1/32 scale animals

Thanks, Fernando. Here is a larger photo:
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Thanks Rogerpgvg, it has very nice colors.

What about a kiwi? Starlux is the king of ratites and still the only one releasing a rhea. Your ostriches are juveniles, they get their plumage color much before reaching maturity. There are loads of ostriches models, I am sure you will find one in a good size for your project.

I have a 1:32 scale kiwi . I didn't realise it was a ratite, I learnt something there. I'll show a photo of my kiwi next week, in the meantime I'll keep you guessing .

Yes, I'd have thought that there is a 1:32 scale ostrich, but going through the figures on TAW, I haven't found one. The problem is that the vintage models are too small and the modern figures too large. Similarly, I'd be keen to get an emu too, but I haven't found one.

On the other hand, I was quite surprised that I found so many cassowaries. I didn't think it was such a common model, but because they are colourful they are probably popular.

Your kiwi is likely the Good Luck Minis.
Cassowaries popularity is a relatively recent phenomenon, I think they are popular because they have reputation of being very agressive creatures. Maybe the fact that dinosaurs are now represented with bright colors, making cassowaries look like dinosaurs, may have also influenced it. Well, they are dinosaurs in all senses anyway.
I am positive that you can find a good sized ostrich but probably among less accurate brands. Certain USA brands from the 1990's worked in a size between current brands and vintage. Have you tried Noah's Pals? They are 1:24 but they look to be small to that scale.

Roger wrote:

Your kiwi is likely the Good Luck Minis.

Full points! You are too good

I like Noah's Pals, but their ostrich looks too large. The Kitan female ostrich may be large enough because it is female, but I haven't been able to buy it yet.

The week is already nearly finished! Here is the missing Good Luck Mini:
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It looks to me like it could be a brown kiwi. According to Wikipedia, they stand about 45 cm tall. This one is 1.3/42 cm. Close enough, I think. Here he is with two much larger cousins:
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I am not critical about scale, but it is fun to see different species scaled together.

This picture shows clearly the advantages of collecting at a certain scale. It is a fact that many wonderful figures need to be avoided but the final result is fantastic! I really love to see these three together.

I have to say I was really pleased to find this kiwi, as it is such a well-known bird and small sized animals are hard to find in 1:32 scale. There are indeed many good figures that don't fit into my collection, but this is actually a big advantage for my wallet!

In the last few weeks, I have collected a few “toob” animals. They aren’t of the highest quality, but there are several species that are quite rare in 1:32 scale and they turn out to be rather intriguing. Several are from Playspaces. I hadn’t heard of the brand until I received this orangutan from Yvette (75senta75):
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He has a sitting height of 3.2/102 cm. The orangutan project says that the head-body length of males is 97 cm and Encyclopedia.com says that an average orangutan has a head and body length of 76 to 102 cm, so quite large but he makes the 1:32 criterion. Certainly a lot better than the Britains orangutan, which is too large (4/128 cm, sorry no photo).

I then found this set of Playspaces on Ebay:
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They are all just marked “CHINA”. I mainly bought them for the pronghorn. I didn’t have a pronghorn yet and my other hobby is running; I guess you can see the connection. Unfortunately it isn’t so well painted so it’s hard to see that it is a pronghorn. I was also keen on the black panther, because I only have one other one.

Finally, Sue and Lesley (Castlerigg) were giving away some figures and I got these:
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A few are similar to the Ebay lot, but they are not exactly the same. Let’s have a look at them.

