1/32 scale animals

What a beautiful little group of seals, it's fascinating to see how their spotted coats are rendered by the different brands, and the varied poses. All lovely!

rogerpgvg wrote:

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Hard to measure, but I estimate that it is 5.6/179 cm in length.
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These all look stunning together Roger, with their varied paint jobs and features and poses.
I love how this last seal has the right flipper splayed -- and the left one closed!
he/she must be turning direction in the water. It's a really good attention to detail point! I only noticed it because in your last photo the flipper really stands out.

What a superb collection you must have - with such variety! I bet they all look remarkable displayed in groups in your home :)

Thank you, Annette. The early Kaiyodo has indeed an interesting pose too and I love the big eyes.

The shoebill is a popular animal among Japanese makers, but it is usually too large for 1:32 scale. I am happy that Takara Tomy/Ania made one that is at least arguably 1:32 scale:
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This somewhat evil-looking bird is 4.6/147 cm tall. I haven’t been able to find much information about the size of shoebills. Wikipedia says it has a typical height range of 110 to 140 cm with some specimens reaching as much as 152 cm. That would make the Ania just possible as a very large individual. Most websites have copied the information from Wikipedia (without source). ADW says 110-140 cm and does not mention the maximum height of 152 cm. I don’t think the Ania’s feet are 1:32 scale but the good thing is that this way it does not need a base.
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Like all Ania animals, the shoebill has a moving part, in this case his shoe, uhh, bill. It can open very slightly. It seems just a gimmick, but a slightly open beak does look better and in order to achieve that, I guess Ania had to make a separate part regardless of whether it was moveable.
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This shoebill was made in 2018 as part of the "Ania Lottery 3 Animal Friends" set. In contrast to the more well-known Ania AS figures, this set was sold for a limited time only. I believe it was called “Lottery” because the figures were sold from Gashapon machines and you don't know which figure from the set you will get.
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I don’t have another shoebill to compare it with, but I like comparisons so let’s show it with the Britains stork, which hasn’t featured in this topic yet:
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It is 3.8/122 cm tall (without base). I assume it is a white stork. Wikipedia and websites copying from it say that they have a standing height of 100–125 cm. I don’t know why Britains painted the wings grey rather than a more appropriate black. On the other hand, it is great that they managed to make the legs so thin. The Britains stork was made between 1963 and 1975.
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So nice you could find such an emblematic bird like the shoebill at 1:32 scale! This research work is one of the coolest parts of your collecting hobby.
I love how it works with the stork. Actually, shoebills were considered for a long time a kind of stork related bird. Evidences showed he is most closely related to pelicans and the cool hamerkop is his closest relative.
I don't know why you tell somewhat evil. Looking evil is such a subjective thing, except for a shoebill. So, somewhat is useless here.
I am convinced the delicately sculpted Britains stork is defintely a white stork. The choice for grey wings is not a lucky one however. Those black markings white storks bear are a very distinctive feature. I don't believe they wanted to represent an Asian openbill since the sculpt does not match. Maybe a juvenile but the grey should be brown instead. I suspect it is not easy to find Britains storks in good shape but I think it could be a good idea to give a little repaint to one with severe paintloss.

Between 1931 and 1959, the stork was made in lead and I believe that during part of this period, it was painted with black markings on its wings. Here is a photo I plucked from Ebay:
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There are also lead Britains storks that are painted in a similar way as the later plastic ones, like this one on TAW:
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They may have been later, I don't know.

Interesting, actually the black painted strip is quite distracting for the general gracefulness of this figure. I'd say it is much more attractive with inaccurate colors.

Yes, the black is more "in your face", but I like striking contrasts and colours.

Another 1:32 prehistoric animal (and a very famous one): the PNSO Tyrannosaurus rex, based on AMNH 5027, which has a 135 cm skull. Not the biggest Tyrannosaurus, but arguably the most iconic one, having represented one of the two specimens known for almost a century and being featured on the Jurassic Park logo.
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I think I probably saw this specimen when I was in the New York museum where it is displayed, but it's long time ago so I don't remember. Do you have any T. rexes based on other specimens and do they look different?

rogerpgvg wrote:

I think I probably saw this specimen when I was in the New York museum where it is displayed, but it's long time ago so I don't remember. Do you have any T. rexes based on other specimens and do they look different?

Yes, if you were at the AMNH then you saw this specimen. I admit I'm a bit envious, it's beautiful!  

