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Topic starter
12/04/2026 11:31 am
The Italian model manufacturer Box was founded in 1984 producing diecast models in 1/43 scale. They stopped production in 1990 with their model production bought by Bang and Best. I had a little trouble documenting this history so thought it might be useful to some on the Diecast Zone to show my findings.
The Italian model manufacturer Bang was founded in 1990, as one of the successors of the company Box Model. The Box Model castings were shared between Bang and another Italian company, Best Model. Bang, directed by Carlo Tamburini, started producing high quality diecast models in 1/43rd scale. The range of former Box models was soon completed by newly developed models. Production ceased in December 2005.
The Italian model manufacturer Best Model was founded in 1990 as one of the successors of the company Box Model. The owners of Best Model also manufactured the model car ranges Art Model (Ferrari models, from 1993) and M4 (Alfa Romeo models, from 2007), and in 2004 they took over the model manufacturer Rio. After Best owner Marco Grassini had passed away in January 2016, the business was maintained by his family. In the following years, mainly variants of existing base models were produced, and M4 ceased operations at the beginning of 2026.
The first model that Box produced was #8401, the 1962 Ferrari GTO. It happens to be my favourite. It came in eight variations, 8401,8402,8403,8404,8408,8409,8451,8452. All were the same casting with colour and decal variations. All were introduced in 1984.
My favourite Box Model, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO.
Here is the complete list of all Box Model issues.
This topic was modified 1 month ago 2 times by David Green
12/04/2026 11:56 am
I have quite a few of the Ferraris, including the brown and white GTO and the Carrera cars. I especially like Best's 908/3, and I have quite a few of those.
This post was modified 1 month ago by Ed Glorius
Retired in Dunedin, Florida.
12/04/2026 2:04 pm
Box, Best, Bang - not the easiest models to search for on the internet. I guess the founders did not envision google being around when they named their companies!
That GTO is my favorite Box, though! That list of all models looks very much like Paolo Rampini put it together for one of his books!
14/04/2026 8:45 pm
I had that 8401 GTO, but sold it when I acquired the far superior Kyosho versions.
But I still have seven Box models, including these two GTOs. The green David Piper car was 5th at the 1963 Tourist Trophy race. The blue NART car was 2nd at Sebring in 1962, driven by Phil Hill and Oliver Gendebien. The same pair would win at Le Mans a few months later.
Tony Perrone reacted