Club Earth, etc. - Horses

Almost all of them have arrived (except one package that appears to be lost to the void . . .), and since I have a quiet evening at home, now is as good a time as any to make a thread about the last weird "Club Earth" sets I have. These are my favorite, and the reason I started looking online for toy identification and found STS at all!

I have three complete horse sets. 1) Definitely Club Earth 2) from the Play Vision catalogue, and 3) Who knows! I also have some individuals that I can't say where they came from. Several of these already feature on TAW, but for the sake of discussion, here's everything!

There are 12 (known) molds total, and all of them that I have are consistently labeled and numbered, so I will list the breed and corresponding number here. It holds true for all of them:

1 Lipizzaner
2 Appaloosa
3 Arab
4 Haflinger
5 Shetland Pony
6 Standardbred
7 Thoroughbred
8 Welsh Section B
9 Shire
10 Exmoor
11 Fjord
12 Coloured Horse



Set One: Club Earth Horses to Go

I got them new in package, with the seal still unbroken, so it's all the original pieces. Here is the package itself:






And here are the 9 horses it included:

Lipizzaner


Appaloosa


Arab


Haflinger


Shetland Pony


Standardbred


Thoroughbred


Welsh Section B - note his all white hooves. This seems consistent in other photos I have seen, and is important to distinguish from the next set.


Shire




Set Two: Playvisions(?) Mini Horses

These were sold individually, or at least I know for a fact that I bought my appaloosa and my haflinger from a gift shop in North Carolina in the 90's. They were unpackaged and had no hang tags, just a bin of little horses. Other people had memories of getting theirs in bars of soap (I remember seeing those for sale but never had one).

Here's the image from the catalogue:


And here's the set of 12 horses from the photo:

Lipizzaner


Appaloosa


Arab


Haflinger (was always my favorite growing up, which is why he gets to be my icon)


Shetland Pony


Standardbred


Thoroughbred


Welsh Section B - He also has the same three white socks and a blaze, but his hooves are not white


Shire


Exmoor


Fjord - different from the other fjords by his black legs


Coloured Horse



Set Three: ???

There are much less detailed, made in white or orange plastic (just like the dogs and animal kingdom sets I have) and painted with red, brown, black, and gray. My vague memory is that they came perhaps in a tube? But that's conjecture at best. They might also have been sold separately.

I have no reference for knowing if this is the complete set, but given that there's only 12 molds documented so far (I think?), I'm thinking this is it:

Lipizzaner


Appaloosa


Arab


Haflinger


Shetland Pony


Standardbred


Thoroughbred


Welsh Section B


Shire - mine has some leftover paint from when I attempted to customize him as a kid


Exmoor


Fjord


Coloured Horse



Individuals

The rest seem to match the Club Earth horses in detail and quality, but I have no idea if they were another To Go set or something altogether different.

Exmoor


Fjord 1


Coloured Horse


(It's curious how these three, which are painted very well like the To Go series, would finish that series out if they were included.)

Fjord 2 - he MIGHT be a color variant of the Mini Horses fjord, but I have two that look like this, while the picture of the Mini Horses fjord has distinctly black legs. I feel like they are different, but I wanted to put that out there.



And these five. What a sad tale. I bought them from a seller in the UK who couldn't ship internationally, so shipped them to a middle relay point. Unfortunately, they have yet to arrive at that middle point, and I begin to worry that they never will. Breaks my heart a bit, because they are different than all the other ones here, and seem to be of excellent paint quality! So, I can't provide any further information about these, but here they are, for posterity. I just love that realistically colored fjord. If they ever come, I'll get photos. If anyone has them, please share!!:



There we go, that's the last of my large mysterious groups of animals (for now)! Thanks again for all the help!! :)

Congrats

Hello Jill,
thank you very much for the pictures and informations.
I wish you get your mail with more horses. I am also waiting for some small Funrise Horses.
Do you have small horses distributed and marked with/by the companies: EMPIRE, PAPO, ....???
Benno.

Thank you Andreas!

Babdo wrote:

Hello Jill,
thank you very much for the pictures and informations.
I wish you get your mail with more horses. I am also waiting for some small Funrise Horses.
Do you have small horses distributed and marked with/by the companies: EMPIRE, PAPO, ....???
Benno.

I do have some Empire horses. From the Winner's Choice series, I think.


