Minichamps is a die-cast model car brand founded as Paul's Model Art GmbH in 1990 in Aachen, Germany, best known for its 1:18, 1:43 and 1:64 scale models. The company grew out of the Danhausen trade catalog of miniature vehicles and specially made Danhausen diecast releases during the 1970s.
The Danhausen legacy
Danhausen was a trade company established in 1921 which sold a variety of products like bicycles and motorscooters. As time passed it focused more on toys and by 1971 the company was owned by the Grandsons of Emma Danhausen, Hans Peter and Paul Gunter Lang. At this time the Lang brothers moved into selling model cars both over-the-counter and by mail order.[1] The brothers distributed many different marques of mainly 1:43 scale models and began to publish the famous Danhausen World Model Car Book annually from 1971 to 1993, which was the last word in available 1:43 scale models worldwide. The last edition of the catalog in 1993 was 350 pages long and listed 15,000 models.
During the mid-1970s, the Langs contracted with several companies, including Tin Wizard, Western Models and AMR (André Marie Ruf) as suppliers of the models they desired. These were almost exclusively made in white metal and the cars provided were given several different names; one was 'SD Modelle', another 'Metal 43', 'Plumbies' and 'Plumbies Inter'.[2] Yet another was to go on to become the permanent name for the company – Minichamps by Danhausen, at first mainly a range of racing cars.