VEB Plasticart

VEB Plasticart was established in 1958 in Zschopau, East Germany. VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb) was a Socialist-era designation, meaning "company owned by the people". The company was called KVZ from 1958-1969, MPKAB from 1969-1973, VEB Plasticart Zschopau from 1973-1989 and Mastermodell GmbH from 1989-1991. After a two-year break, the company was sold in 1993 by the German Treuhand (an organization which privatized state owned enterprises of the GDR) to Manfred Wader, and renamed to Plasticart. In 1993, the company had only 37 workers left. A new factory was constructed in Elterlein, Saxony, which employed over 70 workers in the following years. In 2011, the factory had to be closed down, marking the end of the Plasticart brand. In late 2012, the German company Reifra has resumed production of some of the former Plasticart model kits.

VEB Plasticart was able to sell cheap, but well designed plastic construction kits to Western countries in exchange for Western currencies.

The factory was located in August-Bebel Strasse 2, 9360 Zschopau, German Democratic Republic.

During the company's existence, its name has been changed several times.

KVZ ("VEB Kunststoff-Verarbeitung Zschopau")

This name lasted until 1969 and is translated as "Plastic Processing Zschopau". The kits had very nice packaging, usually made of thicker cardboard and a great cover image. The company logo at that time was a snake.

MPKAB ("VEB Modell -und Plastspielwaren Kombinat Annaberg-Buchholz")

This name was used from 1969-1973 and stands for "VEB model and plastic toys combine Annaberg-Buchholz". The kits of this period were packed in the classic, familiar, blue standard boxes without a company logo.

Starting with an Ilyushin Il-14 airliner in HO scale, following it with a 1/40th scale Aero 45 twin engine low wing monoplane, Plasticart soon produced a scale model of the Baade 152, the first jet turbine airliner to be produced by the GDR and the last development in a line of aircraft that sprung from the former Junkers works in Leipzig and Dresden (both then in the GDR). Next up was the stalwart of Interflug's European network, the four-engined Ilyushin IL-18 turboprop.

The first of the famous Soviet airliner series to appear, in 1963, was the Tupolev Tu-104, the first medium haul jet aircraft to go into regular sustained airline service. The early Plasticart Tu-104 set the standard for all the kits that followed. It was scaled at 1:100 which whilst not common for aircraft kits at the time, was close to FROG models' 1:96 scale and matched contemporary East German TT trains such as Berliner Bahn. In addition, the kit set a standard for being simple to assemble, with a minimal number of parts, sturdy landing gear and a full decal sheet. Instructions, often printed in German, Russian, Polish and Czech, were aimed squarely at consumers in the Comecon countries, where Plasticart kits were both affordable and plentiful. They included exploded diagrams, but no English instructions.

Because the drawings were easy to obtain, Plasticart began to introduce a comprehensive range of detailed models of Soviet airliners and other Warsaw Pact aircraft. Whilst the Tu-104 had only been available with Aeroflot markings, the new introductions mostly came with Interflug decals – markings of the state airline of the GDR.

The latest airliners soon made it into the range, including the Tupolev Tu-134, Tu-154, Ilyushin's Il-62 long range airliner, the Antonov design bureau's An-24 twin engine short hauled feeder-liner and the Czech-built Let L-410 Turbolet twin prop commuter aircraft. Later additions included the remarkable Yakovlev Yak-40 tri-jet short-haul "hot & high" jet and the Tu-144 supersonic jet, known by NATO as the Charger or popularly as "Concordski". A mix of Soviet fighter aircraft and especially, helicopters, was also produced including the giant Mil Mi-10 flying crane, the famous MiG-21 "Fishbed" (1/100) and Sukhoi Su-7 "Fitter" fighters (1/72 scale).