1/32 scale animals

So many different moose! I love the vintage look they have, and again your meticulous attention to sizes and scale!

Thanks a lot, Lilias. It takes me a lot of time to research the sizes of the animals, but I learn a lot from it.

A few Starlux lions, among the most common Starlux:
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I have two Starlux male lions, one with his head up and one with his head down. The lion with head up was introduced in 1960, replacing an earlier model, while the head-down model appeared later, in 1973, and is less common. The head-up model has a shoulder height of approximately 3.3/106 cm and the head-down model is 3.0/96 cm (but is bending down). That’s within the 1:32 range: Meinertzhagen (1938) found that males were 81-107 cm, while Ferreira and Funston (2010) found that males were 97-118 cm. Here is a comparison with the Britains lion from 1973:
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The lioness (from 1960) is 3.2/102 cm at the shoulder. Her shoulder height is probably just within 1:32 scale, as Meinertzhagen (1938) reported that lionesses are 86-102 cm and Ferreira and Funston (2010) reported 87-99 cm, but she is probably rather long (6.0/192 head+body length). Wikipedia says lionesses are 160-184 cm in length and Haas (2005) said 140-175 cm. The animals in my 1:32 wildlife reserve voted against her admission to the reserve, but the king overruled them. Here she is with the Britains (1973) lioness, which is also quite large:
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Finally, two lion cubs, introduced in 1966. They are larger than the Britains (from 1977), but that’s fine, they may be older:
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Meanwhile, my Starlux gemsbok and wild boar have had to leave the reserve, because they are ill.

Beautieful lions.

Lovely lions, I adore the Britains model, so much detail and power at this scale!

Thanks, Andreas and Lilias!

I recently got several Clydesdale horses. All are meant to be 1:32 scale; let’s see whether they really are. First, we have the Britains Clydesdales, which I’ve had for some time. They made them in either bay or light grey (white); both colours are possible for a Clydesdale, though bay is the most common colour. For horses, I usually measure the hip height, because it is often difficult to tell where the shoulder ends and the neck starts. I am assuming that the hip height doesn’t differ much from the shoulder height for most horses. The Britains Clydesdales are 4.7/150 cm at the hip. That’s rather small, because Wikipedia says that they have a shoulder height of 162-183 cm and The Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN says that stallions are 172 cm and mares 162 cm. In the past, before WWII, Clydesdales were smaller though.
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Next two Breyer Stablemates Clydesdales. One, named Atticus, is sabino bay, a common colour. The other, the running Clydesdale, is dun, which I believe isn’t possible for a Clydesdale. Breyer has made it in many different colours and I am hoping I’ll find it in a more realistic colour, even though the dun looks very good. Both Breyers are 5.1/163 cm at the hip. That should be fine for mares, but they are stallions. If 172 cm is the mean shoulder height for stallions, then they are quite small, but perhaps not completely impossible as stallions. You can only see their gender if you turn them upside down, so I am happy to accept them into my 1:32 wildlife reserve. Both are fantastic models, among the best Stablemates sculpts in my opinion.
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Finally, an Ertl, kindly donated to the reserve by Kelly. It’s the best for size and looks pretty good too. It has a hip height of 5.5/176 cm; a proper large Clydesdale.
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The differences in size aren't too obvious, they look great together:
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Nice horses

Another lovely batch of additions, I always know I'm going to enjoy your topic when I see it's been updated!

Atticus is my favourite, the colour is beautifully done with lovely shading and very nice markings - I think it's a lot better with the loose mane and tail, too, it balances out the proportions a bit more, he looks less like a bodybuilder

The dun is pretty but you're right, totally impossible colour for the breed. I think I might have mine as a Dole, a Norwegian light draft breed with a stocky build, feathering on the legs, and allowed in that colour.
Isn't he a gelding rather than a full stallion, though? I haven't got mine to hand but I'm sure all that mould are the same underneath, there haven't been different 'edits' to the sculpt like some of the Traditional scale stallions have been re-released as mares, and vice versa.

rogerpgvg wrote:

For horses, I usually measure the hip height, because it is often difficult to tell where the shoulder ends and the neck starts. I am assuming that the hip height doesn’t differ much from the shoulder height for most horses.

