Henk van Asten

Hank van Asten owned the company  (Fa. Daimler House) that made 1/43 Madison and Conquest white metal model cars in Holland.  Most of his models were made by SMTS. The original line was produced from 1987 to 2003 and then brought back by the Route 66 Model Car Store in 2005.

 

Subject ID: 82894

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Hank van Asten owned the company  (Fa. Daimler House) that made 1/43 Madison and Conquest white metal model cars in Holland.  Most of his models were made by SMTS. The original line was produced from 1987 to 2003 and then brought back by the Route 66 Model Car Store in 2005.

 

Henk van Asten   Conquest/Madison Models

Not many producers have emerged from the Netherlands, but one name that is well known is Henk van Asten.  Henk was born in 1946, and received his first Dinky Toys at the age of 10. Eventually, he had about 20 to play with, and a few of these have survived, albeit in a poor state of repair.

After he left school he became a teacher, at a high school in economic science and trade science, including book keeping.  However, his love of Dinky Toys was to be re-kindled when, one day in 1972, on his way home from school, he discovered a shop in a village which still had many old Dinky Toys from the 1960s. He bought about 25 of these, and this started his collection. Serious collecting came about 4 years later. The Dinky Toy range was limited, so he began to collect Corgi Toys, Spot-On, and other makes in 1:43 scale, and also visited swapmeets. This led to trading in these toys.

To enlarge his collection, he also started collecting handbuilt models. He soon realised that many real cars were not yet modelled, and concluded that he would make them himself. He began preparing to launch his own range in 1983, and as he was drawn by the detailing on American cars, it was these that he chose to release.

He made contact with SMTS, who were able to supply him with the models in the quantity he wanted, and his first Madison release appeared in 1987. This was followed 4 months later by the first Conquest model.  Henk founded his company Fa. Daimler House in order to have a trading name, and he found that sales soon increased to a point when he was able to stop teaching. His range continued to grow until 2002, when he restricted his production from SMTS to re-runs of existing models. Henk was always a keen classic car owner, all of which were British. Not surprisingly, one of his favourites was the Daimler Conquest that he owned from 1974 to 1992, which gave its names to the company and one range.

In 2005 Henk decided to retire and made arrangements to sell both the Conquest / Madison ranges to Buz Kirkel at Route 66 Model Car Store.  SMTS continue to make the two ranges for him.

Subject ID: 82894

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