1/32 scale animals

Thanks. My remora follow two [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The Vivid Toys articulated Gorgosaurus (smaller one) is 1:30 for the holotype. Considering there are sightly bigger specimens, it fits as 1:32
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Toymany is an emerging company that has received quite a bit of attention on the forum recently. Although they are now producing original models, they started by making knock-offs of the main companies. I bought a box called “Wild Adventure”. Toymany has turned some of the large-scale models by the main companies into 1/32 scale models for this box, which is very useful for me. Six of the 14 figures in the box are the right scale. Let’s have a look at them.

We have a tiger, a knock-off of the Schleich 2015 Bengal tiger:
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It has a shoulder height of 2.9/93 cm and a head+body length of 5.1/163 cm. A fairly small tiger, best representing a female, although it has bits under its tail that suggest that it is not. Here it is with the recent Safari from the Asian Animals TOOB. The Safari is slightly better painted, but the Toymany is quite acceptable.
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And here with two other toob-like figures, a tiger produced for the Zoorasia Yokohama Zoo (left) and one from the Yujin zodiac set (also sold by K&M).
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And let’s compare the new knock-off with two vintage knock-off tigers:
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Two Britains knock-offs. They aren’t marked Hong Kong, so I think they were made in Singapore. I don’t normally collect Britains knock-offs because the Britains are so much better and the knock-offs are usually very difficult to find in a good condition. I was lucky to find these two.

There is a brown bear in 1/32 scale too. It is a miniaturised version of the Schleich 2013 Grizzly bear.
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It is 2.8/90 cm in shoulder height and 4.7/150 cm in head-body length. It is smaller than most of my brown bears, but according to Pasitschniak-Arts (1993) the mean shoulder height of female brown bears in Yellowstone was 87 cm and the total length was 151 cm, so this is a very typical Yellowstone female.
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Toymany isn’t the only company that used the Schleich 2013 Grizzly bear. Here we have another version, marketed as Billbuff and under various other names. Both are 1/32 scale despite the difference in size.
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I prefer the softer Toymany paint style, especially because this bear has an aggressive pose. Here is a comparison with two toob figures, the CollectA brown bear from their Mini Wild Animals box and the Papo brown bear from their version of the Wild Animals toob:
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And here with the Safari Authentics brown bear and the Britains. Most of the Safari Authentics look a bit weird, but the brown bear is quite nice.
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The main “prize” of the Toymany box is the American black bear. It looks good and there aren’t many American black bears in 1/32 scale. It is a knock-off of the 2017 Schleich black bear, which I believe was only sold in a box called North American Wildlife.
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The face of mine isn’t perfectly painted, but I can live with it. It has a 2.6/83 cm shoulder height and 4.5/144 cm head-body length. When I was researching the size of American black bears, I was surprised how large they can get and how much variability in size there is. For example, Bartareau (2012) measured black bears in the North of Canada and found that they had a head-body length of about 116-196 cm. (These numbers are approximate because I read them from a graph and I used a formula to convert contour length into HB length.) Bartareau (2011) found very similar sizes for black bears in Florida.
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Here is the Toymany bear with two larger American black bears, the Play Visions (left) and a K&M from the North American tube. The K&M is the largest with a head-body length of 5.5/176 cm.
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And here we have the CollectA American black bear from their Wild Animals box and a K&M bear from the Rainforest Adventure tube. When I took the photo, I thought the K&M was a black bear, but Rogério recently told me that it is a spectacled bear. That’s fine too, with a head-body length of 4.0/128 cm it can be a spectacled bear too.
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This post is getting long. I’ll present the other three 1/32 scale models from the Toymany box next time.

You use the term knockoff. Knockoff implies use of the exact same sculpt, usually without permission of the original. Are these knockoffs? Or simply influenced by Schleich figures? Were older Schleich figures 1:32? (I honestly don't know; just curious)

I am glad when companies produce 1/32 scale versions of big brands big scales or when big brands produce little scale sets!  These Toymani are good  and your comparison pictures very useful!    but are you sure the black bear is an american black bear and not a spectacled bear?.. it is because of its face painting..

It is funny that the Authentics bear is just about the only Authentics that doesn't look like it is going through a psychotic break. Wonderful little bears and tigers, I actually love the face of the little black bear even though it isn't perfect. He looks like I often feel by the end of the week.

