Tube Animal confusion

I'm sorting through my not-clearly-marked small figure box and trying to figure out which ones are part of known sets. I think I have a lot of the Wild Republic African Nature Tube but I'm struggling with deciding which, if any, of my giraffes are the correct one.

It says that all the figures have the animal name and that some of them only have China and others have K&M. The giraffe is one without K&M, so I assume the correct giraffe should say Giraffe China. I have one that does, but it doesn't match the photo, while the one I have that matches the photo only says China.

Which one is the right giraffe? Are EITHER of them the right giraffe? Is there any way to know for sure?

Left: Giraffe China, but doesn't match (black hooves, darker mane, rounder spots)
Right: CHINA, but looks closer (thin black line on mane, triangle spots)
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Also, is the Zebra marked with "Horse" instead of "Zebra"? These two that I have are marked Horse China and they look like they go with the set otherwise.
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Here's the whole group of animals that are stamped in the same way (Animal and China) but which I can't determine if they are a K&M tube animal or not. They are all the same molds as the K&M tubes and are stamped the same way, but some of them have a different paint job than I could find (giraffe, elephant, rhino, gorilla, polar bear, moose). Are they knock offs that kept the label? Are they part of a different K&M tube and got painted different? Are they just paint variations? Given the way some of these tubes are stamped without a brand name, how do you know which ones are "real"?

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i can't tell you for sure this morning because most of my K&M models long gone but I took a look at the warthog and the croc of the set, they are stamped K&MINT on the belly.

Here are mine. It is one of the plastic bags with zipper.
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The zebra is something in between yours two

The paintwork of the tubes has changed A LOT with time , and esp since they changed to Wild Republic

What is stamped on yours Susanne ?

Yes

"Species" CHINA : Elephant, rhino, hippo, giraffe, lion, cheetah.

Warthog (c) K&M INT
Gazelle (c) K&M INT CHINA
Crocodile (c) K&M INT , and MADE IN CHINA stamped under right front foot
HORSE CHINA ( = zebra )
Ostrich (c) K&M INT MADE IN CHINA

The mandrill is only marked CHINA

Thank you both! Susanne, your photos on TAW I believe are what I have been using as reference. :) Did you get them altogether in package, is that how you know this is the set? I really love the crocodile and the warthog.  It is weird that the have all different stamps, right? Especially the mandrill! Who to me looks like one of the best painted models in the set.

I am glad to know your zebra also says horse. I think the zebra, the lion, and the leopard are the three of mine I feel confident about (and the tiger, for a different set). And I think I can rule out the giraffe that only has China even though he resembles yours more closely.

I guess what I am really wondering is, if you have a series of animals that is officially NOT marked with the company name and it's quite possible to see them appear in a wide variety of paint jobs, is the only way to know for sure if it's legitimate is to have it with its packaging? Otherwise, how do I know my polar bear which is solid white while the one on TAW has different markings, BUT which is in the same mold with the same stamp, is not just a color variation from a later date or released in a different set? Or that it's just a knock off that used the same stamp? Am I right to say there's no real way to tell? (Am I making sense?)

Take my Rhinos for instance. I have two or three that say Rhino China and all are in the same mold but slightly different colors. One has red eyes and a gradient paint, one is solid gray with black eyes, etc. There appears to be no way for me to say "This rhino belongs in this set but this one is a knock off" without seeing them in the package, right? Because the Rhinos do not have K&M stamped on them even in the correct set. Or would something like "red eyes" be too different from the one pictured to assume it's a change in how they were painted, and so I could reasonably assume it's a knock-off?

Same for my giraffe. He's actually painted very well (comparatively) rather than worse, making him look (to my eyes) a MORE likely candidate for being part of a K&M set and not a knockoff. But he is so different from Susanne's, so what can I guess? Later or earlier paint job? Or just no possible way to know?

I know it doesn't really matter with these guys so much and of course it can't be added to TAW without certainty, I'm mostly just curious for my own sake! I understand knowing these things is largely impossible, I'm just wondering how people with more experience would look at this particular problem. And I do like to have my critters sorted into sets, when possible. It fulfills a happy little spot in my brain.

