1/32 scale animals

I think you were awarded for all your devotion to this hobby at 1:32 scale. Honestly, knowing the passionate way you put on it, it was more than deservved.
Also, I love when you snow the show leopard with the cheetah, I think we can't show such a beautiful pair using the traditional major brands.

Oh, what a little beauty, it's so perfectly made and detailed for such a small scale - an excellent addition to your collection!

Wow, this has to be one of the most beautiful snow leopards I've ever seen! I'm so glad that it worked and was 1:32 scale!

Glad you all like the snow leopard too!

what a wonderful snow leopard ! and how delightful that it turned out to be 1/32nd :) I really like nice surprises like that too Roger. Excellent comparison and walk around photos as well. Thank you for sharing, now I have more to add to my wishlist:)

Wow, I'm ashamed that I hadn't checked this thread sooner. As someone who often buys multiple versions of a species to compare, I can appreciate all the work you put into this. Also, seeing some of these very small models in close up makes me appreciate the detail work so much more.

You are right, especially the Japanese models often get better the more you zoom in. I quite like having several models of the same species, because there aren't so many species in 1:32 scale, because it's fun to compare them, and for displays I find it works better if I have several animals of the same species rather than all different species.

Sometimes this happens …
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I previously showed you the Schleich knock-off whale shark that I recently bought. I decided that if I’d ever find the original Schleich for a decent price, I’d buy it, despite having the knock-off. I didn’t think it would happen soon, or perhaps ever. Then I found it about two weeks ago. I wondered whether I should buy it given that I just got the knock-off, but my general collecting principle is that if I can get something I want for a reasonable price, I should buy it, as I don’t know whether I’ll have the opportunity again. So I got it.
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The comparison between the two turns out to be interesting. Most strikingly, they have different colours. I actually prefer the darker-coloured knock-off, although the Schleich is probably more realistically coloured. In terms of paint quality, they are equally good, but the Schleich has a few scratches due to it being second-hand. Both are made of a similar slightly rubbery plastic, no obvious difference in quality there either. More interesting for this topic, they differ in size. The original Schleich has a total length of 28.5/912 cm (fork length 26/832 cm) and is larger than the knock-off with a total length of 27/864 cm (fork length 24.5/784 cm). Total and fork length are slightly hard to measure reliably because of the curvature of the body; it’s easier to compare the length from the nose until the top of the tail: 29 vs. 27.3 cm, so the knock-off is 94% of the original’s size.
 
I find this interesting, because I have been wondering whether many knock-offs are in fact made in the same factory as the originals using the same moulds. Clearly, that isn’t the case here. I believe it is common for knock-offs to be smaller than the originals because of the copying process. Of course, I should have realised that they don’t come from the same factory, because the original was made in Portugal, whereas the knock-off is from China.
 
Proudly showing off its copyright mark:
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How interesting to see them together and compare the differences. I think I prefer the genuine one's paintwork, because his lengthways stripes aren't as distinct as his vertical ones. The knockoff's stripes are equally strong in both directions, forming squares, so he looks a bit...tartan
I know whale sharks aren't the most social creatures in real life so your single one didn't need company, but they make a nice pair to display together :)

For 1/32 I highly recommend the following lady.
I use it for my 1/35.
It's a soft material, yes, but she's a nice big fish (38,5 cm).

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With Recur and CollectA

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George wrote:

I think I prefer the genuine one's paintwork, because his lengthways stripes aren't as distinct as his vertical ones. The knockoff's stripes are equally strong in both directions, forming squares, so he looks a bit...tartan

In the photo, it looks like it has vertically painted stripes, but they are in fact due to the wavy shape of the body. The body isn't cylindrical, something I like about this model. The original Schleich has that too, but it's less visible in photos because it has a lighter colour.

Thanks for showing me the Favorite whale shark, Melekh. The sizer is great and I had considered this one, but I think it looks too round for me and the dorsal fin doesn't look quite right. I am normally not so critical about my figures, but it's large and I also need to think about space. Your Recur looks much darker than mine.

I am not 100% confortable with knock-off terminology but I think there are also variations in this "art" of copying.
The Schleich model is from Maia & Borges factory, much probably also designed in Portugal, not only manufactured once most of the sea line models of this time were designed here in my country. That knock-off is just a new mould made upon the existing design. I don't know if a ffactory sculptor made a mould trying to replicate the Schleich model or if it was just 3d scanned and resized to make the mould. Whatever it was the way, it is always a copy even if some slight design changes are enough to Chinese companies claim their figures are originals.
Though, there are those copies that are not copies, when the manufacturer owns the mould and produce it to different brands, sometimes with different colors or materials. We have the paradigmatic example of some sealife figures Maia & Borges manufactured to Schleich, Papo and Mojö Fun but that is very common with "anonymous" Chinese manufacturers. Sometimes, there is also the chance that when the moulds get old and loose detail, they can be sold to other manufacturers that produce models that are sold in a lower price range. those are also not exactly illegal copies. The industry changed a lot these last years, I believe several other more modern procedures are in use these days because this kind of figures are now proliferating and they are much more common than the branded ones.

