My newest additions

My collecting fever go a step further! I passed many days looking at the animals of a stationery nearby my home, and finally I decided to buy something. They're all common ABC species! I'm an obscure-species lover and in my starting of the collection I never would imagined that I would fell in love with figures of banal species. However, they're so perfectly well done that I fell in love!

1. Red deer (Cervus elaphus), by CollectA. My idea of perfect common deer figure is a stag with thick furry neck, looking upwards, bellowing and with blank eyes. This one is looking aside and have a thin neck, but is very similar to what I wanted, with mouth fully open, and I like a lot the fur scultpture (not simplistic as in Papo red deer), the coat colour, and the antler shape.
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In southern Andalusia, a hungry Iberian lynx try to find something. By surprise he finds this big stag. A too powerful, big and dangerous prey. The deer know it and try to threat the predator by a menacing posture and bellowing. Shortly after, the lynx retreat silently in look for a less tricky prey...
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My deer collection now. All CollectA's! :)
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2. Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx). There are various mandrill models in different brands, but I think that this Schleich one is unbeatable in perfect quality of shape and painting.
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In the Congo rainforest, a mandrill have an encounter with one of the most mysterious inhabitants of this region...
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After a while, the okapi decided that the mandrill is harmless, and each animal continue his way.
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All my primates now, just two species (not a group that I'm a fan of). The enormous overgrown Sulawesi black-crested macaque, as big as a chimpanzee, with the decent-sized mandrill.
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3. And by last, the most magnific of these ABC species: the Tiger (Panthera tigris). The perfection of this figure is atonishing, especially the stripes. Other brands have very good tigers but with too thin or too regular or too unrealistic stripes. This one have perfect coat, perfect shape, and perfect pose, walking slowly with the jaw partially open for getting fresh air in the torrid Indian monsoonic forest.
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The tiger is hungry, but a gaur is a magnific oponent. The fearless gaur look at the tiger with contempt. This bull is strong and healthy and can deal with the predator. So the tiger must look for something easier...
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A striped hyena follows the tiger at a prudent distance, maybe he kills something and leave some remains for the hyena....
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The tiger spots a perfect prey! A male blackbuck, ideal for a meal!
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But the blackbuck perceive the predator before he can approach enough, and flee quickly. Next time, Mr Tiger....!
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And here the Tiger with my other Panthera cats (jaguar by Schleich and snow leopard by Papo)
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I love your stories!

Big congratulations :)

Very enthertaining presentations. It is interesting to find more common species in your collection and enjoy watching your choices. I am quite surprised with your mandrill choice. I don't mean it is a bad choice in any way. Though, I use the Papo version, I think the general proportions of the animal are more correct than in Schleich's. Surely theis figure is nicer in certain aspects.
Curious also that you used the red deer with the Iberian lynx. We both agree the lynx is being too ambitious but that's probably because of the successful conservation program being developed by Spain and Portugal. Don't you think the CollectA stag shows some features of the Iberian subspecies? Namely the neck area?
Looking forward to see your next choices.

Hmmm, I never tought in a specific subspecies of red deer for this figure (actually I don't tend to think in subsepcecies for any figure of any animal). But maybe yes, it's small, gracile and dark-haired, and maybe fits better with Mediterranean populations of red deer than the robust and reddish Central European ones...

For sure Papo mandrill is a great mandrill, I was not aware of it's existence. From what I can see in images, is even better than the Schleich one, overall in head shape, butt and hands/feet. But now I have the Schleich's and it's enough for me. Just saw it for sale at this stationery and I can't resist

Pardofelis wrote:

For sure Papo mandrill is a great mandrill, I was not aware of it's existence. From what I can see in images, is even better than the Schleich one, overall in head shape, butt and hands/feet. But now I have the Schleich's and it's enough for me. Just saw it for sale at this stationery and I can't resist

~

... and you did very well! It happens often with me, namely with the current Schleich cheetah. I didn't need it at all until I find it locally.