First, my favourite, the pronghorn. The pronghorn on the left is from the Ebay lot and on the right is the one from Sue and Lesley. The latter is better painted with the white patches in the right places. It looks like a proper pronghorn! The poorly painted pronghorn is marked with “CHINA” and is painted in the same way as the Playspaces on TAW, so I assume it is Playspaces. The better painted pronghorn is marked “Antelope CHINA C1 K&M INT” and is 2.8/90 cm. The sculpt seems the same, with the hairlines in the same places, but look more closely: The Playspaces is slightly smaller with a shoulder height of 2.6/83 cm. Wikipedia says that adult males are stand 81–104 cm high at the shoulder, so twice hooray!
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The other one I am very happy with is the black panther. Again, I first got one from Ebay, and then another one from Sue and Lesley. The one from Ebay has a slightly odd white underside. The one from Sue and Lesley has a more appropriate brownish colour underneath.
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Again, the Playspaces is slightly smaller (shoulder height 2.0/64cm) than one I got from Sue and Lesley (2.1/67 cm). The latter also has a longer tail and is marked “BLACK PANTHER CHINA 08”. I don’t know what brand it is. I believe K&M did not always mark their figures as such, so could it also be K&M? Or another brand? I suspect not Playspaces, because it comes from a larger mould and the marking is different.

I assume that they are black leopards rather than jaguars. According to Wikipedia, they are 57-70 cm. Leopards aren’t so easy to find in 1:32 scale, because vintage brands usually made them in lion/tiger size, but they are quite a bit smaller in reality. My only other black panther is the rare panther from Britains:
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The expensive Britains black panther is rather peeved that these cheap toob animals get so much attention!

I also have two wild boars. The Playspaces with broken tail (marked “CHINA”) is again ever so slightly shorter than the one I got from Sue and Lesley (marked “HOG BOAR 64 CHINA”), although the shoulder height doesn’t substantially differ (2.4/77 cm). Sue and Lesley’s has a brownish paint underneath, whereas the Playspaces has an unpainted belly. Interestingly, the same wild boar was also sold as Yujin. I learnt that K&M, Playspaces and Yujin were all produced by Wing Mau, so this is beginning to make some sense to me!
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Here with the Starlux wild boar (3.0/96 cm). Some Starlux models are a bit odd; I prefer the toob boar.

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The size of wild boars ranges enormously, mostly depending on region. According to Wikipedia, their shoulder height ranges from 63 to 95 cm in Europe, but some in East Asia can reach up to 125 cm!

I also got a wolf marked “WOLF CHINA 70” from Sue and Lesley. As you might guess, there is also a Playspaces version (but I don’t have it). I predict that the Playspaces is smaller. But why are the Playspaces smaller? I don’t know.

It is 2.5/80 cm at the shoulder. Here it is next to the Britains wolf, which often gets criticism for being too small (1.8/58 cm). It is a small wolf, but again, their size depends a lot on the region. According to Wikipedia, Russian wolves are 80-85 cm, but I found an article by Ciucci and Boitani (2003), which reported that Italian wolves are on average about 66 cm and the extinct Sicilian wolf was even smaller (4 specimens; between 52.5 and 56.5 cm). My conclusion is that the Britains wolf is Italian
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To be continued …

rogerpgvg wrote:

Ah, yes, you are right, it isn't a great hammerhead. I already have a Colorata and Kaiyodo scalloped hammerhead.

The Colorata and Kaiyodo Scalloped Hammerheads are extremely small for 1:32 scale.  I'm assuming you mean the Aquatales Scalloped Hammerhead, which measures about 65mm long (total), which is roughly 1:31 to 1:66 scale.  The Colorata Scalloped Hammerhead measures approximately 89mm long, which puts it more firmly in the 1:32 scale (range is approximately 1:15 to 1:48).

Other Shark figures in 1:32 scale (nowhere near exhaustive):

