“The Cars of the PRL (Samochody PRL) released by Hachette is a collection of classic cars that could be found on the roads not only in Poland but also in other countries behind the Iron Curtain. For collectors of die-cast models who grew up in Eastern bloc, it is without a doubt a must-have stuff.
I was a child when communism in Poland was declining and finally collapsed , therefore I remember many cars from that era with sentiment. Now, thirty odd years later, thanks to this incredible collection from Hachette, I can relive the joy of seeing these wonderful cars from my childhood, this time in a 1:24 scale. Therefore, I am happy that after the success of a test version of “The Cars of the PRL” in 2019, Hachette has finally launched the full version of the collection on 22 January 2020.
As far as I am aware , Hachette has reportedly released similar collections of models in Romania, Hungary and Russia. The versions of the collection released in individual countries differ by the name of the collection and, to a small extent, with the models of cars popular in a given country. For the purposes of this article, I will focus on models that were released in Poland.
A few words about the collection and subscription to “The Cars of the PRL” (Samochody PRL) :
Each issue is released every two weeks, and in addition to the model, we get a magazine with technical information and interesting facts about each model. The entire collection include about 60 models in 1:24 scale.
Because I chose a limited subscription I will describe briefly what it looks like. Of course, subscription guarantees that we will not miss any issue and that is a huge advantage. Subscription models are cheaper than those in a kiosk. This is not a big difference in price but it is always enough to buy a coffee in a small corner shop.
As a bonus of the limited subscription we get 3 gifts from Hachette as below:
With the first package, I received a USB stick in the shape of a sports car which is really cool.
In addition, in the first shipment I got 2 models for half the price – #2 – Fiat 125p and #3 Warszawa M-20. With the second shipment I got a thermal mug – I have not tested it so far. Finally, in the third package (in my case issues #6 and #7), I got a cool cop car bonus model – Fiat 125p Milicja.
Please find below a table with all the models that had been released on the Polish market.