Reviews of Safari toobs (pleasant surprises inside!)

Hi, everyone!
At last I’ve found time to post a review of Safari toobs I bought last Autumn.
I had seen the first Safari toobs in a shop rather long ago but hadn’t bought any for a long time ‘cause I wasn’t sure about quality of toob figures. But I was wrong – the toobs have many pleasant surprises inside! Many of the toobs’ figures are very finely made and they have really enriched my displays.
Now I’ve got five toobs in total.
I’ll start with a review of the first three of them.

Here are the first three toobs I managed to buy with a discount (their usual price in Kiev was $11, but I was happy to acquire these toobs for $6 each):
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The biggest number of surprises was in the Exotic Birds Toob. Here are the figures I chose for my display (the other were donated to my son’s collection):
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1. Green parrot – my favorite one in the whole toob. The bird has perfect scale and is very delicately crafted.
2. Quetzal – wonderful bird figurine, a real bijou for my American display!
3. Colibri on a flower looks simply excellent.
4. Cockatoo is a fine figure, a bit smaller than the Wings of the World cockatoo, but still very nice.
5. Macaw is finely made, but its scale is much smaller than the Wings of the World or Schleich macaws.
6. The toucan is also small. But it can play a role of smaller toucan species in my display.
7. The ibises are not the best figures, but they could be used as background birds for a S. American water pond display.


From the Rainforest Toob I took only 4 figures for my display, but two of them are real masterpieces:
1. Emerald Tree Boa looks wonderful and has a perfect scale. This tree dweller fits perfectly my “selva” display.
2. Green Iguana has the best scale among all the iguana figures of any brand. All the other iguanas are way too big, and this one is just OK, and its details are finely crafted.
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The other two figures I chose from this toob are:
- Spider Monkey – not very finely made, but every tree dweller is extremely valuable for my displays;
- Caiman – rather small, but could play a role of a female Dwarf Caiman which is just about 1.1 m long in real life. It’ll look good even next to Safari River Otter if we presuppose that it’s an Amazon Giant Otter.


Forest Toob has plenty of excellent but small N. American wildlife figures. Almost all of them were donated to my son, except three critters:
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1. Finally I found an otter that is not too large (Wild Safari and Collecta otters are too big)!
2. Beaver is smaller than it should be, but I like it nevertheless.
3. Racoon is not the best figure, but has a good scale.


Small and nice figures from the toobs have enriched my S. American display. Here’s a photo I took in October (after that I populated this display even more):
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This review will be continued as I’ve got two more toobs: River and Alligators Alive. And they contain some very nice surprises too!

I'm picking up my exotic birds toob tomorrow - now I'm really looking forward to it! They look excellent!

I have some horses from a toob like those :)

They are good figures...

Congratulations my friend! :)

WOW! Those toobs are fantastic.
I had the toobs with cats and with horses many years ago, I only have the Siamese cat left, such a shame !

Thank you for showing these fantastic pictures
It is really hard to say which set is the greatest, but the hummingbird makes the birds win in my mind

With a little touch up the green tree python is very nice!

Oo, I would love to get my hands on the rainforest and especially the exotic birds toobs

Great additions, and thanx for the pics

The TOOB figures have really improved in quality over just the last two years. It used to be pretty standard to have unpainted or mispainted figures, or, even more commonly, unpainted eyes, misplaced eyes, or huge eyes on the figures, rendering them fugly beyond belief. Many times I had to repaint these figures. But over the last two years, I've seen better figures in the TOOBs, so that's a plus. Don't forget to the Puma figure from the North American Wildlife TOOB, which I use in my displays as an Asian Golden Cat. I want to touch up the paint to make it more authentic, but, overall, it works well.

The exotic bird toob paint job is consider acceptable and the humming bird is gorgeous!!

Congratulation Kirryl . Indeed there are some nice things in those SAFARI Ltd toobs.

And it's true the quality enhanced those last years .

Some of those critters are helpful citizens and can play a small part in your displays like they do on the Sergey shelves.

Like in a Peplum or "historical" movie, the foot soldiers are as important as the big roles .

About the iguanas, Yujin and PV also made some "good scale" ones but they are retired now.

They're really great, congratulations Kirill!

You're welcome, friends!

sphyrna18 wrote:

...Don't forget to the Puma figure from the North American Wildlife TOOB, which I use in my displays as an Asian Golden Cat. I want to touch up the paint to make it more authentic, but, overall, it works well.

That's a very interesting idea! But what about its body proportions? Puma seems to be longer & more slender.

ken yeo wrote:

The exotic bird toob paint job is consider acceptable and the humming bird is gorgeous!!

yes, it is! But I like the green parrot even more.

Arrakai wrote:

Oo, I would love to get my hands on the rainforest and especially the exotic birds toobs

What's the problem then, aren't they sold at your place?

Kikimalou wrote:

Some of those critters are helpful citizens and can play a small part in your displays like they do on the Sergey shelves..

You're right! While the major brands don't produce any "small citizens" so much needed for displays, Safari toobs are really helpful. Especially when it comes to birds and reptiles.

