Seeing Double

Thank you very much Bonnie and Isabella. :)

Another one of my earliest figures, the fleckvieh cow, alongside her compatriot which is also a slight paint variant.


And the earliest wolf pup I ever got, and for a long time one of the best provided.

The Fleckvieh is very elegant, great model. Charming wolf cubs.

Definitely one of my favourite wolf cubs ever, I see this pup everywhere as he often seems to be mistaken for a puppy in dog figure lots! These two are very sweet, and the cows are wonderful too!

Thank you both! 

I got a new model from Taylor to compare to my old Safari rhino. This is one if my first Safaris I ever got. I only had Schleich available to me in my early childhood, and then we moved to a place that only had Safari. It was an adjustment and now that I am older I miss the old Safari models, as silly as some if them are.

This one certainly doesn't look silly. A great model, I think.

It's a fantastic model, and I'm sure very special too as one of your founding Safari figures! Great that you now have another one in better condition too, they make a lovely pair!

My favorites of these comparisons are ones like that rhino, where the old one is just so throughly enjoyed and the new one is so pristine. That is a good looking rhino, I can tell I would have liked him as a child because he's got a good solid shape or galloping on table tops, hahaha. (Everything galloped on tabletops.)

I fully intend to update this topic more, I just haven't had much time! I actually have a very special one to share soon I hope...

A HUGE UPDATE FOR ME! 
This was my very favorite farm animal toy when I was a child and she has been a close friend for nearly my entire life. One of my worst "collector's days" was when her ear broke while I was still a child... I tried to resculpt it several times and couldn't get it right. I decided to put her in storage as just looking at her poor broken ear made me so sad...

Finally found a new one in the states and for fairly cheap so I HAD to get her! I thought she looked a little different once I had her in hand, and had to go dig up my old friend from the grave, so to speak.  Come to find out, they are a bit different but now I will display and appreciate them both.

Wow, these two are surprisingly different, very interesting variations! And how special that this was your first farm animal, the founder for what is now an amazing collection! I'd love to know if you can remember your first ever animal figure!

It's a very beautiful cow, I can see why you like it so much. Are the sculpts different or do they just look different because the painting isn't the same?

Thank you Bonnie and Roger! They are the exact same sculpt, but its amazing that a simple black/white paint job can look so different!

Aw, I'm glad she will be displayed even without her ear! A badge of honor, that. She does have a wonderful face, in both iterations.

Thank you Jill. I love them both!

Hopefully its a good thing I decided to resurrect this topic.

Going back to childhood friends... This Schleich model is an old favorite. As an adult collector, its hard for me to get excited about the "ABC" models as we call them. The overly common animals, while still important in their own way, are a dime a dozen! It is difficult for me to generste excitement over certain species unless it is absolutely superbly rendered into toy form.

With that being said, this specific Asian elephant bull is a very fond and old friend of mine. I spent countless hours with him as my one and only Indian elephant for years and my very favorite over the other African elephants I had as a child. I'm not sure what it is, but there is still a very strong charm of his that I just love. Naturally, my childhood toy has gotten to show his age.



So when I had an opportunity to get a nearly mint version of this model to be a "show" piece, I jumped on it! All the way from England he came with the help of Taylor some months ago. Differences are minor as this model is minimally painted I think (the plastic I believe is gray and thus only small parts are actually painted over); the tongues are a slightly different shade, but otherwise it is just the wear and tear that tells them apart.





Regardless, as I got to revel between the two again tonight i got huge amounts of nostalgia. With the help of my discovery of TNG and Eofauna in the last year my interest in pachyderms has grown ten fold. I have even gotten the point of adding several African and Asian elephants to my collection as well as 7 prehistoric species (TNG, Eofauna, Safari Ltd., and Bullyland respectively). The Paleoloxodon is also the real charmer for me from all these! I wonder why? And so, in a way I suppose, my childhood fascination with this one model has come full circle.

I missed this update! I relate to this post very strongly. The over-saturation of elephants means I also don't get very excited to see another, but I also had a deep fascination with them as a kid. For a little while, they were my favorite animal (I think due largely to Dumbo the Disney movie, which I no longer enjoy at all but as a kid I watched until I wore out the tape). Amazing the effect of childhood nostalgia and how it plays a part in how and what we collect today. So lovely that you found a brother for your old friend, they are both absolutely charming gentlemen!