That's a difficult question and this tube is particularly confuse because it mixes figures from different manufacturers. I know that rhino from several sets which are not Wild Republic branded. I believe some of the other figures are equally common among other toy brands but I can't identify them as easily as the rhino.
Sometimes, you can see variation in quality in the same product, it is quite noticiable with Wild Republic tubes. Also, these figures are often used in different sets of the same company like the Wildepedia book sets.
When they're not marked distinctively it is almost impossible to know to which particular set or brand they belong. There is sometimes some differences in painting or plastic but how can you check them? Especially when there is variation during the availability of the exact same product.? The biggest evidence of how these figures are extensively used and reused is the fact that the zebra is marked horse. The most efficient system I knew until now was used by Beatrice. She noted how she acquired all the lots. It means, if you have gotten that giraffe together with the zebra, the chance they belong to the same set is higher. She also noted all kind of markings, when it is only CHINA, sometimes it is just a number or a letter what can determine where it belongs. As the content of the several sets from different makers is not always the exact same and figures are often numbered, it is common to find the same figure marked with different numbers. It later helps us to identify which exact brand used that number or letter.
She also used the way eyes were painted as reference, it is common with these small cheap figures that eyes of different animals are painted in the same way. These manufacturers also offer several options regarding plastic quality. You can check it through its density. Sometimes it is a harder pvc, sometimes it is more like a rubbery material. If the material is noticiably different, much probably, those figures do not belong to the same set. This is almost a science and you will group and regroup them as long as you find more information. My suggestion is that you identify the figures with the closest model you know until you find more information. We do it on TAW, it is common that we move figures from a set to another set.
As I told you, this particular tube is complex because it mixes different kind of figures but fortunately, we have Susanne's pictures of the original tube.

Jill wrote:

......Did you get them altogether in package, is that how you know this is the set? ....

Yes, I got the set brand new with sealed zipper
There is absolutely no doubt that that was how the set looked at that time , - I think it was 4-6 years ago

SUSANNE wrote:

Jill wrote:

......Did you get them altogether in package, is that how you know this is the set? ....

Yes, I got the set brand new with sealed zipper
There is absolutely no doubt that that was how the set looked at that time , - I think it was 4-6 years ago

That's an awesome find! No muddy mystery there, very helpful. :)

Thank you for that explanation, Roger - that makes sense! I have been instinctively doing that with some of these already, I think. With some of my random animals it is like, I can tell you two go together but I have no idea in what capacity. I think for now I will include the giraffe in my set until I can verify otherwise or get a more obvious replacement, but not the rhino or elephant as I don't think I have one that looks enough like Susanne's. You're right, the eyes are very telling.

The more I read about these small plastic animal brands, the more I realise there is more than I'll ever understand about them, and the more relieved I am that I'm addicted to brands much easier to identify and validate

SUSANNE wrote:

Jill wrote:

......Did you get them altogether in package, is that how you know this is the set? ....

Yes, I got the set brand new with sealed zipper
There is absolutely no doubt that that was how the set looked at that time , - I think it was 4-6 years ago

Your pictures were uploaded in June 2015, so 6 years almost 7.

Jill wrote:

SUSANNE wrote:

Jill wrote:

......Did you get them altogether in package, is that how you know this is the set? ....

Yes, I got the set brand new with sealed zipper
There is absolutely no doubt that that was how the set looked at that time , - I think it was 4-6 years ago

That's an awesome find! No muddy mystery there, very helpful. :)

Thank you for that explanation, Roger - that makes sense! I have been instinctively doing that with some of these already, I think. With some of my random animals it is like, I can tell you two go together but I have no idea in what capacity. I think for now I will include the giraffe in my set until I can verify otherwise or get a more obvious replacement, but not the rhino or elephant as I don't think I have one that looks enough like Susanne's. You're right, the eyes are very telling.

My post was quite long but another strategy is also to check the way China is marked, the type of letter used, all caps, just initial cap, with or without Made in...
Yes, you're clearly the kind of collector that loves these tube sized figures sold in random lots. That's funny, it is like a puzzle. I can't see it as a brand addiction. Only knowing the brand and set, you can get a overview of what was released, what is missing and what you have to hunt. Play Visions was like that, the excercise of trying to group all sets, helped us to be aware of many gaps, many figures missing and it was the point to start finding them out.
We have the famous set of the Play Visions aardvark we still don't know, which figures are part of it and considering the few we know, I am sure everyone is crazy to know more.

Roger wrote:

SUSANNE wrote:

Yes, I got the set brand new with sealed zipper
There is absolutely no doubt that that was how the set looked at that time , - I think it was 4-6 years ago

Your pictures were uploaded in June 2015, so 6 years almost 7.