Yes, Safari toobs can be helpful for adding smaller reptiles and birds to your displays!

Kiryuha wrote:

sphyrna18 wrote:

...Don't forget to the Puma figure from the North American Wildlife TOOB, which I use in my displays as an Asian Golden Cat. I want to touch up the paint to make it more authentic, but, overall, it works well.

That's a very interesting idea! But what about its body proportions? Puma seems to be longer & more slender.

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I've never seen an Asian Golden Cat in real life, but from what I've read, in the opinion of others, they look a lot like mini-pumas. So I figured that the TOOB figure would work

Congratulations Kiril, I'm thinking seriously in the birds toob! for who work with scales and displays as you do, are a very nice idea!but I'd loved to know how you determin the scales of some animals because some have very different sizes between subspecies! And some Homo sapiens are bigger and other smaller with big differences, it happens too with real animals!
And even some toob animals are too big to 1:20 scales!

Roger wrote:

Congratulations Kiril, I'm thinking seriously in the birds toob! for who work with scales and displays as you do, are a very nice idea!but I'd loved to know how you determin the scales of some animals because some have very different sizes between subspecies! And some Homo sapiens are bigger and other smaller with big differences, it happens too with real animals!
And even some toob animals are too big to 1:20 scales!

You bring up a good point, Roger. I tend to go with "sliding scales". Basically, I measure the length (either head + body or total length, whichever is easier) and/or the height of the figure (at the shoulders). Next, I get a reliable source and look at what the size range is for the Real Life animal. Take the smallest size, convert into either inches or cm (which ever you prefer), then divide by the measurement you took for the figure. Repeat these steps with the maximum size listed. Then apply as you see fit.

For instance:

According to Schleich's website, the Tiger figure is 6cm (2.4 inches) high, and due to the position of the figure, the shoulders are basically the highest point on the figure, and that makes this an easy example (hence why I picked it). So, the figure is 6cm (2.4 inches) high at the shoulder.

Next, I go to a website like [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and find the size data for real tigers. According to this website, Tigers measure an average of 84 - 100cm (34-40") at the shoulders. These are not exceptionally large specimens, nor are they exceptionally small.

84cm/6cm = 14, so the Schliech Tiger, if representing a tiger at the lower end of the average range in size, is at 1:14 scale.

100cm/6cm = 16.67, which we round up to 17, and that means that if the figure represents a tiger at the upper end of the average range in size, then it is 1:17 scale.

It is safe to assume that the figure fits in with other figures scaled either 1:14, 1:15, 1:16, or 1:17.

sphyrna18 wrote:

The TOOB figures have really improved in quality over just the last two years. It used to be pretty standard to have unpainted or mispainted figures, or, even more commonly, unpainted eyes, misplaced eyes, or huge eyes on the figures, rendering them fugly beyond belief. Many times I had to repaint these figures. But over the last two years, I've seen better figures in the TOOBs, so that's a plus. Don't forget to the Puma figure from the North American Wildlife TOOB, which I use in my displays as an Asian Golden Cat. I want to touch up the paint to make it more authentic, but, overall, it works well.

Ahh, so that is why I have not considered them lately !
Tha ones I had were from maybe 6 - 7 years ago, - they were really not very fantastic.
Hurray, I learned something new today, and it is only 9 in the morning

sphyrna18 wrote:

I've never seen an Asian Golden Cat in real life, but from what I've read, in the opinion of others, they look a lot like mini-pumas. So I figured that the TOOB figure would work

Yeah, they look pretty much alike, excluding the muzzle coloring.

SUSANNE wrote:

Ahh, so that is why I have not considered them lately !
Tha ones I had were from maybe 6 - 7 years ago, - they were really not very fantastic.
Hurray, I learned something new today, and it is only 9 in the morning

That was a very pleasant discovery for me too!

sphyrna18 wrote:

You bring up a good point, Roger. I tend to go with "sliding scales". ...
It is safe to assume that the figure fits in with other figures scaled either 1:14, 1:15, 1:16, or 1:17.

I apply a very similar approach. It is not applicable in every case (remember 1:12 birds, for example), but with majority of figures it works.

Mine got here too! In addition to the birds I got the alligators, Galapagos, and Australia toobs. And all I can say is Wow! So many awesome models! Granted, they could've done without Mr Not To Scale Guy... Why include a human figure at all? (Unless it's David Attenborough. I'd totally buy that one.)

Sumo wrote:

Why include a human figure at all? (Unless it's David Attenborough. I'd totally buy that one.)

Good one...
Jokes aside, that man is a legend

skysthelimit wrote:

Sumo wrote:

Why include a human figure at all? (Unless it's David Attenborough. I'd totally buy that one.)

Good one...
Jokes aside, that man is a legend

Or Jacques Cousteau

Well, depends... I wouldn't want him in Rainforest toob

skysthelimit wrote:

Well, depends... I wouldn't want him in Rainforest toob

Very rainy forest

beautiful animals!
I'm waiting for other reviews