JEOL complete collection and history

The JEOL Saftvale wildlife range is a vintage set depicting African animals in 1:32 scale similar to Britains.  The figures were designed and sculpted in the UK but manufactured in Hong Kong during the 1970's.  After extensive searching I now have the complete set, they are very difficult to find.  In my opinion, this line stands out due to the excellent sculpting, proportions, anatomy and scale of the animals.  After researching the subject there was very little information but I will present what I have found.

There are 16 African animals:
G101-Elephant bull G102-Elephant cow G103-Elephant calf G104-Waterbuck G105-Bushpig
G106-Leopard G107-Impala ram G108-Impala ewe G109-Lion G110-Lioness G111-Lion cub
G112-Zebra stallion G113-Zebra mare G114-Warthog G115-Hyena G116-Giraffe

See castlerigg's post here for an original catalogue image of the set.
See SteveJ's post here for original packaging images.
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There are multiple variations, some marked just JEOL, others also have "Made in Hong Kong"/"Hong Kong", while others have version "A" or "B" printed as well.
The older first run of the figures were made of a very hard plastic and have a different paint scheme than the later figures made of softer PVC.  
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Saftvale logo  

The models were sculpted by a company called "Saftvale Limited" based in Huddersfield, UK.  The company mainly dealt with dinosaur items such as postcards, posters, and replicas both miniature and full scale for museums.  The main sculptor was Alan Braddock, he may have sculpted the wildlife set.  Some of the models were supposedly referenced from real animals at Longleat Safari Park, UK.  As Saftvale changed their name to "Toyway Limited" in 1977, it can be assumed that the JEOL line was produced before this time.  The World Wildlife Fund received donations based on the sale of the JEOL range.

JEOL (Japan Electronics Optics Laboratory) is a Japanese company which commissioned Saftvale to produce the wildlife set as an educational item.  The figures were sold in airports,  toy shops, museums, and zoos directly competing with Briatins at the time but not as widely distributed.

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The elephant cow was supposedly based on this elephant named Wamba (Longleat Safari Park), seen here in a Victorian drama series.

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1975 Saftvale advert in a Geology magazine

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Scale model dinosaurs

Additional images of the extremely rare G116 giraffe.
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Comparison with the more popular 1:32 scale Britains figures.
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Thank you, elephas_maximus, for these infos and nice photos - and... congratulations to the rare giraffe in your collection!

This is a fantastic topic

It is morning here and my dogs want thieir morning-walk, I can't wait to come back an study it

First congratulations for all! And than thank you for all the informations :)

Look at this topic! Fabulous Andrew! I think we deserve it, thanks for sharing all the results of your prolonged researching. Toy animal figures are much more than pieces of plastic depicting animals, there's always many stories behind them and it makes this hobby even more special. We have to put a link on TAI to this fabulous topic!

This is realy fantastic made it topic Andrew
With interesting information, great photos and wonderful models.
All of them look very nice, and most of them - very realistic :)
Great !
Thank you.

congratulations, very complete information.

What a joy

Beautyful collection, beautyful photos and lots of great information

A wonderful article!

Thank you Fernando and smallscaleworld.

jarda wrote:

Thank you, elephas_maximus, for these infos and nice photos - and... congratulations to the rare giraffe in your collection!

Thank you, I thought you would like this topic.  Yes I'm glad to have found the giraffe in such good condition.

SUSANNE wrote:

This is a fantastic topic

It is morning here and my dogs want thieir morning-walk, I can't wait to come back an study it

I'm glad you find this interesting, I know you have the leopard so you can see how it fits in with the rest of the animals.

widukind wrote:

First congratulations for all! And than thank you for all the informations :)

Thank you Andreas.

Roger wrote:

Look at this topic! Fabulous Andrew! I think we deserve it, thanks for sharing all the results of your prolonged researching. Toy animal figures are much more than pieces of plastic depicting animals, there's always many stories behind them and it makes this hobby even more special. We have to put a link on TAI to this fabulous topic!

Thanks Roger, yes feel free to link this on TAI.

costicuba wrote:

This is realy  fantastic made it topic Andrew
With interesting information, great photos and wonderful models.
All of them look very nice, and most of them - very realistic :)
Great !
Thank you.

Thank you costicuba, the painting is not the best on some models but the sculpting is very good still.

These models are really impressive! I've really enjoyed reading your posts on the different vintage companies - thanks so much for sharing your research with us!

You made again a fabulous topic Andrew, your choice, pics and explanations are like honey for an old macaque. Even the name of one elephant... it is fantastic, thank you very much

Great photos, very interesting info, amazing collection of Jeol animals! Thank you for sharing Andrew!

Thank you bjarki12, Christophe, and Anna, I'm glad you liked the photos and information.
I will continue with history posts on Lineol next time, I've found some rare information on that company.

It goes without saying that I am most impressed by the number of hyenas--and the variation!

sbell wrote:

It goes without saying that I am most impressed by the number of hyenas--and the variation!

Yes, it is a very cruel pic

Thanks for this great reference guide Andrew - some fascinating facts here. This has to be my favourite series of animal figures and I have still had no luck finding any of the three elephants. It's great to see more examples of the packaging as I had never seen any, other than the one I found earlier this year.

Thanks Steve, actually the packaging I have shown are replicas.  
I made them on the computer and printed them out on card stock based on the photos you posted as I don't think I'd ever find an original.

Yes, the larger animals are very scarce but the smaller ones show up more often.

Well, you certainly fooled me. They look great but I think if mine contained the baby elephant then I would be very tempted to open it ! Actually, I have decided that I might try selling mine on ebay as I much prefer to have the figures on show but until I see another sell then I have no idea what to ask for it. I think I'll just put it on with a very high buy-it-now price to see if anyone's tempted and if not, then I'm more than happy to keep it.

Fabulous posting, so many photos and detailed info. Thank you

This is my most favourite post on the whole STS site!

It is a great one

Wonderful post and with so memories for me!These models were easy to come by when I was younger but sadly I never kept mine and gave them away and that is my only regret.To this day I still think they are wonderful models.