History of a great passion

The Revell History

The history of the Revell company - that is the story of a great passion that started in America in the late 1940s. There in Venice / California, the founder of the Revell Inc. Lewis H. Glaser came up with the idea of ​​building up a scale car from several plastic parts. That was the birth of the plastic model building. As early as 1956, enthusiasm for the new hobby was supposed to skip the "big pond" and revolutionize the leisure activity of countless hobbyists and collectors.

In the past as now: Revell - the synonym for plastic model construction

That year the German subsidiary, Revell Plastics GmbH in Bielefeld, was founded. Just a year later, the company headquarters were moved to the neighboring town of Bünde. From a traditional former cigar factory, only imported original kits from the USA and Great Britain in Germany and neighboring countries were sold.

The first in -house development - a BMW R75/5 in 1: 8 - was created in 1971. In the mid -1980s, however, a development department with connected production was established in Bünde. This competence in the development and in the construction of original plastic model kits was persistently persecuted and pledged in the many years of the company's history and with great continuity. As early as the mid -1970s, the sales network included all Western European countries. An extensive range of accessories has been adding the kit program since 1976. Based on these successes, the sales network was expanded in 1978 to Eastern Europe. Further consistent steps were later the inclusion of airbrush products and ready -to -metal models (the cast) in the range.

The global success of the Revell brand can be illustrated in impressive figures from the plastic model building area: In 1995 the mark of over 5,000,000 model kits sold was exceeded for the first time. Just from the Fokker Dr. 1 were sold several 100,000 kits. The most successful plastic model kit worldwide is Titanic: more than two million copies of the legendary steamer have been sold so far. These numbers are all the more impressive when you consider that in the beginning it was only a few thousand models every year that started their way to the whole world from Bünde.

Build your dream - model building The core business

A review of representative product highlights of the past decades reflects the fascinating variety of the Revell model building world.

A product from the very beginning is still up to date: Bismarck, one of the largest and most famous German battleships, and has been replaced by a new spectacular edition since the early 1960s in the program in 2012. During the research, Revell was able to fall back on old plans and new underwater shots. Model building history also wrote a small sailing ship that left the "Revell shipyard" in 1960 when Peter Pan-Pirate ship left. 1969, in the year of the moon landing, caused the complete Apollo Saturn program. With the NASA programs Challenger and Atlantis, the space series continued successfully.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Revell was the first manufacturer to present truck plastic model kits on a scale of 1:25. One of the highlights from the cinema world will find its way into the model building range in 2005 - Star Wars, which is probably still the most famous cult series worldwide. The now extensive fleet of the Star Wars space ships stands for the successful license business of Revell and the Easykit product line for the youngest model builders. But also with modern, popular topics such as the crosships of AIDA or the car models from BMW, own dreams can be met at any time with the help of the original model kits from Revell.

With additional, attractive concepts and ideas, Revell has successfully caused a stir again and again on the toy market. These included, for example, the Grand Champions horse line or jewelry series Magcliks for girls. The Kick-O-Mania brand hit the heart of the target group of boys. Just in time for the World Cup in their own country in 2006, international football stars, as a 30 cm figure, delighted all small and large football fans.

With the market launch of the Orbis 2011 children's airbrush system, Revell again shows how innovative and creative products for children can be. With this system, it is easy to make your own ideas on paper, fabric, wood and glass as well as tattoos.

In 2009 the successful introduction to the RC toy market and thus the expansion of the business areas was expanded towards remote-controlled products. A logical addition to plastic model construction was created with the Revell Control brand, whereby this segment benefits strongly from the awareness and image of the traditional brand Revell. The Revell Control range is positioned as a fun and entry-level brand and includes attractive RC models into air, water and country. This offer is supplemented with the own -developed RC Cars from Revellutions, which convince with its extraordinary design and its combination of unique features. This guarantees the cars on a scale of 1:14 and 1:18 pure driving fun. With these RC products, Revell has also developed into one of the top manufacturers in the RC toy market.