1/32 scale animals

Fantastic presentation of four-legged barrels.
Britains hippos are very good and they clearly influenced the way these models are sculpted by modern brands. Schleich female and calf sitting are two good examples.
While reading about populations ratiosin Okavango, , they used the larger dominant male as reference and it was 351 cm long. We can find enormous sizes everywhere but I think this one is sensate.
Despite the excessive robusteness of the PNSO model, emphasized by the thin legs and small head, it has a kind of anti-toy feel that I appreciate. A sculpt for a statue, not a toy. SOL90 also released a obese hippo.
Schleich is the brand that educated us to accept out of scale models with their illusive scale. Though, Schleich hippos are defintely small for the rest of the range and they really look ridiculously small in a shelf. So, I'm not surprised you thought they could work at 1:32 scale, I had the same perception.

widukind wrote:

Many happy hippos :)

Yes, especially the Schleichs are smiling .

Leyster wrote:

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

Yes, it's good for 1:32 or 1:30. Too large for 1:35, I think.

Roger wrote:

Fantastic presentation of four-legged barrels.
Britains hippos are very good and they clearly influenced the way these models are sculpted by modern brands. Schleich female and calf sitting are two good examples.
While reading about populations ratiosin Okavango, , they used the larger dominant male as reference and it was 351 cm long. We can find enormous sizes everywhere but I think this one is sensate.
Despite the excessive robusteness of the PNSO model, emphasized by the thin legs and small head, it has a kind of anti-toy feel that I appreciate. A sculpt for a statue, not a toy. SOL90 also released a obese hippo.
Schleich is the brand that educated us to accept out of scale models with their illusive scale. Though, Schleich hippos are defintely small for the rest of the range and they really look ridiculously small in a shelf. So, I'm not surprised you thought they could work at 1:32 scale, I had the same perception.

Yes, 351 cm seems right for a large hippo bull. ADW says that they can be up to 505 cm, but I think that's crazy.

I wondered whether the early Schleich hippo adults may be 1:32 scale. The later adults are too large or aren't they?

rogerpgvg wrote:

Roger wrote:

Fantastic presentation of four-legged barrels.
Britains hippos are very good and they clearly influenced the way these models are sculpted by modern brands. Schleich female and calf sitting are two good examples.
While reading about populations ratiosin Okavango, , they used the larger dominant male as reference and it was 351 cm long. We can find enormous sizes everywhere but I think this one is sensate.
Despite the excessive robusteness of the PNSO model, emphasized by the thin legs and small head, it has a kind of anti-toy feel that I appreciate. A sculpt for a statue, not a toy. SOL90 also released a obese hippo.
Schleich is the brand that educated us to accept out of scale models with their illusive scale. Though, Schleich hippos are defintely small for the rest of the range and they really look ridiculously small in a shelf. So, I'm not surprised you thought they could work at 1:32 scale, I had the same perception.

Yes, 351 cm seems right for a large hippo bull. ADW says that they can be up to 505 cm, but I think that's crazy.

I wondered whether the early Schleich hippo adults may be 1:32 scale. The later adults are too large or aren't they?

I don't have Schleich hippos but I love the early female. this website gives the size as aproximately 11x4x5 which is not far from your Britains hippo with closed mouth.

It doesn't look like you have a Mola alexandrini but you can find the measurements of the heaviest bonifish ever found in this video.
It was published in scientific publications.

Interesting video. Reports of large fish are sometimes exaggerated, but this one is clearly not! The Kaiyodo and Colorata are Mola mola. I said that they are the largest fish, but the largest Mola mola (2300 kg) was lighter than this Mola alexandrini (2744 kg).

I'll keep an eye out for the early Schleich hippos, they may be within 1:32 scale.

The early Schleich hippo is on the same scale than the early big Britains one as far as I can remember, I let mine go a long time ago. You should go for one

By the way I was very surprised when I visited the "Grande galerie de l'évolution", most of the Cape buffaloes were bigger than the hippos. This visit to the museum was one of the arguments that decided me to present a large part of my collection according to the scale.

Wow, your hippo collection is so impressive! Equally impressive are all your height and scale calculations . Really interesting to see the variation in style across the brands too, I think that's what makes this hobby so interesting, no two models are exactly the same!

Bonnie wrote:

Wow, your hippo collection is so impressive! Equally impressive are all your height and scale calculations . Really interesting to see the variation in style across the brands too, I think that's what makes this hobby so interesting, no two models are exactly the same!

Thank you! Yes, measuring has become part of the fun. It keeps me busy.

