Company Profile: Wiking
History in a Nutshell
Founded in 1932 by Freidrich Karl Peltzer, Wiking
Modellbau of Nürnberg originally made 1:1,250 ship models. During World War II, these models were used by the German military
for training and tactical planning. Later, the military also used Wiking's 1:200 plane models, as well as their military vehicles and artillery models.
In 1947, Wiking started to produce simple plastic single-part 1:100 car models, with no windows or chassis. By the early 1960s, Wiking was concentrating almost exclusively on HO Scale vehicles, adding transparent windows in the late 1960s and interiors in the 1970s. Sieper Lüdenscheid, a.k.a. Siku, purchased Wiking in 1983, and also purchased Roskopf in 1993 (Peltzer and Roskopf were friends). In 2008, all production was moved to Siku's headquarters in Lüdenscheid; the models are still being sold under the Wiking brand, now joined by some larger-scale diecast items.
N Scale Products
Wiking introduced their new N Scale vehicles at the 1969 Nürnberg International Toy Fair. Since Siku's takeover, a few new vehicles have been added, and some of Wiking's earliest N Scale models have been re-released as "classics" (below).
Printed Matter
