How do they ruin your favorite animal?

cattlecollector wrote:

What really irks me is when texture is wrong***. An example of this for me is the new Schleich longhorn bull. As a whole, the figure is pretty good, but the detail is kind of sketchy. The horns bother me because of the texture. They are grooved and streaked like wood. I have been around cows all of my life, and all cattle horns I have seen are very smooth.

TOTALLY agree! If i collected cattle and rhinos, "wooden" horns would be a deal breaker for me. i cannot stand them. I hate the Papo Wooly Rhino for that reason. An otherwise wonderful model ruined by a bizarre error.

Why fox is made by 4 pieces? D:
Not the best i've seen...

AlopexLagopus wrote:

Why fox is made by 4 pieces? D:
Not the best i've seen...

Because it is the ChocoQ figure and dimensions are limited to fit the Choco capsule But we are little off-topic here...

Sorry
I hope she is not claustrophobic

I'm also like that
but it is with horse models... I absolutely Hate when schleich mess up their formation e.g tough, thick head. etc.

Im not sure if this would count as "They Ruining my favorite figure" but this is a personal problem I have.

one of the things that irk me about figures are paint rubs on select figures. I have been trying to make a clean collection of Safari Dinosaurs, yet, sometimes they arrive in the package with white spots on them(AKA the main plastic color).

I later find myself buying another one just to replace it, because I cant afford the shipping to send it back.

I have been getting mental help for this silly peeve

I know this is an old topic, but I find it interesting and hope you don't mind my bringing it back.

My breed/species of choice is Dobermans and I will collect them in almost any size, shape or form. Generally speaking, if you make a realistic or accurate model of this breed, I will love it. However, as I'm sure you may know, this breed has been badly stereotyped in media. The things that ruin Doberman figures for me are listed below.

1. Inaccurate personalities such as Alpha from Up that are reflected in a figure. I never in my life have met an emotionless dobie or one with angry eyes all the time. The real ones have bright, round eyes.

2. Overly muscled much like a Clydesdale horse. The real ones are strong, but also slender and graceful.

3. I don't mind the occasional natural-looking snarling ones, but too much of this isn't good. They can be happy as well.

I realize that most of these problems exist in cartoons rather than in figures, but since it seems like the cartoonish-looking style is becoming more popular amongst toys and I'm concerned that these stereotypes will sneak in. I will say that I do like accurately portrayed cartoon dobies, but these are very rare.

Hi everyone, I'm new here.

I love all animals and have a collection of animal figures which has a lot of horses and dogs as they are probably my favourite domestic animals.

It upsets me when they are sculpted so crudely and their legs are in totally unrealistic poses.

CollectA has some lovely horses at the moment though that I would love to own!

Welcome here Chappie!

Thankyou LeeAnn! I love this forum.

The other bugbear of mine, is that horses eyes are not realistic enough.

Hello and welcome Chappie !!!

I agree, - it is amazing how well painted eyes makes a model much more attrctive

You think you have to deal with bad mistakes when manufacturers make your favorite animals? Here are the mistakes I HAVE to cope with when it comes to whales figures/pictures

1- Sperm Whales with wrinkles on the throat. Just like Baleanopterids...
2- Narwhals with a beak. Just like dolphins. Can you imagine?
3- Blue whales with a pointy snout. Now THAT is a common one! Even though we know blue whales have a flat, roundish snout...
4- Blue whales without a flipper on the back. I don't know if blue whales and right whales mate in the wild...
5- Bowhead whales with a flat head. Now where did bowhead whales get their name?
6- Grey whales with the upper lip smaller than the down lip. Now, what is the main feature of the grey whale's head, again?
7- Baleen whales with only one blowhole (nostril). Just like toothed whales.
8- Black Right whale identified as "Baleana mysticetus".

See what I mean? Here is what I have to get through when I look for whale figures. But since whale figures are rare themselves, I often have to accept those mistakes...