A new local shop addition: the Schleich's sloth bear (Melursus ursinus). Schleich is the only brand present in most toy shops or toy sections of commercial shops here. So it's the easier to get sometimes. Schleich is the only brand that made a decent sloth bear. This figure is easily available in many shops and I already saw it when started my collection, and more times since then. Why, then, I didn't got it before? Well, maybe because the model didn't convinced me very much: it's very small, and it have too blunt claws. But my collection grown and grown with the pass of time, and I still didn't had a sloth bear, so I decided finally to buy it. I can't make it bigger, but the different scale to my other bears is not dramatic and I can accept it. I also corrected the claws, sharpening them with a cutter and repainting them after. I also painted black inside nostrils for make them appear deep holes (in the original figure they look just superficial pits of the same colour than the rest of the muzzle), and painted black around eyes because the chestnut of the eyes extends a bit in the fur around. The result is here:

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Here my complete collection of bears. In the future probably will be enriched with the Safari LTD American black bear and maybe some still undecided figure of a brown bear. Sadly, there are no good spectacled bears available from major brands only very expensive homemade models or unrealistic old toys from lesser-known brands...
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Somewhere in the Whestern Ghats, a sloth bear and a striped hyena examine each other with a mix of fear and curiosity. I think that finally they decided to be friends. Striped hyenas, unlike their spotted cousins, are shy and not aggresive. And sloth bears are very able to defende themselves, but they are pacific animals that don't attack if unprovoked. So I decided that the hyena and sloth are talking about the location of an axis deer carcass not far from here, that both can share with joy...
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The male blackbuck, knowing the peaceful nature of sloth bear, is not afraid from him. If the bear decides to attack for a quick meat meal, the healthy blackbuck knows that his speed is enough for escape from the slow sloth bear.
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Finally, the tiger is really something to be taken into consideration. The sloth bear, don't finding enough nearby trees for climb and escape, tries to hide inside a bush and hopes that the wind don't carry it's smell to the tiger. Fortunately, he succeed. The tiger pass away unnoticing the bear.
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With a black panther figure, a Burmese python figure and a medium-aged child figure I could make a nice scene for the Jungle Book, but probably I will never get any of these figures (for leopard I want the normal-coloured version, humans don't interest me in figure form, and I doubt that I ever find any python figure enough detailed and in the correct scale). So, Baloo and Shere Khan must deal with themselves alone

I like a lot when you present newcomers in "context" by words and pictures. The Collecta red deer is great and you were right buying the sloth bear because we have no choice and over all because it's accurate!

Nice additions again

I think the sloth bear is quite decent and I have it too. Undoubtfully yours was a good decision. Haven't you considered the CollectA brown bear?

I did not considered any brown bear yet, but if some day I find one that I like a lot in a stationery, I will probably buy it for complete my bear set.

After a long pause, it's time to show here my newest acquisitions!

These figures were bought in two shops during my trip to USA last July. Maybe you're asking: wow, you went in July and you publish here in September? What a delay! But well, during the whole August I've passed entirely my free time passing the tons of photos of animals, plants and other lifeforms that I've took in the zoos (2), aquariums (1), botanical gardens (2), museums of natural history (3) and in the wild in these two weeks in Boston and New York. Since here are the best natural history museums of the world, I've took more photos here than in any other museum visited ever
Strangely enough, I didn't found any worthy figure in the shops of the museums and zoos. Harvard Museum of Natural History have a good stand, but all of them are Schleichs's. Schleich is the German brand, the easiest to get where I live, and the brand that excite less me because their species choice are not obscure. Only one took my attention a bit, the Arctic fox, but in my wishlist I chosed the Safari LTD arctic fox instead, so I rejected it. The American Museum of Natural History have a four floor shop! (actually is a four floor museum with a shop occuping the fourth floors in vertical). However, all what they have in figurines are dinos and very very scarce sealife in the upper floor (basically orcas, great white sharks and not much more). Great white is pending for my collection, but here they had the Safari one with open mouth, and I wanted the Safari one with closed mouth. Finally, both Museum of Sciences and the zoos visited, have mostly just stuffed animals and a few badly done and not interesting chinamals.

