New Ice Age Addition (and a lesson about ordering online)

Given the lack of American Mastodon figures available from the major companies, I decided to shell out the added dollars to buy a model via Shapeways. It is listed at 1:36 scale and accurate dimensions given, but for some reason I got into my head that it was going to be larger than it ended up being.

A few photos... First, the unpainted new arrival, fresh out of the box...

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And after I painted it (I don't aim for true model quality painting, just in line with the work on most major company figures, which admittedly isn't aiming high)...

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And compared to the Wild Safari Woolly Mammoth, which is about accurate for the 1:36/1:40 scale...

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Now, unfortunately this is where I become a victim of there being no apparent standard scale. This is how it looks compared to the 1:30 Carnegie Collection Woolly Mammoth...

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I think what threw me off in my size estimate when I ordered was that I thought the Carnegie Mammoth was 1:40 scale for some reason, not 1:30. I'm guessing that most animal figures are in that 1:30 range, since here is how it looks compared to a Wild Safari elk...

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And a Schleich whitetail deer...

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Little known fact: Mastodons were driven into extinction by the arrival of 9' tall grizzly bears from Asia, apparently...

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So between this and the "mega-pronghorn" I got in the mail another time, I think I should just quit with ordering animal figures online. It's an expensive mistake to make all the time.

Amazing, wonderful model

Yes, it is strange that we (almost?) only see models of the wooly mammoth
It is not many years since I learned that there were several other species .
A brilliant idea for Safari to make one of the mammoths of the Americas

Congratulations with this beautyful model, - a great repaint

And thankyou for the thoughts about scale, - and the wonderful photos, which made me laugh so loud that the dogs woke up

Wonderful model!! Congratulations

Nice work painting him!

i like that Shapeways Mastodon a lot. congrats.

Thanks for showing the Shapeways model, nice painting.  

Do you know of the Imperial brand American mastodon figure?  I think it is the right size you're looking for and the sculpting isn't bad either.  With a repaint it can be a decent figure for your collection.
It shows up cheaply on eBay occasionally, I believe it is hollow plastic and from 1989.

I scaled it next to the Carnegie mammoth, works out to about 1:26 scale at 9 ft tall.

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Thanks for the compliments everyone!

SUSANNE wrote:

Yes, it is strange that we (almost?) only see models of the wooly mammoth
It is not many years since I learned that there were several other species .
A brilliant idea for Safari to make one of the mammoths of the Americas

At the end of the Ice Age there were two main species of Mammoth in North America. The Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is the most well known and most commonly modeled one. The Columbian Mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) was the larger of the two and not as hairy. Papo did a 1:40 model of that one a few years ago, but it's retired now ( [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ). I wouldn't mind getting it given the chance, since even though it's smaller than the Carnegie Woolly Mammoth figure it's still a decent enough size.

The American Mastodon (Mammut americanum) was another elephant entirely!

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And thankyou for the thoughts about scale, - and the wonderful photos, which made me laugh so loud that the dogs woke up

Excellent! If I have to have a Mastodon that is the same size as a Grizzly Bear, I'm glad somebody gets a laugh out of it!

elephas_maximus wrote:

Thanks for showing the Shapeways model, nice painting.  

Do you know of the Imperial brand American mastodon figure?  I think it is the right size you're looking for and the sculpting isn't bad either.  With a repaint it can be a decent figure for your collection.
It shows up cheaply on eBay occasionally, I believe it is hollow plastic and from 1989.

Thanks for the recommendation! I might give that a look, though I think that belt in the middle would require a bit more than repainting... Hmmm...

After seeing my Mastodon in better light today, I decided to give it another painting over. One of the things with Shapeways models is that they have a grainy texture and are very porous, so they can absorb paint like crazy and end up with a muddier look than one might want, especially compared to commercial figures. The following photo might not look TOO different, but it does look significantly better in real life now...

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Scale is always a problem. Even when brands provide us the scale, it sometimes doesn't work as well as we expect.
I warrant you that the elk and doe are in a larger scale than 1:30. These figures from major brands doesn't follow a certain scale but a size that matches in a desired price range and can make it look reasonably well with other figures. As you know, with prehistoric figures, we often see scale assigned.
Well, you can always ask on forum which is the adjusted size to a figure corresponding to a certain scale and we can help when possible.
Nice repaint!