WOW ! You know a lot about whales

Bowhead Whale wrote:

You think you have to deal with bad mistakes when manufacturers make your favorite animals? Here are the mistakes I HAVE to cope with when it comes to whales figures/pictures

1- Sperm Whales with wrinkles on the throat. Just like Baleanopterids...
2- Narwhals with a beak. Just like dolphins. Can you imagine?
3- Blue whales with a pointy snout. Now THAT is a common one! Even though we know blue whales have a flat, roundish snout...
4- Blue whales without a flipper on the back. I don't know if blue whales and right whales mate in the wild...
5- Bowhead whales with a flat head. Now where did bowhead whales get their name?
6- Grey whales with the upper lip bigger than the down lip. Now, what is the main feature of the grey whale's head, again?
7- Baleen whales with only one blowhole (nostril). Just like toothed whales.
8- Black Right whale identified as "Baleana mysticetus".

See what I mean? Here is what I have to get through when I look for whale figures. But since whale figures are rare themselves, I often have to accept those mistakes...

Hehehe, have seen some terrible whales/dolphins in my life... XD

The one about the Beluga is defiantly a mistake we see very often.
Therefor I only have a few that I really like (the new Papo one for example)
The beak/snout thing is also very notable with orca figures sometimes o.0

At number 4, you mean the little dorsal fin?

NightLioness wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

You think you have to deal with bad mistakes when manufacturers make your favorite animals? Here are the mistakes I HAVE to cope with when it comes to whales figures/pictures

1- Sperm Whales with wrinkles on the throat. Just like Baleanopterids...
2- Narwhals with a beak. Just like dolphins. Can you imagine?
3- Blue whales with a pointy snout. Now THAT is a common one! Even though we know blue whales have a flat, roundish snout...
4- Blue whales without a flipper on the back. I don't know if blue whales and right whales mate in the wild...
5- Bowhead whales with a flat head. Now where did bowhead whales get their name?
6- Grey whales with the upper lip bigger than the down lip. Now, what is the main feature of the grey whale's head, again?
7- Baleen whales with only one blowhole (nostril). Just like toothed whales.
8- Black Right whale identified as "Baleana mysticetus".

See what I mean? Here is what I have to get through when I look for whale figures. But since whale figures are rare themselves, I often have to accept those mistakes...

Hehehe, have seen some terrible whales/dolphins in my life... XD

The one about the Beluga is defiantly a mistake we see very often.
Therefor I only have a few that I really like (the new Papo one for example)
The beak/snout thing is also very notable with orca figures sometimes o.0

At number 4, you mean the little dorsal fin?

Exactly. Have you ever seen a baleanopterid without a dorsal fin in nature? They are however rather common in whale art...

Silver Unicornis wrote:

I don't mind when body proportions are a tiny bit off (as long as it's not much visible at first glance), I can accept it. But I won't buy a model which has messed up head anatomy. That's why I've decided recently not too collect Schleich horses anymore, I've seen many of them live recently and I was discouraged to vast majority of them just because I've noticed many not-so-minor flaws in their head anatomy. The same with Schleich tigers - what the hell is that supposed to be? Their heads are just awful.

I'm also extremely choosy as far as unicorns are concerned. I know they are fantasy creatures (they are my favourite mythical/fantasy creatures, in fact), not real ones, but I can't stand a unicorn which looks like a horse with a horn on its forehead. And, what's even worse, sparkling and pink-coloured! My favourite image of unicorn is very close to heraldic one - looking rather fragile, somewhere between a horse and a deer, white, with a lion-like tail, cloven hooves and a goat-beard, not to forget a horn.

I hear you there. When I was a teenager, I used to draw a lot of unicorns and collect unicorns as well. Here are the mistakes I have seen the most often:

1- Unicorns without a femur. In other words, represented with only one articulation on the back legs, just like if this particular articulation was a knee bending backwards (when it actually really is an ankle)...

2- Unicorns without a pastern. In other words, with the hooves directly attached to the carps or the tarses...

