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The German company PROGRESSWERK
NUERNBERG (Nuremberg)
distributed and produced plastic kits
from the 1960īs until the early 1970īs
(exact dates are still subject of my
research) .
For years I associated
the brand name "PROGRESS" mainly with
vacuum cleaners and
motor scooters. I did not care much
of the meaning of the sticker on a Bloch
152 Heller kit, which is one of
the very few leftovers of my early
modelling days. Looked like that
Progresswerk Nuernberg was not more
than a German importer like
Biengraeber or
Behrends.
Only when I browsed
Plastic Aircraft Kits of
the 20th Century [1] sometime in
early 2007 and came across the entry for
"Progress-Werke", I became aware,
that
this company was a plastic kit
manufacturer too. I learned,
that
this German company, "issued ex-ITC kits
in the mid 1960īs". The author John Burns
lists a F-108 Rapier, a Northrop N.156
and T-38, and a Boeing 727, the mould
origin of which was not known to
him. Had I looked in John Burnīs
Collectors Value Guide [ 2 ] then, too,
I learned, that Progresswerk also
produced kits of ships (Graf Spee, "Rhein
River Cruise Ship", and Z-1 Zerstorer
).
In April 2007 the
kit manufacturer Progresswerk was
discussed in the
Airfixcollecting
Forum
where the
German colleagues
were asked if they know anything
of the history of the German company
Progresswerk.
That aroused my
interest but a search in the web did yield
next to nothing. Only the fact that the
company was still in existence in 1970
and the former postal address of the Nuernberg
factory.
There was not much
more information posted from other
members, too, apart from what could be
found in the collectorīs guide quoted
above and the existence of Heller kits
with a Progresswerk sticker.
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In December 2009 a
new
thread about Progresswerk was started in the German Brands section of
the
Airfixcollecting
Forum.
That inspired me to resume
my resarch on the history of
PROGRESSWERK . This time I was much more
successful. New, refined searches in the
web now provided me with crucial
results. In addition I personally
contacted municipal authorities, the
Nuremberg municipal archive and the Toy
Museum in Nuremberg. Most important I
managed to buy Progresswerk kits in
auctions (like the
battleship
Graf Spee
)
which gave me literally "hands on"
information of the products.
I had enough material
now to start this entry of Progresswerk
Nuernberg on this website in 28.July
2010.
I
will discuss the
complete
product line of kits
and will present a seperate list of
Progresswerk
kits in my collection.
The latter will
also serve as examples to describe the
different variants of kits, like
original mould, licence manufactured or
distributed/repacked.
An abstract of the
history of Progresswerk Nuernberg is
given in the
history section.
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On my
research I grew fond of
Progresswerk as a company and
became interested in its
activity beyond the distribution
and production of plastic kits.
Therefore I started a more
comprehensive research and
documentation of Progresswerk.
A company, which was founded in
1863 producing small leather
goods, pioneered injection
moulding of plastics in the
1930īs, expanded in the aera of
plastic manufacturing in the
1960īs and closed down in the
early 1993īs.This more
comprehensive documentation of
Progresswerk Nuernberg which
goes beyond the subject of
production and distribution of
plastic kits is written in
German language (with some
subtitles in English). It is
arranged in the following
sections:
Introduction
History
Products
Miscellaneous
Log
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References
[1]
Burns (2003 )
[2]
Burns ( 1999 )
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