Paul Lang

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Paul G. Lang is the founder of Minichamps, which was originally founded as Paul’s Model Art GmbH in 1990 in Aachen, Germany. The first diecast car Paul’s Model Art made by Minichamps was a 1:43 scale of Hans-Joachim Stuck’s DTM-winning GTC Audi V8.

The company officially changed its name to Minichamps in 1996. Due to their highly detailed model cars, Minichamps came to produce official promotional replicas for the likes of Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. Prior to Minichamps and Paul’s Model Art, Paul Lang owned the trade company Danhausen.

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Paul G. Lang is the founder of Minichamps, which was originally founded as Paul’s Model Art GmbH in 1990 in Aachen, Germany. The first diecast car Paul’s Model Art made by Minichamps was a 1:43 scale of Hans-Joachim Stuck’s DTM-winning GTC Audi V8.

The company officially changed its name to Minichamps in 1996. Due to their highly detailed model cars, Minichamps came to produce official promotional replicas for the likes of Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. Prior to Minichamps and Paul’s Model Art, Paul Lang owned the trade company Danhausen.

Paul was inducted into the 2017 Class of the Diecast Hall of Fame for his work as an entrepreneur.

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The company, originally known as Danhausen, was founded in 1921 and traded mostly in bicycles and motorcycles, but also as a sideline sold toys. In the following 50 years toys and model cars gradually took over.

In the early 1970s, the two brothers Hans Peter and Paul Günter Lang took over the company, finally acknowledging its principal customers by renaming it "Spielwaren Danhausen", Aachen. They built up a record of addresses of every one of their model car collectors. In an interview recorded in Model Auto Review in 2004 Paul, now the CEO of Minichamps confirmed that he has never collected model cars.

Since he was 14 years old his interest has been in two wheeled vehicles. However, he has always been interested in the design of all vehicles, and his preference is for those from the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He admitted to occasionally collecting models that excite him because of their construction, design and technical features.

On the brothers' initiative, an international model car swapmeet was established and held twice a year from 1972 in Aachen. These events were then, in addition to the swapmeets of Otto Duve's "Model International" in Walldorf, the ‘mecca’ of the model car scene in Germany.

As avid model car collectors began to send their wants lists to the Lang brothers, in return, they were offered help in finding the ones they wanted, not only in the Aachen shop, but also via mail order. From these lists of models, annually produced catalogues were published and sent all over the world.

The first Danhausen catalogue with 38 pages appeared in 1971, and was reproduced in the 1981 "Danhausen World Model Car Book". This book was unique in that it provided values to all the model cars listed in one publication.

These annually published World Model Car books thus became indispensable reference books, indeed, almost a model car ‘bible’ for any serious collector. The last such book was published in 1993, had more than 350 pages and contained details of 15,000 models. Nowadays, there is no comparable tome to use for reference purposes.

By 1974 the brothers Lang had decided to launch their own model car ranges, in white metal kit form. This 1:43 scale range was named SD Models. In 1975, in co-operation with Western Models, they developed an additional series of 1:43 model cars known as Plumbies.

Much later, around 1987, Paul Günter Lang took over sole control of the Danhausen company. Paul's roots have always been in the toy world and his family owned the toy shop in Aachen, known as Spielwaren Danhausen. Model cars became a large part of what was sold in their shop. From that base, kits and handbuilt models were developed, until they reached a point where they took over the AMR (André Marie Ruf) company in Paris. Paul soon realised that the cost of production in Germany would not be viable for much longer, as it became apparent that a handbuilt model would soon cost 500 DM. Paul knew that at this price level he could not get the substantial sales obtained in the 1970s and 80s. As a seasoned producer and retailer of model cars for more than 20 years, He considered how he would get the same quality, but at significantly reduced costs. He had to find a low wage country capable of making this kind of product. In 1990 that was Hong Kong.

At the Nuremburg Trade Toy Fair of 1991 they introduced their first model from there, the Audi V8 DTM (German Racing Championship), driven by Hans Stuck. The first production model from the DTM series was a BMW M3, Audi V8 and Mercedes EVO 1. The recommended retail price was 29.50 DM. A handbuilt model of the same car would have cost ten times as much. Before the Fair opened, Paul was already convinced that the price/quality ratio was acceptable. They were 90% satisfied with the quality, and were positive about the whole project and thus decided to go ahead with it. And so the new diecast, mass produced Minichamps range was born, and the white metal era closed. Paul Lang put a great deal of care into every aspect of model production at Minichamps, hence the slogan on the packaging, Paul's Model Art.

In 1998 Paul Lang sold an 80% share of Minichamps to the American company Action Performance. Action Performance is a retailer of models of NASCAR and Indy race cars. However, he feels that his continuing influence on the content and quality of the range remains considerable. They are now global leaders in 1:43 scale. Paul and his wife Romy bought back the 80% interest from Action Performance in the year 2007, so that Paul’s Model Art / Minichamps is again 100% owned from the Lang family.

In 2000 they started making 1:12 scale motor bikes and now these form an important part of the collection. Fifty per cent of their production goes to Germany, and exports go to 60 countries. Japan is the second biggest market, followed by Great Britain, the USA and France. They find that the American market is not so interested in 1:43 car models, preferring 1:24/1:25, 1:18 and 1:64 scales. As a result they are reluctant to produce models of American cars. A significant part of their business is supplying the car manufacturers with promotional models.

To keep costs and prices down, whilst maintaining quality, Minichamps were the first to move all production to China and many other diecast manufacturers have followed since. Paul believes that whilst their sales have been affected by computer games and other new media, collecting is here to stay, and a new generation will be interested too.

Subject ID: 75470

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Subject ID: 75470