I have a soft spot for the black bear, even badly painted it has a lot of charm

That's a lot of luck that 6 of 14 are at your favorite scale. Especially when they are copied from models which are not. It's great to see ToyMany in your collection. Regardless of our collecting subject, it seems most of us found a good excuse to buy a few ToyMany figures and you got some from the earlier stage.

these Toymany are very interesting Roger, thanks for presenting them!

I am amazed by how many different companies out there have produced 1/32nd figures! Every time I come here I discover a few new models I've never seen before
I like the Safari Authentics bear, and is that Papo bear the one on the right? It looks just like a Kaiyodo figure - smooth, expertly painted, full of life! I've never seen anything like it before I will have to investigate this toob contents!!

I may have to get these small Toymanys. I like the tiger as well, it looks like it has a nice substantial body and shape. And the black bear is really adorable with the spectacles.
Could they have made a spectacled bear for marketing purposes perhaps?
I really like everything about this bear model, it is exceptionally well made!

It's good that you have a nice matching pair of tigers with same stripe pattern and body colour. That's not such a common body colour, the bright yellow. I will check my knock off tigers to see if I have any good copies.
I've got quite a lot of them, they are all in queueing up to go into my repaint box waiting to get new coats:)

- oh?! I think I looked at the wrong photo! I will circle the ones I mean tomorrow

Thanks, everyone!

bmathison1972 wrote:

You use the term knockoff. Knockoff implies use of the exact same sculpt, usually without permission of the original. Are these knockoffs? Or simply influenced by Schleich figures? Were older Schleich figures 1:32? (I honestly don't know; just curious)

I don't know whether knock-off is the right word. I didn't want to say that they are copies because that implies to me that they are virtually the same. These Toymany figures are miniaturised figures of the main brands (mainly Schleich) that lost some detail in the resizing process and are painted in a different style. It is more than an influence; that would imply to me that they are different sculpts but in a similar style. Perhaps "imitation" is a better word, though the Oxford dictionary says that a knock-off is a copy or imitation.

It's interesting that my Toymany box says that the figures were made in Guangdong. Isn't this also where some of the Safari Ltd figures are made? Perhaps they all come from the same factory. This might also imply that these imitations are completely legal (though not necessarily that Schleich gave permission to imitate them).

From 1997 until 2006, Schleich had a sealife series that was marketed as 1/32 scale. Some are indeed 1/32 scale, but not all are. Apart from that, I don't think Schleich tried to make any figures to scale.

Caracal wrote:

but are you sure the black bear is an american black bear and not a spectacled bear?.. it is because of its face painting..

The original Schleich was marketed as an American black bear. Toymany doesn't tell us what species they are. If we think it looks more like a spectacled bear, then we can use it as that; it's the right size for a 1/32 spectacled bear.

sunny wrote:

I am amazed by how many different companies out there have produced 1/32nd figures!

I am amazed too! When I started collecting 1/32 scale models, I thought there weren’t so many, but I keep discovering new ones.

sunny wrote:

I like the Safari Authentics bear, and is that Papo bear the one on the right? It looks just like a Kaiyodo figure - smooth, expertly painted, full of life! I've never seen anything like it before I will have to investigate this toob contents!!

Yes, it’s the Papo from their Mini Wild Animals 2 box. I discussed this box [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. It includes a beautiful tiger too.

sunny wrote:

I may have to get these small Toymanys. I like the tiger as well, it looks like it has a nice substantial body and shape.

The Toymany tiger is smaller than the Britains. You may find that they don’t look so good together. It's OK as a large male and small female.
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rogerpgvg wrote:

Thanks, everyone!

bmathison1972 wrote:

You use the term knockoff. Knockoff implies use of the exact same sculpt, usually without permission of the original. Are these knockoffs? Or simply influenced by Schleich figures? Were older Schleich figures 1:32? (I honestly don't know; just curious)

I don't know whether knock-off is the right word. I didn't want to say that they are copies because that implies to me that they are virtually the same. These Toymany figures are miniaturised figures of the main brands (mainly Schleich) that lost some detail in the resizing process and are painted in a different style. It is more than an influence; that would imply to me that they are different sculpts but in a similar style. Perhaps "imitation" is a better word, though the Oxford dictionary says that a knock-off is a copy or imitation.

