1/32 scale animals

I'd stay a bit further away if I was that man. They can be up to 3700 kg!

Looking at photos of mountain goats, a length of about 2 m seems to be possible: the length of four men sitting shoulder to shoulder next to each other. They are hunting photos, so I won't show them here.

When I buy Safari a TOOB, I usually buy it because it contains interesting species rather than because I am so excited about the sculpting quality. But recently I got two Safari pony TOOBs that made me go “wow”! The sculpts are very well done, clearly made by a very skilled sculptor who has studied ponies in detail. The painting quality isn’t too bad either. One TOOB was the Safari Pony Derby TOOB from 2004-2018:
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It contains two ponies, a girl and a boy rider, and a couple of jumping hurdles. TAW shows that it contains a dog and a child with a camera too, but they weren’t included in my TOOB. There are two pairs of ponies, each pair in two different colours. All are lovely!
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Are they 1:32 scale? In the UK, ponies are horses under 147 cm in shoulder height, while the record for the smallest pony is 51 cm, so we have a lot of room to play with! It just depends on what breed they are. The Safari ponies are 3.4/109 cm at the hip, but I don’t know what breed they are. Does anyone know?

Perhaps it is more informative to measure the boy and the girl. The boy is about 4.2/134 cm tall and the girl is 4.4/141 cm. The World Health Organisation says that this is the average height of a 9 year and 4 months old boy and a 10 year and 4 months old girl. I have accepted the girl and boy into the 1:32 wildlife reserve!

The second TOOB is the Ponies TOOB from 2006, which is still in production:
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The ponies have a similar size as in the Derby TOOB. They also have the same style, so they were probably made by the same sculptor. There are four different sculpts, each in two colours. These two are my favourites:
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Hard to see in the photo, but the dun pony has a nicely painted stripe on its back. The other ponies are lovely too. Here we have all of them in pairs:
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The children can ride these ponies too.
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No saddle and reins, but that’s no problem, they are very skilled:
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More ponies next time!

Surely the research you do to find which figures are compatible to your reserve is one of the most entretaining parts of your collecting hobby.
I didn't know people are allowed in your project, I enjoy the detail of the average height of a child being calculated for ages which such precisions.

Nice knocks-off for a 1/32 collector indeed  

Lions and lionesses have a less marked sexual dimorphism than that of tigers, it is possible to have large females as imposing as small males.

rogerpgvg wrote:

However, the main brands sometimes resize their own standard-sized models into toob-sized or even smaller models. So we can now ask the next question. If Schleich had made their models in 1:32 scale, then it is likely that the other main brands would have followed it and made their models in the same scale. What would that have looked like? We can use some of the resized models to see what things would have been like in a perfect world where everything is in 1:32 scale.

This is exactly the kind of thinking that can be found among French vintage collectors. (Except none of them consider Britains to be the ultimate brand   )
In reality Schleich continues the German tradition (Belgian, Austrian, Italian...) with sizes closer to 1/20 than to 1/32.
The 1/32 is above all a very French and British tradition.

Roger wrote:

Surely the research you do to find which figures are compatible to your reserve is one of the most entretaining parts of your collecting hobby.

That's indeed part of the fun.

Roger wrote:

I didn't know people are allowed in your project.

Yes, but they are usually kept in enclosures so that they can't do too much harm. The horses and ponies appear to have managed to tame them though.

Kikimalou wrote:

Lions and lionesses have a less marked sexual dimorphism than that of tigers, it is possible to have large females as imposing as small males.

That's right, there is overlap in size. The problem is that many of the 1:32 lions are quite large and so the same-size lionesses aren't truly 1:32 scale. It's a bit of a problem because lions and lionesses are often made as pairs or as part of the same series. Lions are already more common than lionesses in toy form, but this makes the gender imbalance worse.

Kikimalou wrote:

This is exactly the kind of thinking that can be found among French vintage collectors. (Except none of them consider Britains to be the ultimate brand   )
In reality Schleich continues the German tradition (Belgian, Austrian, Italian...) with sizes closer to 1/20 than to 1/32.
The 1/32 is above all a very French and British tradition.