The shoulder should be a little bit higher every time, for a horse with good to average conformation. In a large horse like a clydesdale, you'd expect the withers to be at least two inches higher than the top line of the hindquarters.
Between about two and three years they can have growth spurts on the front legs and back legs separately, we call the ones which are taller at the back 'bum high' but they soon grow out of it. One horse might go through a bum high phase several times through growing up. But if as an adult they stay level or higher at the rump, it's a conformational fault - if it's really noticeable the horse is called 'downhill', and although they don't usually get bad backs just by being badly shaped, they can be trouble to fit a saddle for, cos the pressure will often push it forwards.
But yeah, aside from random extra useless information, the shoulder measurement would almost always be an inch or two higher in a normal adult horse. Which might help with your scaling!

Thanks for the information! Yes, it's a gelding, I should be more precise. Are geldings generally similar in size to stallions?

Two inches difference between hip and shoulder is quite a lot. Yes, that makes the Clydesdales more 1:32 scale. It makes many other stablemates rather large for this scale.

A lot of people traditionally say geldings done young grow taller than stallions, by taking the hormonal rush out of the equation they carry on growing upwards rather than bulking out with more muscle and a cresty neck.
I know a gelding done late will generally be wider and bulkier than one done early, cos they start to get the stallion shape before they lose their hormones. But I'm not so sure about the height, with cobs at least the variation could be down to parentage as they come in so many sizes.

I just asked google whether people still hold it as a fact, but I see just as many comments saying there's really no way of telling how tall the gelding would've grown if left entire, and that it's just a myth with no scientific proof.

I think Clydesdales and Shires are among the breeds that sculptors get better. Look how the ERTL looks so nice among his more famous friends!

I like very much the ERTL 

Thanks. Yes, the Ertl is good. There is a foal too, I hope I'll find it.

A while ago, I showed you this set by “The Access”: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
 
Two animals are 1:32 scale, the Commerson’s dolphin and the sea otter. Here is the Commerson’s dolphin:
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Its length is 4.4/141 cm. Whales.org says that the Commerson’s dolphins around the Kerguelen islands are up to 180 cm whereas the South American Commersons are up to 146 cm. I only have one other Commerson’s dolphin in 1:32 scale, the one from the Colorata Marine Mammals box, which is very slightly larger (4.5/144 cm). The animals from the The Access set are very similar to those from the Colorata box and this dolphin is a good example of that (Colorata on the left).
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The The Access sea otter is also very similar to the Colorata sea otter, but the former is smaller. That’s a good thing, because the Colorata is too large for 1/32 scale, whereas the otter from The Access is fine.
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It has a total length of 4.7/150 cm. Wikipedia, citing [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] says that male sea otters are 120-150 cm in total length and females are 100-140 cm. However, Hutchinson et al. (2015, Jn Mammology) reported that the largest sea otter they measured was 160 cm.
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I have three other sea otters. Two are by Bandai, part of their Ocean and Polar set. They are both 3.9/125 cm long. Perhaps not so clear in the photo: one is eating something (not sure what) and the other one has a pup.
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I have shown the one from Qualia in this topic before:
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It’s hard to measure its length because its tail is curled inwards. It’s perhaps slightly longer than the otter from The Access, but I think less than the 160 cm maximum length.
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Dolphins are similar but their dorsal fins seem to have a different size. I love those otters, they're not very common among the traditional brands.

Because it's a Japanese animal, sea otters are relatively common among Japanese brands. Most of the time, they are too large, so I was very happy to find these four. Commerson's dolphins are also popular among Japanese brands.