I think the copies are usually smaller when they are copied in a mechanical way, but you are right, they probably have other copying methods these days.

Let's go to some quite different animal figures now. Ania, a brand produced by Tomy, has a couple of 1:32 scale animal figures. They are clearly toys, not collectors’ pieces: Their figures are characterised by their moveable parts and a simple, somewhat toyish style. But I appreciate that Ania is trying something a bit different, they aren’t just copy-cats of the major brands or even any Japanese brands. Their animals are sold nicely packaged in a box:
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The larger zebra box shows how they are sold in the West; the smaller boxes are for the Japanese market. The Japanese boxes also contain small information cards, one card in Japanese and one in English:
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The first Ania I got was the polar bear. Until I bought it, all my other polar bears were quite small and I wanted to see what a large one looks like.
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He has an articulated head, which can move up and down and turn around. The connection that makes the head moveable isn’t so visible when his head is up, but more obvious when it is down:
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The bear has a shoulder height of 4.3/138 cm and a head+body length of 8.4/269 cm. Here he is with the Britains walking polar bear (late version):
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I used to focus only on shoulder height, and because Livescience says it is 100-150 cm and Wikipedia 122-160 cm, I thought the Britains polar bear was very small, perhaps not even 1:32 scale. However, shoulder height is usually not reported in scientific articles on polar bears, they normally report head+body length. Polar bears exhibit a lot of individual variation in size, variation between regions, and males are generally much larger than females.
 
The smallest polar bears are found in Svalbard, where the smallest adult females are no longer than 175 cm in head+body length (Derocher & Wiig, 2002, J. Zool., Lond.). The Britains is 6.6/211 cm, which would be a very large Svalbard female or a fairly small Svalbard male. The Britains is 1:32 scale! Phew, it would have been embarrassing if my avatar hadn’t been the right scale.
 
Alaskan polar bears are assumed to be the largest and Rode et al. (2020, PLOS ONE) reported that the largest male Alaskan polar bear they measured was 275 cm (this may have included the tail; largest female 215 cm) and Armstrong (2003, Wild Mammals of North America) said that the largest polar bear he had ever measured was 285 cm. With a length of 269 cm, the Ania is large, but not quite the maximum size.
 
I was happy to find out that polar bears can be smaller than I thought, because some bears that had previously not been allowed to enter my 1:32 reserve are now welcome! For example, this lovely little Clairet polar bear, which has a head+body length of about 5.6/179 cm:
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The difference in size with the Ania is enormous. Between-species size comparisons are interesting, but within species comparisons can be interesting too!
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I also got a brown bear. As you can see, he is carrying a fish to safety. The moveable head is made in a similar way to that of the polar bear:
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The Ania brown bear has a shoulder height of 4.2/134 cm and a head+body length of 7.2/230 cm. Brown bears have a similarly large size range as polar bears. The Ania is presumably a Japanese brown bear (found in Hokkaido). They can be very large. Moriwaki (2018) reported that the largest had a head+body length of 280 cm, though they measured 3576 (!) bears, so this size may be quite exceptional. They are often much smaller, for example, Blanchard (1987) reported that in Yellowstone, males had an average total length of 164 cm and females were 151 cm (shoulder height resp. 95 and 87 cm).
 
Here is the Ania with another large brown bear, the Kitan Nature of Japan brown bear:
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The fish has now been brought to safety, so let’s have a better look. No idea what species it is, could it be a Pacific salmon or a kind of trout? It’s about 2.5 cm/80 cm in length, which would probably be too large for a trout, but a salmon would be possible.
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Next, we have the okapi. Ania has hidden the moving mechanism well in this one:
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Spot the difference:
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Yes, it can move its head too, but the movement is very minimal. The okapi has a shoulder height of 4.4/140 cm and a head+body length of roughly 7/224 cm. It is difficult to get good information about okapi sizes, but Bodmer and Rabb (1992, Mammalian Species) say the average shoulder height is 150 cm and San Diego Zoo says that males are 140-155 cm and females 142-159 cm, so the Ania can be a small male.
 