It's interesting that my Toymany box says that the figures were made in Guangdong. Isn't this also where some of the Safari Ltd figures are made? Perhaps they all come from the same factory. This might also imply that these imitations are completely legal (though not necessarily that Schleich gave permission to imitate them).

Those are knock-offs, they're unlicensed figures but heavily inspired in known models. Despite not being the exact same, they also do not intend to be sold as "fake" originals.
When they are copied and intend to pretend they are the real thing, they're called bootlegs. I don't remember seeing a real bootleg among major brands, maybe the closest we have seen was some Papo bootlegs, they were even marked with a similar brand name. Though, those are really common in the action figures hobby.

Guangdong is a Chinese province with many toy factories in different cities. Most of the Chinese production comes from there. Namely Nayab. So that's the location you can see in some Safari sets as you mentioned but also Wild Republic and lots of other sets. The first wave of ToyMany figures, reminds me so much the "wave" of Nayab figures which were knock-offs of major brand models.

Thanks for the explanation. I suppose as a community we can decide how we define knock-off, copy, imitation and bootleg, but your definitions make sense to me.

Now the second part of the 1/32 scale Toymany models. Sorry, another long post. I hope you can just enjoy the comparisons in the photos if you find my expositions about sizes too boring .

The Toymany gorilla is a miniaturised version of the Safari 2006 Lowland gorilla:
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To determine the size of gorillas in the wild, their rump length is usually measured. The Toymany gorilla doesn’t have a straight rump; I think it would be about 3.0/96 cm if it was straight. Breuer et al. (2007) found that Western Lowland silverbacks had a rump length of 85-97 cm, while females were much smaller (72-75 cm). Galbany et al. (2017) found 80-97 cm for adult males and 63-76 cm for females. The largest Western Lowland gorilla I found was a 100 cm male in Caillaud et al. (2008). Mountain gorillas have a very similar size. Wright et al. (2020) reported that males were 81–97 cm and females were 64-79 cm. Almost all the gorillas in these articles were measured using photogrammetry, which is quite accurate but can sometimes be slightly off (though physical measurements can be too).
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I have a lot of toob-sized crouching gorillas. Let’s look at a selection. In the smaller range, I have a CollectA (left, from the Mini Wild Animals) and a Playspaces (right). The Playspaces is my smallest gorilla with a 2.5/80 cm rump length.
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Next up in size, we have the Britains (left) and an Innovative Kids gorilla (right), which may be a knock-off of the Safari 1998 larger size gorilla.
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The Britains has a longer rump length (3.1/99 cm) than the Innovative Kids (2.8/90 cm), but the Innovative Kids looks larger:
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I should say that it is difficult to measure rump length because it depends on the exact angle of my callipers, whether I measure the right or left rump side and how the leg is positioned relative to the gorilla’s bum. It only makes a difference of 1 or 2 mm, but that can be critical for whether the gorilla is in or outside the 1/32 reserve.

