Meet The Collector – Peter Frost and his Model Car Fleet

For many enthusiasts, the seeds of model car collecting are sown at Christmas, with a Corgi 007 Aston Martin DB5 or a Dinky Police Range Rover under the tree. Twenty years later, your study, spare room or lounge might be filled to the ceiling with miniature vehicles. The variety of themes is almost infinite; it could be fire engines, police cars or, as with one of my friends, scale models of Rootes Group cars. Peter Frost’s interest in model cars began in the 1970s, and today, he is a connoisseur of vehicles from the former Eastern Bloc, both full-size and die-cast.

At present, the Frost model lineup consists of around 1000 vehicles. As for the types of models from the Eastern Bloc, die-cast metal or plastic, manufacturers inevitably focused on local brands. Peter explains: “As far as I am aware very few made Western cars. For example, VEB Plasticart of the former East Germany produced mainly Wartburg, Trabant, Skoda, etc. models, but they also made one Ferrari model and one Opel model. 

VEB Plasticart’s attempt at a Ferrari 330 GTC does look faintly surreal compared with its Wartburg 312, but such oddities draw Peter and his fellow collectors to the pastime.  A further appeal of the Frost collection is that so many of his scale models are vehicles overlooked by UK manufacturers of the 1960s and 1970s. Dinky, Corgi, Spot-On and Matchbox regularly produced miniature US cars but clearly thought few juvenile consumers would spend 4/6d on a 1/43 replica of a Tatra T-603 or ZAZ-965. By contrast, Peter’s fleet resembles the background of a 1965 Cold War film, with many wondrous scale models of Soviet marques. In his words:

“Generally, the models of Soviet cars were USSR-made. However, the DDR firm Presu, one of the makers of the remote-control cars (which are about 30cm long), made some lovely Wartburg/Volga/Tatra models but also made one Ferrari race car and one c. 1960 American car. 

A Presu remote-control GAZ-Volga M21 in two-tone blue and white is not only a highly desirable machine but also an insight into social history. One of the many fascinations of the Frost collection is how it encapsulates the youthful motoring aspirations of several nations. In the 1950s, the DDR had a Ministry of Toys. In the 1960s, so many children in the former USSR craved the exclusive products sold by Detsky Mir, Moscow’s premiere toy retailer.”

And, of course, the collecting habit never seems to end. This writer is still looking for a Polistil Police Rover 3500 SD1, and Peter’s latest model is a Polish WFM Osa M52 scooter. I bought the model because I own the only full-size UK specification version. As for the future: 

“I am always on the lookout for 1:43 models that would fit in my collection, but nothing specific. What I would really like to get hold of is more of the larger scale, remote control cars that were made in CSSR and DDR, but good ones go for eye-watering amounts of money.”

But who could resist a remote-control Tatra or Zil...?