Comparing the knights of two Soviet Shkolnik III sets (’70s vs. ’80s)

The Shkolnik III set I ordered a while ago finally came in yesterday!

I fell in love with it when I acquired a set for my stepson for the upcoming Christmas some months ago, and kept it on my desk for a while. So I had to get one for myself. Below is his set with the board it came with.

Now that I temporarily have two of these sets in my possession, I had a chance to compare them. My set is allegedly from the ’70s, while my stepson’s is allegedly from the ’80s. And there are some interesting differences! On the left are my black knights; on the right are my stepson’s.

Manes

Besides a chip in the black manes of one of my black knights, one clear difference is the legibility of the manes; the manes of my knights show finer detail, but the details are more shallow. As a result, the manes of the ’80s knights show the individual (strands of) hairs more clearly. A clear improvement in its design.

Cephalic anatomy

But that’s not all. In terms of the shape of the head, my knights are quite identical to the knight on the far right, but not the third knight! The third knight has a shorter muzzle, and a more refined head, with a more realistic shape to its jaw, and more realistic (less stylized) eyes. The ears look more refined as well, and they point backward.

But the fourth knight stands out, because although its head looks virtually identical to my knights in its proportions and shapes, its ears are even more upright! Curious.

The white pieces show the same differences. In the last two photos, you can see my stepson’s knights up close and compare the differences. I just noticed that the nostrils of his second white knight are curiously low as well.

Design iterations

I suspect the greater legibility of the manes is an iterative improvement of the design which probably points to a later production year; but I can’t account for why the knights of my stepson’s set look different from each other (and this is consistent in the black and white pieces). It’s like two sets were mixed together.

Clearly, the third knight (the left one in the photo above) is the better design. Or rather, it’s a more realistic depiction of a horse. I do rather like the more stylized knights of my set as well. I will have to see if I can repair the manes of my second black knight though.

And I have to be honest, I do want to get myself some more realistic Shkolnik III horses now!