John-

You have a typo. That's 7.63mm, not 7.65mm. Mausers in 7.65mm are .32 acp's, as you surely know. Models like the 1914 and 1934 and HSc...

Of course, there was a 7.65mm Luger round, but that's not what the big military Mauser used.

Those are terrific photos, as usual with you.

I don't know just how to define "exotic", but you are on the right track.

I like those pistols, and included one in a fan fiction story set around the time of WW I. An Arab sultan was buying them from Mauser. Used a Model 1914 .32 in another tale featuring the same heroine. The guns added period "flavor", I think.

The reworked ones in Star Wars were also easily spotted as what they once were. But they certainly looked futuristic and effective. I think Han Solo's had a 'scope sight, though, which I thought was overkill on a service-type holster gun.

Thanks for the topic. I nominate the Japanese Type 94 as runner-up. It looks like a cartoon gun, to me, anyway.

Oh: just recalled that Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews mentioned seeing a lot of those Mausers in China and Mongolia in the 1930's, during his scientific expeditions there.