Soviet Military Toys

I was doing some decluttering during this time of voluntary isolation – darn COVID-19 – and came across a box that had a few very special toys in it.

Some of you may know that I lived in Moscow (USSR, not Idaho) for two years. My father was in the military and he was posted to the Canadian embassy from 1977 to 1979, during the height of the Cold War. I was 9 when our family moved there.

For most of the two years, we lived at 13 Kutuzovsky Avenue, an apartment building in the shape of an “L”. The building still exists. It’s a little surreal to be able to see it after so many years.

Katyusha rocket trucks

I remember there was a toy store across the street. There are tunnels under the street for people to cross. We were often accosted by people looking to buy jeans or for gum. Apparently Russian gum was terrible. Don’t get me started on their toilet paper.

My parents would give me some rubles now and then and I spent some of them on these toys. These are industrial grade, heavy duty Russian toys. They are tough and lacking any fine details.

I found the same toys on eBay for sale. Apparently they sell for around US $25 each.

How much did these toys cost when I bought them? Well, I certainly don’t remember, but due to the weirdness of the Communist economy, I can tell you.

The trucks have ц60к stamped in the bottom of them. I thought maybe it was a model number or a builder’s mark.

I Googled “ц60к” and found this LiveJournal post (in Russian) where they talked about a stainless steel spoon that had the same mark stamped in it. It turns out that ц60к is the price.

Pricing for consumer goods was set by Gosplan, a central planning agency. It was, like Communism, a good idea in theory. Take the cost of raw material, the work effort involved in producing the finished good, and you can calculate what it “should” cost. It didn’t work well in practice – like Communism.

Anyway, that’s the price, 60 kopecks. It was manufactured to cost that much and as long as it was on the shelf, that was the price.

I don’t know the Canadian or US equivalent of that, because there was no official exchange rate between Soviet money and the rest of the world. There were “special rubles” but 9 year old me didn’t know about that.

The vehicles came in the “army green”. I painted camouflage on some of them, and I admit I painted that awful bright green seen above.

I’m not a very sentimental person but I do treasure these toys. I had fun playing with them and they remind me of a unique time in my life.

8 thoughts on “Soviet Military Toys”

  1. Thanks for sharing! What a time to be living in the USSR… I can’t imagine how tense things must have been for your parents. Those toys are amazing – and remind me of the Tonka trucks I had as a kid (construction, not military). Sadly mine are long gone.

    • Hi Jeff, yes, it was tense even for a fairly oblivious child like myself. Even foreigners like ourselves couldn’t leave Moscow without filing a route plan with the authorities, and if you deviated from the plan, you had to call someone in the USSR government. We were driving from Moscow to Warsaw when our car developed a problem with its alternator. My dad had to make a call to tell “them” that we would be spending extra time in Warsaw and would not be returning to Moscow on the appointed day. Your movements were monitored and… well, it was oppressive. Even I was aware of that.

  2. We had a convoy-worth each of Dinky Toys (large scale) and Matchbox (small scale). They used to make it out on the lawn, and when left there, subject to unexpected attack. By a push mower. Made amputees of several Britains figures and sheared off (!) at least one Matchbox 25-pounder gun barrel!

    Thanks for sharing, my comrade.
    Eric

  3. So cool to see these Steve, glad you still have them. Wish I had mine from a kid, I had a lot of hand me down British Corgi and Dinky Toys military vehicles but I do recall getting one new SUPER DINKTOYS “Honest John” missile launcher truck. Now that was cool and it was much more detailed than your Commie Toys. Wish I still had it.

    Saw a real one at the military museum in Shilo MB about 5 years ago.

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