Since 1996, Hachette Collections has been a new business area of France's international publishing corporation Hachette Filipacchi Medias. These distinctive publications combine magazines with collectibles, assembly parts and home-hobby materials tailored to amateur collectors in different countries.
Millions of readers have enjoyed series for diverse interests: ‘Bismarck’, with parts for the famous battleship; ‘The Age of Cars’; ‘The Universe’; ‘Art’; ‘Knitting’, a course with materials and patterns for making one's own designs; and ‘Noah's Ark’. Alongside traditional subjects such as cars, art and aviation, more licensed collections feature Strawberry Shortcake, Hello Kitty, Ben 10 and other figures.
What links people in Belgium, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, El Salvador (since 1990), the Netherlands (since 1998), Germany, Italy, Greece (since 1999), England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Malta (since 2000), Poland (since 2001) and Japan (since 2004)? Hachette's products have turned millions in 28 countries into enthusiastic collectors. Russians joined them in 2009, discovering Hachette Collections partworks as a new form of periodical.
A ‘partwork’, literally a work issued in parts, is the term used in Europe and the USA for publications appearing one to four times a month over one or two years. Each issue offers informative reading and a new collectible or a part for step-by-step model assembly. They are available at newsstands, other press outlets and by subscription. Since the beginning of this century, Hachette Livre has published partworks and earned a reputation as a world leader in the field.