Starlux WWF history

The much sought after Starlux WWF figures were introduced in 1982 and had a limited run spanning a short period of years.  

The series included all African animals:
-White rhinoceros
-Mountain gorilla
-Pygmy hippopotamus
-Jentink's duiker
-Okapi
-Scimitar horned oryx
-Sable antelope
-Black and white colobus monkey
-Mountain zebra
-Bongo
-Red hartebeest
-Cheetah

The sculpting for the series was different and much more accurate than the previous animals released by Starlux due to being modeled by Pierre Dandelot (1910-2007).  Mr. Dandelot was a professional sculptor, painter and taxidermist with a passion for zoology specializing in primates.  He attended the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris spending many mornings at the Jardin des Plantes observing, sketching and sculpting the animals there.  

In 1955 Mr. Dandelot was appointed curator of mammals and birds for the Paris Natural History Museum, here he put his expertise to good use creating lifelike taxidermied specimens for display.  Jean Dorst, the authour of  “A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa” collaborated with Dandelot in 1970 stating that beautiful, accurate artwork was favourable over standard photographs to illustrate his field guide.  He collaborated with Starlux in the 1980s to create prototypes for their WWF series.

Mr. Dandelot published several papers on the taxonomy of African primates which as an artist he was able to visually detect significant differences that had been passed over by taxonomists.  As he stated "ils n'ont pas l'oeil" ("they do not have the eye").  I find this a very interesting point as an artist who studied animal anatomy and was a "visual" specialist on animals he was sure to be more of an expert when it came to such matters.

If anyone else has any more information please comment below.  For me the history behind these and other brands is very interesting, I have been researching Lineol and JEOL with very interesting results, these will be posted soon.

Here are examples of his work (All images of the Starlux figures are from eBay)

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Life sized mammoth outside the Natural History Museum, Paris.  Sculpted by Dandelot, completed in 1986.

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Amazing story, very interesting! What a passion this man had! I would love to learn even more! It's so fantastic that you have found this story and pictures and shared with us.

Thank you Andrew.

And if you can tell us more, please do!

Now I need some of these figures, at least one in my collection

Very very interesting!!

Thankyou VERY much, Andrew

This is pure gold for the forum

It is a fantastic topics Andrew, I hope we will see more like this.

About François Clairet, he didn't use the Jardin des plantes as inspiration but the Zoo de Vincennes.

Thanks Anna, Andreas and Susanne glad it was interesting.

Kikimalou wrote:

It is a fantastic topics Andrew, I hope we will see more like this.

About François Clairet, he didn't use the Jardin des plantes as inspiration but the Zoo de Vincennes.

Thanks Christophe, you're right I will correct the post.  I was thinking Paris and got the two mixed up!

This is wonderful! I love this post. Thank you Andrew. Starlux is one of my favorite brands. I have none of the WWF series though. (And likely it will stay that way with those prices.)

scot(t) wrote:

This is wonderful! I love this post. Thank you Andrew. Starlux is one of my favorite brands. I have none of the WWF series though. (And likely it will stay that way with those prices.)

Thanks Scot(t), I don't have any from the WWF series either but maybe one day I will get lucky and find some for a reasonable price. The sculpting is really great on this line.

Great post and wonderful infro-those models look wonderful.I have the Field Guide and its a wonderful book and the illustrations are wonderfully done and also very accurate.

A wonderful post, well researched and beautifully presented! A Christmas present...Thank you Elephas!

Thanks for the knowledge, Andrew...

Andrew, that's all very interesting. Your researches are always very good and complete and we're lucky that you share them with us. Surely I'll remember to add in this topic if I find something to add to it.

Very nice topic!
I do own some of the WWF series from Starlux, they are awfully expensive these days, you have to be lucky to get them!
I have the okapi, black and white Colobu, saber antelope and the Jentincks duiker.

Someone knows on which documentation is based this wonderful information from Andrew please?..

I have the brochure "Les feuillets de l'association Starlux génération Beffara" and it mentions a similar story (but in less detail). It also says that Dandelot was helped by Maurice Massat with the moulds ("aidé par Maurice Massat pour permettre la bonne technicité de  démoulage").
Edit: The "feuillets" also mention that Dandelot was a professor (professeur) at the National History Museum.

There is quite a bit of information about Pierre Dandelot on the web. He appears to have been a well-known sculptor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoqGX35qP8c
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Dandelot
http://vdujardin.com/blog/tag/pierre-dandelot/
http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/fr/dandelot_pierre/artiste/249956/
http://www.cerca-trova.fr/fr/sculptures/1849-pierre-dandelot-panthere-devorant-une-carcasse-terre-cuite.html
My French isn't great, so I need some time to process all this information ...

Thank you very much Roger for your useful reply and for the links. I checked in "les feuillets de l'association Starlux génération Beffara" n°9 and found confirmation of the information on p.72!  

This is such a fascinating article - exactly the kind of articles I absoloteuly love! Thank you for posting it. Information with such history is brilliant. I cant however, find the other articles where you talk about the history of other brands or perhaps I am not looking correctly but would you mind messaging me some links to them?

As for Starlux WWF animals does anyone have any spare for trade? I want them!!! :-)

Numaan wrote:

This is such a fascinating article - exactly the kind of articles I absoloteuly love!  Thank you for posting it.  Information with such history is brilliant.  I cant however, find the other articles where you talk about the history of other brands or perhaps I am not looking correctly but would you mind messaging me some links to them?

As for Starlux WWF animals does anyone have any spare for trade? I want them!!! :-)

Numaan, you have here a link to all topics.