Busch

The Busch company was founded by the family of Ernst Busch in Mannheim in 1955 to make and trade pyrotechnic goods. In 1957 it abandoned fireworks, moved to Viernheim and began producing plastic goods, including contract parts. It developed its own products when contract manufacturing proved uneconomic. At the 1958 Nuremberg Toy Fair Busch presented a 1:100 model of the Messerschmitt Me 109, its first model product, and began distributing Timpo figures.

Busch entered model railway accessories in 1960 with formed landscape pieces, scatter materials, a water pump, ship models, H0 street lamps and an overhead wiring system. In 1962 it introduced electrostatically flocked terrain and grass-effect landscape mats. Injection-moulded model trees followed in 1965, with multi-part “Super-Modell-Bäume” offered from 1966. Hans Vallen, who had worked in purchasing, product development and sales since 1956, took a stake in the company in 1966. The Toporama rolled landscape was introduced in 1971. The Vallen family took over the company in 1975.

The product range broadened into electronic experiment kits in 1976 and model railway microelectronics in 1977. In 1994 Busch acquired Praliné’s model car programme and began shipping its own 1:87 cars that summer. Later developments included the Natur Pur miniature plant range, a magnetically driven field railway and 3D-printed details for Action Sets, introduced in 2018. MEG Modelleisenbahn Gesellschaft acquired all company shares in 2021. Busch continues to list scenery, railway accessories and vehicle models among its products.