A gunpowder plant will produce a military version of a roly-poly doll to spare Russian children from playing with foreign model military vehicles, Izvestia reported on Friday.
The move is a reaction to an order by Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister in charge of defense industry, who demanded development of “models of Russian military equipment” for mass production.
“No more of our children playing with Leopards,” Rogozin wrote on his Twitter on Wednesday, referencing a famous German battle tank.
Such models are already produced by the Moscow region-based Zvezda company, which said Russian military model vehicles far outstrip foreign ones in popularity.
But a gunpowder plant in regional capital Tambov, 480 kilometers southeast of Moscow, nevertheless rushed ahead to launch a production line for roly-poly dolls in military uniform.
The plant already has a production line for roly-poly dolls and has produces a variety of them, including a likeness of Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal Democratic Party, who has weathered two decades in Russian politics.
The new production line would cost 500,000 to 700,000 rubles to launch, plant representatives said. It remained unclear when the soldier roly-poly dolls would be commercially available or how much they would cost.
Rogozin did not comment on the story. Meanwhile, Zhirinovsky said the military roly-polys should come in various uniforms, including those of sailors and female nurses.
