very early christmas present: Schleich 2017 Sloth Bear

Schleich has its lovers and his haters in this forum. Many, me included, criticise that Schleich is concentrating too much an too common animals.
If Schleich is renewing its lions, elefants and Co every three years I will only buy them if there are truly perfect. And that's something everybody has to decide on its own  

BUT every year Schleich is surpising us with at least one jewel.
2016 we had the pangolin and the oryx
2015 we had a kalong and all the tiny sets
2014 had a puffin, a squirrel monkey and gibbons
2013 we had a bearded dragon, a vulture and a hyazinth macaw
I think that's enough

2017 Schleich diceded to give us a sloth bear.
I was very happy about this choice, because I'm a huge lover of the asian fauna and I love especially the Asian bears. Maybe you remember that I even have done one as a homemade model.
So it was a huge joy for me to see there are at least two asian bears comming in 2017. Besides the sloth bear, the moon bear from safari is on the top of my wishlist

The sloth bear have its home in india. More or less 1 billion people live here, but there are still some dry forests and savannahs a bear can call home.
Sloth bears are equivalent to ardvarks in africa and giant anteaters in south america. They share a very similar habitat, behavior and food.
The next bear species around are moon bears, but they are not closly related. Some scients even see sloth bears in there own genus.
Definitly clear is, that there are two subspecies: Common sloth bear (Melursus ursinus ursinus) and Sri Lankan sloth bear (Melursus ursinus inornatus)
I would specify this model as a midle aged male from the continental supspecies  

Ok, I won't let you wait anymore, here are the PHOTOS!

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comparison:
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and with my homemade model:
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I wish you all a merry christmas

That's a nice bear.

Big congratulation Lennart

This bear is wonderful, I appreciate a lot the eyes, they let me think about Lineol eyes

You are right, this year I felt in love for the pangolin, a real jewel, and I know it will be the same with this Sloth bear in 2017.

Your walkaround is excellent too with a very nice introduction and great pics. Nice to watch again your own slothbear .

I wish you a merry Christmas

As I commented in several topics, Schleich is a kind of new brand now. Horses are less interesting, manufacturing quality is not as good as before but in terms of diversity, Schleich is now a more interesting brand. Not that we can compare with CollectA in this regard but surely it is much more interesting than it was 5-6 years ago. This bear is a very good piece and a fantastic species choice. Surely the highlight of Schleich for 2017. Thanks for great walk around and I have a great festivities season.

Nice pics of a nice bear :)

What a wonderful, beautyful bear

Thankyou very mucc for a great walkaround, - and congratulations with getting this model so fast

Wow, stunning bear, big congrats!