Joy City Ltd.

Joy City Ltd. is a Hong Kong located brand that produces die cast farm/car sets, but they produced some plastic animal figurine tubes as well. They were founded in 1997 and have produced tubes for the German supermarket chain Aldi (Nord).

This brand has been introduced to STS by Andreas earlier, but there wasn't much on TAi about it. So I took some time to figure out their series, especially their tubes. I wanted to share some of my findings and would like to ask your help to complete the Joy City Ltd. TAi

These are the tube series that I was able to find:

• 4300-01 Horses Tube
  
• 4300-02 Desert Life Tube
  
• 4300-03 Wildlife Tube
  
• 4300-04 Farm Life Tube
  
• 4300-05 Coral Reef Tube
  
• 4300-06 Baby Sea Life Tube
  
• 4300-07 Jurassic Age Tube
  
• 4300-08 Pets Tube
  
• 4300-09 Animal Farm Tube
  
• 4300-10 Prehistoric Life Tube
  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the Joy City Ltd. tubes really look like the Safari Ltd TOOBS. But they are not exactly the same! It surely isn't a coincidence that most of the Joy City Ltd. tubes have the same themes and species as the Safari Ltd ones, but the molds are definitely different. So they aren't exact copies. Some are painted differently and in some cases there are completely different species!

Here, some examples:


As you can see, all species are heavily inspired by the ones from the Safari Ltd TOOB, but the molds are slightly different.

Here another example:


Here 10 out of 12 figurines are pretty much the same, whilst Joy City Ltd. replaces Safari Ltd's angel fish and parrot fish. Some of the other figurines have a slightly different paint job, such as the shell.

It's hardly to be missed that the Joy City Ltd. tubes are heavily inspired on the Safari Ltd TOOBS. Some figurines are slightly different, but I can't find differences in the molds from a few figurines. But still, new figurines to be collected!

And now I need some help to complete the information on TAi!

Andreas (and others with Joy City Ltd. in their collection), would you be so kind to add pictures of the figurines you own to TAi?

And here for the matter of identification.

Joy City Ltd. 4300-05 Coral Reef Tube
Can someone help me identify these fish?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Joy City Ltd. 4300-07 Jurassic Age Tube
I've identified these dinosaurs as following (from the top left to the bottom right):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Stegosaurus
Dilophosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Triceratops
Ankylosaurus
Apatosaurus (looking to the head it could be a Brachiosaurus as well, but the posture reminded me more of an Apatosaurus)
Gallimimus?
Parasaurolophus
Oviraptor
I DON'T KNOW THIS ONE!! Velociraptor? It sure doesn't look that friendly
Spinosaurus
Pteranodon

Please let me know your thoughts about the dinosaurs. And please help me out with the raptor-one!

Here are the only two Joy City Ltd. figurines I own:


Of course my main priority with Joy City Ltd. is to get the baby manatee from the 4300-06 Baby Sea Life Tube

Which Joy City Ltd. figurines do you have?? Please share your pictures, I'd love to see them!

The sauropod is an Argentinosaurus, the gray-and-black carnivore is Giganotosaurus, and the set includes both Gallimimus and Compsognathus. I'm not 100% sure which is which, but I think the one you guessed was Gallimimus is marked Compsognathus, and the one you've IDed as Oviraptor is marked Gallimimus.

The Prehistoric Life set:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The hominin is shown on their web site, but at least one collector I know didn't get one in his tube. The others are Indricotherium (=Paraceratherium), amphicyonid, Pterodactylus, Dolichorhynchops, Odontochelys, Mammuthus, Smilodon, Sarcosuchus, Doedicurus, Plesiosaurus, and a phorusrhacid.

Anyway, this set includes fewer obvious knockoffs than some of the others, and the only Odontochelys that I know of.

I will look Julie :)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] thank you so much for the information and identification! I'll make sure to change it in TAi

widukind wrote:

I will look Julie :)

Thanks in advance, Andreas!

Incredible! Where are those toobs available?