OMG !!!! How time flies Crazy !!!!

Roger wrote:

We have the famous set of the Play Visions aardvark we still don't know, which figures are part of it and considering the few we know, I am sure everyone is crazy to know more.

Play Visions aardvark mystery sounds intriguing! Are there photos anywhere of the ones that have been found? I'd love to see them, and dream of finding them.

I would love to have seen how all of these sets were discovered and pieces together over time, it seems like such a monumental task! And so much of the heavy lifting has already been done.

Jill wrote:

Roger wrote:

We have the famous set of the Play Visions aardvark we still don't know, which figures are part of it and considering the few we know, I am sure everyone is crazy to know more.

Play Visions aardvark mystery sounds intriguing! Are there photos anywhere of the ones that have been found? I'd love to see them, and dream of finding them.

I would love to have seen how all of these sets were discovered and pieces together over time, it seems like such a monumental task! And so much of the heavy lifting has already been done.

You can find the Play Visions aardvark on TAW in this link.
Those pictures were taken by Sergey,a Russian collector. Now this exact figure is with our tapir Andreas. I am not sure we know another sample.
A similar story with the PV tree pangolin that together with a few other figures, we believe as part of the same set.
You can find the Play Visions undetermined series figures in this page.
Play Visions was fun, we knew a few complete sets and it helps a lot for a start because it shows a pattern of the way sets were built.
Though, everything started making sense when some 1998 official pictures were shared on forum. Not all sets were unveiled but sorting a good number of models helped us to sort the remaining ones.
Basically Play Visions are composed of sets of 8 models, sporadically 6, they have a year marked, from 1996 to 1999 and numbers from 1 to 8.
Those African misterious figures are from 1999, not known from any official picture and they do not have numbers. Also, some moulds were used in different sets, usually with different markings and painting. There are still other sets with different combinations of animals but we don't pay too much atention to them because as far as we know, all the figures were part of the regular sets. It is all so much similar to the K&M Bulks, best Wild Republic tube sized figures of ever which puzzles are not completely solved yet. However, we still have a huge gap with early tubes so it is good that you're paying atention to Wild Republic misteries now.

Roger wrote:

Jill wrote:

Roger wrote:

We have the famous set of the Play Visions aardvark we still don't know, which figures are part of it and considering the few we know, I am sure everyone is crazy to know more.

Play Visions aardvark mystery sounds intriguing! Are there photos anywhere of the ones that have been found? I'd love to see them, and dream of finding them.

I would love to have seen how all of these sets were discovered and pieces together over time, it seems like such a monumental task! And so much of the heavy lifting has already been done.

You can find the Play Visions aardvark on TAW in this link.
Those pictures were taken by Sergey,a Russian collector. Now this exact figure is with our tapir Andreas. I am not sure we know another sample.
A similar story with the PV tree pangolin that together with a few other figures, we believe as part of the same set.
You can find the Play Visions undetermined series figures in this page.
Play Visions was fun, we knew a few complete sets and it helps a lot for a start because it shows a pattern of the way sets were built.
Though, everything started making sense when some 1998 official pictures were shared on forum. Not all sets were unveiled but sorting a good number of models helped us to sort the remaining ones.
Basically Play Visions are composed of sets of 8 models, sporadically 6, they have a year marked, from 1996 to 1999 and numbers from 1 to 8.
Those African misterious figures are from 1999, not known from any official picture and they do not have numbers. Also, some moulds were used in different sets, usually with different markings and painting. There are still other sets with different combinations of animals but we don't pay too much atention to them because as far as we know, all the figures were part of the regular sets. It is all so much similar to the K&M Bulks, best Wild Republic tube sized figures of ever which puzzles are not completely solved yet. However, we still have a huge gap with early tubes so it is good that you're paying atention to Wild Republic misteries now.

Ah - very cool!! Wow, what excellent hunters to have found those figures, amazing to have the one known example of something. The mystery solving is part of the fun, but I hope that mystery is someday solved because I would love to know what else would be in that set.

Thank you for explaining some of the history of these things, it's really fascinating.

As apparently Nayab is the manufacturer of most of these small unidentified figures we find everywhere, I'm listing them according to Nayab official website.
Since we don't know yours are the Wild Republic, MTC or whatever versions, maybe those you think which match we can list them as Nayab.
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