AAA Aschuck's finds!

Dear Sts Friends:

Today, dad brought one of the three boxes from ebay to my place. Inside the box were 6 baby animals all by AAA. Here is a short overview of what they were:

Panda cub standing

Hippopotamus calf

2 wild cat cubs, not sure what species

Asian elephant calf, not sure what pose

And african elephant calf, not sure what pose this one is in either.

At this point, I don't know how many of these I'll keep, but I'll definitely be selling the panda cub and hippo calf. As for the rest, I'll have to get some one with eyeballs to identify them. Anyway, this is all the news, for now, so I'll post if there's more.

Aschuck

Great Anna! If the wild cats cubs have a very short tail, they're the lynx siblings.

Dear Sts Friends:

Well, as you know 1 out of the three boxes from ebay has arrived. The second is coming sometime next week, according to the grapevine. Ah yes, that famous grapevine, who always brings news that's great, whether it's about grapes or not. Okay, sorry, I just had to joke around a bit there. Anyway, the point is that the second box is coming next week. I've heard that it's a big box, with at least 25 figures in it, possibly all by AAA, but that remains to be seen. Roger, to answer your question or whatnot about the wild cat cubs, honestly, I don't know their species. I mean, it's not as simple as just looking at the figures. This is because I don't have enough vision to see what species they are, based on the stripes. But the story behind my vision loss is one that's really sad, and hard for me to talk about, so I'd rather not post it here. Suffice it to say that I'll need some one with eyeballs, AkA a sighted person, to help me identify the species of these unknown wild cats. Oh yeah, and one of the elephant calves is an asian elephant calf. Would you like to have a picture of this one for Taw? If so, then I can set it aside to have the picture taken later. Of course, mom and I will have to do some experimenting with her new camera, but hopefully, we can make this work. Also, I was thinking, what other pictures of AAA stuff do you need for Taw? Right now, in my collection, if you don't count the new figures, have about 299 AAA figures. If you need pictures of any of these, let me know and I'll start a portrait box for the AAA stuff that I have. Sorry I couldn't get a picture of the toy major gecko for you. Sadly, that figure has left my collection, as have a bunch of other figures, from brands that I don't collect. So the end of this story is that, yes, I can help with pictures of AAA stuff, and the AAA figures I might be keeping still need to be identified. Hey, here's a suggestion, why don't you editors of Taw make a page for AAA asian elephants. I mean, it's logical that there would be some of those figures out there, right? Anyway, it's just a suggestion, so do with it what you will.

Aschuck

Dear Sts Friends:

Well, today I checked my collection, again, and here's the actual total of everything:

2214 and still rising. I cant wait to see the contents of the big box from ebay. Which reminds me, hey, I'm still waiting for that. Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on the mail, but nothing has come yet, as far as boxes go. Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know where things stand with my collection. I'm also planning on doing a happy hen toys order soon too. Well, that should be fun.

Aschuck

Dear Sts Friends:

Today, another box arrived from ebay. My first impression? Not anything interesting, just a bunch of Safari Ltd figures, some of which I kept. So in short, the total of my collection has risen a little, all the way up to: 2229, and still rising. Anyway, I'm hoping that I'll find something good when I go out and about this week, so we'll see what I find. For now, these are all the new additions at the moment.

Aschuck

Dear Sts Friends:

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow, I'm going to shoelers books, where I'll be getting some more new things for my collection. No new additions for AAA as of late, but hopefully I'll have more news for you tomorrow. As for the lakeshore learning sets, mom and I are still trying to find good pictures, so descriptions of these figures would be very useful. And this is all there is for news, right now, so I'll post if there's more.

Aschuck

Dear Sts Friends:

Well, today was exciting, because I went to shoelers, and managed to purchase the schleich lioness 14825, and the schleich meerkat set. I also went to michaels, and bought a Safari phoenix, butterflies toob, insects toob, and wolf. And this is all the news for new additions. The current total of my collection is: 2225, and rising.

Aschuck

Dear sts Friends:

Well, I have more news, again. See, I've just discovered this really nice brand of plush called Hansa, and I'm thinking of getting some of their stuff for the plush and sand-filled portion of my collection. Birdsage, you might really like their birds, I've put several on my plush searchlist. Hansa even has a plush phoenix of all things! So as far as plush is concerned, things are looking up. No new additions for AAA yet, still waiting for the third lot from ebay. Also, pipsxlch, some of your descriptions I was able to match with AAA figures I already had, but at this point, I'd say that mom and I need to do more exploration of the lakeshore learning figures.

Anyway, if any one has any comments on my little plush menagerie, let me know.

