Learning Resources Endangered Animals Set

This wandering albatross is a pretty nice figurine. Although the beginning of the beak could have a bit thicker, they did a good job on it. It really looks like an albatross' beak. They painted it intense orange, whilst all albatrosses I can spot on the internet have a very mildy pink coloured beak. It now looks more like the beak of, for example, an (European) herring gull. The right eye looks lovey detailed with that eyeliner-stripe, whist it looks like the painter slipped at the left eye and made a bit of a mess of it. The paws seem like they have the right colour. The wing feathers are painted a simple dark grey, but the feathers themselves are well sculpted.

I find it quite difficult to get black rhinoceroses apart from the white one, but I think it has to do with the shape of the mouth. The white rhinoceros has a broad, wide mouth, almost like a vacuum cleaner, whilst the black rhinoceros has more of a beak, almost prehistoric, like some dinosaurs. I think the mouth of this figurine is beak-ish enough to call it a black rhinoceros indeed! The details on its body is quite well done and I love the way they sculpted the ears. But I have actually no clue what they tried to do with his horns! I think this is the child-friendly way..? The mould-lines on its rear are a bit of a bummer; at some points it doesn't even close. Badly done, such a pity.

I'm least impressed with this figurine. When looking at the promotional picture it looks actually quite handsome, the paintjob looks rather nice for a spotted species. But it was a bit of a bummer when I unpacked it. I'm no anatomy expert, but this just looks wrong. It's the face especially. It's flat and strange and wrong.. And look at the spots, especially those on the rear; it looks like they were painted in rows, not just randomly. I think I said enough with this one..

Give it a cute, wobbly shape, paint it black and white, put a branch of eucalyptus in its paws and you definitely got yourself a giant panda. I think this is quite a good figurine. Of course the fur has no painted highlights, but the colour balance is quite right and I like the detail of the slightly other shade in which they painted the paw pads. Nice figurine and a must have if you collect giant pandas!

This bad boy sure started all this madness. Of course I find this figurine the best from the set! But besides the fact I love manatees, it's a pretty well sculpted figurine. It sounds dull to sculpt such a roll of dough, but this one has some nice details. I like his little toes on his flippers the most! Most manatee tails are completely rounded, but some have a little notch in the middle. It's nice to see one of those on a figurine! It almost looks like a heart. The only paint is done on the eyes. As far as a manatee figurine can be detailed, it is pretty much! Glad to have this fellow in my collection <3

Overall, I'm a bit disappointed, especially with the quality of Learning Resources' figurines. They are made of light, hollow plastic and there can't be said much about their paintjob. Most paint are flat colours, without any shading or highlights. Besides, the mouldlines are awful and visible only too well. I do like the sculpting work; they added some pretty neat details. I do like the variety and choice of species in this set. It's only the cheetah that I don't like, the others are pretty well done. But I think Learning Resources asks too much money for what you get.
But I bought the set for the manatee, and looking only to this figurine, I'm extremely happy and content. I'm not sure if I'll ever buy another Learning Resources set in the future, but I don't regret my choice on getting this one.