90 1:18 scale car models are on display at the museum. The exhibition will appeal to children, adults, and collectors.
The exhibition features 1:18 scale models from various manufacturers. Prices vary (depending on the level of detail and the material) from €50 to €1,500; almost all are manufactured in China, but the manufacturers' headquarters and engineering departments are generally based in Europe, and the costs of developing the mold and producing a run start at $500,000 and up. Market leaders in terms of price/quality/sales are AUTOart, CMC, and Minichamps, which specialize in producing functional models, but today more than 50 manufacturers are actively operating on the market, including relatively young but rapidly growing purely Chinese companies Almost Real and LCD, the veteran makers Solido, Norev, Kyosho, as well as a large number of producers of resin models — a material that allows making models quickly and at lower financial cost, but without functionality (the so-called "static" models).
The history began almost immediately after the appearance of automobiles themselves at the end of the 19th century. German companies Märklin and Bing produced toy transport (initially trains) as early as the 19th century; in 1912 they were joined by the famous company Schuco. These and many other enterprises created fairly large tinplate cars that only wealthy parents could afford to buy for their children. Often these models had a clockwork mechanism, and sometimes even a real steam engine that set them in motion.
