The Vanishing Wild Orangutan female !!!!!!! And July '20 also the rest of the family !!!!!

Did you know that Safari also made a family of orangutans for their series "Vanishing Wild" ?

Yes ! There actually was a whole, little family !

In my Safari catalogue from 1990, there is a picture of a whole little family !
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Also, there is a family of Gorillas
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and a family of wolves !!
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It says in the catalogue that they are sculptured by artist David Smith, exclusively for Safari, and that they have parchment hang tags.
I never saw any of them, or heard of anybody who had seen them, - did they ever go into production, or... ????

YES !!!!  The wonderful lady from Bulgaria , Maria ( Teardrops), just gave me one of the most amazing gifts ever !
The Female orangutan, with tag, marking and everything

LOOK  !

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Isn't it amazing ?

Maria, you are such a fantastic person, and I don't know how to thank you

NOW, everybody : Go searching for the other 8 old VW models, we need to get pictures of them
As you can see, the model is marked 1990, and as Schleich already sold the new VW gorillas and wolves in 1993, these old ones can max have been made for 2 years !
So there is no doubt that they are rare, - but now we know that they are out there

Considering how long these figures are known from catalogue pictures and all the time we took to see the first one in real, I'd say that we have to wait two or three generations of collectors to see all figures. It turns even more impressive that Maria gave it. one could feel easily tempted to sell it and try to get a little fortune. Many amazing people around indeed.
The figure is quite nice and belongs to a stupend series. I hope other figures do not take so long to be found.

Wow, a rarety :) Big congrats :)

Great presentation of these mistery models. They are like a real treasure, which is like a myth...and people only telling legends for it ... but now the first piece of this treasure had been dug up :)
...and the legent become a true ...
I really hope that more pieces of this treasure will be discover ... and this topic will become bigger and bigger

Wow fantastic

This is a beautiful model and still in a very good shape

Wow, I had never even heard of these models. The orangutan is beautiful and I am very impressed with Maria's generosity! Huge congrats Susanne

Hurray ! I am so happy that others are also extremely exited about this as I am

costicuba wrote:

Great presentation of these mistery models. They are like a real treasure, which is like a myth...and people only telling legends for it ... but now the first piece of this treasure had been dug up :)
...and the legent become a true ...
I really hope that more pieces of this treasure will be discover ... and this topic will become bigger and bigger

This model could be a Unirangohorn, or what ?

Incredible gift

Hurray for Maria

Eureka!      
I got the whole orang utan family (all with tags) delivered a few days ago. Here are the pictures, without much words:

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Absolutely wonderful models.I have a few of these VW myself and they are always such wonderful models!

O ! M ! G !

I faint
I thought I would never see this day

Unbelievable , - a miracle ! Wonderful ! Ohhhh, so beautyful

Wow

Thanks for sharing this grand moment in the life of a collector with us! We are all aware that you've found something very rare and special. Many congratulations!

Stunning finds! Big congrats on these great models.

Fantastic! Apart from the fact that they are rare, they are also extremely charming. Great photos too!

Incredible find, congratulations! These must be some of the first animal models ever designed by Safari, along with the first series of Authentics. They only started making their own figures in 1988 and it was all dinosaurs until 1990.

Interesting to note that these were all produced in a Schleich factory until at least 1993, so they could even be considered honorary Schleich figures. Did Schleich sell these first Vanishing Wild families in Europe, or only the later Forest Rogers ones?

TerribleDactyl wrote:

.......
Interesting to note that these were all produced in a Schleich factory until at least 1993, so they could even be considered honorary Schleich figures. Did Schleich sell these first Vanishing Wild families in Europe, or only the later Forest Rogers ones?

I think you got it wrong there.

All those Safari models sold by Schleich were stamped Safari Ltd.
The Safari people used to joke about "Now we make Schleich, Now Safari", because thay were the same.
Only the tags were different.

