COBI T-34-85 Set 2716

COBI's T-34-85 is a 1:48 model built from 286 blocks, 15 cm long, with a movable gun, a rotating turret and working tracks. The markings are those of the Polish forces in the East, with the turret number 102. All details are printed.

The number 102 is the point of this set

COBI's own description says the number is a tribute to fans of tank crews, which is putting it mildly. In Poland, a T-34 with 102 on the turret is one of the most recognisable objects in the national culture.

Czterej pancerni i pies — Four Tank Men and a Dog — was a Polish television series that ran from 1966 to 1970: twenty-one episodes following the crew of a T-34 named Rudy, turret number 102, and their dog Szarik. It was made for children and watched by everyone, repeated for decades, and remains the reference point through which several generations of Poles picture the war.

The series is also, by any honest reading, a piece of communist-era storytelling that leaves a great deal out. Polish audiences have always known that and watched it anyway, in the way people are fond of things they grew up with while being clear-eyed about them.

Rudy 102 became genuinely iconic. Real T-34s in Polish museums have been painted as Rudy. Streets and schools carry the name. A brick model with 102 on the turret is not a random marking choice — for a Polish company it is the T-34.

The tank

The T-34-85 added a three-man turret and an 85 mm gun to the T-34, fixing the earlier version's worst flaw — a commander who also had to aim the gun. Production ran to 1958 and the type served dozens of armies for decades afterwards.

In the COBI range

Set 3092 is the T-34-85 at 1:72 and 2595 the T-34/76 at 1:28.

Specifications

Pieces: 286 · Scale: 1:48
Model dimensions: 15 × 6.5 × 7 cm (5.9 × 2.6 × 2.8 in)