Schleich 2016 List of Releases With Pictures!

Damon wrote:

Roger wrote:

Toy industry
...
...
... requested price. :)

I understand what you are saying, but will lowering the "quality" help them to get to another public?
Why can't kinds from ages 3-6 love animals that are realistic.

Those are not my ideas not even my personal view about what Schleich should do. I pointed and criticized the design direction of Schleich already some years ago, much before knowing what is happening during these last years.
Those are my observations as a person that is interested in this industry.
About lower quality, Schleich explained it to us in one of their reports 2 years ago, I guess. They wanted to save a lot of money in their production. They were not being profitable as usual so they decided to reduce the quality of their toys.
Though, you know a 3 or 4 years old child is not as exigent with the quality of materials as an older child is and, I think that the use of less dense pvc in Schleich figures may be also related with the new orientation. Can you immagine a 3 years old boy or girl playing with the old sperm whale? Huge and extraordinary heavy? When you think in their blue whale, much smaller, much lighter, it is also a question of design orientation, a 4 years old kid can play easily with it and in a safer way what was almost impossible with the old huge whales.
I believe it is not very exciting to people that traditionally collects Schleich, I'd also loved that they were able of keeping their quality standards, though, as I am not attached to any specific brand, I can find my joy as a collector a little here and there... brands like Safari, CollectA, Papo or Mojo are improving gradually their ranges with more and more realistic animal figures.

Schleich is good as is.
And Safari realistic? Seriously? Not the horses, they look like painted in preschool.

Tupolew Tu-154 wrote:

Schleich is good as is.
And Safari realistic? Seriously? Not the horses, they look like painted in preschool.

Yes, Safari is not the best example when talking about painting although there are good examples like the brown pelican.
Not many years ago, Schleich was, by far, the best toy company in terms of manufacturing, what I was commenting is about the decreasing of quality of Schleich versus the general improvement we see in other brands, Safari is much better than before as well are others, both in manufacturing and painting.
About the younger children oriented design, nobody beats Schleich these days with all these huge-eyed horses, braided manes, flowered tails. Maybe some Safari Incredible Creatures, like the piglet, the ducklin and some others belongs to a similar strategy but Safari reported that their IC line was being redesigned to children with more than 18 mounths of age.
Also, in terms of sculpting and acuracy, two important points to judge realism, if you compare Safari line of dinosaurs with Schleich, you'll find a huge difference favorable to the North American brand.

The painting is important like the sculpt, because i'm original collector, i don't customize my figurines.
And Schleich has a good paintjob.

The dinosaurs from safari are good, but Schleich ones also. The best dinosaurs has Papo. Every brand has figurines, that i want. Safari makes good dragons and mythological.

Tupolew Tu-154 wrote:

The painting is important like the sculpt, because i'm original collector, i don't customize my figurines.
And Schleich has a good paintjob.

The dinosaurs from safari are good, but Schleich ones also. The best dinosaurs has Papo. Every brand has figurines, that i want. Safari makes good dragons and mythological.

Yes, in average, Schleich used us to a painting quality that no other brand offered. The point here is that while other brands are improving their painting quality, Schleich is slowly decreasing. There's a quality convergence among brands and Schleich is still a company that offers good quality manufacturing. What really disappoints me is the children oriented design although I am excited with some 2016 news as I commented above. :)

I dream of working someday with them and showing the what a REAL horse looks like. They need to learn correct conformation, attire, and if they are going to braid, what the average Arabian braid actually looks like, aka no braids. They really should do some research also, and learn that there is no such thing as a bright pink truck and an event we that is dressed with such colors. They should know what they are doing, and they are losing their minds. Their decrease in value and quality is plummeting. I believe for one day they should bring in a professional, to tell them reality, because reality is what most buyers enjoy. Breyer is nailing it, and schleich is losing it.Mattel is dropping, and that should be a warning to schleich, why are they heading for Mattel rather then real German toys? They try to market to the average American consumers, but is that what we want? Our opinions are changing, and what we buy we want to last longer. I am just saying the schleich needs to shape up, or shut down, because the direction they are heading is not clear.

By the way, what s the status on the Wetsaphalian, NEW Forest, and half Arabian?

No one knows about those horses yet, and Schleich has only revealed a portion of their new things officially.

On a side note, I see what you are saying Valencia Stables, but the point Roger is making is that they are not anywhere near the Breyer stage, and they aren't intending to be. Companies like Breyer target a more Collector like consumer group, making really great quality figures on a large or small scale, though they also make things for small kids as well. Look at some of Breyer's figures, the larger traditional scales are usually more mature sculpts intended for collectors in my opinion, and the smaller things like some of their classics lines and especially series like wind dancers are clearly pointed more towards children to play with (and the accessories also are often pink etc. etc. etc.).

