CLICK BELOW FOR A LIST OF ALL THE GREAT ROCO MINITANKS 

ROCO 97-199	ROCO 200-299	ROCO 300-399	ROCO 400-499
ROCO 500-599	ROCO 600-699	ROCO 700-799	ROCO 800-1051

If you collect 1/87 scale Roco Minitanks, then you are in the right place! Roco is an Austrian company which manufactured their Minitanks line of military model kits for over 50 years. The models are nicely detailed and often include movable parts and other accessories to add more details to your model. The Minitanks collection includes vehicles from World War Two to the present. Roco Minitanks in HO (1/87 scale) are perfect for the railroad hobby, military modelling, and wargaming. Whether you have been collecting Roco Minitanks for 50 years or just starting out in the hobby, you will find the Roco Minitanks Collectors Club a great resource to see the hundreds of fantastic kits offered over the years.

While Fidelis Models stocks HO 1/87 scale military miniatures from over two dozen companies the most recognized and beloved of those is Roco Minitanks.  Starting in the early 1960’s making HO scale models in Austria; Roco Minitanks were sold all over the world for decades.  They were the industry leader for those many years until eventually their molds were sold so that Roco could focus on their extensive model train line of products.

In the early years, Roco Minitanks were sold from a plastic cylinder that had 100 tiny compartments covered by a plastic cover.  The customer could spin the cylinder and see each of the many military vehicles, assembled but unpainted.  Kids would often spend many long sessions reviewing the selection before asking the shop owner to go behind the counter and return with the selected Roco Minitank.

Individual Roco Minitanks were packaged on a card with a plastic bubble holding the vehicle for display.  The original packages were stapled together and were notorious for allowing hatches, machine guns and other tiny bits to fall out!  Eventually they devised a clever folding of the cardboard that prevented this problem from happening.  Each package had a small history of the original vehicle on the back.

The Roco line historically focused on military vehicles from World War Two to the Cold War eras.  Most of the vehicles from World War Two were from the United States or Germany, only a few World War Two vehicles from the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom were made.

Vehicles from the Cold-War era were almost exclusively from the United States and West Germany, with only a few from UK and the USSR.  In the modern post-Cold War era Roco made vehicles from Austria, France, and even Switzerland.

From the beginning Roco Minitanks were cast in the same black-green plastic no matter what color the real vehicle may have been.  Later they began making the same vehicles in different colored plastic.  WWII German vehicles were cast in a late war tan color plastic or an early war panzer gray.  Many trucks. and particularly fire trucks were cast in red and other appropriate colors for both military and civilian vehicles.

In later years Roco started producing models that were fully assembled and painted versions of their regular models.  Some were modern German tanks and armored vehicles, but others were trucks painted white with black zebra stripe camouflage.

One of the things Roco did for a long time is make their models in a white plastic.  They were given decals for special peacekeeping operations by the United Nations.  These white vehicles included both soft skin vehicles and armored vehicles like personnel carriers and mine clearing vehicles.

One reason for the popularity of Roco Minitanks is their versatility as models.  Most of them are rather simple to put together enabling the model builder to construct whole platoons and companies in a single evening.  This contributed to their common use as wargame models.  Miniature wargamers would often buy mass quantities of Roco vehicles to use while conducting historic or future wargame battles on tabletops.

The other popular hobby for Roco Minitanks enthusiasts is super detailing.  Master model builders used their skills to open the engine hood and give those tiny motors details that include spark plug wires, cooling hoses, and fan belts!  Some of them cut the doors off and add hinges to them, enabling the doors and hoods to be opened and closed.

Roco also branched into other areas to assist their fans in creating better models.  They made a small range of authentic paints for military models.  For many years Roco made a nice range of decals and stickers for their models.  The decals are very thin and durable.

Roco also offered sheets of styrene plastic in their signature black-green plastic to allow master modelers to cobble together new versions of their kits.  Roco also made several different sets of detail parts that included steering parts to allow the front wheels of their trucks to turn.  Other detail sets included Jerry cans, machine guns, vehicle mounted tools, trailer hitches, and cargo.

Roco even took to the air making a small range of highly detailed HO scale aircraft including helicopters and fighter jets.  While Roco has sold the Minitanks line, they are still in production under the new owners.

 The Roco Minitanks Collectors Club is the oldest continuous Roco Fan group in existence since 1997.  You can find us on the Fidelis Models website or on Facebook.

https://fidelismodels.com/pages/roco-minitanks-collectors-club

https://www.facebook.com/groups/rocominitankscollectorsclub

 

ROCO COLLECTORS CLUB PHOTO UPLOAD

If you have a photo of your finished Roco Minitank model kit, send it to us and we will add the photo to the club site. Some of the kits don’t yet have a photo. If you have a photo of any of these Roco Minitanks new out of box, please send us the photo to include on the club site. If there are any kits missing from the list, let us know.

UPLOAD YOUR PHOTOS BELOW!