Volga GAZ-21 — Polish/Czech magazine series

The Volga 21 scale model from the Polish magazine series differs from the version in the “Auto Legends of the USSR” series only in its black body colour. The cars’ specifications are identical, so let us look at the recognisable little details. All early Volga 21s, starting with the prototypes, carried a deer figure frozen in a dynamic pose on the bonnet.

The deer was chosen because it had long appeared on the coat of arms of Nizhny Novgorod. The ornament varied slightly depending on the Volga 21’s model year. Drawings of GAZ-21 prototypes show versions of the deer with separate antlers and much finer detailing than the production ornament. Signs of a factory-fitted figure included a long cast longitudinal bonnet moulding that formed a sculptural continuation of the deer’s legs, a transparent rather than red plastic base, and the pointed end of the moulding surrounding that base.

The bonnet deer became very popular with children, collectors and vandals, as the numerous thefts of the ornament demonstrate. This, together with its high manufacturing cost and the risk of injuring pedestrians in a collision, led to its disappearance from the bonnet in the late 1950s. It was first removed from taxis and export models, where it was replaced with a safer, streamlined elongated ornament. In 1962, all decorations disappeared from the Volga 21’s bonnet.