Talk:The Man in the High Castle - Season 4

Norinco Type 56-1 vs. Type 84-1

Are we really sure that the weapons identified on the page are Type 56-1s? I don't see any reason to believe that these are Type 56-1s and not the Type 84-1s that are more plentiful in this season of the show. Unless there's a good image of the magazine or something else to suggest otherwise, but the images of "Type 56-1s" on the page could just as easily be Type 84s. -MT2008 (talk) 23:34, 19 November 2020 (EST)

At the very least, the rifles seen in the pictures under the Norinco Type-56-1 section appear to have slanted 7.62x39mm muzzle brakes compared to the Type 84's longer 5.56x45mm muzzle brakes. Although it is fair to assume them as Type-84s, but so far they seem to have managed to source a full stocked Type-56 as well as a Zastava AK throughout the production. Furthermore, the scenes with the supposed Type 56s involved no firing, so they could have been there for more "accurate" close-up shots -SSgt_LuLZ (talk) 13:30, 20 November 2020 (SGT)

There are Type 84s that have been sold with the AKM-style slant muzzle device, or at least retrofitted with them. Also, in the Type 56-1 section, the AK being cleaned by Bell Mallory (Frances Turner) in "Hexagram 64" (S4E01) has no muzzle device whatsoever, which is consistent with some of the other pics of Type 84s on the show (most of them don't seem to have the "birdcage"-style flash hider, likely because the armorer would have had to remove it to install the BFA); this makes me think she's just cleaning one of the Type 84-1s.

Also, one other consideration for you: This show is filmed in Vancouver nowadays, and over the years, we've seen that Felcan Enterprises (which is the prop house/armory that supplies nearly all productions filmed in British Columbia, including this show) seems to have only three types of blank-adapted Kalashnikov-pattern rifles in their inventory: Norinco Type 84s, Zastava M70s, and Izhmash AKS-74Us. As far as I've been able to tell (and I've done a LOT of pages for movies and TV shows filmed in B.C.), they don't have any 7.62x39mm AKs other than the Zastavas. I have, however, seen that they're purchased airsoft Type 56s made by Real Sword in Hong Kong (see for example: Human Target - Season 1). I wouldn't be surprised if the fixed-stock Type 56 used by Inspector Kido (Joel de la Fuente) in "Fire from the Gods" (S4E10) is a Real Sword Type 56, and possibly, the AK that Elijah (Clé Bennett) is working on is a Real Sword Type 56-1. I'm not convinced that the same is true of Bell Mallory's rifle; the Real Sword Type 56s do not dis-assemble the same way as real AKs do, and I also don't think the the armorer would use an airsoft AK for a dis-assembly scene. -MT2008 (talk) 19:28, 20 November 2020 (EST)