I like the Ania okapi. It is great together with the Colorata Ueno Zoo okapi, which is painted in a very similar way:
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Another ungulate is the zebra. It looks fine when its head is up:
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But less good when it is down. I wish Ania had made the moving mechanism the same as that in the okapi.
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It’s probably not sufficiently realistic to determine what subspecies of zebra it is; perhaps a Grant’s zebra. Again hard to find information about zebra sizes (surprisingly), but Wikipedia says Grant’s zebras are 120-140 cm at the shoulder. The Ania is 4.0/128 cm. It’s quite a fat, rounded zebra. I suspect it of eating all the food of the early version Britains zebra, which is very skinny:
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My favourite Ania is the saltwater crocodile. He has a nice pose with the head up and a great colour pattern. He has a length of 14/448 cm. Wikipedia gives extensive information about the size of saltwater crocodiles and says that males are on average 4.3-4.9 m and females are 2.7-3.1 m, though in rare instances, males can grow considerably larger.
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He can open and close his mouth. The “hinge” isn’t too obvious, so either way, he looks great.
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Much better than my only other saltwater crocodile, one from Science & Nature (length 12/384 cm).
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Another crocodilian is the Nile crocodile. He looks OK too, but his pose and colour aren’t as striking as that of his saltwater cousin.
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Because the jaw hinge uses pegs that are rounded at the ends, they are a bit more visible.
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This croc is 12.6/403 cm in length. Again, Wikipedia gives a lot of information, although not all is consistent with each other, perhaps because the sizes depend on the region. In any case, 403 cm is a large Nile crocodile, but certainly possible. The Ania is quite similar to the Eikoh Nile crocodile, both in pose and colour:
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Goodbye from the Anias:
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These are wonderful models, definitely the nicest articulated animals I've ever seen!

Ania is an interesting collection. I think they're fun for kids and good enough for collectors.
I really like the saltwater crocodile. My favorite pose, great colors and a species that should be released more often. The fish looks almost like a pale chub your bear stole from the fish market. Maybe you have to use it as a salmon.

Bonnie wrote:

These are wonderful models, definitely the nicest articulated animals I've ever seen!

The best articulated animals were perhaps by Britains, but they didn't make many. Chris made a topic about them: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Roger wrote:

The fish looks almost like a pale chub your bear stole from the fish market. 

Yes, I did say the bear took it to safety .

rogerpgvg wrote:

Bonnie wrote:

These are wonderful models, definitely the nicest articulated animals I've ever seen!

The best articulated animals were perhaps by Britains, but they didn't make many. Chris made a topic about them: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Roger wrote:

The fish looks almost like a pale chub your bear stole from the fish market. 

Yes, I did say the bear took it to safety .

Wow, those articulated Britains animals are even nicer, that Giraffe looks so realistic! Thank you for sharing the link!

Most standard-sized giraffes look OK with 1/32 scale figures, even though they are generally slightly too large. But let’s be strict and see whether any giraffes are truly 1/32 scale.
 
The Britains giraffes are the obvious ones to start with. Britains made great, slender giraffes with thin legs as they should be. Between 1961 and 1971 they made their first version plastic giraffe. It was replaced in 1972 by a giraffe with moveable neck, which lasted until 1998. They also made two versions of their baby giraffe, a running version between 1961 and 1970 and a standing version between 1971 and 1998. The running version is particularly good.
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The early version adult is 14.5/464 cm tall (including horns) and the later version is 15.5/496 cm. The later giraffe looks like a reticulated giraffe. It’s perhaps less clear what subspecies the earlier giraffe represents. Perhaps also a reticulated giraffe, though the fur pattern is less clear.
 
It isn’t so easy to find good information about giraffe sizes, especially not about the different (sub)species. Sacramento Zoo says that reticulated giraffe males are 4.6-5.2 m and females 4.0-4.6 m. The only actual measurement of a reticulated giraffe I could find is by Reventlow (1949), who reported a height of 4.0 m for an adult cow.
 