Larger yet again are the Yowie and the Safari from the Monkeys and Apes toob. Both are 3.1/99 cm.
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The Yowie and Safari have the same rump length as the Britains, but they look larger as you can see in this photo:
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From left to right, we have the Britains, Safari Monkeys and Apes, Yowie and the Safari Authentics. The Safari Authentics is just okay for rump length (3.1/99 cm), but it has such a large head that it is difficult to accept it in the 1/32 reserve. Here is a more complete comparison of the gorillas, approximately ordered from small to large:
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This isn’t meant to be a complete comparison of gorillas, but I can’t leave out the wonderful Bandai gorillas. The adult has a 2.8/90 cm rump length. The young one is the only 1/32 scale young gorilla I know of.
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The Toymany giant panda is a knock-off of the Schleich 2017 panda.
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It’s hard to know whether it is 1/32 scale. First, as I recently mentioned in Christophe’s 1/25 scale topic, I don’t really know what size giant pandas are. A variety of different sizes is given in the scientific and non-scientific literature, but I can’t find any first-hand measurements. For example, Reid and Gong (1999, in “Bears”, edited by Servheen) say that pandas’ body length is 160-190 cm, whereas Chorn and Hoffman (1978, Mammalian Species) and Nowak (1999, Walkers’ Mammals of the World) say that their head-body length is 120-150 cm. Wikipedia says that adults measure around 120-190 cm, including a tail of about 10–15 cm, and are 60 to 90 cm tall at the shoulder (probably a rounding of 2-3 feet). Animal Diversity Web gives a shoulder height of 65-70 cm. Dimensions.com seems more precise and says that males have a length of 152-183 cm and shoulder height of 61-91 cm, whereas females are 137-168 cm and 46-73 cm respectively, but the precision is probably illusionary because all numbers are whole or half feet.
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Second, it is impossible to measure either the length or shoulder height of a sitting panda accurately. The best I can do is to compare it with a walking panda whose size can be determined more accurately. My smallest panda is the TIMPO, which has a head-body length of 4.0/128 cm and a shoulder height of 2.4/77 cm. If we take 120 cm as the minimum length of a panda, then the TIMPO is quite a small panda, though it is not so small if we believe that the shoulder height is either 46 or 60 cm. When I put the Toymany next to the TIMPO, then they look quite similar in size. It’s a bit hard to tell because the TIMPO is much thinner than the Toymany. I have also included the Britains panda for comparison, which has a similar size to the Toymany.
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My conclusion is that the Toymany panda is 1/32 scale (and the Britains too). That is, if giant pandas can indeed be as small as 120 cm in head-body length . Here is the Toymany with two other small pandas, the CollectA from the Mini Wild Animals box (HB length 4.3/138 cm, SH 2.3/74 cm) and one from the Safari Pandas toob. The latter is in fact meant to be a young one, but it's almost as large as the Toymany.
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Most of my pandas are larger. For example, the Kaiyodo Yamanote Railway Line Souvenir (left) and Colorata Ueno Zoo pandas (right):
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And two other sitting pandas, another one from the Safari Pandas toob (left) and the psychotic Safari Authentics panda (right):
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Finally, the Toymany lion. I suspect it is a knock-off too, but I haven’t been able to find the original.
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It has a shoulder height of 1.7/86 cm and a head-body length of 4.6/147 cm. That’s small compared to the Britains lion (hip height 3.3/106 cm, HB length 6.0/192 cm):
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This is a very useful overview of lion sizes:
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I can’t do my size research better than Guategojira, the creator of this poster on the Wildfact forum. He has checked many sources that I don’t have access to. It shows that the Toymany lion may be (just) okay for shoulder height, but its length is too short. However, Guategojira also points out that Ethiopian lions in Addis Abebe Zoo are smaller. Hailemariam et al. (2015) reported that their shoulder height was 82-93 cm (N = 9, mean 90 cm) and their head-body length was 95-150 cm (mean 141 cm). The minimum 95 cm length is probably wrong because with a minimum shoulder height of 82 cm, the smallest lion would have had very strange body proportions. Nevertheless, the Ethiopian lions are very small, especially in length. This may be because they are a separate subspecies or perhaps because they grew up in a zoo. In any case, the data suggest that the Toymany is an Ethiopian zoo lion .

Here it is with two other small lions, the Mojö Mini (left) and the lion from the CollectA Mini Wild Animals box. Although they are small too, they are probably a bit too large to be Ethiopian zoo lions. The Mojö has a shoulder height of 2.9/93 cm and a head-body length of 5.3/170 cm. I can’t accurately determine the CollectA’s length, but it has the same shoulder height.
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I read all your posts and I find it very interesting. Not only because we learn about animal sizes but it amazes me so much to see all the effort you put into your collecting hobby to get things as accurate as possible.
My Toy Major elephant is quite angry these days since you rejected him and you are accepting these Authentics in your reserve.

If I had to buy this set it would be for the black bear and most of all the lion, it is exquisite

Roger wrote:

I read all your posts and I find it very interesting. Not only because we learn about animal sizes but it amazes me so much to see all the effort you put into your collecting hobby to get things as accurate as possible.
My Toy Major elephant is quite angry these days since you rejected him and you are accepting these Authentics in your reserve.

Thanks for reading my posts! As you realise, I am becoming more and more obsessed about animals sizes. It has become a side-hobby.

