A Guide to the Best of Southern California : COLLECTIBLES : Seeing Red

It has been a long, grueling Cold War. But now, the empire that served us so faithfully for the last half a century as the ultimate incarnation of evil has dissolved into a medley of free-market-friendly nations. So, it’s time to forget about Nuclear Brinkmanship, Containment and the Domino Principle and start thinking about, you know, souvenirs.

At G & J Imports, you’ll find more genuine U.S.S.R. and Warsaw Pact materiel than you can shake a hammer and sickle at. Sport a little Soviet chic with a paratrooper medal or tanker’s beret, or do the full red menace bit and go in for the MIG flight suit, KGB sleeve patches and a T-54 tank or two (cannons thankfully deactivated). Prices begin at around $2.50 for pins and insignias, $200 to $400 for uniforms and top off at a very un-proletarian $60,000 for tanks. Phone and mail orders only.

G & J Imports, 7657 Winnetka Ave., Suite 203, Winnetka, Calif. 91306; (818) 999-1257.