In 1957, the Hungarian conglomerate “FEG” (Fegyver- és Gépgyár-Arms and Machine Manufacturing Company) received a contract from the Egyptian Armed Forces requesting 30,000 Tokarev handguns. The Tokarevs would be in 9mm Parabellum instead of the 7.62 Tokarev round, magazines would have finger supports, a one-piece plastic grip, and a safety catch on top of the left side of the receiver.
Not famous as the Helwan 51 Brigadier or Helwan 92, but still a great pistol with collectors paying more than $500 to acquire one.
Notice the Egyptian Crest in the center.
Barrel chromed.
After around 13,250 were shipped to Egypt, the Egyptian Armed Forces for unknown reasons till now terminated the contract (some speculate that it has to do with financial reasons or perhaps political reasons as the pistols were well made so couldn’t be quality related issues).
FEG decided to sell the leftovers to the European market (especially West Germany) and later on to the US. This led to seven variants of the Tokagypt to exist and the most notable differences between them are the markings and some lack the magazine with finger support.
Second variant, notice the black color of the plastic grip and the only markings etched is the ‘Parabellum Cal 9mm’.
The third variant is marked with ‘Firebird Kal. 9mm’, which was probably exported to Germany. Notice the magazine without the finger support, perhaps they found its cost effective to produce the magazines in the typical Tokarev style or there was no incentive to continue producing them with finger support.
The fourth variant is a bit more interesting as it has more markings that show where the gun was intended to go to specifically in West Germany.
The markings on this variant are ‘Firebird Kal.9mm’ and ‘West-Germany Parabellum’ , with a symbol of three circles inside one big circle and ‘a.w.z’ which stands for Albin Wahl of Zella-Mehlis.
The fifth variant just has ‘West Germany’ written on it, but notice the magazine with finger support.
The sixth variant has no markings whatsoever and comes with the finger-supported magazine.
Finally, the seventh and last variant has ‘Super 12’ etched on its right side, which suggests this was supposedly aimed at the American gun market.
The left side has ‘Parabellum 9mm +7.62mm TT’ etched on it. The TT stands for ‘Tula Tokarev’. Apparently, the pistol came with an extra barrel chambered in 7.62X25mm.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Type: recoil operated automatic pistol
Made by Fémáru Fegyver és Gépgyár, Budapest, Hungary, 1958
Original Factory Code: TT-9P
Quantity: 13,250 (Delivered to Egypt)
Chambering: 9x19mm Parabellum
Length overall: 192mm [7.56″]
Barrel: 115mm [4.53″] rifled
Weight unloaded: 910g [32.1oz]
Magazine: 7-round detachable box