Kikimalou wrote:

The early Schleich hippo is on the same scale than the early big Britains one as far as I can remember, I let mine go a long time ago. You should go for one

I will. Thanks for the info.

Kikimalou wrote:

By the way I was very surprised when I visited the "Grande galerie de l'évolution", most of the Cape buffaloes were bigger than the hippos. This visit to the museum was one of the arguments that decided me to present a large part of my collection according to the scale.

Yes, this is possible:
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But this is possible too:
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According to the information I have, hippos have a large size range, so they can be either larger or smaller than Cape buffalos. The PNSO Cape buffalo (4.8/154 cm shoulder height) is average in size for a male. Furstenburg (2009) says that bulls are between 145 and 165 cm. It’s the only Cape buffalo I have in 1:32 scale. Very precious!

Even this is possible:
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A pygmy hippo! It’s a “cup edge” pygmy hippo made by Putitto in 2017. I think it’s part of Kitan. I bought it a couple of years ago when I was in Japan. I wasn’t familiar with the cup edge idea and I assumed the pose showed the pygmy hippo swimming/floating in a swamp.
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Our knowledge of the size of pygmy hippos appears to be based on just four individuals. In a review, Flacke and Decker (2019) say that “measurements from Zoo Basel, Switzerland, for captive adult females (n = 3) were 77–83 cm tall, measured at center of the back, and 142–150 cm long from nose to tail tip; one adult male was 81 cm tall and 157 cm long.” They also say that several textbooks and “grey literature sources” from zoos mention a body length of 150-170 cm. Wikipedia, Ultimate Ungulate and many other websites say their shoulder height is 75-100 cm, while ADW says 70-100 cm; it is unclear where these measurements come from.
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The Putitto has a height of 2.5/80 cm and a nose to tail tip length of 5.9/189 cm, but that’s measured “following the curves” and therefore overestimates its real length. Its straight head+body length is 4.5/144 cm.

The Putitto cup edge set consists of four pygmy hippos, all made in both brown and grey. I have another brown one, a sitting hippo:
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It has a similar size as the standing hippo and has the same height.
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I didn’t get the other Putitto pygmy hippos because they could not stay upright; they need a cup to display them. Better not to look underneath:
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Colorata also made a pygmy hippo, as part of their Ueno Zoo box from 2004:
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It has a height of 2.3/74 cm and so it might be a bit small in terms of height. However, its size is very similar to the standing Putitto and its nose to tail tip length of 5.8/186 cm (over the curves) is definitely not too small.

Despite being “just” cup edge figures, the Putittos are more detailed and more life-like, especially their faces:
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The last one may be a cheat. It is marked “CHINA” and Taylor said it was sold by the Early Learning Centre in the UK. TAW lists a very similar hippo as produced by Innovative Kids. I thought the snout has characteristics of a pygmy hippo rather than a common hippo and then I discovered that it is classified as a pygmy hippo on TAW. That’s great because that means that I am not cheating .
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It has a height of 2.4/77 cm and a total length of about 6/192 cm.
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When you have both pygmy and common hippos, scale is particularly important because size is the most obvious difference between the two species:
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I like this pair of species because their sizes are radically different.
A very good one to show in a collection devoted to a certain scale as it is yours.
The Innovative Kids hippo looks a pygmy hippo to me. Legs are not as long as the Putito but long enough and we don't see those nasal projections as we see on common hippos.The Innovative Kids models use to be marked with "K" letter. Though, it is perfectly natural that this mould was sold for ELC too. As you certainly know from many other topics on forum, this kind of figures are usually manufactured in China and sold under several different brand names. As often we can't tell the exact brand, we try to list them adopting the brand name of the most popular set.

I really love the sitting one !

Thanks, the sitting Putitto is indeed the most original one. I doubt whether the Chinese manufacturer intentionally tried to make a pygmy hippo, but it's good to know that I am not the only one who thinks it is useable as one.

Nice pygmy hippos

Well, I don't think the Innovative kids (and also the Yowies UK 74) are Pygmy hippos, they lack the pygmy neck, the heads are too big compared to teh body, the nostrils and orbits are too big too.

For what it's worth, I think the ELC hippo looks more like a common than a pygmy. But, ELC figures often have enough ambiguity they can bend in multiple directions :)

You are right, I didn't speak about the ELC because it is on the Common hippopotamus page on TAW.

Yes, sometimes it's a "good" thing when a figure isn't so accurate, so it can be used for multiple species. I guess the Innovative Kids hippo can only enter the 1:32 reserve when it is dark .

