american bisons, horses and cows

Hi boys and girls,
my interest is in toy soldiers by Schleich, Papo, and so on, mainly knights, romans and wild west.
My interest about animal figures is to complete the worlds of toy soldiers, as ( important in some situation ) "accessories".
To complete and enlarge my collection of wild west figures and to can create scenes of classic wild west life ( a bison hunting scene, for example ) I need a lot of american bisons, a real ( little ) herd of them. I am thinking to 20 or more figures in total.
I have yet two complete families ( male + female + baby ) by Schleich.
To have more variety I wish to buy also other firms american bisons.
Someone has a complete list of available figures ?
And, more important, the not Schleich american bisons are of the same size ( that is in the same scale, about 1:20 ) of the Schleichs ? They must be viewied side by side in the same scene...
The same answers as above are related to typical american horses ( pintos, mustangs, and so on ) or american cows ( Texas longhorn or others )
Thank you in advance and best wishes
Stefano.

This list is perhaps not complete ( I doubt that such a list exists ), but quite extensive, - check on TAI

I'll just complement Susanne's comment.
Well, for horses you should concentrate in these 4 breeds/color breeds.
American Quarter Horse (the cowboy horse), Appaloosa (Horse of American natives), Paint and Mustang (feral horse).
Here is a good example where TAI (Toy Animal Encyclopedia), can be very useful!
Please check these links:
- American Quarter Horses
- American Paint Horses
- Appaloosas
- Mustangs

When you use your mouse over the pictures on gallery, you'll find a link to pages with additional information about the figures, including, if they are already retired or still available.
For scales, all major brands (Bullyland, CollectA, Mojo, Papo, Safari and Schleich), have collections of horses around 1:20 scale.
Collections are: Bullyland large horses, CollectA Standard Horses, Mojo Horses, Papo Equestrian, Safari Farm Horses, Safari Winners Circle and Schleich Horses. Horses of other collections are not in 1:20 scale.
Notice that CollectA horses after 2010, tend to be a little large for 1:20 scale, so prevent them when you have other options.

Although not listed on TAI, you have also the American Quarter mare and foal, in 1:20 scale by Big Country Farm Toys that you can acquire in their website
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

For American bisons, I recomend again Tai page - American bisons
What makes a herd look realistic is not when they are exactly the same size and alike but when they show slightly different sizes and are different molds in diferent poses.
Again, major brands provide you bisons around 1:20 scale, I suspect Schleich bisons are slightly small but I think they work nicely anyway. CollectA, Mojo, Papo, Safari and Schleich, are all fine.

I recomend also that you get the Safari California condor, you can hang it once it is flying!
Click here!


For Texas Longhorns here is their page on TAI
Again, those from standard Farm collections of major brands are tendencially in 1:20 scale and once more, Big Country Farm Toys have also the breed in the same scale.

I also recommend you some warmblood horses. I read few time ago that indians horses weren't paint because their horses were horses stolen from American army and they used 'solid' horses without marks. This article also said that the myth of paint horses became in Hollywood, the years when Indian films were so popular, in these years Hollywood wasn't in a good economic moment so they used paint horses better than solid horses painted (because indians painted they horses)

So some warmblood horses (solid colors and athletic bodies) could be great for your collection

Thank you all for your interesting and detailed informations.
Now I know what I have to buy or not.
I had the suspect that Schleich bisons are little, but besides other firms bisons they will be anyway a beauty.
As Roger says, my bison herd must be with different dimensions, poses and colours.
One of my next purchases will be the white bison ( Wakatanka ! ) by Papo, a new figure that is not in the TAI ( for the moment, I think ).
Anyway the TAI is very interesting and opens t0 me new horizons.
Best wishes
Stefano.
P.S.: I became in love with Pintos and Appaloosas: very beutiful horses, with a "wild smell", exactly what my wild west world needs !

bigboy wrote:

One of my next purchases will be the white bison ( Wakatanka !        ) by Papo, a new figure that is not in the TAI ( for the moment, I think ).
Anyway the TAI is very interesting and opens t0 me new horizons.

Stefano, could you please tell me more about the white bison from Papo, I don't know it.

I want to hear about the new White Bison by Papo too! I love the new White Bison by Safari. That's a great model.

The regular bison by Safari is, in my view, one of the very best figures of American Bison available right now. I like all three of the Schleich models of the adult that they've released. The Preiser is slightly smaller and not made out of a sturdy plastic, but it's a lovely model. I also kind o like the older Papo model. (And the Starlux is one of my most fervently desired models… sigh.)

Hello,
I was "sure" to have seen somewhere in the web a Papo White bison image.
But now I am not able to refind it.
It can be a mistake by me and that I saw the Safari figure.
Sorry, I am not an expert about animal figures...
Best wishes
Stefano.

bigboy wrote:

Hello,
I was "sure" to have seen somewhere in the web a Papo White bison image.
But now I am not able to refind it.
It can be a mistake by me and that I saw the Safari figure.
Sorry, I am not an expert about animal figures...
Best wishes
Stefano.

Stefano, you don't have to feel sorry. Papo has a lot of non animal collections and it won't surprise me that they had introduced a white buffalo somewhere in their collections. We only get a little excited when someone talks about a figure that we don't know yet.

Roger wrote:

bigboy wrote:

Hello,
I was "sure" to have seen somewhere in the web a Papo White bison image.
But now I am not able to refind it.
It can be a mistake by me and that I saw the Safari figure.
Sorry, I am not an expert about animal figures...
Best wishes
Stefano.

Stefano, you don't have to feel sorry. Papo has a lot of non animal collections and it won't surprise me that they had introduced a white buffalo somewhere in their collections. We only get a little excited when someone talks about a figure that we don't know yet.

Let me second what Roger said. No need to apologize. Roger and I were just being eager about the possibility about a figure we hadn't heard of before.

I hope you'll update us when you decide which additional figures you'll be acquiring. I'm interested to hear which Bisons you acquire. Best of luck!