What we consider the ultimate brand depends on our taste and mostly on the toys we had in our childhood. I meant that Britains and Schleich are the brands that have sold most animal figures. And yes, Germany won the animal toy war.

For the 20th century, Marx is probably the brand that sold the most, but that's not the point.
What I meant was that Britains, like all brands of the past, thrived in a world with much more closed borders than today. I have always lived near the Belgian border and I can measure the change. The solvent market was also much smaller.
For me Schleich is really the first truly universal brand, with fans in all countries, because it arrived at the right time, in the early 2000s when international trade was intensifying and the internet was born.

You are right, Schleich is sold much more widely than Britains ever was. But Britains was already sold world-wide. It was quite successful in Northern Europe including Germany, in North America, Japan, Australia and probably other countries that I am not aware of. It even exported to France , though it doesn't seem to have been so successful in Southern Europe. It was much more global than other animal toy brands at that time.

My feeling is that Britains was a more important player in the toy industry than Schleich is because there were fewer toy manufacturers at that time; there was less competition. When I go into a toy shop now, then I find Schleich in a small corner, whereas when I entered a toy shop in my childhood, I'd find a large section of Britains at the entrance. Partly, that may also be because Britains' products were more diverse than Schleich's. Schleich's main business is animal toys (and a bit of Bayala, Eldrador and what have you), whereas animal toys were only a small part of Britains' business. Their main focus was on toy soldiers and later farm equipment.

Globalism is a gradual development. For example, Papo is a global company, but when I recently saw a sales map in their catalogue, I was surprised that it was mostly white. They don't sell in South America, Africa, most of Asia (including China) and not even in all European countries. In 30 years time, people may say that it wasn't a global company because it was sold to only 1/3 of the world's population.

A good way to measure a company's influence is probably to see how many copies/knock-offs there are. There are a lot of Britains and Schleich knock-offs but not so many from of other companies. Interestingly, the Hong Kong knock-off companies may have been the first truly global animal toy companies. Their products were really sold everywhere and in large quantities too.

This is really very subjective. My perception is about how influencial each brand is regardless of their sale numbers and in this regard Marx, Britains and Schleich are absolutely core brands. Non animal series were important to turn these brands popular what did not happen with CollectA, for instance.
Though, I think CollectA is currently the most copied of all brands, I find their copies locally and online everywhere. I think even more than Schleich. CollectA is also sold in USA as Breyer and they have a good market in Asia. Though, they're not yet an influencial brand and the fact they sell almost exclusively animal figures does not help them to be commonly found in traditional shops.
Bandai, Mattel, Playmobil, Lego, also sell animal figures and they're much bigger than Schleich, for example and I also don't find them influencial in this market niche.
Safari is actually a small company but their legacy is huge. Everyone in this hobby knows what is the Carnegie collection or the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Especially the former.
It also depends of our personal experiences, it is different for an European and for a North American and if we consider Japanese, I believe the big one is Kaiyodo but I'm not so confortable to talk about it.

Influence is indeed hard to measure. Yes, you are probably right about CollectA knock-offs.

Marx was a very large company, but were they so successful in the toy animal business? Their offering seems a bit underwhelming on TAW and I don't come across Marx animals so often.

The situation in Japan in a bit complicated because the gashapon figures are normally only released once and they aren't toys. When I was in Japanese toy shops a few years ago, they also sold mainly Schleich, though Ania was common too. I don't know whether Eikoh is mainly a collectors' brand, a toy brand or perhaps both.

Now, let's go back to the ponies and compare the Safaris with my other ponies. First, the Britains ponies. From 1963 until 1989, Britains made a pony with a girl rider. The girl changed her hairdo in 1969. Here we have both hairdos:
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The pony has a shoulder height of 3.9/124 cm. The girl is about 3.6/115 cm tall. A very young girl of about 6 years old!