Schleich as Roger thinks and I agree, has decided to target a younger consumer range, hence why their secondary lines (I use that term in reference to that they came later than the animal lines) have become huge compared to when I was child and essentially all they had was collector or child grade animal figures. Also as Roger pointed out, it seems that we are on the brink of change in animal collecting history, you either appeal more kids or to collectors, there can't really be an in between anymore.

As for quality, that could be for a variety of reasons. Every brand has their own style and way of doing things, i.e. safari often has much more bold lines between different colors where another brand would blend it and shade it in more. For material, it could be based on availability or price of plastics, or also cutting costs (what roger said about less dense material makes sense to me, the newer Schleich figures a bit more rubbery feeling than their older figures that are very solid and heavy).

Anyways, getting back to the topic, I guess all we can do is hope for the best, and see what happens in the next few years. It could be that Schleich goes down since their quality is lowered and they lose interest in collectors, or it could be that other brands like CollectA go down due to the smaller consumer range and vamp in quality. (and I hate comparing brands in general terms, I don't necessarily think that CollectA is better than Schleich or vice versa, that just seems to be the popular comparison, and every brand has its own problems. i.e. CollectA horses could be viewed as awful due to the tendency to have an exaggerated pear shaped body with narrow shoulders and wide hips, its just a matter of personal taste).

As for me, I'm not really excited for Schleich this year, but I do think there are some personal wins from this company and some positive steps in a good direction. Afterall, they have never made a flamingo (kind of a perfect figure you would have thought since flamingos appeal to their new consumer range on multiple fronts) but also I never would have guess that they would release an oryx again, or a PANGOLIN period. So, there are some highlights, just have to see how they turn out in person.

Hm, on that note, I must agree! I guess they now go with the flow.

I will collect Schleich 2016, like the years before. I like their horses, knights, elephants and especially their bayala fantasy animals and dragons. I like unusual dragons.

Tupolew Tu-154 wrote:

I will collect Schleich 2016, like the years before. I like their horses, knights, elephants and especially their bayala fantasy animals and dragons. I like unusual dragons.

I didn't want to discourage you or any other person from collecting Schleich. I enjoy to see how this industry developes and to comment about that. And... even you agree their figures are more toyish these days, it shouldn't remove you from collecting them as long as you love them.
As an example, currently, I am watching an Anime Television Series called Dragonball GT, when I was 23 years old, I ignored it once it was very children oriented for my taste, now that I am 41 years old, I think it is perfect for my age.

Haha! Don't worry! I have been obsessed with Lazy Town and strawberry shortcake!

Roger wrote:

Tupolew Tu-154 wrote:

I will collect Schleich 2016, like the years before. I like their horses, knights, elephants and especially their bayala fantasy animals and dragons. I like unusual dragons.

I didn't want to discourage you or any other person from collecting Schleich. I enjoy to see how this industry developes and to comment about that. And... even you agree their figures are more toyish these days, it shouldn't remove you from collecting them as long as you love them.
As an example, currently, I am watching an Anime Television Series called Dragonball GT, when I was 23 years old, I ignored it once it was very children oriented for my taste, now that I am 41 years old, I think it is perfect for my age.

hear hear. I buy star wars action figures for my office. and now watch anime too. all this in addition to collecting animals, dinosaurs, and die cast cars. thank god for adulthood. (seriously.)

Ha, it makes my day to hear about everyone's "childishness". I think that we only grow up because we are told to, not because we need to. I get made fun of in my own family (not badly, just light teasing) for appreciating things I did as a kid, but honestly they make me happy. Everyone has stuff they like, they shouldnt abandon it just because we age every year.

I HATE THE NEW STABLE COLOURS!! Yucky!

Schleichs animals are not more childish than the other brands. The only thing i don't like is the new stable.

I got a mail from Monis Toyshop and Smurf-Oli showing the new smurfs for 2016
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thanks Susanne, do you know what is a Dschungel?

Roger wrote:

Thanks Susanne, do you know what is a Dschungel?

Jungle

20776 Jungle Smurf ,
20777 Jungle Papa Smurf ,
20778 Jungle Brainy Smurf ,
20779 Jungle Smurf, exhausted ,
20780 Discoverers Smurf ,
20781 Nature observers Smurf ,
20782 Adventurer Smurf,
20783 Native Smurf

Awesome! They look very nice!

Thanks Bryan and Susanne. That's a Smurf Natural Park.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Hi, I found another insta photo of one ot the new piglets. It looks really tiny!

Wow! So little! Now they are definitely on my wishlist!