How did it start?

How did your love affair with Schleich start and when? For me, my Daughter had her 1st Xmas and it was a very special day. My Mother had bought her around 15 Schleich farm animals (as we come from an agricultural area of the UK). We loved them instantly. I've slowly being trying to obtain each type of animal and almost every other day my Daughter and I, open the bag, take out the animals and play with them. I don't really collect Schleich. I want to use them and play with them - the tags are removed and I catalogue the animal on a spreadsheet. My Daughter is now almost 20 months and we have 271 individual items already (basically 27 items per month!!!!!) - my wallet is draining fast :-)

So - I'm interested - how did your Schleich love start and when?

i found a elephant from 92 then about a few years later a saw a polar bear from the same brand but i diident know it untill 2 or 3 years ago then i started collecting

I always loved animals. And I saw the green parakeet and bought it many years ago. Then I saw, years later, some of the horses, and I bought the Tinker mare and ol' Hannoverian mare (dressage), I just thought they were so pretty and I liked their detail, so they actually started my passion for the Schleich horses which persists today, big time

I am not a Schleich collector only but my first Schleich animals i bought i think in the middle or end of the 90s. I think that was the birds of prey serie. That was to a time as i was a twenty and i dont really collet the animal figurines at this moment, but i had a big collection from my childhood there, and so i bought this new species:D

I also like the bird of prey series :-)

Since I'm boring I collect animal figures. A long tine I watching some figures in the toystores, but I haven't enough money for buy one of this animals. On the last year I saw the photo competition, I asked my mother to give me some money, and then I bought the gorilla family. On cristmas I became some money and bought Schleich animals. Today I have betwen 150 figures.

When I was five or six I had the retired 14137 lion and 14248 red deer. A few years ago I found them in an old box and fell in love again. Looked up the company and saw the variety of animals. I've always been somewhat obsessive with collecting things (obviously inherited given the small collection of Wade Whimsies my mother recently let me have from when she was a child) and after buying my first schleich for myself I couldn't stop! I have about 70 figures now :)

I've always loved animals, but mostly sea life and reptiles (weird I know). I had never knew that Schleich or any of the other companies existed until I went to a few local hobby shops in the mid to late 1990's and spotted Safari Ltd.'s Monterey Bay Aquarium collection along with Schleich's sea life. At the time, I wasn't sure about Schleich's sea life collection, none of them really looked "accurate" and I never bought any of them at the time. So I had mostly collected Safari Ltd. When Schleich released the 1:32 sea life figures is when I bought them, even though I never did get any of the older sea life figures. I can't even count how many figures I have (or how much I've spent!) between Safari Ltd., Schleich, Papo, CollectA and Mojo Fun. It's almost kind of an addiction, but in a good way.

Ha, my hobby with Schleich started when I was very little, when I was at least 3. I've always loved any and all animals so it was given I would love those toys. We walked into a farm supply store and there was a display and my first two figures were the sorrel mare 13225 and the Shire Gelding 13247. Then every time I went to that store I wanted a new animal and after my dad persuaded my mom to say yes he would make sure I got three or four.  So, my collection has a lot of the oldies in it (not some of the ones I want now of course) and so my hobby started early for me. I have branched out since then to the other brands since Schliech in my opinion has lost some quality to their figures. I just want the old charm back.  Anyways, my collection is very near 1,000 figures now, not all Schliech.

...

I don't know it anymore  it just started sometime and got more all the time

In 1998 I was having my firsh horse of schleich for christmas, and I start collect schleich horses since 2002..
Now I collect all, but I like a lot collect bayala and knights   

I was al long collector of Grand Champions horses i had got aroun 70 of them and just recently sold a couple to make space. I still do have around the 55 classic's.
My first schleich was one of the bayla elfs. About 5 years ago, then a started to buy horses in Germany, Because we didn't have them in the Netherlands. When i found a lot of oldies on the internet o got my collection expanded quickly! Now schleich is selled in the Netherlands to and i also still buy them from the internet because its cheaper  I can proudly say i have almost every horse ever made (exept for a little bit of old ugly ones and very expensief ones) And i have almost every bayala elf on horse back I just ordered the new limited Nuray and i'm so happy about it.

Dum_my wrote:

...I was al long collector of Grand Champions horses...

That's the same way I got into animal figures collecting (and repainting)

Dum_my wrote:

I was al long collector of Grand Champions horses i had got aroun 70 of them and just recently sold a couple to make space. I still do have around the 55 classic's.
My first schleich was one of the bayla elfs. About 5 years ago, then a started to buy horses in Germany, Because we didn't have them in the Netherlands. When i found a lot of oldies on the internet o got my collection expanded quickly! Now schleich is selled in the Netherlands to and i also still buy them from the internet because its cheaper  I can proudly say i have almost every horse ever made (exept for a little bit of old ugly ones and very expensief ones) And i have almost every bayala elf on horse back :DI just ordered the new limited Nuray and i'm so happy about it.

Congrats with your new figure of Nuray special edition    

End of 90s, with some dogs from Schleich and Bullyland. Horses later, after 2003. Before Schleich, i had collected Plaho.

Well, I always loved cats and big cats and my boyfriend asked me "Why don't you buy those schleich cats?" So I did :) i started in May last year with a lynx and lynx cub and i have about 320 different figures now, not all schleich, some Bullyland and Papo too.

Great achievement for a Maus   

It started about 12 years ago, with the old Shire foal. I didn't do much with him. I just played around a bit, but then I went to Regensburg with my folk, some years later, where I bought the tinker filly and then everything went downhill. Soon I bought the friesian mare and her foal and from then on I was sold.
First I only bought the foals and fillies, but soon I also went to get Stallions, mares and elves.

It has grown out to a obsession that drives my parents up the walls. I love it!