More common are the Britains Shetland ponies, made from 1972 onwards (still in production). There are several different colour versions. Here are the main ones:
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The two Shetlands on the left are the oldest, made until 1992. The two on the left were made between 1993 and 1996. After that, a palomino pony (or is it chestnut?) continued to be made in various slight colour variations.

The Britains Shetlands have a shoulder height of 2.9/93 cm. Wikipedia says that Shetland ponies can be up to 107 cm, and some other websites say that their minimum height is 71 cm. The boy and the girl are only 3.5/112 cm tall.
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Here we have two Britains Shetland ponies with two ponies from the Safari TOOBs.
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Ertl made a Shetland pony with a foal:
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The adult is 3.4/109 cm at the hip. Too large for a British Shetland pony, but American Shetlands can be a bit larger: 117 cm according to Wikipedia. Here we have the Ertls with two of the Safaris. Different styles but because they have similar colours, they look fine together.
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Marolin/VEB Plaho also made a Shetland pony and foal:
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However, with a hip height of 3.9/125 cm, they are too large. I think they are usable as a different pony breed, but I don’t know which. Let’s colour-match these too:
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And with a Britains Shetland:
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Recently, Susanne gave me a Reisler pinto pony:
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It has a 3.8/122 cm shoulder height.
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Finally, we have Breyer of course. They have made quite a few Stablemate ponies, but some of them, such as the Indian pony and Connemara mare, are horse size. Three are smaller, from left to right the Stablemate Shetland pony, Fell pony and Highland pony:
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The Shetland has a 3.6/115 cm hip height. It’s probably a bit too large, because it isn’t standing straight up. A comparison with the Britains and Ertl Shetland ponies:
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At 4.0/128 cm, the Fell pony is even larger, but that’s good because they are large ponies. Horseandhound.co.uk says that they cannot exceed 142 cm in height and while there is no lower height limit, there are very few under 124 cm.
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Another large pony is the Highland pony. Wikipedia says it has a shoulder height of 132-147 cm. The Breyer is only 4.1/131 cm at the hip, though possibly slightly higher at the shoulder. Breyer has made all ponies in many different colours, but for some reason, I have very few colour versions. Two Highland ponies though in different dun colours:
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A comparison of my largest and smallest pony:
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And here a comparison with the other Britains pony, which has a similar height as the Breyers but is much thinner:
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The Breyers together with some of the Safari ponies:
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Hugue poneys collection!

Thanks, Alain. I haven't shown you my horse collection yet

ah it's always soooooo interesting to these various brands comparisons, especially with Britains as the core one.
The Breyer highland pony is a very beautiful model, with excellent delicate detailing. I really like the smooth coats on the Breyers with only a hint of fur/coat, compared to the heavily furred Safari ones.
I think that is the main reason I love the Britains, Starlux, Breyers models the most, because they have less of this over exaggerated fur detailing. Even the ERTL is this way too, and it's very appealing. Because instead they just have subtle references to just the main furry bits.
I have always thought that the Britains Sheltland pony was THE exception to this though! With it's heavy handed heavily furred coat, which made it less 'real' to me. And this was before I had even seen these other ones.
Interesting that all the Marolin Veb Plaho ones also have a heavy hand in furry coats. Even their zebras are like that too.
Though these models are more artistically elegant (to me), because they have shapely and slim legs and good detailing, so I reckon they can get away with their extra furry coats.

Your pony collection looks great regardless Roger!

I too like the same 2 ponies as you - the pinto and the dun. They have very nice poses.

That was nice of Susanne to give you the Riesler pony. At first I thought it was the old Britains zebra with some new coat on it! But there are some differences when I looked closer.
And the Marolin black ponies fit right in.
Even the differences in sizes, though large at times, seem to be fine when the herd is all together.

