Creating a Schuco model

Original and miniature: the Porsche 356 A Speedster in 1:43 scale

Hand-made meets high-tech

For some it is an emotional journey back into childhood. For others it is a matter of aesthetics and perfection. Some would give the shirt off their backs for it: Schuco model vehicles. Yet how are these life-like toys created?

There is a place in Germany where Christmas is celebrated several times a year: at Fürth-based toy and model maker Schuco. That´s because it´s always "Christmas morning" at the tradition-rich firm when many months of painstaking work climax in the delivery of the first production models of a new series. "For unusual vehicles like the 1:18 fire engine with the turntable ladder, based on the 1968 original, there´s a rush toward my office. Everybody wants to see and touch the new addition," Michael Baumgärtner says. The 39-year-old directs product development at Schuco. He accompanies the miniatures from the decision that "this series is going to be developed" to the moment when the finished vehicle is ceremoniously unpacked for the first time

Some 40 new models see the light of the toy world here every year. Cars and utility vehicles based on historical or current prototypes vary in size from matchbook or cigarette pack dimensions (1:87 to 1:43 scale) to stately 1:18 models like the fire engine. "The 1:18 and 1:12 scales are considered the royal classes of model construction art because there´s so much life-like detail," Baumgärtner says. The initial production run includes around 3,000 units, with later limited editions variants running only 1,000 to 1,500 units. the more attractive for the collector. For current miniatures, fabricated at the behest of almost all important automobile makers, the production runs can even reach five-digit unit counts. The most recent example is the Audi R8. Schuco fans will have to be very patient on that model, though: "From idea to store shelf takes at least nine months, sometimes as many as twelve," Michael Baumgärtner explains.

Maximum Secrecy

Companies like Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, or VW aren´t interested in waiting. They want their model cars already in the glass display cases in the showrooms when a new model is premiered. This means that Baumgärtner is guardian of a secret treasure: the highly secret CAD (Computer Aided Design) data and photos for the freshly developed 2008 and 2009 models.

Beautiful, but rare: Michael Baumgärtner with Porsche 356 A Speedster in 1:18 scale

"It is paradise for any car fan. Because these are models that no one even knows are coming onto the market at all." Other than the maker, of course.

Antiques are hand measured

Nostalgic models present more complications. There are no digital CAD data for these old-timers. An industrious new employee joined Schuco two years ago, making life easier for everyone: the mobile laser scanner. "With this cutting-edge 3D technology we need precisely two hours to take the measurements of historical vehicles down to the millimeter and to convert them into digital afterwards,“ reports Udo Plichta, a product developer for Schuco. Gone is the age of hundreds of photos to be taken and painstakingly recalculated to scale. Now it´s wham, bam: "We position balls as optical comparison points, hold up a measuring stick, and the scanner takes six shots that we later position atop one another on the computer. Done," Plichta explains.

Love at first sight

The searching and finding was much quicker for the yellow Opel Ascona A adorning the desk of Baumgärtner. The 1:87 scale model of the "Piccolo" series is the vehicle used by legendary German rallye driver Walter Röhrl and his copilot Jochen Berger to win the Monte Carlo Rallye in 1973. "I saw the car in the Opel Museum and it was immediate fireworks." The Opel Ascona A is really an ideal candidate: the model has soul, history, and variants.

Model car work is art

The self-created CAD data are packaged together with the photos and sketches to the ´Maker´ in Dongguan, known worldwide as the capital of toy production in South China. There the artists and designers go to work. They work out a prototype made of synthetic resin. "Twice as large as the car will be later, to make the individual features more easily recognizable," Baumgärtner explains. That is important: Any deviation from the original is sacrilege – the collectors are merciless in this regard.

With the prototype as their guide, the final detail work begins back in Germany. Did the maker implement all the details? Or was there too much love for detail, to the point that the overall impression is off? Tenths of millimeters matter here. If the prototype is deemed good, then the individual tools and steel dies are created in China. The "pilot run" of ten units consists of a gray chassis that will be reworked many times over. Only once the vehicle is ready for serial production is it poured into the zinc die casts and painted. And then it´s Christmas time once again in Fürth.