I have the Battat v3, which is based on "Sue" (FMNH PR 2081, the most famous Tyrannosaurus specimen right now). It's the Terra by Battat reissue, based on the Battat v3. If you compare it with the v1 (picture not mine, from the Toy Animal Wiki), which is based on AMNH 5027 too, you see how the latter has a shorter skull.
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This is Sue's skull (source: batavotyrannus) (also, for those asking comparisons with modern animals: yes that is a lion)
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While this is AMNH 5027 (surce: Skye McDavid)
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They are quite different from the PNSO. The hump on the back of the head is larger and they have larger "arms" than the PNSO. Is that due to the difference in specimens on which they are based or artistic interpretation?

rogerpgvg wrote:

They are quite different from the PNSO. The hump on the back of the head is larger and they have larger "arms" than the PNSO. Is that due to the difference in specimens on which they are based or artistic interpretation?

For the head bosses yes, it's individual variation. Perhaps you heard of a guy named Gregory Paul which is trying to split Tyrannosaurus into three different species: head bosses variation is one of his arguments. For the forelimbs no, that's due to the cheap toy nature of the Battat (it was sold for $10), probably they enlarged them to make them sturdier. I would've preferred if they had kept the true proportions and tucked them against the chest, like in the v1 above1

Thanks, very interesting!

The ocean sunfish or common mola is known to be the heaviest bony fish with a weight of up to 2300 kg. Two ocean sunfish inhabit the 1:32 scale marine reserve, although they are a bit smaller.
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One was made by Kaiyodo for the National Science Museum in Tokyo as part of “The Study Room” series. It was released in 2004 and when I visited the Tokyo museum in 2019, it was still sold there. Considering the general quality of Kaiyodo figures and the fact that it is sold as a museum model in a fancy box, I expected more of this model.
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It isn’t bad, but it doesn’t look particularly dynamic and the pectoral fins are flat against the body (they don’t stick out). It’s also quite small relative to the size of the box.
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The box contains a leaflet with some information about the ocean sunfish.
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The Kaiyodo is 4.9/157 cm in total length. Sunfish can grow very large, up to 330 cm, but such large sunfish are very rarely seen. More critical for the Kaiyodo is the minimum size of adults. Forsgren et al. (2020) reported that one ocean sunfish held in an aquarium released eggs even though it was “only” 100 cm in length, so the Kaiyodo is large enough to be mature.
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In my opinion, a more impressive ocean sunfish was made by Colorata as parted of their Saltwater Fish boxed set. It has a more vibrant colour, its pectoral fins stick out, it can be seen from both sides and on top of this, it comes with a jellyfish. I haven’t been able to find out when the Saltwater Fish box was first released. If anyone has the complete box with booklet, then I’d be very interested to know what year it mentions (normally on the back cover).
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It has a total length of 6.3/202 cm. Not necessarily a more typical size than the Kaiyodo, but I feel that it better represents the sort of size that a sunfish can reach.
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Sunfish are large, but relatively thin:
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Does anyone recognise the species of jellyfish?

Very impressive additions. Who could initially guess a species like this one could enter your collection?
For the jellyfish, if you can see four horseshoe-shaped gonads through the top of the bell, so it is a Moon jelly (Aurelia aurita). It is just astronomy since I can't see anything. If the fish is a sun, the medusa must be a moon.

The jellyfish is the Papuan, or spotted, jellyfish, Mastigias papua (the shape is wrong for a moon jelly)

Roger wrote:

Very impressive additions. Who could initially guess a species like this one could enter your collection?

Yes, I didn't think I would collect fish, but it happened!

bmathison1972 wrote:

The jellyfish is the Papuan, or spotted, jellyfish, Mastigias papua (the shape is wrong for a moon jelly)

Thanks a lot! The maximum total length of a Papuan jellyfish is only 30 cm. The Colorata jellyfish is 1.7 cm, so it is too large for 1:32 scale. In fact, unless Colorata intended a very small (about 110 cm long) sunfish, the jellyfish and sunfish aren't in scale with each other.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Roger wrote:

Very impressive additions. Who could initially guess a species like this one could enter your collection?

Yes, I didn't think I would collect fish, but it happened!

bmathison1972 wrote:

The jellyfish is the Papuan, or spotted, jellyfish, Mastigias papua (the shape is wrong for a moon jelly)

Thanks a lot! The maximum total length of a Papuan jellyfish is only 30 cm. The Colorata jellyfish is 1.7 cm, so it is too large for 1:32 scale. In fact, unless Colorata intended a very small (about 110 cm long) sunfish, the jellyfish and sunfish aren't in scale with each other.

I doubt Colorata made the effort to put the two to scale.

Yes, I think you are right.

This is a stunning Japanese figure of such an interesting species! I love the realistic glossy texture!

Thanks, Lilias!

