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Miniature Animal Figure Collection

Discussion in 'Zoo Memorabilia' started by ollielloyd, 3 Oct 2009.

  1. Great Argus

    Great Argus Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Safari is the primary one generally carried in stores here, although Schleich, Papo, and Mojo are occasionally seen. All four brands are about the same pricing instore, but Safari is overall cheaper for me when ordering online. It's common that I can get two or three (sometimes even four) Safari figures for the price of one CollectA or Kaiyodo. That said, I have gotten more selective about sculpt and paint over the years, and I have passed over Safari for a more expensive figure a few times now. I have several figures on my wishlist I haven't gotten yet because I'm hoping I can run across them for cheaper, particularly among CollectA.

    I like how homemade figures form your largest group now, that's cool!
     
  2. TinoPup

    TinoPup Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I'm on the opposite coast from Great Argus and here it's all Safari. Every now and then I'll see some Schleich, but it's usually 75% fantasy characters and dinosaurs instead of modern animals.
     
  3. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    In the gift shop of the Harvard museum of natural history (Boston) they have only Schleich, and a wide selection of.
     
  4. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    There passed a lot of time since last updating, but finally here I am with the last batch. I already baked two weeks ago, painted all but one one week ago, and painted the last one today. Find enough free time for all hobbies is not always easy :D
    [​IMG]

    First, I did by commision a couple of figures for a member that went enthusiasted about my previous models and wanted new ones as similar as possible to the older. On top, the newer models and on bottom the older ones:
    [​IMG]

    Second, a ringtail (Bassariscus astutus):
    [​IMG]
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    Third, the marbled cone (Conus marmoreus):
    [​IMG][​IMG]

    Fourth: one of my favourite fishes, the splendid toadfish, Sanopus splendidus. Like the Australian handfish, this is a fish that first I knew for its spectacular appareance, and only much latter (in this case when I searched for images for do the model) is when I knew that its a very endangered species.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    Fifth, the flame bowerbird, Sericulus ardens. Probably my favourite member of the bowerbird family!
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Sixth and final: the flagtail characin, Semaprochilodus insignis:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Great Argus

    Great Argus Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Fantastic as always!!
     
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  7. TinoPup

    TinoPup Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Particularly love the ringtail!
     
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  8. Ebirah766

    Ebirah766 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Well, it finally came. Today I received the Safari weedy sea dragon in the mail.

    Unfortunately my phone is all screwy and won't let me directly upload the photo I took, but rest assured it is a surprisingly accurate model.
     
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  9. Yoshistar888

    Yoshistar888 Well-Known Member

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    My figure collection isn’t much. It’s mainly just cheap two dollar stuff but I have a few schilech Models (Giant Tortoise, Red Eyed Tree Frog, Saltwater Crocodile, Giant Panda and Meerkat), as well as a few other okay models (red tailed black cockatoo, zebra, a barracuda species, a tuna species etc)
     
  10. Great Argus

    Great Argus Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Is your red-tailed Black Cockatoo the Science & Nature one?
     
  11. Yoshistar888

    Yoshistar888 Well-Known Member

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    Im honestly not sure
     
  12. AWP

    AWP Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Schleich's red panda and wombat are on my whish list for this year.

    I got my first Schleich figurine - a German shepherd - in the mid-90's and now I have quite a few. Since a year I have sorted them out in my living room: one shelf with European forest animals, one shelf with African animals and one shelf with American and Australian animals (and an ring-tailed lemur).
     
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  13. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    Now I present you the last of my homemade models. Some days ago I finished all the models spent with the remain of my modelling paste. I don't plan to buy more for a long while, so I don't think that I will do homemade models again in at least various months.

    [​IMG]
    The goldfinch don't appear here, I forgot to include it in the group shot.