- CollectA Tiger Shark (1:13-1:37)
- Colorata Ocean Kingdom Scalloped Hammerhead Shark (1:14-1:43) *retired
- Colorata Ocean Kingdom Zebra Shark (1:18-1:44) *retired
- Colorata Sharks of the World Blue Shark (1:24-1:51)
- Colorata Sharks of the World Bowmouth Guitarfish/Shark Ray (to 1:37)
- Colorata Sharks of the World Pacific White-spotted Eagle Ray (1:29-1:55)
- Colorata Sharks of the World Sand Tiger Shark (1:29-1:44)
- Colorata Sharks of the World Tiger Shark (1:23-1:55)
- Colorata Sharks of the World Deluxe Bull Shark (1:17-1:32)
- Colorata Sharks of the World Deluxe Goblin Shark (1:19-1:58)
- Colorata Sharks of the World Deluxe Tiger Shark (1:27-1:46)
- Safari TOOB Blue Shark (1:21-1:44) * Shark TOOB & Pelagic Fish TOOB*
- Safari Endangered Species: Marine TOOB Ornate Eagle Ray (1:25-1:44)
- Safari Pelagic Fish TOOB Oceanic Whitetip Shark (1:19-1:44)
- Safari Pelagic Fish TOOB Sailfish (I can't remember the exact scale, but it is around 1:32)
- Safari Pelagic Fish TOOB Silky Shark (1:31-1:44)
- Safari Venomous Creatures TOOB Bat Ray (1:18-1:32)
- Wild Safari Sea Life Great Hammerhead Shark (1:15-1:37)
- Wild Safari Sea Life Great White Shark 2016 (1:26-1:37)
- Wild Safari Sea Life Spotted Eagle Ray (1:10-1:33) *retired
- Wild Safari Sea Life Tiger Shark (1:20-1:34)
- Wild Safari Sea Life Whale Shark (1:19-1:54)
- Schleich Wild Life - Oceans Smooth Hammerhead Shark 2008
- Takara Tomy T-Arts Deep Sea Mystery Creatures Goblin Shark (1:20-1:61)
- Takara Tomy T-Arts Deep Sea Sharks Special Bluntnose Sixgill Shark (1:29-1:46)

Hope this info helps you in your pursuit!

It is interesting to see these almost "random" figures having interest to your project. Some of them are really nice and surely deserve atention.
Curiously, the panther pictured with the Britains looks more like a jaguar but I am sure they wanted to make a black leopard.
About these boars, I prefer the Starlux even if I assume it is somewhat weird. It is a little caricatural but it is obviously a wild boar. On the other hand, the beautiful hog boar 64, looks like a feral pig. or even like an black Iberian pig. I know, I am a little Iberianocentric. Notice that the highest part of the animal is on its rear part as it happens with domestic pigs while the Starlux has clearly a dropping back.
As the Britains wolf is open to speculation, I suggest it is a homage to the oldest aliance of the world. The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance  and it represents an Iberian wolf. - they're relatively small and slender.

Thank you very much, Sphyrna18! It’s fantastic that you have the scale of all these sharks. I usually have to work it out from photos, which often isn’t very accurate. I have the Colorata shark boxes and the Safari pelagic fish toob, which are all great.

Yes, I meant the Aquatales scalloped hammerhead and the Colorata from the Sharks (not Shark Deluxe) box. I think they are both possible in 1:32 scale, but you are right, they are quite small and it would be nice to have one with a more typical size. I need to look out for the Colorata from the Ocean Kingdom box.

Which tiger shark is smaller, the one from CollectA or Safari? Although Wikipedia says that tiger sharks can be over 5 m, my feeling is that shark sizes are often exaggerated so I’ll probably buy the smallest one.

I had been trying to work out the size of the Venomous Creatures bat ray, but didn’t manage. Good to see it is (just) 1:32 scale. I know it isn’t a shark, but do you perhaps have the Komodo dragon in the same toob? If it is the right scale, then it may be worth for me buying the toob.

You mentioned that the Safari whale shark is possible as 1:32 scale. Isn’t it too small? I have been looking for a properly large (over 30 cm) whale shark, but haven’t found one yet. A basking shark would be nice too, but the Safari is quite small.

Do you have photos of the Takara Tomy sharks? I think I may have seen the goblin shark for sale, but I didn’t buy it because I didn’t know the size.