However, I've managed to buy figures outside of these places. The best thing was to find a toy shop in a street very close to the one where we was hosted. And they have a lot of Safari's! (and nothing more than Safari's). That's what I wished to find before travel, as Safari is the USA-based brand! Well, they have not great diversity of my wishlist figures, but they have some that had in it! These three figures that now I can delete from my wishlist are:

1. The shortfin mako shark, Isurus oxyrhynchus. The figure have some minor scratches of paint, but I fell in love with it and it's much cheaper than buying a new one in perfect condition adding the expensive shipping costs from online shops And I suppose that actual alive mako sharks also can have scratches in the skin Anyway, I've tried to correct them a bit, but the result is worst than before so I've let it. They're small and not striking.
And coming back to the figure, it's supeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerb. I felt in love overall with the very well done, sharp teeth. It's difficult to find figures with accurately sharp parts, for security reasons. So we find a lot of antelopes with blunt horns, birds with blunt beaks and... sharks with blunt teeth. But this one is just a perfect mako :) Also the shape of the gills is lovely and accurate, as well as the very sharp muzzle that give the species its name (oxyhynchus = sharp nose), the big round black eyes, the pale bluish skin, the perfect shape of the fins... It's a great addition to my shark collection :)

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Second figure was another shark, the bottom-dwelling Reef White-tipped Shark (Triaenodon obesus). Another figure to be admired! The eyes with vertical pupils are sooo lovely, the wide flat muzzle is accurate for this shark that passes is time resting in the seafloor and eating crustaceans from crevices, and of course the fins with lovely white tips (first dorsal and caudal) are so beautiful!

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For size comparison, here are both sharks together with the amazing Papo's whale shark, that is in my opinion the best whale shark figurine in the market without doubt :-)

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And the third figurine bought in this shop is also sealife, but of a very different kind. The Safari LTD's harp seal (Phoca groenlandica). The figure have a perfect shape and texture, and I like harp seals very much because of its striking coloration. But talking about coloration, this figure had to be repainted. The shape of the dark patches is perfect, but they're... SILVER. Pure metallic silvery paint. So I've took my black aquarell pencil and painted over the silver blotches, turning them black as they should be. The result is this:

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Here together with my ribbon seal (customized ex Schleich's harbour seal):

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Our Papo's polar bear that already appeared in other of my histories, try again. He didn't not succeeded with the caribou, so he now run to catch the harp seal, while both the harp seal and the ribbon seal tries to reach the sea in opposite directions. But the bear is too close! Will our hungry bear catch finally its meal...?

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But the things don't end with this shop. I also visited a shop in Boston specialized in artistic material. Here, casually, I've found a stand full of the Safari's Good Luck Minis. These are miniature figures, including everything: bigger animals like gorillas, elephants, etc, dragons and unicorns, babies (my mother bought one), etc. But I was, of course, searching for smaller animal species, that fits in scale with my bigger models. I've found two: a chameleon and a bat.

It's strange that I bought so generic figures, not identified to species level. But I've tought that here whe can think in a species for each.

The chameleon measures 3,2 cm lenght, and I've tought that it must be a medium-big species. Maybe Calumma parsonii could be a good match? What are your toughts and suggestions for species of chamaleons that matches this figure?

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And for the bat... It measures 3 cm wingspan and is blakc, with big rounded ears. It should be a medium-sized species, not as small as most vesper bats. I've tought that due to shape and size of ears, shape of face and scale, it could fit with a molossid maybe. Toughts and suggestions?

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But things don't end here! In this shop I've also bought a pen, with the exclusive reason of include the Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) in my collection. This is a fish I've got with Colorata's set of marine fishes, but I didn't included in my collection because the colours are too inaccurate. Metallic blue is a colour that I can't repair with repainting with my aquarell pencils. So I've left the fish in a board appart of my collection. But now that I had the metallic blue pen, I repainted the skipjack tuna and now he's happily swimming with the school of my other Colorata fishes :)

Before repainting: blue that ends abruptly at operculum :-\ , series of blue blotches alined near caudal peduncle (why?), and blackish lines convering into a strange pattern.

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After repainting: metallic blue shade covers all these unrealistic features and turn the figurine into a convincet skipjack tuna :)

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The pen:
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And with the other scombrids of Colorata, the blue-finned tuna and Pacific mackerel :)
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interesting experience, thank you for sharing! :)

Phantastic

Pardofelis wrote:

New batch thanks to my first trade with forum members!   Big thanks to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ! :-)

2. Pygmy hog (Sus salvanius) from Joy City. I was illusionated by this figure since the moment of know its existence, as it's a very wished obscure animal for me, and much better done than the other JoyCity animals. However when I opened the mail I was disappointed. It measures just 4,5 cm lenght! It would be a 1:30 scale more or less, too tiny for me. Besides that, the texture is extremely grainy with hundreds of micro grains. That would be maybe not an issue in the fur, but they're an issue in the hooves and the nose. So finally I will not include it in my collection. I'll add with my Colorata fishes (red sea bream, skipjack tuna and Japanese pufferfish) as a figure for trade by other figures if somebody want!