Last year, Eikoh released a new giraffe, which I bought immediately:
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It’s an elegant model, with a lovely curve in its neck. Its legs are a bit too short, but it doesn’t distract from the beauty of this figure. The short legs appear to be a family trait: The Eikoh giraffe calf has very short legs too:
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The curved, not completely upright neck makes it difficult to tell how tall the Eikoh is. When I bend the Britains’ neck in the same way and put it next to it, the Eikoh looks slightly larger:
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When I learnt that Mojö was going to release a Masai giraffe, I was very happy, because they are often claimed to be the tallest of the giraffes (sub)species, so this would allow me to add a giraffe from one of major modern companies to my collection. I haven’t found much evidence that Masais are indeed the tallest, except that according the Guinness Book of Records, the tallest ever giraffe was a Masai giraffe with a height of 5.8 m (https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/products/books/superlatives/tallest). Animal Corner says that male Masai giraffes are up to 5.5 m and females are up to 4.8 m. The Mojö is about 16.5/528 cm, probably a bit taller if it had a straight neck.
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Here is a photo of a real Masai giraffe:
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Does the Mojö look like a Masai? Hmm, it looks clearly different from a reticulated giraffe, but I don’t think it resembles a Masai very closely. It isn’t a bad giraffe, but it’s rather bulky and lacks something special. Here is a front-view comparison with the Eikoh:
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And a comparison with my Britains giraffes:
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I took these photos a while ago, and then I realised that I’d forgotten my Hausser Elastolins:
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The adult is small, only 12/384 cm. Too small for most giraffe subspecies, but could it be a Kordofan giraffe, the smallest giraffe subspedies? Its fur pattern is certainly not unlike a Kordofan giraffe. In fact, I think it looks more like a Kordofan giraffe than the Mojö looks like a Masai giraffe. I am going to treat it as a Kordofan giraffe!
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Wikipedia says that Kordofan giraffes are 3.8-4.7 m, so the Elastolin is just tall enough. Comparison with the much taller Britains:
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Finally, another one that I recently got:
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It’s a Zoozoozoo giraffe. Zoozoozoo animals are sets of sleeping animals made by Takara Tomy A.R.T.S. They usually have unnatural, human-like sleeping poses like sleeping with a hand on their eyes, sleeping stretched out on their tummy, sleeping while sitting, etc. The animals in this particular set are all curled up while sleeping, which results in quite natural poses for them. The giraffe is an example of this; as far as I understand, giraffes can indeed sleep like this, in particular younger giraffes.
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I don’t know whether this one is meant to be a young giraffe, but it’s cute so it looks young to me. I find that it works well as a younger (but not newborn) giraffe. I love the way it is sleeping, a very unique pose for a giraffe model. Here is a comparison with the Eikoh; they go very well together.
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Oh, giraffes! I must revisit this post because there is a lot to check. I love the sleeping giraffe.
Britains made surely beautiful giraffes. They are one of the reasons why I think the Britains was the best at this scale. Not only in terms of sizes but also in terms of realistic sculpts.
The Eikoh giraffe shows why I tell these eikoh models have a Western design even if they are like gashapon figures, small and marketed as pure Japanese design. The short legs is something really common in many Schleich figures, for instance.
Now the Mojo model. It looks a Masai giraffe to me. Naturally the pattern is not so intricated as a real one, it is a simplified version but the jagged patches of a dark color under a very light base color does not give us a better choice. What I think is really not correct in that giraffe is the white lower legs, those are more correct for a Rothschild's giraffe and completely atypical for a Masai and I thinks it makes a lot of difference.
I think the Nayab giraffe may be of a good size for you, let me find mine and I will provide you the measurements.

Wow, so many giraffes!
I love the Eikoh model, really beautifully made! And the Zoozoozoo (I think that's the right number of zoos! ) giraffe, a really unusual pose and so detailed!

Here you are. Instead of measurements, here's a comparisong picture though I can provide their weights if needed.
What you see here is a very old Schleich giraffe. Painted like an Angolan giraffe, one of the Britains giraffes almost uncolored and the surprisingly nice Nayab or Del Prado giraffe.
Only now I noticed that the Nayab giraffe shares sculpt similarities with the Britains model, the body, neck and head have a few similar features even if the chest and ears are completely different. Naturally, the legs of the Nayab model are thicker, nobody made legs as Britains did.
This Nayab giraffe is very interesting, it is clearly a Northern giraffe, probably the colors of a Cordofan and it has five occicones. I think the way the back is sculpted is just primorous and the head is more detailed than the Britains model.


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Thank you very much for showing these giraffes. The Nayab looks good. Nayabs are quite hard to find, because (I think?) they usually weren't made under this name. I should probably search for Del Prado. The Schleich is fine too, at least for size. I feel that the design of this model has "aged" more than the Britains.

I am sure that Eikoh was very much inspired by Schleich. It's probably worth a study, but my impression is that especially the early models have very similar sculpts to Schleichs. Compare for example these two lionesses. Not copies, but very similar poses.
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Probably of interest for the two of you: Zoozoozoo also has a curled up fox and dog:
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A curled up dog, how wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing this photo, I have saved it to remind me for the future! It's a very sweet dog!

Surely the Schleich aged more than the Britains. Actually, you only can feel the age of the Britains model because it is paintless. this is one of the first Schleich giraffes. Toys were already very good and sturdy but not yet the replicas. latter Schleich giraffes turned quite good actually.
Yes, I think you can find the Nayab searching for Del Prado.
I find several Eikoh models with designs quite inspired in major brands, not only Schleich, the black-backed jackal is CollectA inspired while the thomson's gazelle seems a miniature of the Mojö Fun figure. Fortunately their fox is closer to what Kaiyodo used to do and their fennec has no known similar model.
I love these ZZZZZZ models as I told before, here is a good excuse to get one, maybe I can find a fox for an affordable price and free postage.

The large Eikoh is more appealing to me that I thought, it could be tempting.

The Britains Ltd one is still for me the Giraffe n°1, despite the lack of paints it looks more modern than modern western giraffes.