Aschuck

Great update Aschuck:D Do you have any hyena plushes in your plush collection? I’ve thought of adding plushes to my hyena collection just haven’t taken the plunge yet, curious on your thoughts on the quality of the various brands.

ear Mitsukuni,

To answer your question, no, I don't have any plush hyenas. I mainly collect plush birds and some sealife. The bulk of my menagerie are sand filled and/or micro-bead filled animals. I have quite a few of these. Since you've asked about the different brands of plush out there, all I can say is: it's your decision whether or not to collect plush hyenas. Personally, I don't collect any of the major brands of plush, except for wild republic. At this point, there's been sort of a change, since I've discovered Hansa. They are the only other brand of plush, (besides a walrus by a brand called home goods.), that I collect at this point. I don't know how high quality Hansa is, but if it's aything like wild republic's plush, then it must be worth checking out. Right? As for quality in plush brands, I consider Ty plush to be the lowest quality, and wild republic to be the highest, but keep in mind that this is just a guess, considering that I'm kind of new to this field of expertise. Thanks for asking about all this, and I hope that my information was useful to you.

Thanks in advance,

Aschuck

Dear Sts Friends:

Hey guys, I took another look at stuffed safari's website, and I've made a short list of plush birds that I'm going to get there. These are the audubon birds with sound, which I collect. Anyway, the point is that sometime, I'll be getting these for my collection. No word from ebay as to when the last lot of figures is going to arrive, so we'll wait and see what they (the sellers) do. I do hope it gets here soon.

Aschuck

P.S. Birdsage, do you collect wild republic plush? Just wondering

Dear Sts Friends:

Hey guys, I was looking through some sort of second hand figures I got from ebay, and I decided to keep one of the two AAA elephants in the lot. This elephant is an african one, but I can't describe the pose,since I don't have it in my hand. Anyway, the point is that my collection total is rising, and the AAA total in my collection is now 300. Still waiting for the 3rd lot to come from ebay, so we'll see what happens with that. No news from Safari about new releases for 2023. Just so you know, I still don't know a thing about what they're up to over there. Anyway, if I find more additions, I'll let you know.

Aschuck

Thank you for your reply Aschuck! I really appreciate your advice and opinion, I will definitely look into the brands you mentioned as being high quality, since I don’t think the plushes would be a large portion of my collection I would want the few I might get to be of good quality:)

Dear Sts Friends:

Today, I finally got the third lot of AAA figures from ebay. In the lot, there was a safari cheetah and giraffe calf, which looked really old, and a AAA zebra, adult cheetah, and adult elephant. All these figures I'll be keeping for my collection. I guess now I'll have to redo the math, as far as the full total of my collection goes. Anyway, suffice it to say that my collection continues to grow.

Aschuck

Anna, I surely didn't want to bring you sad memories about your vision loss. I used a tip to help you to identify the wild cat cubs without needing to use your sight. I know perfectly you can't identify by strips or colors and I haven't mentioned it. Thus, I used a simple way to identify lynxes since while other felines have tails as long or longer than their legs, lynxes have tails much shorter than their legs. There are other felines with relatively short tails but they're not as short as those of a lynx and AAA never released a caracal or a serval. When the moulds are accurate, you can even identify a lioness from a tiger using your touch and you only need to check the shape of the tip of the tail. While a lion has a tuft of hairs at the tip of the tail, somewhat like a brush, tigers don't have it, also, tigers have more conspicuous sideburns but that's not always easy to check with touch. Unfortunately, the tip of the tigers versus lionesses does not work with AAA because they use the same sculpt for several different species.
Sighted people also collect monochrome figures without painting and sometimes it is not easy to identify. A zebra without strips since it looks a lot like a wild horse but we always can learn some tricks like the shape of the tail again. While wild horses have tails with long hairscovering the whole extent of the tail, zebras only have long hairs covering the last portion of the tail. You can learn a lot about animals just using your touch and I am sure that's one of the reasons why you love so much to collect animal figures.

Dear roger,

Hey, I just wanted to let you know that the two unknown AAA wild cats are actually two cheetah cubs, which I probably won't keep. My dad was at my place, and he was able to identify them for me. No worries about the memories part, losing your vision is just something you have to prepare for, which means, in my case, sorting some of my collection out. Yes I do love collecting animal figures, and it is true that the animal part of my collection is larger than the people part, but at this point, as far as I can see, both parts are equally important to me. You see what I'm trying to say? Also, when the third lot arrived today, there were two cheetahs which I did keep for my collection. One was an old safari model, from 1996, and the other was a AAA cheetah. Before these figures go in to my collection, mom and I will look them up on Taw, and try and find item numbers. I'm pretty sure t3at the Schleich horse I found from 2007 has an item number, it's just that I'll need some one with eyeballs to look it up. Oh well, maybe sometime I'll find out these missing numbers. In the meantime, I'll keep collecting figures, and sorting my collection.

