Ryszard Morawski Designer Polish PGZ, one of the things I like about Facebook as it has allowed us information that has been long hidden. In the Plastic Warrior group, Wojciech Gudaczewski has been sharing information on PGZ, a prolific maker from Poland. One of the things Wojciech has shared is the designer of the PGZ figures, Ryszard Morawski. Wojciech has given me permission to share this information with you.
Ryszard Morawski Designer Polish PGZ A Look
It’s time to tell about the Polish master, the creator of toy soldiers. Ladies and Gentlemen, probably for the first time, and certainly for the first time here, a short note about Mr. Ryszard Morawski, along with photos of the most beautiful series of Polish soldiers: medieval warriors, knights with crossbows, lancers, Napoleonic soldiers, figures of “Four Tankers”, winged hussars, the entire Golden Series, samurai and many, many other figures
Ryszard Morawski was born on March 2, 1933, in Warsaw. He is a Polish battle painter, draftsman, toy designer, and what interests us figurine collectors the most: the creator of figurines of Polish soldiers from various eras. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw with Michał Bylina. He is a student of Antoni Włodzimierz Trzeszczkowski. He published his illustrations in the comic magazine Relax (1976-1981), where he was also a graphic editor. He has been painting thematically related to the military for over half a century. His numerous oil paintings and gouaches adorn private collections at home and abroad.
Designer of Figures
The Napoleonic era is especially close to him. He took over the interest in history and modeling from his father, who was also an amateur model maker. As he recalled, “Father kept drawing lancers for me …”. Even as a child, during the war, Ryszard made simple models out of cardboard, and also from German books in which there were models of airplanes involved in the war. He also had a huge collection of soldier figurines. Before the war, his uncle was a lead soldier factory called “Mars”. After the war, Ryszard Morawski himself started making 54 mm metal figurines, he made about several dozen patterns. incl. hussars.
They were not signed with his name, but with the pseudonym Nałęcz. His friend Andrzej Zaremba dealt with the distribution of the figurines in America. He also worked for the Polish Association of the Deaf. He also designed historical figures, which were then made of plastic (polyamide) on injection molds. As he recalled: “There was a lot of it! Sometimes I did three patterns a month. There were figurines from the Duchy of Warsaw, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Indians …. ” Today, the figurines of Mr. Ryszard Morawski among Polish toys (and not only) are rated as the most beautiful (all those that have signed PZG stands). Until recently, Mr. Morawski gave interviews to the press, so together with a friend of mine, also a collector, we want to visit Mr. Ryszard at home and do a press interview. And now we wish Mr. Ryszard a lot of health!
Author: Wojciech Gudaczewski collector of Polish figurines, regionalist historian, decorated with the Medal for Merits to Polish Culture
I would also like to thank Detlef Heerbrand for use of his photo of the Tankers.
The other photos are of my figures.
I am sure Plastic Warrior will have at least an article on these fine figures.
Very Interesting interview !!
I got most poses of the huge medieval and Napoleonic line set poses of this interesting Polish factory .They made a large series of crossbowman very nice .The early medieval warriors have plenty multi use generic .Many bases and figures change quality between production what indicate the molds per poses were redone considerable. The paint colors also varied a lot. Detail was not the best ,but poses ,dynamism and colors made then unique. In most they are 60 to 65 mm scale ..
I don’t know if understood well but ..These figures were sold here in US !?
Never knew of former communist countries making this type business with US .Most east European countries barely produce for their self consume during the cold war era ,not for export .With Exception of DDR that was the largest toy maker in the communist block and via Yugoslavia,Greece and Italy sold -export some toys in obscure business ways .
Best
I bought a lot of PZG figures from a British dealer called Steve Viccars. I have about four Indians firing a blow pipe an unusual pose. We also got some medieval fighting peasants plus a load of Indians and Napoleonic figures.