Another nail in the coffin for 1:43

M4 was founded in 1984 and built up by Marco Grassini who passed away a few years ago. After his passing it was directed by Mariella Della Santa his widow. The company was based in Pesaro in Italy and was well known for continuing model production in Italy rather than outsourcing production to China. M4 grew to include three well known Italian brands: Art, Best and Rio . Rio which had been in business since 1961 was acquired in 2011 bringing one of Italy’s best known model companies into the M4 group.

It is perhaps unsurprising that M4 found the current market for 1:43 scale models a difficult one. With the rising costs of producing in Europe making their models relatively expensive and production and sales levels small by the standards of other diecast makers, running profitability must have been a challenge. It seems sad that these Italian brands have now passed into history as part of the contraction of the 1:43 scale collectors market.