ERTL Horses

Hello,
ERTL produced horses, cows and other farm animals in 1/64 -1/32-1/16.
See here a part of the ERTL-Catalog of 1995:
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Shanti wrote:

They are lovely!! But the dog I like most! Dogs in this size are very hard to find. I think it must be a pointer, Weimaraner, Vizsla?

Thank you! Yes, it could be any of these breeds, and the good thing is that the Ertl dog is 1/32 scale for any of those breeds. Perhaps most likely a pointer, or is that not the most common breed in the US?

Thank you for the catalogue, Benno. I notice that my horses are indeed from a different series as those from Shanti and Taylor. I can't find the dog, but I guess it must have come with the horses.

rogerpgvg wrote:

I can't find the dog, but I guess it must have come with the horses.

Is that the dog in the top left photo, standing between the farmer and the pig arks?

Babdo wrote:

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You are right! I definitely need reading glasses.

Hello,
here an other ERTL-Dog:[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Ah, yes, I'll try to find it.

Gorgeous dogs!

Hello,
I found some pages of an ERTL-Catalog of 1992.
On this pages are written that ERTL starts with animals in scale 1/32.
This information is very interresting and also the difference/failure in the picture by the description of the item and the animals in the box of the same item. I think the animals in the picture of the description of the item are 1/64 because the animals stands on a base and this could be necassary for such small animals in scale 1/64. And the animals in the box are without a base!
Benno.
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Babdo wrote:

This information is very interresting and also the difference/failure in the picture by the description of the item and the animals in the box of the same item. I think the animals in the picture of the description of the item are 1/64 because the animals stands on a base and this could be necassary for such small animals in scale 1/64. And the animals in the box are without a base!

Thanks! We are beginning to get a picture of the history of the Ertl farm animals. The horses that I showed were first produced in 1992 and the ones that Taylor and Shanti showed are from 1995.

Yes, the 1/32 scale animals don't have bases (perhaps except for the poultry and the man, I haven't found them yet). But interestingly, the 1/64 animals I see on US Ebay don't have bases either (except the poultry and the man). So it may be that the photos in the catalogue are of pre-production models before Ertl decided to sell them without bases.

Here a few I got in the US via Kelly. They are nice, I like them.
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They are higher quality than the horses and dog I got previously. Better painted and they are made of rubber rather than hard plastic.

My favourite is the Clydesdale horse that Kelly found for me. The ribbon in his hair shows that Breyer paid attention to the details.
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Also a mustang and foal:
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The horses are roughly 1:32 scale/Breyer stablemate size, but this horse is rather large for a mustang. But I can use it as a larger horse breed. The foal is lovely.

And a Chianina bull and calf. Benno's photos suggested that the Ertl cattle are large for 1:32 scale, so I decided to buy this particular cattle breed because it is known to be the largest cattle in the world. It worked out well: it's indeed the right scale.
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Hopefully, I'll be able to find some more of these Ertls in the future.

Nice farm stuff

Lovely, interesting and unusual, these Ertl models are wonderful horses!

Thank you both!

I adore that clydesdale!! What a look! All great additions, I really like the style.

I also like particularly those horses. The Mustang deserved a wilder mane. Which is the largest Iberian related breed?

Roger wrote:

I also like particularly those horses. The Mustang deserved a wilder mane. Which is the largest Iberian related breed?

A quick check on Wikipedia suggests that Iberian horses are generally not very large. Mallorquins and Menorquins are the largest I could find, but the Ertl mustang would be too large for either in strict 1:32 scale.

Spanish Mustang would do, if you're keen to include Iberian heritage - some of the mustang herds are descended from the original imported horses with very little adding of later-developed stock/sport type breeds, and still have the look of their ancestors.

