RAMI by J.M.K.

RAMI by J.M.K. was a French company that made diecast collector vehicles mostly of classic French automobiles in 1:43 scale. The cars in the line-up represented actual vehicles in the Automobile Museum of the Château de Rochetaillée sur Saône (Rixon 2005, p. 72). The models were made in Lure, France, from 1958 to 1969.

RAMI was an acronym for "les Rétrospectives Automobiles MIiniatures" (in English, Automobile Miniatures in Retrospect). The acronym was seen on packaging without the periods between the letters of the acronym, but on some of the vehicle bases with the punctuation. J.M.K. was a further acronym that stood for the three founding members of the company: M. Jarry, Henri Malartre and M. Koch. Though the models were often known simply as RAMI, the full name of the company was RAMI by J.M.K.

Sometime around 1957, the decision was made to make - in miniature - automobiles housed in the Automobile Museum Malartre of Rochetaillée sur Saône in eastern France. This was the real auto collection of Henri Malartre who also started RAMI. The concept was similar to Dugu Miniautotoys in Italy made for the Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia Automobile Museum in Turin, from 1961 to about 1975, or Cursor Models which produced models in Stuttgart seen in the Daimler-Benz Museum from 1969 to about 1980.

The first prototype RAMI vehicles were made in wood in 1958 in Villeurbanne, next to Lyon, by a Monsieur Rivoire. Production models were made in Lure of the department Haute Saône about 175 miles northeast of Lyon, near the border with Switzerland and Germany.

The founders of RAMI cars were M. Jarry who had previously worked for model maker Quiralu; H. Malartre, who had worked in the auto parts business and had collected classic vehicles; and M. Koch, who had worked previously in a weaving factory.

Though Johnson says models were produced up to 1980 (Johnson 1998, pp 196–197), in all, 39 different models were produced between 1958 and 1969. Many models were of veteran 'brass' era vehicles. In fact, 33 were of vehicles made before 1920. Two of the vehicles were steam (1878 Amedee Bollee and the 1892 Scotte steam wagon with large boilers) and one electric (the irresistible 1898 Hautier Taxi), 34 are representations of French vehicles with two American Fords, a Packard, and a Mercedes.

The Hautier Taxi is particularly interesting as a vehicle that is mainly a horse carriage with an electric motor. The driver sits in a makeshift seat up and behind the cab, almost in a 'stagecoach' position. Some kind of crude steering mechanism went down then to the rear wheels. To enter, one stepped up onto the front of the vehicle and entered directly forward through two opening doors - which open on the model.

...
Wikipedia