Toy Major elephant? Do you mean the CollectA asian elephant? Perhaps I should reconsider it, but elephants take up so much space. The Safari Authentics were by-catch from the Authentics brown bear. However, they are historically interesting too because they were some of the first Safaris. I don't only collect figures because they are beautiful or are rare species but also out of historic interest in 1/32 scale models.

widukind wrote:

+   =  

Kikimalou wrote:

If I had to buy this set it would be for the black bear and most of all the lion, it is exquisite

It's not bad, but it doesn't really make my heart beat faster. Perhaps because I find it too small, I don't know. You and Rogério didn't comment on it, so I assume you don't think it is a knock-off. Interesting that Toymany sculpted their own lion for this set.

I know Roger, I know you're not just a Britains collector trying to find figures compatible in size and style to the Britains models. Actually, the salad of figures styles of the same size is one of the things that gives a special charm to your collection. I like seeing the Authentics there; it's an emblematic series even though the figures are somewhat caricatural. I also have Authentics in my fox collection. Here is the Toy Major figure I was referring to; the material is similar to the Schleich figures from the same period. Of course, it's not very realistic, but it's also not a contemptible design; perhaps it's a bit small for the desired scale, but the design suits a young adult. Here compared to a Britains.

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I still have the CollectA Asian elephant which I intend to replace by the Mojö cow. I enjoy the detail on it with a super detailed mouth but, compared with the most recent elephant renditions, the short-legged conformation turned too much evident.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Kikimalou wrote:

If I had to buy this set it would be for the black bear and most of all the lion, it is exquisite

It's not bad, but it doesn't really make my heart beat faster. Perhaps because I find it too small, I don't know. You and Rogério didn't comment on it, so I assume you don't think it is a knock-off. Interesting that Toymany sculpted their own lion for this set.

I first thought it was a Safari TOOB 100409 South African Lion but I was wrong It has it's own life

I don't think I ever saw the Toy Major elephant. Its style is very similar to the first generation Schleich African elephants. When was it released? Is it on TAW?

rogerpgvg wrote:

I don't think I ever saw the Toy Major elephant. Its style is very similar to the first generation Schleich African elephants. When was it released? Is it on TAW?

It is a 2006 figure, you can find it on TAW here.

Thank you for these interesting comparison pictures Roger!  

 Like Christophe, I like a lot this Toymany lion whose model is unknown for me too!

Great selection of models and wonderful comments.

I agree that the toymany lion is really lovely. I am not usually much for gorillas, pandas, or lions figures, but it is so interesting to see all these compared to each other.

thanks Roger, I remember the Papo bear now! It arrived scuffed so they sent you a replacement one.
I'm seeing so many figures on here that I've never seen before and are going on my wishlist, that it's actually hard to keep track!!
I see the size difference in the tigers. I think I'm okay with smaller figures if they can be turned into subadult, babies etc. It's a bit harder with the male lions with full manes though.

rogerpgvg wrote:

From left to right, we have the Britains, Safari Monkeys and Apes, Yowie and the Safari Authentics. The Safari Authentics is just okay for rump length (3.1/99 cm), but it has such a large head that it is difficult to accept it in the 1/32 reserve. Here is a more complete comparison of the gorillas, approximately ordered from small to large:
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This isn’t meant to be a complete comparison of gorillas, but I can’t leave out the wonderful Bandai gorillas. The adult has a 2.8/90 cm rump length. The young one is the only 1/32 scale young gorilla I know of.
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Most of my pandas are larger. For example, the Kaiyodo Yamanote Railway Line Souvenir (left) and Colorata Ueno Zoo pandas (right):
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It has a shoulder height of 1.7/86 cm and a head-body length of 4.6/147 cm. That’s small compared to the Britains lion (hip height 3.3/106 cm, HB length 6.0/192 cm):
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It's really good to see all the gorillas lined up together. Amazing how there is so much difference in every single one of them. And quite funny as well

and I've never seen a baby gorilla before it's a great figure

The pandas are good to see in comparison as well. I like the Kaiyodo and Colorata ones with the Toymany, and the CollectA mini and Safari toob too.

I think what I enjoy a lot here is the comparison photos!
As well as your indepth research and knowledge about all these figures Roger - you know a lot!

The lion is an exceptionally beautiful model, well sculpted, nicely painted and good details, like the front raised paw with the paw pads on view. Good pose too.

Thank you for these indepth comparisons!