4. Schleich's Common leopard (Panthera pardus). It have a nearly perfect sculpt, but the paintjob is far from perfect: So I took my brush and paintings and... voilá! It's one of the repaints I'm most proud of!!! I absolutely LOVE how it resulted! Also the After and Before of the frontal view:
5. Safari LTD's wild boar, Sus scrofa. 6. CollectA's dama gazelle (Gazella dama). 7. Safari LTD's lemon shark, Negaprion brevirostris And finally, 8. Safari LTD's arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus). When compared with the usual scale of many other animals common in the trade, this fox is rather an Arctic wolf!!!! I get disappointed by the enormous size of it
A couple brands make them, personally I favor Schleich's. Papo and Mojo also make them, but I think Schleich has the best paint job.
Actually, right shoulder is high and left shoulder is low, in an accurate way to giving the sensation of the animal walking and a bit lurking, with head lowered.
I'm not aware of any gemsbok figurine recently retired. I think all of them are still in production. The best one is undoubtely from Schleich, zillions better than the others in every aspect. If you're unable to find the Schleich one, I see often in local stores the one from Papo, that is enormous (as big a great kudu), have very bad horns and a deceiving paintjob on face. Online stores still sell both for cheap. Schleich gemsbok was the second figurine on my collection.
I've never seen Papo's gemsbok in person but the online photos I've seen leave no doubt Schleich's is better. Mojo's gemsbok makes me cringe, it's not well formed or painted. I currently have two of Schleich's gemsbok. On a different note, I received a few figures as presents between holidays and birthday, and as a result my collection has passed 200 figures!
With pleasure! Featuring 4 of the 5 as one figure, a second Schleich oryx, I've already posted photos of with the rest of my oryxes. 1. Mojo's Caribou Fairly nicely molded, although I feel the paint job could be a bit better. 2. Mojo's White-tailed Deer A nice figure, the antlers ought to be pointier, but I suspect it's probably a child safety feature. 3. Schleich's Komodo Dragon Not a new species to my collection, but definitely a step up in quality from my original! Quite well done, I was happy to welcome a second dragon to the collection. 4. Yowie's Sumatran Ground-Cuckoo This was actually a small present to myself, I ran across it for quite cheap ($5) on Ebay and decided to go for it to see whether I had interest in getting other Yowie figures. I am relatively pleased with the figure, and likely will get few more small species from Yowie. There are some minor sculpt and paint issues, but not enough to make it unpleasant. It also marks the ninth brand added into my collection.
Really wonderful additions!!! The reindeer si superb, and while the antlers have a little "generic-deer" shape, reindeer antlers are quite variable so it fits nicely. Maybe the head should be darker (not only on muzzle) but the painjob is easily recognizable as a reindeer one. The white-tailed buck is superb, and yes, all pointy parts are obligatedly blunted in animal figures, including horns, teeth, bills, toes, claws... adult collectors prefair realistic figures but we must take in account that most of the public for these figures are children and safety is a must. Anyway you always can think it's in velvety phase! The komodo dragon is the new 2020 one? Hm.. probably not, because I think that was from other brand, not Schleich. It's a nice dragon, tough maybe the scales are too "well arranged", especially in the head. A touch of salmon tune around eyes would made it a superb figure And finally, great that you started in the Yowies world! From Europe they're difficult to get and I don't have none. Yowies have not the perfection of sculpts of the big brands like CollectA, Schleich, Safari or Mojo but they have an atonishing arragement of obscure lovely species dreamed by many collectors, and the ground cuckoo is one of the finest example of what I said. The shame about Yowies is that all their figures are about same size regardless of the species, so you can have from a titanic insect to a Lilliput rhinoceros. It works well for animals about the size of a domestic cat for me but for collectors that don't mind about scales is of course much better
Thanks! Yeah. That's true, velvet phase would work! Not all figures end up blunted though, the antler points on my Safari American Elk are fairly sharp! No, the Komodo is Schleich's 2018 one. You were thinking CollectA's newly released Komodo, which also looks excellent. Yowie isn't easy to get here either, Ebay is the only place I've seen them yet. Indeed, the rarity assortment is excellent, I just wish they were a little better molded and painted for the most part! Nonetheless, they do have a few I consider acceptable for my collection and hope to add in the future! (Also I realized I slightly misspoke, Yowie is actually the tenth brand in my collection, not the ninth.)
Yowie usually comes inside of a chocolate candy. Until a couple years ago, candies with toys inside were illegal in the US because of the potential chocking hazard - but a couple of years ago they were legalized. These types of candies are still quite rare in the US - I assume being banned for so long kind of "scared off" the market for them. And even where these candies are common, they don't sell just the figures. You have to be lucky with the candy or get them on eBay.
I did know they came inside a candy, but I didn't know doing that was actually illegal here in the states until recently! I can understand the choking hazard risk. You're likely right about the market being "scared off", I don't think I've seen any candy with something inedible inside.
I see them pretty frequently in US grocery stores. But I think they do make them differently here. Like, the egg is split in half and separated by a clearly non-edible barrier with the toy underneath it. If they sold Yowie eggs in the US I'd totally buy them! Those animal figures look so nice, and they have a lot of obscure species that you're not normally gonna find in a big box store. On an unrelated note, the plastic shells the US Kinder eggs come in are perfect for resin casting. Final product comes out nice and smooth and clear. Gotta get some next time I find a dead bug I want to preserve.
Did a little figuring on my collection out of curiosity, thought it might be of interest. By brand: Safari Ltd - 134 figures Schleich - 19 figures Papo - 20 figures CollectA - 13 figures Mojo - 13 figures Chap Mei - 2 figures Southlands - 1 figure PNSO - 1 figure HOMONIVE - 1 figure Yowie - 1 figure Unknown brand - 2 figures By class: Mammals - 128 figures Birds - 53 figures Reptiles - 14 figures Fish - 15 figures
Wow, Great Argus, looks like that in USA you have not much more options than Safari! My count is as follows: Homemade: 55 figures CollectA: 47 figures Colorata: 15 figures Safari LTD: 13 figures Schleich: 12 figures Papo: 9 figures Kaiyodo: 7 figures Mojo Fun: 7 figures Ikimon/Kitan Club: 5 figures Bullyland: 2 figures CBIOV: 2 figures Nayab: 1 figure Happy Kin: 1 figure Southland Replicas: 1 figure Takara Tomy: 1 figure Natural History: 1 figure And for taxa: Mammals: 101 figures Birds: 23 figures Reptiles: 6 figures Amphibians: 1 figure Bony fishes: 24 figures Cartilaginous fishes: 12 figures Starfishes: 2 figures Cephalopods: 1 figure Gastropods: 1 figure Jellyfishes: 1 figure Echiurans: 1 figure Insects: 2 figures