Thanks for your useful comments too, Rogério. Following your judgement, I am going to treat the black panther as a jaguar. The overall shape of the Starlux boar is indeed more accurate, but I am just not so keen on his face and ears. Yes, the Wing Mau is quite nice as a feral pig. Given the “hog boar” marking, it’s even possible they intended it. A new subspecies in my collection

Iberian wolf: the slender frame of the Britains wolf is consistent with it, but Wikipedia says that their shoulder height is 70-80 cm, which is a bit problematic for me

The Safari Tiger Shark is smaller (about 155mm long vs CollectA, which is about 200mm long). There doesn't seem to be a consensus about the maximum length Tiger Sharks achieve, and in recent years I have seen a general trend reducing the estimated maximum length. The Safari is appropriately menacing at 1:32. Also, I'm not sure if you are aware, but the Safari TOOB SCUBA diver is approximately 1:32 as well.

The Safari Whale shark, just like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, CollectA, Papo, and Schleich/Mojo (Maia & Borges) figures are all representative of small individuals at 1:32. I display my Safari Whale Shark with my 1:55 collection and my Monterey Bay figure with my 1:40 collection. But technically, like the Aquatales Scalloped hammerhead, they just represent small individuals at 1:32. The Recur Whale Shark, I believe, is about 30cm in length, though. And it is a good looking figure.

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Speaking of Aquatales the Grouper (1:17-1:34), Sailfish (1:30-1:43), Swordfish (1:20-1:57), Great Barracuda (1:9-1:31), and Oceanic Whitetip Shark (1:24-1:53), all fit 1:32

The Venomous Creatures TOOB Komodo Dragon is approximately 1:20 to 1:23 scale. The Kaiyodo Reptiles Lounge Komodo Dragon, though, is about 1:30 to 1:35, so it would fit your collection.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the T-Arts sharks, as I am using my phone, and my pictures are on my computer at my office.

Thanks! I may go for the Safari tiger shark. From which toob is the scuba diver?

I have the beautiful Aquatales grouper, but I need to look out for the other Aquatales; great to know their scale.

I thought whale shark didn't reach maturity until they are about 9 m. On the other hand, my impression is that it is more common to see smaller juvenile whale sharks. I don't know why that is, perhaps because juveniles group together, perhaps because adults swim deeper or because they often don't reach adulthood. I have the recur, which can be a small adult. There is also this huge one here, but I don't know whether I am going to like it:

Link HERE

Thanks for giving me the size of the toob Komodo dragon. I have the Kaiyodo Reptiles Lounge and I think it's fantastic!

Do you mean this Takara goblin shark?
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rogerpgvg wrote:

Now for something a bit different: a few farm animals. I normally assume that the Britains farm animals are the right size for 1:32 scale, but are they? Let’s have a look at some of their cattle. First, my favourite Britains cattle, the Herefords. They were released in 1980 and are one of the few Britains animals still for sale.
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The Hereford cows are 4.0/128 cm and the bull is 4.1/131 cm. According to Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock, traditional Hereford cows have a withers height of 120 cm and bulls a height of 135 cm. But more recently, larger Herefords have been bred and according to the American Hereford Association, modern bulls can be up to 162 cm (average 140 cm for cows and 152 cm for bulls according to Mason’s).

The Jersey cattle are great too. Britains made several versions of these; this is what they looked like between the mid-1970s and 1983:
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The cow is still the original that I bought in my youth, probably around 1983-84. Unfortunately, I never found the bull and calf back then, but I managed to buy them more recently.
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Modern Jersey cows can have all different sizes (HeritageJersey.org), from 80 to 150 cm withers height, but in the 19th century, the average height at the withers of a mature Jersey cow was 117 cm and bulls were 127 cm. The Britains cow is 4.0/128 cm and the bull is 4.1/131 cm, which corresponds fairly well to the sizes of the traditional Jerseys. As with most Britains cattle, the bull is relatively small compared to the cow.

Finally, the Britains Highland steer, made between 1966 and 1977. Living in Scotland where I see these cattle quite often, I am happy that Britains made one, even though it isn’t perfect. Highland cattle are normally broader and they don’t really raise their head like the Britains steer:
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I think the size may not be quite right either, as Highland cattle are quite small. Wikipedia says that cows typically have a height of 90–106 cm, and bulls of 106–120 cm. Mason’s World Encyclopedia of Livestock says that cows are 106 cm, but doesn’t mention the height of bulls. On the other hand, Highland-cattle.eu says cows range between 110-130 cm and bulls between 120-140 cm, and Cattlenetwork says cows are 115 cm and bulls 128 cm, so perhaps Highland cattle can sometimes be quite large.