But I don't really think it's a problem that the mane and tail aren't wild-looking; a lot of mustangs are caught and domesticated each year, and some of these are bred from, so the foals are born knowing people and stables and the same kind of working or pet lifestyle as other horse breeds, so she could easily be a model of a tame mustang who gets her tangles brushed out by an owner

Yes, I think it looks fine for a mustang. It's more that it is rather large for a mustang.

It was just a hairstyle preference.
Roger, if it is too big, maybe you need to forget the Iberian breeds and use it as an Oldenburg or so. It is a warmblood, not so similar looking but maybe the size works for this model. I also don't know if the color is correct but...

Great additions,congrats!

Thanks to our forum friend Brett, I had the opportunity to buy quite a few Ertl farm animals in the US. They are fairly common in the US, but very hard to find outside it, so I am very grateful to Brett that he helped me expand my Ertl collection.

I was especially keen to get the Ertl heavy horses. Here are the Percheron stallion and foal:
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The stallion is a very heavily built horse. The colour is a bit odd, it seems like Ertl has taken the colour “blue dun” too literally. Still, I like him, with his friendly face and muscular appearance. It is nice that Ertl always included a foal; this foal’s face clearly resembles his father’s.

Another heavy horse pair: The Brabant mare and foal.
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Their colour is slightly more realistic and I like their sculpts. I am particularly happy with the foal, because none of the other foals I have in this scale are heavy horse foals. Nice that it is feathered too.

Ertl used most of their moulds for more than one breed. The Brabants shared their moulds with the Clydesdales:
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I know, I already had a Clydesdale mare, but it’s my favourite Ertl horse and I was very keen to get the foal too. My first Clydesdale foal! The Clydesdales are especially well painted and their sculpts are great too!

And I couldn’t resist to buy some other horses as well. Here are the Thoroughbred mare and foal:
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The mare is a bit too large for my taste/favourite scale and they don’t have the most pleasing colour.

The Standardbreds used the same moulds and are painted in a nicer way:
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The Tennessee Walker horses are rather black, but they have well-done sculpts and they are smaller so I am quite happy with these.
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A few more next time …

Wow , these foals are very lovely....

Congratulations

Nice additions! The Percherons and Clydesdales are my favourites.

Thank you, Fernando and Scott.

Today the rest of my new Ertl additions. First, some cows. The adult cattle are generally too large to display as part of my 1/32 scale collection, but the calves are fine. A Holstein cow and calf:
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And a Guernsey cow and calf from the same mould:
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I noticed that recently, Britains has started to use these moulds in their “Farm in a box” sets.

Some more horses too. In my opinion, one of the best sculpts is the Quarter horse stallion, which comes with a nice lying foal:
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This mould was also used for other horse breed (which I don’t have).

A Morgan mare and foal:
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They didn’t seem so striking when I bought them, but they are actually pretty good, with nice shading. Some Ertls like the Thoroughbreds I showed before are quite glossy, which I am not so keen on, whereas others like these are more matte. The Morgans were sold in bay too.

The Appaloosas are the most beautifully painted:
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It took me a while to realise that they use the same mould as the Morgans.

And finally, a Shetland mare and foal:
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Fortunately, Ertl made the Shetlands much smaller than the horses, perfect for 1/32 scale!

Although the Ertls were made quite a while ago, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they are most commonly sold in their original boxes on US Ebay:
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The back of these boxes is most interesting because they show the other breeds. The side also mentions a year, which is probably the year that the figures in the box were first released. The back of the Hereford box (1995):
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The Holstein cows box (1997):
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Thoroughbred box (1995):
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Percheron box (1996):
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Morgan box (2000):
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The later Morgan box shows new horse and cattle models and also dogs. As Taylor noticed a while ago, the colours on the boxes don’t match the real models well. However, some models were sold in different shades in later years. For example, I’ve seen the Appaloosas in a much lighter colour than I have, similar to the colour on the Morgan box. From 2000, many Ertl models seem to have been sold in boxes with the name “John Deere”.

That last box is interesting. I like many of the cattle, and the mule- but the mule has a foal?