I also still have a few mini Grand Champions, with the rooted hair. No picture of those right now, they are a little larger than a stablemate.

No Papo, though, I think!

I hope your package arrives quickly, too! :)

This has been very informative on these unknowns in the boxes, thank you!

It's quite funny where the information tag says that all domestic breeds descend from Arabs, Barbs and Andalusians. uhh...

pipsxlch wrote:

It's quite funny where the information tag says that all domestic breeds descend from Arabs, Barbs and Andalusians. uhh...

Hahaha yeah I got excited at first when I saw they had "horse information inside," I thought it might be a catalogue of some kind, but no! Just some strange history!

These horses are wonderful too, I love how they have been made to look like the different breeds, and this thread is definitely very interesting for collectors!

I had huge expectations for this topic and it is even more interesting than i thought.
Horses are quite useful when different brands use the same moulds. You can't show too much variation in color when talking about giant pandas or zebras but with horses, brands easily avoid to offer an assortment with the exact same colors.
It is also a treasure that you find them in their original package. There's no chance for doubts that these are Club Earth.
Also, it is quite convincing to me that the second set matches nicely the colors of the horses on Play Visions catalogue.
It doesn't mean that both colors were not used by both brands, especially when we know one bought the other but i think I will list them on TAW exactly as you are suggesting. You're really getting good on it!
Also, checking the Club Earth Horses to Go page on TAW, I can see some correspond to the Club Earth set but those from @Tarunyada match with the supposedly Play Visions.
I don't know if the owners of the photos in the TAW page have the original package or if they are sure about their brand. It would be great to have them discussing on this thread.
It was also a good idea to put all other sets here, I am positive we will find out what they are.
Meanwhile I will quote @Babdo post on the other topic.

Babdo wrote:

Hello Jill,
I have some small horses like "club earth to go horses". The horses are marked with the same number as the "club earth to go horses" but my horses are painted in an other colour or way. TAW say there could be a second serial of horses. You say you have some horses twice and more. Can you tiold us or show us if they are different to the horses listet in TAW?
Thank you, Benno.
Here my small horses:

2 Appaloosa

6 Standardbred

7 Thoroughbred

8 Welsh Section B

10 Exmoor

12 Coloured horse

I really hope I am doing it well
Still to be finished but now one of the sets is listed as Club Earth Horses to Go while the other set is listed as Play Visions Mini Horses.

Roger wrote:

I really hope I am doing it well
Still to be finished but now one of the sets is listed as Club Earth Horses to Go while the other set is listed as Play Visions Mini Horses.

You're getting these up so fast! I think it looks great! Though I am hardly the voice of experience.

I think Babdo question below has some really intriguing. Check the quote below from @Tarunyada.
I know quoting from other topics is weird but I think it works better like that.

Babdo wrote:

Hello Jill,
thank you very much for the pictures and informations.
I wish you get your mail with more horses. I am also waiting for some small Funrise Horses.
Do you have small horses distributed and marked with/by the companies: EMPIRE, PAPO, ....???
Benno.

Tarunyada wrote:

So today I received the parcel I was expecting I bought it off Marktplaats, the Dutch auction site. My eye fell on the metal case in which six of the figurines were originally sold, but when I saw what was included, I immediately contacted the seller. I'm really happy everything went well and that they arrived safely today! Here are the goodies I'm talking about:

<sub>This was the metal case that caught my eye, for I know Papo released mini figurines in such cases in the past


Fortunately, all the six original Papo mini horses were included!


Papo Mini Appaloosa


Papo Mini Exmoor


Papo Mini Fjord


Papo Mini Haflinger


Papo Mini Lipizzaner


Papo Mini Shire</sub>

Have you noticed how the molds of these mini horses are the same as the Club Earth Horses To Go? Here two comparison pics, with the fjord and the shire. As soon as I find my Club Earth appaloosa, I'll make another comparison pic!


<sub>Club Earth left, Papo Mini right (Fjord)


Club Earth left, Papo right (Shire)</sub>

Oh wow, that's the horses in my lost UK package! Plus a few more! (but missing the shetland) They're beautiful, thank you for sharing! Is there any chance this set is more internationally available than in the US? I don't know anything about Papo.

Papo is a French brand, their main market is the European.

In the USA you can find Papo through HappyHenToys.
Though, I am not sure they have the mini horses.