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With 4,5 cm lenght, this Pygmy hog isn't 1/30 scale but 1/13. Not so small indeed.

Really??? I found it extremely small comared to my other animals... but of course this is influenced because smaller mammals are at bigger scale than wished. For example, this pygmy hog have roughly the same size than my genet, and it's smaller than my fennec fox...

Anyway, the too rough texture and the too short legs are enough for not include it in my collection

Three new magnific additions thanks to a very nice trade with a forum member!

1. European Bison aka Wisent, from Bullyland. This figure is retired so it's great to have it before it becomes impossible to get!

It's a great figure and I think that is the best figure for this species. Schleich made a good one too, long time retired, but I think Bullyland's is better.
This is my second Bullyland figure after the Asian black bear. It have the same soft, slightly rubbery touch, and the same very light weight. But the quality is amazing despite not being the same harder material than most brands.

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In a Polish temperate forest, a red deer try to tell the bison that it's too close to his female deer herd... the deer don't want intruders here. But the bison just ignorate it and follow his way slowly and peacefully. The deer must wait patiently until the bison is far...
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Comparison with other big bulls full of muscles: CBIOV takin, CollectA musk ox, Mojo African buffalo
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2. Adelie Penguin from Kaiyodo, Penguins Lunch set. This piece is fantastic. I's difficult to get a Japanese set figure alone instead of all the figures of the set, that are offered from time to time in Ebay. I could easily buy all the set but I was only interested in some of the figures, and the most interesting for me was the Adelie penguin.

The figure is fantastic. It's very realistic (unlike a lot of penguin figures from western brands), and it's absolutely perfect in scale.
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It comes with a base that imitates a block of ice, and this base can be attached to a bottlecap. However, since I avoid bases in my figures when possible, I displayed it without base - I cutted the two short sticks under its feet, that allow to attach it to the ice block.
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Adelie's penguin is perfect in scale. My only other penguin, the Safari LTD toob Chinstrap Penguin, is a bit too big tough. Maybe the chinstrap was fed with hormoned fishes...
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Adelie penguin knows that elephants seals are just big noisy piles. Altough he knows some of its cousins were rolled by one of these giants, these are rare accidents.
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But take care my penguin friend... not every pinniped is unworrying!
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Adelie penguin see its last minutes of life. Everybody must eat...
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3. And last, the best of all the figures, the superdreamed California Condor from Safari LTD Wings of the World. A retired figure that went impossible to buy online. And now it's finally mine, hanging from a thread over my land mammals!!!!
This bird is absolutely perfect to the least detail. The head is amazingly well done. The white patches under the wings are accurate and the fine white lines over the secondary feathers too. Wing shape are totally accurate (unlike many western brand raptors that often have primary feathers too wide and rounded at tips). Eyes, feet... everything is so perfect and the species is a so classic mythical dream!

I have no more raptors nor Californian animals for make a diorama, but the bird alone is enough marvelous itself!
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BIG THANKS to mon ami, the French black crested macaque! :)
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Great newcomers and nice pics :)

I am so glad you've found these figures for your collection. Retired Bullyland and Safari turn easily into rare pieces in a short time after their retirement. I also love the penguin, it is so nice that it seems some kind of animal already took it out. Our great Kiki is back in charge and easily the community joy levels increase.

This Bully winter coat walking wisent is great, it's more little than the others big bovids (gaur, cape or water buffalo..) but fits very well with Schleich wisent and the whole Bully prehistoric mammals collection (mammoth, wooly rhino, giant deer, dire wolf, smilodon,..) It fits too with buffaloes from Schleich and Safari ltd. I don't know why most of european and american buffaloes are at a more little scale than the one of the others big bovids and It's why I got the Papo buffalo which is big enough to fit well with these other big bovids..

It may be a bit smaller than other big bovids, but fits perfectly with the CollectA's red deer :)

sure?.. :)