Glad you have your humans contained, inside your reserve! They can do minimal damage that way

For ponies, especially Shetlands, I think a furry coat works well because they are often quite furry. For horses, I find it doesn't work so well. It's a matter of taste. I think Breyers are a little too smooth but the harder plastic may look quite odd if it is textured. The Britains PVC has some texture, which works well for most animals. The Safari ponies have more, but overall their style is quite similar to the Britains, so they display better with them than the Breyers.

rogerpgvg wrote:

As you can probably see, I got these Schleich knock-offs second hand, but unsurprisingly, I later also found them on AliExpress, where they were sold under the name Billbuff.

Then I found several extra-large knock-off Schleichs as well. All were larger than the original Schleichs except the giraffe, a copy of the Schleich male giraffe that was introduced in 2016.
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The original Schleich giraffes are too tall for 1:32 scale, but because the knock-off is smaller (15.2/486 cm including horns), it has been admitted to the reserve. Here it is with the latest female Schleich giraffe and the late-version Britains:
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amazing to see all these similar sized comparisons!
thanks for all your hard work Roger!
I especially LOVE these giraffe! what a great fit they are and they are so beautiful too

rogerpgvg wrote:

For ponies, especially Shetlands, I think a furry coat works well because they are often quite furry. For horses, I find it doesn't work so well. It's a matter of taste. I think Breyers are a little too smooth but the harder plastic may look quite odd if it is textured. The Britains PVC has some texture, which works well for most animals. The Safari ponies have more, but overall their style is quite similar to the Britains, so they display better with them than the Breyers.

yes indeed! I just came across some Sheltlands on instagram and they were just fluffy floofs!! ha ha

And I agree about it being a matter of taste.

Yes, I've noticed the texture on the Britains PVC models too!

Funny thing, when I was young I had a model horse (Barbie doll size) that was very smooth with hardly any indication of hair on it's coat. It was just so beautiful and my favourite large animal model to play with. And I think that's why I like my small animal models to be the same way too - just tiny versions of it.
And it's probably why I also really love porcelain sculptures, because they are always smooth and shiny.

Just as well they are enough brands out there to cater for everyones' differing tastes!

Some Breyer Stablemates are very glossy. This is often the case with recent Collectors Club and Breyerfest special releases. Some Stablemates are made of porcelain, but surprisingly, they are not so glossy, like this one.

yes I remember now - seeing very glossy Breyers and being surprised by that! It would be nice to come across these glossy ones then:) I will keep my eyes open.
Though I would never have thought of plastic as ever being so glossy that I mistook it for porcelain but Breyer seems to have done that, ha ha!
And actually I never knew the Stablemates came in porcelain either?! I'm pretty surprised by Breyer, the more I discover about it, the more it keeps surprising me. They definitely have all their consumer angles covered. It's probably on the stockmarket!

Thanks for the link, that is a very pretty bisque porcelain one.

Chimpanzees are commonly made animal figures, but they are relatively small and therefore not so easy to find in 1:32 scale. However, I have found a few. Before I introduce them, let’s consider the obligatory size information.

Hanada and Udono (2006) measured almost 600 chimps in research facilities and found that their crown-rump length was between about 65 and 92 cm. However, Curry (2020) measured chimps in African sanctuaries and found that they were often substantially smaller, between about 50 and 90 cm. She suggested that this may be due to a different diet. New England Primate Conservancy say that the size of chimps differs slightly depending on the subspecies too, with the largest, the Central and the Western chimpanzees, growing up to 96 cm in crown-rump length.

