Oritet of St. Petersburg Russia made these super cool figure sets in the 1990s and early 2000s. They are very hard to find even in Russia. Most are fantasy figures, but they also made a set of post apocalyptic amazons and some cavemen and ninjas. The figures range from around 50mm (some only because of hats and weapons) to 65mm. They are a unique thick style that separates them from Tehnolog the other Russian fantasy toy soldier maker.
I have learned recently that some of the Oritet molds were acquired by a company called Biplant, which is producing some of the figures (the Dwarves at least) in soft rubber. They released the amazons and dragon rider in firm rubber in 2019. All of my information comes from a Russian dealer I have bought from on ebay. Here is what he was able to share with me:
"After the death of the Oritet owner, his wife took over the business, but she did not have a lot of ideas and the production has slipped to release kid shovels and boats, and then gradually closed. Unfortunately it is not known, but there are rumors that Biplant either bought, or stole unneeded Oritet molds. Somehow, it remained incomplete from, and only 4 of 8 soldiers. May be forms were sawed, partially destroyed or corroded. The quality of the case certainly is worse and the material is very soft - best for child's play."
UPDATE 10/15/2016: I found a set of Oritet Pegasus and Unicorn Pegasus that I did not know existed. They are about the same size as the Griffins, but these figures do not seem to have riders. These must be very rare. I hope there are more obscure sets from Oritet that I might find someday.
UPDATE 10/15/2016: I found a set of Oritet Pegasus and Unicorn Pegasus that I did not know existed. They are about the same size as the Griffins, but these figures do not seem to have riders. These must be very rare. I hope there are more obscure sets from Oritet that I might find someday.
Amazons & Dragon Rider
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| Biplant reproduction 2019. |
Goblins & Wolf Rider
Elves & Griffin Riders
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| One of only a few boxes that have different pictures on the front and back. |
Dwarves
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Biplant Dwarves.    |
Trolls
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Fairy Tail Characters
Dwarf Knights
Dwarf Vikings
Ninjas
Cavemen
Road Warrior Amazons
Wizard of Oz
Unicorns & Pegasus
Scale Shots
It makes me feel sorry for the sabretooth!
ReplyDeleteI love these figures and they have great box art but yes it is an interesting role reversal for the 'poor sabre tooth' versus the scary cave men!
ReplyDeleteThe sabre tooth should have known not to borrow money from the Russian cavemob.
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ReplyDeletehow do I buy the Domovik?
ReplyDeleteI don't see them very often. They will show up on ebay from time to time. You might have better luck if you contact some the regular Russian toy soldier sellers on ebay and ask them if they can find you one.
DeleteThese are awesome! They have a bit of the crazy energy and endearing crudeness of early Citadel miniatures.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this!
Thank you for this informative, well-photographed post! I'm lucky enough to own most of these sets (except for the Amazons) but - despite having the boxes - my inability to read Russian left me believing they were early Tehnolog or something. Knowing what I have is just invaluable to me!
ReplyDeleteI have two sets that you don't have listed: Emerald-green high fantasy Elvish riders aboard a pair of winged Griffons; and a set of five silver musketeers (that look more like Tehnologs but are quite large in scale, looking more like the Oritets).
Thanks. I thought the same thing about these being early Tehnolog for years. I finally asked a Russian fella who set me straight. I have a picture of the green elves with griffins in this post. I think I know what musketeers you are talking about and I believe those are early tehnolog, but you might be right for all that I really know.
DeleteI have several of these in pewter, because they are Games Workshop Citadel molds. Looks like they modified and remolded some features, the dwarfs are Warhammer Dwarf Slayers, specifically the troll slayers with different weapons but same figures some of the others like the Dwarf vikings are stretched plastic multi piece Games Workshop Warhammer models that have been unnaturally made taller. The Goblins and High elves are heavily modified but still recognizable from older citadel pewters. The trolls are strange as they have the same basic poses and sculpt marks as the warhammer versions but have much more cutesy faces. Looks like they even stole some of their box art from games whorkshop, although they repainted it simpler than the originals. the relatively small emperor riding his war griffon is an older Warhammer model that was replaced by more elaborate larger multi piece plastic kits as games workshop became more and more expensive and wanted to sell expensive glue and paint too. Looks like someone just had a few pewter figs, added green stuff to change weaponry or whatever, and made then molds for these plastic knockoffs.
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