Here we have them all together. And if you haven’t seen it yet, Taos recently showed us many more Britains cattle: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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Oh wow, I think I still have some of these cows and other animals of Britain! The were a favorite of mine when I was a kid!

Thanks, Shanti. They were my favourites when I was younger too. They still are, I am just extending my Britains collection with the same scale figures from other brands.

Let’s finish the discussion of the other bulk animals I recently got. Here, in the centre, we have the wolf from K&M, surrounded by all my other 1:32 scale wolves. From left to right: Britains, New-ray, K&M, Colorata, Wing Mau unknown brand. They are quite a diverse pack! Normally, it works well when I put animals of the same scale together, but I have to admit these are quite a curious bunch. For completeness, the K&M wolf has a shoulder height of 2.6/83 cm, the New-ray is about 2.4/77 cm and the Colorata is 2.5/80 cm.
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I got a Playspaces panda too. Pandas aren’t too hard to find even in 1:32 scale, but they are usually quite large for this scale. With a shoulder height of 2.4/77 cm (4.9/157 cm length without tail), this one has a more average height. Reports of panda sizes vary a lot and I haven’t been able to find scientifically reported measurements. Wikipedia says a shoulder height of 60-90 cm (length 120-190 cm including 10-15 cm tail), WWF.panda.org says up to 90 cm, but Livescience says 70-80 cm and ADW 65-70 cm. Here he is next to the Britains panda and the Colorata. The Colorata is one of my favourites. He has a shoulder height of 2.8/90 cm (stretched-out length without tail about 5.0/160 cm).
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And here is a shaggy, fluorescent seal, marked “CHINA”. Possibly a common seal. Length without flippers is 6.2/166 cm. Mammal.org.uk says they are 140-185cm including flippers of about 20cm and ADW says 160-190 cm (not sure with or without flippers). Apart from his long hair, the sculpt isn’t so bad, but why paint him fluorescent blue? It’s my first adult common seal though. The Hausser Elastolin seal pup is very happy to have found a foster parent!
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I got a walrus marked “CHINA” too, but it isn’t 1:32 scale. TAW doesn’t show any Playspaces marine mammals, but given that the marking is the same and they came with other Playspaces (a bunch of dinosaurs too), I am guessing that the seal and walrus are Playspaces.

It seems Playspaces made farm animals too. Here are two pigs and a sheep with a Britains saddleback boar and Kerry Hill sheep. Not sure what breed the Playspaces are, but I guess there must be breeds that make them 1:32 scale.
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rogerpgvg wrote:

Thanks! I may go for the Safari tiger shark. From which toob is the scuba diver?

You're welcome!  The Scuba Diver was in the Coral Reef TOOB and the Whales & Dolphins TOOB.  I don't know that it is included in either any longer, unfortunately.

rogerpgvg wrote:

I thought whale shark didn't reach maturity until they are about 9 m. On the other hand, my impression is that it is more common to see smaller juvenile whale sharks. I don't know why that is, perhaps because juveniles group together, perhaps because adults swim deeper or because they often don't reach adulthood. I have the recur, which can be a small adult. There is also this huge one here, but I don't know whether I am going to like it:

Link HERE

I think that, unfortunately, whale sharks are rarely reaching maturity, and even those that do, the largest specimens are being fished out of the population before they can really reproduce.  Much like what we see in large whale species that no longer seem to achieve the massive sizes they once did, or terrestrially, with lions and tigers, which no longer attain the sizes they once did because the largest specimens were hunted out of the populations.  I haven't heard of any sightings of whale sharks that are much longer than 9m recently, and the average adult size is estimated to be around 9.5 or 9.8m (I can't remember which).  So in reality, the Recur figure, at 30cm, would be about average for an adult.  

