Also in my garage: Soviet classic car models and artefacts

By Andrew Roberts

| 2 Oct 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Also in my garage: Soviet classic car models and artefacts

It would be fair to say that Peter Frost is a connoisseur of cars from the former Eastern Bloc, with a fleet including a Tatra T603 and a Wartburg 311.

But his interest extends far beyond full-scale vehicles, as miniature Trabants, Škodas and Zils dominate his home.

“The collection started because it was a way of getting examples of cars that were unobtainable, or I was unlikely to ever own,” he explains.

“Because I have always had a strong interest in vehicles that were made in the old ‘Iron Curtain’ countries, I went looking for their equivalents to Dinky, Corgi and the like.”

Classic car enthusiast Peter Frost with his Revell 1:18 model of a Wartburg 313 Sport

Today, Peter’s line-up of model cars numbers around 1000.

Most are imitations of Soviet marques, giving the impression of a Cold War movie in miniature and reflecting buyers’ aspirations.

The average citizen regarded a GAZ Volga M21 as a highly desirable vehicle, and a GAZ Chaika as beyond their dreams, so a scale version was slightly more accessible.

Peter notes that such models were famously sold at Detsky Mir (Children’s World), Moscow’s famous toy retailer.

Classic cars from ‘Iron Curtain’ countries dominate Peter’s model collection, which includes cars, commercial vehicles and even a Dakar truck (middle)

In March 1972, the Tantal concern, which originally made radio tubes, introduced a diecast of the Moskvitch 408.

As the story goes, the plant’s director bought a similar French Dinky while on an overseas trip, which gave him the idea of building a domestic version.

It proved so popular that the regional wholesale warehouse was inundated with letters asking, ‘Where can I buy one?’

This Tatra T603 (left) and tiny Trojan bubble car are part of Peter’s eclectic fleet

Many in Peter’s collection are from East Germany, which had a government department concerned with toys in the 1950s.

The DDR was the largest exporter in this sphere to the Soviet region and, until 1990, employed 27,000 people in the toy industry.

One of the most intriguing products was an offbeat interpretation of the Ferrari 330GTC by VEB Plasticart, but, as Peter points out, most manufacturers focused on local marques.

Soviet watches reveal the Eastern Bloc aesthetic

Consequently, the majority of the collection reflects brands that tended to be neglected by the likes of Dinky, Corgi, Spot-On and Matchbox.

And no wonder: few British children in the 1960s wanted a scale model of the Moskvitch 403 from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

In contrast, a would-be motorist in 1980s Prague would have almost certainly craved a 1:24-scale Škoda Estelle.

Model cars are only one aspect of Peter’s interest in the region, and his house is filled with Soviet-era radios and other electrical items.

Old radios – especially from the Soviet era – represent Peter’s interest in electrical items

The initial impression is akin to a black-and-white drama about furtive-looking types operating a KGB cell in the Home Counties. Fortunately, the reality is rather less alarming.

“The interest goes back to my childhood,” says Peter. “I built my first radio when I was at primary school, and from then on I learned how to repair and renovate electronics.”

A common theme in Peter’s cache is his interest in technology as applied in the region to consumer goods, because their appearance is frequently remarkable.

“For household items, the manufacturers came up with some wonderful aesthetics, from the streamlined Tesla Talisman radios made in Czechoslovakia to the rocket-shaped vacuum cleaners made in the USSR,” he enthuses. “My row of East German watches reveals some interesting changes in styling over the years.”

Like any collector, Peter is always looking for new additions to his model-vehicle fleet: “I’d really like a few of the rarer Presu remote-controlled cars made in the old DDR – especially the Volga M21 and any of the Wartburg 311s.”

Images: Jack Harrison

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