    1. This is, again, a requested commision. A collector asked me to do a leafy seadragon. As this is a too complicated model to do for me, I rejected that, but he asked me a Dall's porpoise instead. If you remember well, Dall's porpoise was my first homemade. And casually also my last. This makes me seeing that I really improved a bit my scultping squills. The new porpoise is far better than the older: it have a not so chunky body, the bumps and shrinks are avoided, the fingerprints are much more scarce, the spiracle is centered, and the caudal peduncle is infinitely better.
    [​IMG]

    But it also have a couple of bad issues due to modification of original position during baking. The tinfoil support was apparently not enough for prevent this. The tail fluke is greatly inclined to a side. I suppose that these animals can adopt occasionally this position however.
    [​IMG]

    the second issue is that one flipper was completely broken before being bended a lot during baking (as the model fell over the flipper). I had to glue it in the inverse position. I left the glue to fill the empty space of the crack under the flipper, and I had to use a file for smooth the imperfections. The seam is still very visible but it would be enough well repaired if for my own collection.
    [​IMG]

    Here the newest model (foreground) and the older one (background). The differences in quality are not so easy to appreciate in photo, but in real figures are noticeable. I was tempted to substitute the older one by the newest one, but I can't do, because the newest is not my 100th figure! :D The older have a symbolic value for me :)
    [​IMG]

    2. The Russell's viper, Daboia russelli. This is a case of a taxonomic change that I accepted (ex Vipera), tough I could change my mind again :p Well, is not a great model. Overall, the head is too big, the neck is too thick.
    [​IMG]

    3. The standard-winged nightjar, Macrodipteryx longipennis. You will notice that the original model had the standards in a different position. I sculpted it completely from memory so I only realized that the standards should depart from the upperside of the wing, and not from the back border, when I looked for photos for painting it after being baked. Also the shape of the standards was wrong. So I had to pull them out, glue them and also use a file for downsize one side of the feathers.
    [​IMG]

    4. The Eurasian goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis. The wings and tail are made of hard paper.
    This bird measures 2 cm wingspan, so it's scale 1:10 to 1:15. A tiny jewel. And I love tiny jewels :D
    [​IMG]

    5. The slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis. This is my favourite fish species. When I realized that my mother have a silver pen, I decided to do this model.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  14. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    6. The Asian green mussel, Perna viridis. With 8 mm lenght, this is the smallest model of my collection.
    [​IMG]

    7. The clown knifefish, Chitala chitala. It don't stand upright, so I improved a small hardpaper stand for it.
    [​IMG]

    8. And by last, I want to present you, what i think is the best of all my homemade models: a marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata). I wanted to do something a bit different, so I chosed to do the cat yawning.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Size comparison: with Papo ocelot...
    [​IMG]

    Schleich leopard...
    [​IMG]

    and with its closest cousin: the Bornean bay cat!
    [​IMG]
     
  15. Great Argus

    Great Argus Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    The Marbled Cat is outstanding! All the others are excellent as well!

    Out of curiosity, why the mussel? Especially at its size? Seems like it would get lost easy!
     
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  16. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    Well, hard to tell! I was playing with a small piece of paste and more or less authomatically did a mussel, while I also was thinking, oh I don't have any bivalve in my collection. And the easiest to sculpt and with most beautiful colour is this one...

    The size just need to match the other animals in my collection. And I hope it never get lost - not much movement in my shelves, unless it happens as in Toy History :p
     
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  17. amur leopard

    amur leopard Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Noooo! I hope it isn't.

    The marbled cat is absolutely brilliant. It is much better than any of the Schleich cat figures. The sunfish's markings is fantastic as well. The viper is also one of my favourites.
     
  18. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    Thanks, amur leopard :) I honestly think that Schleich - or any other big brand - do better sculpts of cats and other mammals than I do. It's just that they don't do marbled cats :p the rare and obscure species is the niche that I filled with my models :)

    Well, it's not the last batch, but it will pass long time since I start again.
     
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  19. Jungle Man

    Jungle Man Well-Known Member

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    This animal figures are incredible, you do them quite real @Kakapo !!
     
