Pretty much any AK-74 magazine is going to work well as long as your springs are still decent.
The Bakelite magazines came out at a time when the Russians still hadn't mastered polymer technology as we had in the West. The first polymer magazines the Russians came out with were plum, and they were plum because the dye that the first tried to use to make their stock sets and magazines black made the polymer too soft. As soon as they could, they corrected this and went black. I have some Russian plum magazines that were painted black at one time by the Russians at an armory level.
The East Germans were the first Warsaw Pact country to start AK-74 production outside of the Soviet Union, and just kept using the bakelite mags.
The Bulgarians make/have made several color runs: Black, "Saddle Brown", "Firebrick Red", and a "Plum-Red".
The main reason for the different colors, from what I've been told, is that it depended on what dyes they had in stock at the time. The "Saddle Brown" color is actually the least expensive dye that they use that protects the polymer from degredation by ultra violet radiation. Black is current standard, but you'll see all colors used. They also got a bunch of plum magazines from the Russians when they first started '74 production.
Both Circle 10 and Cirlce 21 are Bulgarian, both are military, and there shouldn't be any difference in performance between the two.
The Poles and Romanians used steel for their '74 magazines. They work in any Warsaw Pact country's '74's. Romanian steel '74 magazines are a lot rarer here than the Polish.
All of them work, though I actually kind of like the bakelite magazines because they are more rigid and are a little easier to use in reload drills.
You're going to love your AK-74!
Here's a Russian plum magazine that has seen some serious use but is still 100%. You can see where it was painted black at one time.
Bulgarian "Saddle Brown":
Hope that helps.
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