Schleich WWF 15003 Wild Horse (Przewalski's)

Roger wrote:

schleich61 wrote:

Roger wrote:

SUSANNE wrote:

Hello, Peter

There is a "D" on my orangutan ( whick I got from you some years ago ), but no mark whatsoever on my panda.  
I can't say if there is marks on the buttom, as they are the variations with a wooden base, and can't be removed.

Schleich was always strange for me. I know D goes for Denmark and G for Germany but I never thought a Schleich orangutan could be so sophisticated.

'D' for Denmark?  That's a new one to me, Roger.  Maybe you were making a joke I didn't catch, or you know something that I do not...   

Just a silly joke, of course! I was only noticing that Peter from Germany had seen all orangutans marked with a "G" and sold one of them to Denmark and now it is marked with a "D". :scratch:I don't think "G" or "D" are related with countries or places and "D" is surely not Deutschland and "G" also not Grönland.
Though it has surely any meaning that may be interesting to Schleich collectors.

Okay, thanks, I thought it might be Croco-humor...  The mystery of the lettered WWF's continues.   

SUSANNE wrote:

Hello, Peter

Interesting !!!
There is a "D" on my orangutan ( which I got from you some years ago ), but no mark whatsoever on my panda.  
I can't say if there is marks on the buttom, as they are the variations with a wooden base, and can't be removed.

Sorry, you are right, it is a "D"

I have looked at the bottom, you can remove the wooden base, there is no more mark.

Oh, i was not familiar with this model before you show this one here  What a beautiful sculpt  And great great catch  

schleich61 wrote:

Maybe you can gather additional information from the seller.  It may not provide any revelations about the identity and origin of this figurine, but it is possible that there are still unknown details that might strongly suggest that is a discarded prototype.  I suspect that is what you have, and if so, it's a fascinating artifact from the actual creative process at Schleich which resulted in the 15003.  To the most serious (deranged!) Schleich collectors, it would potentially have immense value...  

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A discarded prototype   That would be the wildest thing   I hope it is the case and not it is 'just' a copy. And even if it is a copy I suspect it is still very rare   

Carola wrote:

Oh, i was not familiar with this model before you show this one here  What a beautiful sculpt  And great great catch  

schleich61 wrote:

Maybe you can gather additional information from the seller.  It may not provide any revelations about the identity and origin of this figurine, but it is possible that there are still unknown details that might strongly suggest that is a discarded prototype.  I suspect that is what you have, and if so, it's a fascinating artifact from the actual creative process at Schleich which resulted in the 15003.  To the most serious (deranged!) Schleich collectors, it would potentially have immense value...  

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A discarded prototype   That would be the wildest thing   I hope it is the case and not it is 'just' a copy. And even if it is a copy I suspect it is still very rare   

There have been a number of different kinds of prototype molds, etc. auctioned/sold on eBay.de over the last couple of years. They are all quite fascinating, and it would be fantastic to have such an artifact, as these kinds of things are incredibly rare...  

great catch

Fantastic find LeeAnn! I too, wasn't aware of this figure! It's beautiful and a HUGE congrats!

Wow, what a beautiful horse model! Lucky you!

Hello,

I know this is an old thread and the question regarding the letter "D" here in the forum has probably been answered for a long time.

If not: The "D" on the WWF Orangutan stands for "Diller". Helmut Diller is an animal sculptor from Munich/Germany. In 1983/84 he modeled the six figures of the WWF collection by Schleich.

Schleichfan wrote:

Hello,

I know this is an old thread and the question regarding the letter "D" here in the forum has probably been answered for a long time.

If not: The "D" on the WWF Orangutan stands for "Diller". Helmut Diller is an animal sculptor from Munich/Germany. In 1983/84 he modeled the six figures of the WWF collection by Schleich.

Thanks for sharing that information. Actually it is really interesting and it is really rare that the sculptor of a certain figure is identified in any way. Helmut Diller must be a reputated sculptor.

That's an interesting point, actually.
Breyer publicise the sculptor for each new Traditional mould they commission, because most of the names are already known via privately released artist resins, so a good name is a selling point - people will be really pleased to be able to buy a cheaper plastic sculpt from an artist they admire.
And there's a prestige to it, like the company are proud to show off the talent they've got working on their range.
But you don't really see that in other brands. Aside from CollectA's Debra McDermott horses, companies rarely seem to name-drop sculptors in publicity material, and they very often don't even credit the sculptor name on their website when you go looking for it.
And they don't tease with updates on who's working on moulds for upcoming releases. Sometimes the artist will post cryptic messages on social media or their own websites about their commissioned works, or they'll show a sculpt in preview then later reveal what brand it'll be going to, but that's their choice to tease or publicise, when it could be the company using their name as an advert to drum up interest and excitement.

I think sculptors for figures should be celebrated a lot more by their brands, we'd have nothing to buy without them - at very least they deserve a credit per model on the maker's site, even if they don't write it in the sales/packaging blurb.

Breyer has a different and interesting approach in this regard, sculptors are an active part of the entire collecting hobby and part of the lexic of the Breyer collectors.
Brands like Schleich, Papo, Safari and similar have a different concept and market. It would be wonderful to know the sculptors but sometimes they are "anonymous" workers and not commissioned to any specific sculptor, often they are a team project and it is also common that they use figures from other manufacturers but under their brand.
Safari is an easy example, we know many figures are sculpted by Doug Watson or Dan LoRusso but many of them we have no idea, not even their horses. Also, how can we find the sculptor of the Safari chinstrap penguin, desert tortoise or mountain goat when they are sculpts that were previously available in other brands?
There's another point that I think does not happen so often with Breyer models. It is common that the original sculpt of these brands are heavily reworked to children safety adjustments or even for manufacturing reasons. The Mojö Fun pronghorn antelope, originally sculpted by Anna-Dobrowolska, is a figure that suffered noticiable changes from its original shape and the final product is less realistic but probably best adjusted to the moulding process.
Regarding Schleich, I think it is not official but it seems Vlad Konstantinov is the sculptor of the psittacosaurus and tawa and perhaps a few more.