Schleich sold Safari's Carnegie models  from 1990 - 93 , Authentics and Vanishing Wild in '93, and Monterey Bay models in 92-93.

Interesting, thanks! Randy Knol had told me that Safari operated out of the Schleich factory in China initially and that the same people were making figures for both companies. Since Safari was first only a US distributor they did not have their own production facility at that time. They were stamped Safari, as Safari designed them and payed for the tooling. What I meant is that they were made in the Schleich factory, and sold by Schleich in some markets, so in a way they are as much Schleich as Safari models.

Are you sure Schleich did not sell Carnegie Collection dinosaurs until 1990? I have seen Schleich catalogs with early color variants that are supposedly from 1989. But maybe they were not released yet?

Ohh, yes, That is another story , and very interesting.  
Also very probable, as they were making business with each other back then and their managers were friends.

But the fact that they were made in the same Chinese factury as Schleich does not make them Schleich  
Quite the contray, the Fafari models thet Schleich sold, were marked Safari ( Except the mountain goat), and thus they are Safari ;-)

There is nothing to indicate that Schleich has ever owned manufacturing facilities outside Germany, but they have had models made in many different countries .
Schleich , for instance, also has had many models made in Potugal by Maya & Borges, who also make their own models. We even have reason to believe M&B own some of the moulds of Schleich's old models.
We see these made as M&B-models now, or even as other brands, for instance Mojo and Papo.
But M&B also have made Papo-models for Papo.

A very complex and hard-to-find-out area of our hobby for sure  
Just see how we are struggling to find out about "Nayab", AAA etc...

Ahh, you really got me going here    
Perhaps we should make a separate topic about this ?  

Yes, for sure! Hopefully others will be more able to chime in. It's an interesting philosophical question: what makes something a Safari or Schleich figure? Take a Carnegie model. It is stamped Safari. But the figure was designed by an independent sculptor hired by the museum, not Safari. The mold was made by Bullyland. The factory was subcontracted. All Safari did was organize the whole process, like a producer on a movie. Did they "make" the figure? The sculptor who is an independent contractor designed it, the factory which is independently contracted molded it and painted it. Safari organized it and sold it... Except in Germany, where Schleich sold it. So really speaking of it as a Safari figure is not very meaningful.

TerribleDactyl wrote:

Yes, for sure! Hopefully others will be more able to chime in. It's an interesting philosophical question: what makes something a Safari or Schleich figure? Take a Carnegie model. It is stamped Safari. But the figure was designed by an independent sculptor hired by the museum, not Safari. The mold was made by Bullyland. The factory was subcontracted. All Safari did was organize the whole process, like a producer on a movie. Did they "make" the figure? The sculptor who is an independent contractor designed it, the factory which is independently contracted molded it and painted it. Safari organized it and sold it... Except in Germany, where Schleich sold it. So really speaking of it as a Safari figure is not very meaningful.

Safari owns the molds.  That is what makes them Safari figures and not Schleich figures.  Safari used to distribute AAA figures, and I seem to recall even the Schleich minis being distributed by Safari for a short time.  But the molds were owned by AAA and Schleich, respectively, which means the figures were AAA and Schleich figures.  The Carnegie Collection, Monterey Bay Aquarium Collection, and Vanishing Wild Collection are/were 100% Safari produced/paid for/owned.

Right, as you can see in my message I understand that they are technically Safari figures. I was speaking from a more philosophical standpoint and considering how the production of a figure is more complicated than who currently owns it. Especially with early Safaris which were mainly produced under license and designed/approved by the licensers. Safari owning the mold and paying for it's production is part of a much larger probably cess of creation. I mean look at Marx. Several different companies have owned those molds, which is important for bookkeeping purposes for sure. But at the end of the day Marx and the artists it hired still "made" those figures, they designed and sculpted them, approved the sculpt, and made the molds. So even a Superior-produced Marx figure is still just a Marx figure with an asterisk.

These old orangutans are available on eBay now (very expensive):
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Somebody may have found old stock...

But that is not expensive !