3- Unicorns represented lying down, but with the tail attached way above the ground. Now, that is a common one! In nature, when a hoofed animal lies down, the tip of the buttocks usually touches the ground, because they bend their knees; as a result, the tail almost touches the ground as well, the anus being located right Underneath it. But many unicorns (like many horses or deers) are represented, lying down, with the buttocks' tips way above the ground, just like if the fémurs wre attached to the sacrum instead of on the hips, or if the animal didn't have knees at all...

4- Unicorns with ears attached in the temples. In other words, with the ears attached just where the jaws attach as well. In nature, all mammals have their ears attached right behind the zygomatic arches, humans included!

As you can see, you're not the only one who noticed bad mistakes in unicorn art...

Quote :

You think you have to deal with bad mistakes when manufacturers make your favorite animals? Here are the mistakes I HAVE to cope with when it comes to whales figures/pictures

1- Sperm Whales with wrinkles on the throat. Just like Baleanopterids...

I know exactly what you mean about the Sperm whale/Mysticeti hybrids and this bothers me as well.  They seem to spring up everywhere just like the stereotypical dobies.

I tend to give unicorns and other fantasy creatures some leeway here because they can technically look like anything, but I definitely agree that they should try to stick to real animal anatomy.  The old Papo unicorn is one that comes to mind as being similar to your descriptions (although it does have pasterns and knees).  It's still interesting as a cartoon, but there's no real thought to anatomy at all.

barracudacat wrote:

Quote :

You think you have to deal with bad mistakes when manufacturers make your favorite animals? Here are the mistakes I HAVE to cope with when it comes to whales figures/pictures

1- Sperm Whales with wrinkles on the throat. Just like Baleanopterids...

I know exactly what you mean about the Sperm whale/Mysticeti hybrids and this bothers me as well.  They seem to spring up everywhere just like the stereotypical dobies.

I tend to give unicorns and other fantasy creatures some leeway here because they can technically look like anything, but I definitely agree that they should try to stick to real animal anatomy.  The old Papo unicorn is one that comes to mind as being similar to your descriptions (although it does have pasterns and knees).  It's still interesting as a cartoon, but there's no real thought to anatomy at all.

Exactly. Did you see my home-made mythological creatures toys? I try to be faithful to the folkloric description as well as being respectful to anatomical rules, as much as I can. It's only when the description of the creature defies the laws of biology that I don't respect basic anatomy. But aside of that, I always care about anatomic rules. If unicorns lived in the actual world, they would have knees and pasterns. And they would have their ears attached behind their zygomatic arches just like any other mammal in the world.

The new Schleich "lioness". Ugh...

I don't know why they change it into... this.
The muzzle and the face does not look like a lioness, moreover they spooted in black the pores of the front muzzle. Horrible if you seen it in live.

I dislike this odd lioness too, everything could be fine but the head

Schleich is soon almost as variable in their design as Bullyland : Some models are excellent, others are really off

That lioness is a paradox in Schleich tradition. For a long time, Schleich figures were designed with completely wrong proportions but their faces were usually convicent and appealing. This lioness has good proportions, an excellent body and a disastrous face.

Roger wrote:

That lioness is a paradox in Schleich tradition. For a long time, Schleich figures were designed with completely wrong proportions but their faces were usually convicent and appealing. This lioness has good proportions, an excellent body and a disastrous face.

Actually, this lioness is way from being the worst feline face I have seen in toy history. I have seen, through my 40 years of existence, waaayyy worse designs than that!

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Roger wrote:

That lioness is a paradox in Schleich tradition. For a long time, Schleich figures were designed with completely wrong proportions but their faces were usually convicent and appealing. This lioness has good proportions, an excellent body and a disastrous face.

Actually, this lioness is way from being the worst feline face I have seen in toy history. I have seen, through my 40 years of existence, waaayyy worse designs than that!

Yes, you are right, she's not among the worst toy lionesses!
But Schleich is aiming for high quality, and relatively expensive toys, not the cheapest possible animals in sets for less than 1 dollar. Compared to many Schleich lionesses, and, especially to lionesses from other toy companies with models in the same price range, this one has very poorly sculpted (and painted) head, in my opinion. It's much worse than the model released by Schleich a few years earlier and I think it is not what collectors were hoping for?