That bootleg whale shark looks impressive.  I may have to check that one out myself.  If you get it, let me know how it is.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Do you mean this Takara goblin shark?
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That is one of them.  There are 3 total, I think, and two of them are the exact same figure with maybe a slightly different paint scheme.  Those two have their mouths open; the other one is the same figure except it has its mouth closed.  I think.  I don't have mine with me right now or I would take a picture, but I think there are 3 total.

Thanks, Sphyrna18, I have put the goblin shark and others you suggested on my wishlist.

Now a few Eikoh figures. Eikohs haven’t appeared in this topic yet, but they also make several in 1:32 scale. They aren’t quite as realistic some other Japanese companies like Kaiyodo, but they have a lot of charm. I’ll show them in two parts.

First, one of my favourites, the Asian black bear:
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It’s probably a semi-copy of the Kaiyodo ChocoQ 3 standing Asian black bear:
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Both are nice, the Eikoh doesn’t have the somewhat distracting seams between the plastic parts. With some Kaiyodos, the seams don’t bother me much, but these are a bit too obvious.

The Eikoh is 5.9/189 cm tall (ear height) and the Kaiyodo is 5.0/160 cm (but taller if it stood upright). Asian black bears are 120-190 cm in length (Wikipedia; ADW: 120-180 cm), so I think they are fine for 1:32 scale.

Eikoh also makes a brown bear:
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This one looks like a semi-copy of the Kitan brown bear. The Eikoh is good, but not quite as magnificent as the original:
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The Eikoh has a shoulder height of 3.3/106 cm, well within the 1:32 range (see one of my earlier posts).

Another bear, the panda:
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Actually, Eikoh makes two pandas, but the other one, a walking panda, is clearly too large. It’s hard to determine either the shoulder height or length of the sitting panda, but my feeling is that it is also too large. Best to compare it with another panda that is 1:32 scale, the Colorata from the Ueno Zoo box:
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The Colorata has the maximum shoulder height for a panda (but perhaps not maximum length), so the Eikoh shouldn’t be any larger. What do you think? When I see them together in this photo, the Eikoh actually looks all right. I guess it’s his width that makes him look large, but that isn’t so obvious in a side view.

Oh, and a young giraffe, 6.5/208 cm tall:
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Here together with the later Britains giraffes. The Eikoh has short legs:
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The final one in this part, the tortoise, which is also excellent:
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He has a straight carapace length of 4.0/128 cm. Here he is with Kaiyodo’s Lonesome George, which I introduced earlier in this topic:
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More Eikohs next time.

Great additions from a truly fab brand

Curiously, I favour the Eikoh black bear over the Kaiyodo.
The brown bear is wonderful but no bear have any chance against the Kitan model.
About your giant pandas, their poses are completely different, the length of the body of the Colorata model seems much longer than Eikoh's but the Eikoh is sitting with the weight of his big head over his body. Thus, naturally it looks short and wide.
Maybe the best element of comparison is the length of their legs, especially the front legs or arms if you prefer. Interesting, I enjoy the Colorata model, proportions look really great as it happens with the beautiful Safari Wildlife Wonders panda. On the other hand, the friendly look of the Eikoh designs, work also very good with the panda once the brand makes it look even more lovely than in real.
Fantastic the Eikoh tortoise, as you pointed, many Eikoh models are half-inspired in other brands' designs. Though, I can't think in another tortoise figure that looks like the Eikoh one.

We have a similar taste, I prefer the Eikoh black bear too.

You are right, the body of the panda should become wider when he is sitting. But the Eikoh also has a wider head and legs. He's just fatter. It's clearer in a front view:
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It's difficult to accurately measure the length of the rear legs, but when I put the Eikoh's and Colorata's front legs next to each other, it looks like the Eikoh's legs are slightly shorter. So rather than being a regular visitor to the 1:32 scale wildlife reserve, he will now permanently reside there

I'm really enjoying watching this topic! It's so cool to see a whole collection of animals in scale with each other, even if only more-or-less.