Kikimalou wrote:

Well, I don't think the Innovative kids (and also the Yowies UK 74) are Pygmy hippos, they lack the pygmy neck, the heads are too big compared to teh body, the nostrils and orbits are too big too.  

I moved the Innovative Kids to common hippo page, apparently the only reason why it was identified as a pygmy hippo is because I assumed it was one. So, it was easy to fix. It also allows me to accuse Roger for cheating us while presenting it.
About the Yowie model, weren't they sold with a paper identifying the species? Isn't this website based on it?

He is very grumpy that he has been found out to be a cheat. There will be a trial soon.

I am not an expert on Yowies, but yes, they did (and do) come with a paper. The species of the UK series is normally written on the underside of the animal. I don't have the hippo, so I can't confirm if it was marked as a pygmy hippo.

Yowies...   Ok it is probably an official Pygmy hippo but I can't see why, the head is again too big, the orbits and nostrils are too big...

There is an interresting comparison picture HERE

rogerpgvg wrote:

He is very grumpy that he has been found out to be a cheat. There will be a trial soon.

I am not an expert on Yowies, but yes, they did (and do) come with a paper. The species of the UK series is normally written on the underside of the animal. I don't have the hippo, so I can't confirm if it was marked as a pygmy hippo.

I'd use the Innovative Kids as a pygmy if I was a collector of 1:32 scale models. It is the advantage of the ambiguity as it was mentioned before. Thanks for letting me know about the Yowie models, I have the fennec from this series but I can't check it now but I do remember seeing it marked with a number.

Kikimalou wrote:

Yowies...   Ok it is probably an official Pygmy hippo but I can't see why, the head is again too big, the orbits and nostrils are too big...

There is an interresting comparison picture HERE

These Yowie figures are very childish and far from realistic, it looks like a toyish baby hippo, my Yowie fennec is much chubbier than my Eikoh fennec for instance so I think it is a question of design. It is different from the famous Schleich emperor penguins which were undoubtfully emperor penguin chicks even if they were introduced as kings. Even Schleich fixed it later.
In this case, where the brand intends officially to represent a certain species using an ambiguous figure, I think it is more convenient that we list it on TAW with the official identification. Let's suppose the pangolin mold is used in another series to represent a different species of Asian pangolin, it'll be surely closer to one of the species but, if there is no evidence it is a mistake, I think it is better to use the identifications provided by the company. It is just a personal opinion, of course, TAW has lots of exceptions. :)

Well we are far from 1:32 models discussion and I am not asking to change the Yowies on TAW, I'm just saying it doesn't look like a Pygmy hippo.

About pangolin, I won't answer here but on the Corrections for TAW topic

Four saltwater crocodiles:
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According to Wikipedia, which has a good section on the size of saltwater crocodiles, adult males are 3.5 to 6 m in length (average 4.3-4.9 m), while females are a lot smaller, between 2.7 and 4.3 m. I am usually sceptical of reports of very large animals, but Wikipedia says that a captive saltwater croc named Lolong in the Philippines was 6.17 m in length so they really appear to be able to grow that large.

The least good one is probably by Science and Nature:
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It looks quite flat and toyish. Its length is 12.0/384 cm.

This one is the saltwater crocodile by Phidal, one of the figures that comes with their their “Pocket Explorers Reptiles” children’s book:
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The Phidal looks nice enough for a figure in a children's book, although I don’t know whether you can distinguish it from a Nile crocodile. Strangely, one of the photos on the page describing the saltwater crocodile shows one attacking a wildebeest . It is 12.5/400 cm long.

The Colorata “Reptiles” box also contains a saltwater crocodile. It is much larger at 18.1/579 cm. It looks gigantic, but I suppose it shows the very large size that saltwater crocs can reach. Whether the body proportions are right for such a large animal, I don’t know. My impression is that the legs are rather too long and thick if we assume the Colorata is 1/32 scale.
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Finally, my favourite, the Ania, which I showed in this topic before:
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It is 14/448 cm. It has great colours and a more lively pose than the other saltwater crocodiles.

So cool! Lolong is a great name for a large crocodile, it it was small maybe Shoshort could work too.
It is not that easy to distinguish a saltwater from a Nile. The scutes on neck are the best way but it is not so efficient when using toys.
Also, the Australian guys tend to be bronze, while the African use to be greenish but they're so variable in color.
The Animals of Australia croc hybridized with a platypus, I guess.

I only have the Colorata guy and I agree with you, the forelegs are too thick.

The Ania is very fine and of course more alive, even if the Colorata pose is a very "real life all day long" pose

The Ania is very tempting of course, the thing that bothers me is the screw at the joint, is it as visible in real life as in your photos?