  20. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    Delayed thanks, Jungle Man!

    Time of an updating!
    Recently I decided to make a purchase in Minizoo, the Australian online animal figurine shop. What made me buy here is the presence of the brand PNSO, that I don't know from any other great online shop, as well as a retired Mojo figurine that was in my wishlist, and they had only 1, so I must hurry. So as son as I was able, I bought the figures that I want.

    PNSO and Science & Nature are two brands previously unrepresented in my collection. A new brand of accurate models always is something that makes me happy.
    I was much less happy because, as in the only other occasion that I bought in MiniZoo, Customs charged me an extra of 26€ :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: MiniZoo did a perfect job with shipping, I know it's not their fault, but I will never buy it again. I don't want to buy figures for the double of price that I paid! :(

    But coming back to the positive things, there are the figures:

    1. Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas), Hynnix the White Whale from PNSO. I like the idea that PNSO put names to their models. Probably this is the best beluga in the trade. The musculature of the body is extremely well done, as well as the wrinkles of the skin (especially in the neck), and the bumpy crest in the midline of the back.
    [​IMG]

    The underside shows how amazingly detailed are the genital parts, and also shows that the underside of the flippers is painted grey, even dark grey. Is that realistic? I left it untouched. Should I paint them white?
    [​IMG]

    2. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) from Mojo Fun. This retired figure is one of the only two pronghorns done recently by western brands, the other being the Safari's. But Safari's pronghorn is oversized and have unaesthetical very divergent horns, as well as worst proportions and paintjob. So I wanted to find the Mojo one since long time ago but I only find too expensive ones. Here, MiniZoo had the last one for a cheap price! I'm sooo happy to have this figure sculpted originally by the famous and so talented Anna Dobrowolska :)
    [​IMG]

    As some of you may know, I'm a bit tricky and perfectionist with figures. So I customized quickly my pronghorn. You can see it have now more accurate facial marks and neck-chest bands, I also sharpened the horns, and painted the legs (much more white and turning black just in the hooves, instead turning gradually black all over the leg).

    Before:
    [​IMG]

    After:
    [​IMG]

    3. Another PNSO figure, the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus), Noce the Red Kangaroo. This is a figure previously unknown for me that I discovered just while making the purchase in MiniZoo. I saw the promo images, and told myself, finally a male red kangaroo! I'm sick of figures of red kangaroos with a baby in the pouch. I wanted a reddish MALE kangaroo and this one have a nice well developed scrotum. And oh oh the measurements are sooo nice! Is not enormous as are many figures of red kangaroos by western brands! OK the paintjob is a bit lazy but I can correct it easily. So here I have... A big disappointment :( Totally hidden in the promo pics, this kangaroo HAVE A JOEY IN THE POUCH :( :( :( and a scrotum at same time!!!!
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Once arrived to my collection, I went to the difficult task of turn it into a perfect kangaroo. Well, a perfect male kangaroo already exist, is the Southland Replicas one. Is as realistic as an alive kangaroo. But just one problem: it's really enormous. So I took the PNSO model and customized it. I cut the too long and bendy, pointy ears, making them shorter and rounder. I also noticed that while the left foot have five toes, the right foot have six! So I cut the most outdoor toe and shortened the fifth.
    [​IMG]

    But the most difficult part was cutting the joey, and overall, left an even surface and trying to make a fur texture in it - without tools for doing that! With a lot of patience I went cutting small stripes of surface with a cutter, until I finally got a passable texture :)
    After that, it wen the paintjob work. Very nice and satisfying to do that. I tried to match the colours of the perfect Southlands model. Still, Noce have a very anthropomorphised expression, more likely a "general animal" than a kangaroo. Almost like an antelope. The eyes should be a bit higher and the lips a bit lower for get the perfect male red kangaroo expression that Southlands model get perfectly. Despite that, with the new paintjob the figure improved a lot.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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