This is one of the few WW2 ranges I have in my collection and holds it’s place for a number of reasons

Hard plastic toy soldiers were produced prolifically in Poland during the late communist era, far more than any other similar state, including Russia. They mainly depicted figures from Polish historical achievements; the battle of Grunewald, the Great Northern Wars, Napoleonic independence struggle, Polish forces in WW2 etc. However, they also produced figures that didn’t sit so comfortably with this political ethos, such as a wide selection of cowboys and Indians, pirates, samurai, Robin Hood and to some extent, this one.

They also made figures in a very wide range of scales, from 50mm up to 90mm. Some of the finest figures, in my opinion were approximately 70mm in size and covered the 17th century Great Northern Wars; including Winged Hussars and beautiful Polish and Swedish combatants. This scale was also used for the figures I’m showing in this post and the next one. In this post I’m mostly detailing what I know of this set.

This era of Polish plastic toy soldier production was also unique because these figures were manufactured in the Polski Zwiazek Cluchych (Polish Union of the Deaf) workshops, using residual/recycled plastic from utility plastic production. This seemed to have begun in the early 1970’s until the late 1980’s, this era is described in Poland as PRL and early figures can be found marked PZG. So, let’s discuss this particular set

The production of PZG figures was centred around Warsaw and the production of this set can be reliably dated to approximately 1983, to be ready for the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising in 1944. It was unusual for the Polish government to commemorate this because for some reason they tended to play down this heroic episode; when the Polish resistance in Warsaw fought valiantly against overwhelming odds. But perhaps the weakening of soviet influence by that time allowed them to take a more lenient approach to one of Poland’s finest acts of valour.

What’s even stranger is the style of sculpting used for this set. It’s as if the sculptor decided to deliberately mimic the German WW2 war toys of Elastolin and Lineol. The figures are almost identical in style and poses. While it’s true that some uniforms of the resistance fighters; the Warsaw Home Army Corps, were stolen and adapted from the occupying forces, this dosen’t really count as a plausible reason, and I can only suggest it was to bring an added degree of poignancy to the set. However, the figures accurately reflect the mixture of adapted uniform and civilian clothing worn. The sculptor was also the master of mix and match, the legs of one figure would be used on another and vice versa. Unfortunately, these figures can attract a high price now and unscrupulous people have been trying to make and sell figures in poses that are not original. All the figures shown are original and were collected many years ago. There are paint variations but these are consistent and similar shades of colour turn up on different figures. I only know the name of one sculptor of PRL figures; Rrichard Morawski, but whether he worked on these figures isn’t known.

As well as adult fighters, the set included the young and teen boy and girls from the ZHP scouts and guides and other organisations that took part in the uprising. I have yet to see a young girl fighter figure; girls are only depicted as nurses, a shame since many fought on the front lines and died during the uprising. Here are examples of the boy scouts and girl guides; including a colour variation, notice that there are a range of ages depicted, including an older scout with pistol and grenade.

I will follow this post with another next week, mostly showing more figures from this set.