There's no mystery to it, as I pointed out;
all countries have their copies and copyists, not excluding the Hong Kong
thing, but specifically within countries, things are 'borrowed' or lent,
influence or get influenced by; the difference with the Soviet Union back when
it was a collective-economy was that the bulk of the copying was sanctioned,
where in the west it was usually more problematical.
The one which is the same as mine is on the
right, the one on the left has sharper detail, but it's a slightly smaller
figure, so was probably pantograph-copied and then re-etched. It actually makes
a better figure, except in the shoe department, where the wide flares of the Rasnoexport figure have been re-cut into
shorter trousers and a pair of Olive Oyl's dancing pumps are worn!
While our makers copied each other purely for
commercial gain - with or without each-others permission, I think that under
the 'Soviet system' manufacturers were told or expected to share tools or
designs; in order that toys (the same toys?) be available to kids everywhere .
. . far rather that someone in Kiev made copies of something from Moscow, than
'another' truck burn fuel taking them there every few weeks or months? It's all
conjecture but it will contain a kernel of truth!
No brand for the copy . . . yet!
Nor for three of these! More copies, seen
before; the green one is Bulgarian Progress
and one of the red ones will be Russian Progress,
but the other two are other works, and which is the Russian Progress is still to be confirmed - I
suspect the first on the left of each shot, but without much confidence?
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