Mysterious Schleich Husky- Exclusive? Update, Mystery Partly Solved!

I haven't had so much time recently due to so many exams, but after I saw this topic: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I thought now was the best time to post it!
Last October, I bought a Schleich husky from Ebay Kleinanzeigen, because it was painted in a really unusual and beautiful way, clearly a model of a red husky. It had the same mould as the 16835 one, and it has definitely been painted with a purpose as it matches very closely with the features of a red husky, with the blue eyes, light nose and golden/ red coat: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Here are some photos:
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I tried to ask the seller about it, as I have never seen it before.  All I found out were:
1) She bought it 5-7 years ago, roughly when the 16835 first came out, so possibly they released a few like this before the grey colour?
2) She said there were several others like it
3) It was marked with Schleich underneath it, and so supposedly genuine, you can see this in the last photo.
4) The seller bought it in Herlikofen directly from Schleich, and the Schleich headquarters are here, so maybe it is more likely that they sold some different paint variations locally?
5) It wasn't a repaint, and it looked to me to be very similar to Schleich's painting style, with the gold fading into the white, and blue eyes precisely done with the black rims, not like the painting of other knockoffs I have seen.
I was so excited to receive this dog, but unfortunately it never arrived, probably because I risked sending it without tracking. I have no evidence that the seller sent it, she was quite brief with her replies and I was slightly wary of her as she seemed more interested in receiving payment rather than answering my questions, although she had good feedback- but I am still so sad to this day that this husky never arrived!   Ever since I have been looking to see if I can find any others like this. I doubted that it was a knockoff, but even if it is there must be more of them!
I posted it now as the mysterious horse from the other topic was similar to my problem with this husky, marked with Schleich but painted differently! I would be so grateful if anyone could tell me more about this dog, having seen the other topic I suspect it could be a knockoff but for the reasons listed above, I still slightly doubt it! I did contact Schleich Germany directly, and they were very helpful and interested but said they didn't recall ever making this dog!

A rare catch. Big congratulations.

If that's the local shop to their headquarters, perhaps they use it to get rid of samples and test runs?
I know Peter Stone horse models let their one-of-a-kind factory samples out in warehouse clearance sales now and then (I've got one), and it's better to make some money for them than have them cluttering up the HQ indefinitely just cos they're not part of the official released range.
Imagine it, they try designing a few different coat colours and painting methods, receive the samples in-hand and make the decision on which they like best, then that becomes the final product - but you've got a whole load of spare dogs, most of which won't match whatever you end up releasing on the mass market.
Can't ship them as normal stock to unsuspecting retailers expecting grey dogs, binning them would be wasteful, so drop them off at the local outlet who are happy to sell random stuff : test runs, cancelled designs, leftover old stock found at the back of a cupboard etc, as well as the current range.

What a shame you never got the dog, I'd tend to blame the parcel getting lost in transit without tracking, rather than a dishonest seller - I assume you keep a regular eye on all Schleich dogs that come up on Ebay, so if she never sent it in the first place, you'd have spotted it when she sold it again. Scammers think we don't recognise their stuff when it comes back up for sale after the first/second/third buyer never got it

Thats a shame as it clearly is a nicely model. I have no info but George's explanation makes sense to me. I am sure if anyone will find this dog someday it will likely be you!

Thank you so much Andreas, George and Paige for your comments!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Thank you so much, that is such a good explanation and I bet that was the case! Interesting Peter Stone do it too, it definitely makes sense for a company to do that. And amazing you've got one! But your explanation makes lots of sense to me, definitely worth keeping an eye out for other dogs like these as I'm sure there are more! Really helps explain, thank you. I wonder how many of these samples there would have been, or if, sadly, this husky would have been the only one!
I'm sure you're right, it must have just got lost in the post, apparently shipping at that time from Germany was really bad according to one shopkeeper. One of my biggest regrets is not sending the dog with tracking, but lesson learnt for the future!

I am not so positive but when we don't have evidences it is not easy.
I am so sorry that you never got the dog, it is always very disappointing and sometimes it breaks our collecting enthusiasm.
Though, I won't want to be excessively negative because it also does not help.
About the authenticity of the figure I can't help at all. I hope the members that posted on that horse topic can give you some information.

There is no shop in Herlikofen, so it cannot be bought directly.

Ah, that rather ruins the theory of samples being offloaded to their local shop, then! Perhaps the seller got their memories muddled, or was just making things up If it's a fake, and they knew that, inventing a backstory involving an 'official shop' origin would be a sneaky way to ask more money than admitting it's just another knockoff!

No matter what, it is a wonderful, beautyful model

And the paintwork looks quite authentic too , - it could be an Icelandic sheepdog, IMHO

Thank you Roger, Zoodirektor, George and Susanne for your comments!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] That is interesting, thank you, and makes it more confusing! I agree with George and they either made it up or it was a mistake. Maybe there isn't a shop there now, but there was 5-7 years ago when she bought it?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Yes, it could be an Icelandic sheepdog!!

There has never been a Schleich shop in the factory, there was a factory outlet in a gym in Herlikofen once in the 1990s, but this was never repeated for reasons of space. The online shop only started selling again a few years ago, but that too is not operated from Herlikofen.

Zoodirektor wrote:

There has never been a Schleich shop in the factory, there was a factory outlet in a gym in Herlikofen once in the 1990s, but this was never repeated for reasons of space. The online shop only started selling again a few years ago, but that too is not operated from Herlikofen.

Thank you very much for this information!

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It seems that this same husky is being released this year, which is very confusing because the seller claimed to have bought it 5-7 years ago! And it would also be unusual if they bought it more recently before it was officially released! But lovely that the mystery is partly solved in that it will be available before long!

Bonnie wrote:

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It seems that this same husky is being released this year, which is very confusing because the seller claimed to have bought it 5-7 years ago! And it would also be unusual if they bought it more recently before it was officially released! But lovely that the mystery is partly solved in that it will be available before long!

Hurraaaaayyyy

Bonnie wrote:

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It seems that this same husky is being released this year, which is very confusing because the seller claimed to have bought it 5-7 years ago! And it would also be unusual if they bought it more recently before it was officially released! But lovely that the mystery is partly solved in that it will be available before long!

If we replace the 5 to 7 years for days, the mistery gets solved. Schleich unknown models with a good story behind always get a special atention.
Schleich's answer is also not strange, probably who received your contact only knows what is already on market. Though, even if that person knows it is supposed to be released, it is natural that they don't share the information.
Buying Schleich unusual figures requires a special atention and it was for a long time a core subject among forum discussions.

Thank you both!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Yes that makes more sense, it's certainly an interesting model!

I am glad this got figured out. Though, I am inclined to think your source was mistaken on the time frame that they got theirs. I cannot wait to get my set! I missed out on Bullys.

That is the proof, that time travel exists. Or it is a mistake in the matrix.

Tupolew Tu-154 wrote:

That is the proof, that time travel exists. Or it is a mistake in the matrix.

Yes, either time travel or a mistake! I agree with you Paige, can't wait to see them in real life!

I thought of you the second I saw those photos! Of course it's still disappointing that your first buy never arrived, it always is when a sale fails for whatever reason and you don't have the model you thought was on the way, but getting to buy one brand new will help cancel out that negativity, I'm sure.