The River Nature Tube... not as nice as it used to be.

About the time I discovered E-auctions, I also discovered that there are other brands than Schleich  

I was fortunate get some lovely, little models, marked K&M, and was surprised that nobody else could see their quality, - they were not Schleich, they must be cheap junk, was the general idea  

As they have been palyed with rather a lot, and my set is not complete, I have now and then been looking for a brandnew , complete set, and was delighted when at last I found it  
But...but ...something happened !
Paint must have become very expensive since then, - here you can see the difference .
The old ones to the left, except the frog
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Wow. If you wouldn't know any better you would think they were cheap knock-offs.
Especially the beaver and heron didn't get much love.
They look like pale shadows compared to their earlier selves.

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Wow. If you wouldn't know any better you would think they were cheap knock-offs.
Especially the beaver and heron didn't get much love.
They look like pale shadows compared to their earlier selves.

Yes ! Isn't it horrible ? Cheaper kind of plastic too

My fingers itch to repaint them. But they are so little, I am sure I would make a mess of it

I have found a similar situation in many Safari toobs--the original runs have fantastic paint jobs, and they get a little lazier as they go (the Prehistoric Life (the mammals one) may be the worst offender for this).

Oddly, I've never bought this toob...I really should, just for the piranha, but I have better models!

So like Schleich?? Produce in different factorys??

Wow, that's a real shame. I love the old K&M tube animals - it's sad to see the cost-cutting in the new versions.

I want to add the rainforest toob that I bought today. The quality difference is just to big!
I only have the toucan from this toob as an old version, but you can see the other differences with TAI.

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K&M Rainforest toob on TAI

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Left new one, right the older one.

Such a shame!

And I am going to repaint the big cats toob for sure, or a least some of them!
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Really a shame. Wild Republic, contrarily to other companies, is loosing their focus on animal figures.