have never start painting my Minitanks. Allthough I stopped collecting ROCO long time ago, I always wanted to have this set pictured below. It's a special edition containing vehicles with Constabulary markings. I found it this week on ebay and it came today. The box with picture of a Constab checkpoint: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share #13 Posted October 8, 2010 The vehicles: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share #14 Posted October 8, 2010 The set, now operational. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted October 8, 2010 Share #15 Posted October 8, 2010 1/87 (H0) is THE railroad scale. I was thinking in terms of the principal armoured vehicle model scales...primarily 1:72, 1:48 and 1:35. Sabrejet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenthA86 Posted October 9, 2010 Share #16 Posted October 9, 2010 I was thinking in terms of the principal armoured vehicle model scales...primarily 1:72, 1:48 and 1:35. Sabrejet 1:35 gets you the detail, but working with 1:87 lets you generate the "big picture" - with a brosd selection of buildings, scenery and - of course - a railroad! I did a WWII Hospital train several years ago - spent months scratch-building and kit-bashing the cars & engines, then somebody brought out a complete set that duplicated all my hard work! Wish I still had that setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpguy80/08 Posted October 9, 2010 Share #17 Posted October 9, 2010 Good lord.... I had a lot of these when I was a kid... along with the old HO Scale soft plastic figures. Lots of backyard battles ensued... until my father gave then to a friend of his in payment for electrician work dont to our house... Crap... what ever happened to a six pack? Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted October 9, 2010 Share #18 Posted October 9, 2010 I never collected these during my "modelling years" (too small) but was aware of them. Looking at them now in retropect, the degree of detail achieved in such a small scale was awesome! The "Dragon Wagon" is a case in point. The tooling for these little beauties must've been very expensive to produce, yet apparently they sold so cheaply? Sabrejet :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CW4AFB Posted October 24, 2010 Share #19 Posted October 24, 2010 Lars/Ian---sorry for the slow response in getting back here but you know.....in this example I have two M55 self-propelled 8-inch howitzers from ROCO and in the second picture an example of the real deal as it look at Camp Lejeune in 1975 after we shot the heck out of it with 3.5 rockets....who says the 70s were all bad? eating C-rats and blowing stuff up...what could be better than that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted October 24, 2010 Author Share #20 Posted October 24, 2010 COOL stuff! Unfortunately my ROCO M 55 was lost in the past. You will not believe it; we saved such a M 55 "Hartziel" from the Baumholder training area two years ago for museum purpurses. It's still a wreck, but it's saved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted October 26, 2010 Share #21 Posted October 26, 2010 Geez, this is bringing back a flood of back yard battle memories. Back in the 1960's when the exchange rate was extremely favourable for the US Dollar, I seem to recall the tanks selling for 25 cents each (Matchbox cars were 50 cents each, but no way near as cool). At those prices even with a modest amount one could build up an armored brigade in no time. Combine that with the Airfix 1/72nd soldier sets at 50 cents each and you could create just about any WWII battle, man for man. Of course the scales did not match, but who cared? When I finally did build a 1/72nd vehicle, I surprised how much bigger they were than the ROCO miniatures. Another thing about these prices... at these rates some of these tanks became expendable and battle casualties. More than one met their end after being placed over a fire cracker. You wouldn't do that today at the prices they now sell for. Taking a quick look on eBay, you can find them for between $3.99 to $40! All these photos caused me to dig through the house for the last two days until I found this.... This is basically a catalog of numbers Z-98 through Z-187 disguised as a techinical manual. These were the most common models I think that were to be found in the hobby shops at the time. I never could find out if there was a previous or subsequent version. But it was one of my very first serious military books, complete with charts and stats! My brother inherited my Minitanks (goodness knows how many of them survived) but I kept this for years. It's probably half the reason I ended up becoming an Ordnance officer! I thought the troops deserved a close up. Apparently everybody yells at the top of their lungs all at the same moment during a battle. I also love the full size US flag... I could never figure out if it was supposed to be mounted on an antenna or if that is supposed to be a conveniently placed flagpole in the back ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted October 26, 2010 Share #22 Posted October 26, 2010 The backside with the Minitanks logo and some interesting distribution information. Not surprisingly these were distributed in the UK by Airfix. The US distributor was AHM, which if I remember correctly was a major distributor of HO trains. Note that they were headquartered in Philadelphia, which explained why they could be found in every hobby shop in south eastern Pennsylvania. The book was printed in Austria, which is pretty cool when you are 9 years old. And as you will read on the inside, their source material appeared to be impeccable. This was much more interesting than the Hardy Boys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted October 26, 2010 Share #23 Posted October 26, 2010 And now some sample pages... These were the first Organization charts I had ever seen. This was a big revelation to a nine year old... somehow I had it in my mind that tanks and truck just showed up as needed on the battle field. I was so impressed with this that I planned on actually building my own tank battalion... I didn't quite get there. But I am sure that the vendor provided this with the idea to encourage sales. Still, these are pretty neat. The also had them for a Wehrmact Tank Company and Light Recon Company as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted October 26, 2010 Share #24 Posted October 26, 2010 As if these Minitanks were not cool enough, they looked even cooler when you had a photo of the real thing and TECHNICAL DRAWINGS! One thing that was a bit confusing for my young mind was sorting out what belonged to WWII and what was more current. The narrative text on the back of these pages helped with some of that, but I didn't even have my dates for these conflicts straight yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted October 26, 2010 Share #25 Posted October 26, 2010 Of course every kid knew that the M-4 Sherman was of WWII vintage... quite a few of us had Dad's who had actually driven them! The ultimate item back in the 1960's was the Dragon Wagon... it cost a whopping $1.25 as I recall. I never picked one up as I could have 5 tanks for the price of that thing. Still cool to look at even today. The Weasel was also just neat as could be... but you had to be careful because the rear rudders kept falling off and were easily lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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