Despite their name, common hippos are not so common in 1:32 scale. Let’s have a look at a few that I have found. First of course, we have the Britains. They made three hippos in plastic:
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The earliest Britains adult hippo is usually called the “hippo with closed mouth”. It was made in plastic from 1961 to 1998 and based on an earlier lead hippo which was introduced in 1929. It is a large hippo with a shoulder height of 4.9/157 cm. Its head and body length is harder to measure, but it is probably just over 11.0/352 cm.
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Websites such as Wikipedia, ADW and Ultimate Ungulate give a variety of different sizes for hippos and some of the measurements they mention seem to be wrong. Probably more reliable information comes from “The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals” (1997), which says that hippo’s head-body length is 280-350 cm, tail length 35-40 cm and shoulder height 130-165 cm. I found the most detailed information in an article by Sadler (2020, Sexual dimorphism in the common hippopotamus), who reported body length measurements of 2790 hippos and the shoulder height measurements of 506 hippos in Eastern Africa. It is a bit difficult to determine the size range from the data and graphs in this article, but essentially, adults’ shoulder height is between about 115 and 155 cm, and the total body length (including tail) between 270 and 407 cm (so about 235-370 cm without tail). I am quite surprised how small hippos can be! Is the East African population smaller than other populations? I don’t know.

The Britains “closed mouth” hippo is slightly taller than the maximum shoulder height reported in Sadler (2020), but it is lower than that reported by Kingdon. Its length is within the Sadler range, so I think it is quite acceptable as 1:32 scale.

In 1979, Britains started making a second hippo, one with an open mouth. Like all Britains’ wildlife figures, it was taken out of production in 1999. It is a bit smaller, with a shoulder height of 4.6/147 cm and a head+body length of 10.3/330 cm.
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Here we have the two Britains adult hippos:
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Britains also made a hippo calf, produced in the same period as the hippo with closed mouth, between 1961 and 1998:
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Another “oldie” is the Marolin hippo. Mine isn’t so old, I bought it new from the Marolin factory recently, but the original VEB Plaho version was first made sometime between 1967 and 1973. It is nice enough:
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Its shoulder height is 4.9/157 cm and head+body length is 9.8/314 cm. Here it is with the Britains “open mouth”:
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Let’s now have a look at a few modern hippos. This is the Bullyland from their large wild animal series, made between 2003 and 2007:
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It has a shoulder height of 4.4/141 cm and a head+body length of about 8.5/272 cm. It is competing with the Britains for the largest mouth:
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PNSO has two hippos in 1:32 scale. One is “Dunkey” from their “Living Animals” series. Mine is the later 2019 version. The earlier 2016 Dunkey version is quite different and I don’t think it is 1:32 scale.
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It comes in a box. As so often when a model is sold in a luxurious-looking box, I find the model a bit disappointing. Dunkey looks somewhat odd to me: It is excessively fat (more than my photos suggest), its jaws are strangely shaped and its legs are very thin. It is rather overpriced too. It seems you pay a lot for the box and a leaflet that mainly apologises that Dunkey looks so ugly.
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Dunkey is 5.0/160 cm at the shoulder and its head+body length is about 11.5/368 cm, just possible for a very large hippo. Here it is with the Britains closed mouth:
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I much prefer the PNSO hippo from their “Family Zoo” line, released in 2015.
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It is less detailed in the modelling of the skin, but the sculpt is more realistic. For a long time, I thought it was too small for 1:32 scale, but the data in Sadler (2020) show that it is fine as a smallish hippo. It is 4.0/128 cm at the shoulder and 8.7/278 cm in head+body length. It is much smaller than Dunkey:
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And much less fat:
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Here are all my adult hippos:
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I have a few hippo calves too. We have already seen the Britains. Another vintage one is the hippo calf from Hausser Elastolin:
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It is quite small, but I think acceptable, especially with a smaller adult:
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A while ago, I was at a garden centre where they sold Schleich animals and noticed that their hippo calf wasn’t as large as I had assumed, so I bought it.
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Once I was home and put it next to my 1:32 scale hippos, it suddenly looked larger than I realised! Still, I think its size is OK for an older calf:
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It is much larger than the Hausser Elastolin:
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And rather large compared to the small PNSO adult:
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I then thought that the earlier sitting Schleich hippo calf might not be as large as I had assumed either, so I bought that one too:
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It came with a Schleich panda cub. The panda is larger than the hippo .
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The size of the sitting calf is similar to the standing calf, but because of its pose, it looks smaller.
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It looks good with my adults, for example, next to the Marolin adult:
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The sitting hippo is not much larger than the Britains, which may have inspired its pose.
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I like the Schleich sitting hippo a lot. It is kind of an improved version of the Britains.

All the babies together:
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Many happy hippos :)

Oh, I was really curious abut the measurements of the PNSO hippo. So it might fit as 1:32, good to know!