All 12 mini horses are sold by Papo, you can check all of them on TAW
https://toyanimal.info/wiki/Mini_Papo_33014_Horses

That's a huge piece of the puzzle, hooray! That definitely explains why these don't show up anywhere I am looking in the American second hand market. Now I'm really anxious for my package to come. I'm so glad to have a name to go with them, at least, though.

EDIT: Using the name, I found both sets for sale. Maybe I spent a little more than I should have, but I am so excited. Can't thank @Roger and @Tarunyada enough for the information!

For now, all that remains is to figure out where my Exmoor, Fjord, and Coloured Horse that do not belong in a set go.

Jill wrote:

That's a huge piece of the puzzle, hooray! That definitely explains why these don't show up anywhere I am looking in the American second hand market. Now I'm really anxious for my package to come. I'm so glad to have a name to go with them, at least, though.

EDIT: Using the name, I found both sets for sale. Maybe I spent a little more than I should have, but I am so excited.   Can't thank @Roger and @Tarunyada enough for the information!

For now, all that remains is to figure out where my Exmoor, Fjord, and Coloured Horse that do not belong in a set go.

You're welcome! There is a big chance that your Exmoor, Fjord and Coloured are also Club Earth. As you pointed, they complement perfectly the set of 9 if they were 12 and their painting quality is similar. Considering also that TAW announced the set as having 12 and 12 is the most common number of figures in Club Earth sets. I think it is relatively safe that we assume that Club Earth sold a set of 12 Horses to Go. Maybe the best is that I lit them as Club Earth to avoid that they get forgoten and that I put a note for future editors.

That sounds good to me, that's how I was going to display them on the shelf together.

Just wanted to share this picture because these little details are interesting to me, even if the answer is never found. This is a picture someone showed me when I was trying to find out what these horses were. It's interesting because it's the Welsh Section B with three socks from the Mini Horses group, but his front sock is on the opposite foot. Probably just a painting error or variation and not a totally new horse, but I do wish I had him in hand! She would have had to steal it from her grandson, though, to send it to me.

Bottom right in the photo.

I wasn't sure where the best place to make this note was! But just noticed the #12 Coloured Horse on the To Go page is actually the horse from the Play Visions Mini set, and should actually be this guy:



Given how many pictures there are to organize, I can see how they easily got switched.

Thanks!

That's the right place! Ii added these three later and I ended with these messed up.
Thanks for noticing my mistake. I think it is correct now but please take a look.

For me, the old picture is showing on the page, but when I click on the link, it takes me to the correct picture, so that might just be cookies remembering that picture, I'm not sure!

Jill wrote:

For me, the old picture is showing on the page, but when I click on the link, it takes me to the correct picture, so that might just be cookies remembering that picture, I'm not sure!

Not your cookies. I fixed it on figure page, breed gallery but not on series page. Yes, sometimes we have to update several pages to make a little change. Thanks ffor checking it again. :)

Perfect! Thanks, it's so many details to keep up with. Impressive as always!

@Jill, once you spotted on the Dogs thread  that the set 3 here presented is from a Wild Republic tube.
I opened a page on TAW for them.

I don't know if I am seeing it well but the tube number seems to be #63241. Does these horses are also numbered on their belly?
I suspect this tube is from 1998 once many new tubes were added to the range in that year what coincides more or less with the Play Visions and Club Earth ones.

Roger wrote:

I don't know if I am seeing it well but the tube number seems to be #63241. Does these horses are also numbered on their belly?

Sorry, answered this over on the other thread, but to have it here - yes, they do all have numbers, they are stamped just like the other sets. So, 2 Arab China, for instance.

The horse tube number is 63243 I think.

Jill wrote:

Roger wrote:

I don't know if I am seeing it well but the tube number seems to be #63241. Does these horses are also numbered on their belly?

Sorry, answered this over on the other thread, but to have it here - yes, they do all have numbers, they are stamped just like the other sets. So, 2 Arab China, for instance.

The horse tube number is 63243 I think.

Thanks for replying here again. These topics serve as guides to us and it is much easier when the information is gathered in the same topic.
I don't have many Wild Republic tubes, so when I assumed they were not numbered, it was just a supposition. It doesn't mean in any way that they are not Wild Republic. To be fair, I am almost sure they are once everything is logical. I checked meanwhile on TAW and the sharks tube, a very old one, have the figures numbered too.