Let’s announce the 1:32 scale animal figure of the year 2021! To make life easy for you and to ensure that the right figure wins , I have chosen what I think are the three best from 2021. I’ll do a countdown of the top three. 

Today at number three, we have the Mojö African elephant:
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Why is it in the top three? As Rogério pointed out in his collection topic, this model is a significant step up from the previous African elephants by the main brands. The chubbiness of previous models has gone and it has an interesting pose that, at the same time, isn’t exaggerated. It doesn’t have a lot of colour, but the subtle mix of brown and grey looks good.

Why not first? African elephants are very common in 1:32 scale and there are other 1:32 scale elephants that are good too. For example, the 2019 Eikoh and of course the Britains elephant cow from 1965. And although it is undoubtedly a beautiful model, it isn’t perfect. I think the trunk is a bit too small and the tusks are perhaps a bit too thick.

Number two tomorrow.

Lovely idea for this topic and it will be interesting to see your views! This elephant really is a wonderful choice, beautifully detailed and realistic, I really like the colour too. It is hard to believe this is a plastic model, it looks almost resin as it is so amazingly sculpted!

Great topic! This elephant is a wonderful choice

  Yes it is easier when only one vote 

Excellent number Three, I can't wait to see the n°1 and n°2 

I hadn't realised the Mojo elephant was so small!
For some reason I'd just assumed it would be scaled the same as their other figures so they'd all work together, not just for display but say if a child was collecting for zoo or safari games and wanted animals to match in size!
Are major brand elephants always made smaller scale so the figure doesn't have to be enormous? I've clearly never looked at that bit of a Schleich stand before (and other brands haven't been in any of the toy shops I've seen, so I've never 'met' any of these elephants in person!)

Why not to open someday a category for the 1:32-1:35 figure of the year? The former is a classic and the latter is a trend. The problem is that some figure scales are only calculated a long time before their releases.
I love your idea and I enjoy the excitment to know which ones are 2nd and 1st. 3rd one is a very good model, only the tusks give a slightly toyish touch to the model, all the rest looks like a resin figure as Bonnie mentioned.

Lilias, Jolie and Christophe: Good to hear that you enjoy this election even though you can't vote (but you can give your opinion).

George: The Mojö elephant is big, but relative to most other “standard-sized” figures by the main modern brands, it is indeed small. They don’t make their figures to scale, so small animals are relatively large and large animals are relatively small. It just happens that most elephants by the main brands are 1:32 scale. As someone who grew up with Britains, one of the very few companies that tried to make animals to scale, I haven’t managed to get used to this, and as a result, I spend a lot of time trying to find figures that are to scale.

Rogério: Collecting in 1:32 scale (or any scale) is a very niche hobby among animal figure collectors, so I am not sure it is worth having an official 1:32 figure of the year vote. It isn’t a market segment that companies take seriously: I can find just over 10 figures from last year that are 1:32 scale. We could also get stuck in long discussions about whether a figure is really 1:32 scale (remember our giant anteater discussion). And if there is a 1:32 figure of the year, why not other scales?

Now number two, the CollectA Basking shark:
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Why is it in the top three? As far as I am aware, it’s the first basking shark in 1:32 scale and it’s a beautifully made model too. It’s surprising that so few basking sharks have been made given that it is a well-known species and the second largest shark. Safari has a “standard-sized” basking shark, but it’s really too small for a 1:32 scale adult. The CollectA has a typical pose with open mouth, and the mouth gives it a very striking appearance. As far as I can tell, it’s a very accurate model with subtle spots on its sides to give it more interest.

Why not first? It was a close call, but there are a lot of grey 1:32 scale sharks out there, which makes it difficult to really stand out among other good sharks at this scale. It’s close to perfect, but the inside of the mouth is painted a bit messily.

I understand your observations Roger.
I was already surprised how good was the third place, now that I see a perfect model on 2nd place, I am even more curious to see who got the first place. A Japanese figure perhaps.