GREAT job you did !!!

Are they marked in any way ?

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Incredible! Where are those toobs available?

In AldoNord shop i have seen. But only for a short time each year.

SUSANNE wrote:

Are they marked in any way ?

Yes they are, quite the same way as the Safari Ltd TOOB figurines. They're marked with their species' name and 'Joy City Ltd.'. Maybe 'China' as well, but I have to check that to be sure

widukind wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Incredible! Where are those toobs available?

In AldoNord shop i have seen. But only for a short time each year.

Aldi is a German supermarket, but they can be found in the Netherlands as well. But I have never seen these tubes in the Dutch Aldi shops, unfortunately!

Andreas, if you see them again, would you please share it with us? If so, I can visit a Dutch Aldi to see if they sell these tubes as well!

Tarunyada wrote:

SUSANNE wrote:

Are they marked in any way ?

Yes they are, quite the same way as the Safari Ltd TOOB figurines. They're marked with their species' name and 'Joy City Ltd.'. Maybe 'China' as well, but I have to check that to be sure

widukind wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Incredible! Where are those toobs available?

In AldoNord shop i have seen. But only for a short time each year.

Aldi is a German supermarket, but they can be found in the Netherlands as well. But I have never seen these tubes in the Dutch Aldi shops, unfortunately!

Andreas, if you see them again, would you please share it with us? If so, I can visit a Dutch Aldi to see if they sell these tubes as well!

I will do it :)

widukind wrote:

Tarunyada wrote:

Andreas, if you see them again, would you please share it with us? If so, I can visit a Dutch Aldi to see if they sell these tubes as well!

I will do it :)

Thank you most kindly!

Tarunyada wrote:

And now I need some help to complete the information on TAi!

Andreas (and others with Joy City Ltd. in their collection), would you be so kind to add pictures of the figurines you own to TAi?

And here for the matter of identification.

Joy City Ltd. 4300-05 Coral Reef Tube
Can someone help me identify these fish?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Joy City Ltd. 4300-07 Jurassic Age Tube
I've identified these dinosaurs as following (from the top left to the bottom right):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Stegosaurus
Dilophosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Triceratops
Ankylosaurus
Apatosaurus (looking to the head it could be a Brachiosaurus as well, but the posture reminded me more of an Apatosaurus)
Gallimimus?
Parasaurolophus
Oviraptor
I DON'T KNOW THIS ONE!! Velociraptor? It sure doesn't look that friendly
Spinosaurus
Pteranodon

Please let me know your thoughts about the dinosaurs. And please help me out with the raptor-one!

The two tropical fish are: bicolor angelfish and peppermint angelfish.

QuollMate wrote:

Tarunyada wrote:

And now I need some help to complete the information on TAi!

Andreas (and others with Joy City Ltd. in their collection), would you be so kind to add pictures of the figurines you own to TAi?

And here for the matter of identification.

Joy City Ltd. 4300-05 Coral Reef Tube
Can someone help me identify these fish?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Joy City Ltd. 4300-07 Jurassic Age Tube
I've identified these dinosaurs as following (from the top left to the bottom right):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Stegosaurus
Dilophosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Triceratops
Ankylosaurus
Apatosaurus (looking to the head it could be a Brachiosaurus as well, but the posture reminded me more of an Apatosaurus)
Gallimimus?
Parasaurolophus
Oviraptor
I DON'T KNOW THIS ONE!! Velociraptor? It sure doesn't look that friendly
Spinosaurus
Pteranodon

Please let me know your thoughts about the dinosaurs. And please help me out with the raptor-one!

The two tropical fish are: bicolor angelfish and peppermint angelfish.

Inter3sting, i never have seen the peppermint angelfish before. Now i have to find this figure again :)

QuollMate wrote:

Tarunyada wrote:

Joy City Ltd. 4300-05 Coral Reef Tube
Can someone help me identify these fish?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The two tropical fish are: bicolor angelfish and peppermint angelfish.

Thank you so much, Emma I added them on TAi!