Aschuck

Dear Sts Friends:

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you all know that I've put yet another AAA elephant figure in my collection. This figure still needs to be researched, but that can happen later. In the meantime, I'll keep on collecting. Oh yeah, and the current total of AAA figures in my collection is 304. Not sure about the overall total, so I might have to figure that out. I'll let you know what it is at some point. Anyway, this is all the news there is for now, so I'll post if there's more.

Aschuck

If those cheetah cubs are those with the same mold as the lion cubs, panthers and so, I understand they do not have much interest to you. Though, the cheetah juveniles on TAW are exclusive molds for the species and they're great. We can help about your horse marked 2007. It means it is a 2008 release and all 2008 Schleich horses have different poses. If you want to describe it, we might be able of identifying the model and provide you the product number.
I've read your suggestion for opening a page for AAA Asian elephants on TAW, as far as I know there's no Asian elephant by AAA and if they exist, they only need a specific page if they have a few models, if it is just one or two they go nicely to the African elephants. Then they are divided in each species page. Though, if you ever find an AAA Asian elephant, please let us know. You can idetnify them easily because they have much smaller ears than African elephants, the forhead, back shape and tip of the trunk are also different and normally those differences can be told just using touch.

Dear Roger and others:

Okay, so, the AAA cheetah cubs aren't going in my collection, because they are probably doubles of ones that I already have. Also, about the schleich horse, it's a stallion, and the pose is, I think, with both hind legs down, and one of the front legs sort of lifted and bent. I really can't tell for sure. All I know for sure is the part about this horse being released in 2008, and that he's a stallion. Other than these facts, I don't know much. Yes, I might have a few AAA asian elephants in my collection, but I'll have to check and make sure. If you need details about pose, I can tell you that there's one calf whose walking. At this point, I don't know for sure if I have any adult AAA asian elephants, so I'll have to check on that too. I hope this information helps a lot.

Aschuck

Anna, probably the stallion is
Schleich 13631 Tennessee Walking Horse
It is walking with the front left leg slightly bent and lifted.
A noticiable feature is the tail being held quite high next to the point where it attaches to the body and dropping almost vertically.
If it is this one, it is one of the most graceful Schleich horses of ever.
The tip about the Asian elephant is useful and I will try to look for information about it. If there's a calf, likely there's an adulte too.

Dear sts Friends:

Okay, now we, or at least Roger and the other editors of Taw, have proof that AAA did produce some asian elephants. This proof was found, you guessed it, me! Ta Da!!! Anyway, I happen to have 3 AAA asian elephant figures in my collection, so I'll describe them here for future reference on Taw. I don't know when I'll be able to have pics made of these, so You'll just have to trust my description for now.

AAA Asian elephant calf walking: This one is really in the walking pose, and has the trunk sort of straightened out.

AAA Asian elephant male walking: This one has his trunk curled down sort of, and he's looking to the left. You can't really tell very easily that he's male, because the anatomy isn't very pronounced.

AAA Asian elephant female: This one is walking, with the head straight, and the trunk raised. I really can't tell if this one is really female because, once again, there's no indication of the gender. You see what I'm saying, right?

Well, I'll try and get pictures of these when I can, but I do think that the AAA asian elephants need a page created for them on Taw.

And I guess this is all the information I can give you at the moment, So if anything else happens in my collection, I'll post again.

Aschuck

Hahahah, that was funny, Anna!
Sorry to disapoint but your descriptions match perfectly one of the African elephants family. The one we know from a Bullyland catalogue. The cow as the front left leg bent. If it is this family, let me tell you that one more calf exists.
Though, Ill trust you and wait to see photos if you find someone to photograph your pictures.

Dear Sts Friends:

Hi guys, hey, I went to Michaels today, and found the coral reef toob and whales and dolphins toob too. So all in all, it was a pretty good trip. Anyway, this is all there is for new additions news, so if there's more, I'll post again.

Aschuck

Dear Roger and others:

Well, some good news at last: first, the schleich horse which you, roger, thought was 13631, does indeed have that number. Well, that's another thing crossed off my searchlist. Also, many of the new AAA animals I have, from lots on ebay, were figures that I've been looking for, although I didn't know I needed them at the time when I got them. At least I have a AAA zbra in my collection. Other than these things, there's not much to tell for new additions news. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be able to get some more stuff from Safari. Anyway, until then 'll just keep plugging away at getting things for my collection, and finding great stuff. If anything else changes, I'll let you know.

Aschuck

Great to know Anna and congratulations for your new zebra, I suspect it is not the laughing one.
Just in case you don't know it yet, the Schleich 13789 is the exact same mould as the 13631, just a different color which has no interest to you so you can cross this one too.