Let’s first have a look at the Britains:
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There is an adult, made between 1962 and 1969, based on an earlier lead version, and three baby chimps, made between 1971 and 1985. Funnily, the adult was taken out of production before the babies appeared. The adult has a crown-rump length of 2.9/93 cm, so it is a very large chimp. It has articulated arms. The babies are also not truly babies. The smallest, the standing chimp, has a 2.0/64 cm crown-rump length, while the the sitting ones with crossed and uncrossed legs are respectively 2.2/70 cm and 2.3/74 cm. They could be large juveniles (under 10 years old) or small adults.
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Unquestionably the best chimps in 1:32 scale are the Bandaï adult and child. Given how small they are, their quality is remarkable. Even more remarkable is that they were just given away as premiums with confectionary.
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The adult Bandaï has a crown-rump length of 2.8/90 cm and the child is 1.9/61 cm. The child wants to become a weightlifter when he grows up.
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Another Japanese chimp was sold by the Zoorasia zoo in Yokohama. I have seen some of the other animals in this set sold under different names too, but I haven’t seen the chimp. It has a crown-rump length of 8.9/90 cm.
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It is made of a kind of soft-touch plastic. The plastic is very rigid, but it has a soft outer coating.
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A handsome lad, but he isn’t so happy about his looks because he has an embarrassing naked tail!
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Two small chimps from mini series:
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The one on the left is from the Bullyland Micro series and the one on the right is a Safari Good Luck Mini. Safari looks like a young chimp and with a 1.8/58 cm crown-rump length, it is indeed the smallest of all my chimps. The Bullyland is probably meant to be an adult, but because it has a similar size as the Britains “baby” chimps, I think of it as a juvenile. It has a 2.4/77 cm crown-rump length.
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I recently got two Reisler chimps from Suzanne. They are the friendliest of them all: Whenever they see me, they wave!
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They are meant to be young chimps too, but they are clearly too large for that. They don’t look particularly young to me, so I am quite happy to use them as adults. The sitting chimp is 2.9/93 cm and the standing chimp is 2.8/90 cm. Perhaps not always so friendly:
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Three chimpanzees by New-ray. Not the very best chimps, but it’s a great affectionate scene:
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The chimp with baby is 2.2/70 cm and the other chimp is 2.4/80 cm. Both are quite small as adults, but they are possible.
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And lastly, two Clairet chimps in a tree. One is a good climber whereas the other one keeps falling out of the tree.
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It isn’t entirely clear whether they were meant to be chimps. The colour isn’t quite right but otherwise, they probably look more like chimps than any other ape or monkey.
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Except … they have a tail. The Zoorasia chimp feels better!
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All the chimp juveniles together:
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And all the adults:
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All together, it’s a riot!
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I always love the way you present the figures, information, and comparisons, even if they are not things most of the time I would collect personally for myself! So neat to see different brands in scale with one another. This has become one of my favorite threads on this forum!

Very interesting presentation and some naked rumps are surprising.
I don't know what these Clairet figures intend to be, maybe they are multifunctional. Macaques for some, chimps for others.

bmathison1972 wrote:

I always love the way you present the figures, information, and comparisons, even if they are not things most of the time I would collect personally for myself! So neat to see different brands in scale with one another. This has become one of my favorite threads on this forum!

Thanks a lot, Blaine. Good to hear that you enjoy it.

Roger wrote:

Very interesting presentation and some naked rumps are surprising.
I don't know what these Clairet figures intend to be, maybe they are multifunctional. Macaques for some, chimps for others.

Ah, yes, Barbary macaques are a possibility. It would be surprising if Clairet didn't know the colour of chimpanzees. The colour (and vestigial tail) is much better for Barbary macaques. I have told the Clairet "chimps" that they have been found out by the STS police and asked them to leave the reserve.

widukind wrote:

Thanks!

Roger, they're listed as chimps on TAW and who edited that page is a macaque. I'm almost sure Clairet just marketed them as singes (monkeys) and Barbary macaques were culturally relevant in Europe during these times.Actually, they influenced a lot our perception of what an average monkey should look like. That's what I think those figures represent, the average idea of a monkey. So, they can represent every primate, even if it is not a monkey, in your reserve they're chimps for sure.

I prefer to see them as Barbary macaques rather than chimps even if that means they aren't 1:32 scale. I'd like to think that François Clairet knew that chimps are black and don't have tails. Your comments make it very useful for me to show my collection here, thank you!

rogerpgvg wrote:

I prefer to see them as Barbary macaques rather than chimps even if that means they aren't 1:32 scale. I'd like to think that François Clairet knew that chimps are black and don't have tails. Your comments make it very useful for me to show my collection here, thank you!

My preference aligns with yours."