required technology, not many orders were received, because Ikarus' main market was in the Eastern Bloc, which just started to suffer economically. Not the Soviet Union nor Hungarian companies could afford the more expensive, more modern model family, and most of them decided to demand to continue the production of the much cheaper, but already 14-years-old models of the 200-series. The company had to wait until 1992 for the actual mass production of the model family, when BKV Zrt. ordered 140 units of the Ik 415 model. By this time the company has long developed the articulated version of the model, bearing the name Ikarus 435, but this vehicle also had to wait until 1994 for the first major order, from the same transportation company. Ikarus 500-series This Ikarus family of models was produced between 1979 and 1999 as the company's answer for the request of various developing countries, as they had a need for cheap, small and versatile vehicles. These units did not follow any major design rules, even submodels could look very differently from each other. What these vehicles all had in common was that they were not built with unibody construction, but rather on various chassis. Many companies sold their products to Ikarus, which then built superstructures on them, these include: Volkswagen, Avia, MAN, Renault and even Isuzu. Of all these models, Ikarus 543 was produced in the largest numbers, more than 2100 units were exported. The fall of Ikarus (1989–2003) With the fall of the Communist Bloc, Ikarus's existence approached a crisis as well. Many of the once very close customers, including Russia, suddenly turned away from the Hungarian company, which resulted in a looming disaster. The other major problem was that the remaining customers still didn't want to even hear about "newer" models of the 300- and 400-series. And the third issue was that in 1990, the Soviet Union was on the brink of bankruptcy; the Hungarian government's response to this was an immediate halt on exports to the USSR. This resulted in over 1000 already produced Ikarus 200-series buses getting stranded in the factory's yard. That event was a major loss for the company. Ikarus also suffered a blow when Germany withdrew all its orders for the year 1990. These events forced Ikarus to cut off relationships with many of its suppliers and start producing these parts in its own factories. Although being a