The origins of the Hungarian Ikarus factory go back to 1895, when Imre Uhry started a wagon building shop. In 1908 he started building vehicles, in 1920 the first truck was built and in 1924 the first bus body left the factory.
During the 1950's various models were produced: the 30, 31, 311 series, the 60, 601, 602, 620, 630 series and the famous "rockets" 55, 66. In 1961 a new, quite modern citybus was presented, the 556, which was followed in 1962 by an articulated version, the 180. As Hungary had been selected within the COMECON group to be the main producer of buses, a standard model was developed that could be adapted to the various requirements.
In 1968 the first 200-series bus was presented and received immediate wide acclaim. During its production over 200,000 vehicles were built, and in fact the modernized version is still available as the C series (Classic). By far the most common models are the 250, 255 and 256 long distance coaches, the 260 urban bus and the 280 articulated bus.
Most standard buses had a Rába engine and axles. But in addition, 200-series models were built on a variety of chassis, mainly for export: Renault for Egypt, Steyr for Austria and Uganda, Volvo and Scania for Sweden, IVECO for Kenya, among others, but in total over 70 countries bought new Ikarus buses and coaches.
During the 1980's, Ikarus developed new modern models: the 300-series coaches, and the 400-series buses.
Matchbox's MB-67 Ikarus Coach is based on IK 300 family. The 386 K2, the prototype of the series was introduced in 1984.
The shorter version is called 365. Its designers were awarded.
The 385 existed only as prototype, due the 386 was selling better.
The 30 seater midibus (325) was economically inviable. Only one unique exemplar was bulit.
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