cave bears!..

cave bears were scarcely produced by old and modern known brands. During very long years, I had just the 1/32 scale Starlux which is not so bad, since it seems to have been created by Mr Massat, the main sculptor for Starlux, from wonderful Zdenek Burian's paintings:

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The cave bear general anatomy is easy to identify by 3 points:

-a well marked stop (break between muzzle and forehead)
-a high shoulder
-a falling down back line (because of shorter back legs)

this Starlux version has been confirmed by the discovery of magnificent Chauvet cave painting in South of France:

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..so when the Schleich cave bear 16 521 was released in 2003, I was very deceptive but so big was ma frustration by the lack of cave bears models that I bought it of course!..

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..the 3 caracteristics points are respected for it presents a marked stop, a high shoulder and a falling back line but it suffers a big defaut: it's microcephalic!..

..so, few years ago, I tried to cure this poor cave bear..

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..making its skull bigger and its neck thicker wit "Plastiroc" paste, for at this moment, 6 or 7 years ago, I did'nt know "WePAM" paste..

..and then, I could release it in Pleistcen epoch!..

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Very interesting

thank you Andreas! :)

that's a really big improvement

The prehistoric mammals series from Schleich, a remarkable collection from this company, was clearly not influenced by the same design tendencies of their wildlife range. One of the differences is that most wildlife figures are macrocephalic instead.
Interesting the surgery you performed, it is surely not the easiest operation one can do while customizing a figure. The head is the most complex part of an animal figure and the one whose mistakes are impossible to be unnnoticed. That's a brave work, thanks for sharing!

Very good work on this model, with wonderful result !

thank you A-J, Rogério and Kosta! :)

Rogério, the Schleich glyptodon, macrauchenia and megatherium were rather good but the mammoth, the smilodon and this cave bear look strange to me!..

What a magnific job, Caracal! You're a true artist! The old Schleich model is really bad: it have a look that made me think in a giant ground sloth rather than a bear!

Thank you Pardo! :)

My fossil from a cave bear

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Waow!! unbelievable!.. you have a museum?!..

Caracal wrote:

Waow!! unbelievable!.. you have a museum?!..

Thank you, not a museum. But a shelf full of fossils and minerals.

..so you're a multi-collector Andreas!

..few years after I got this Schleich cave bear, I found an other one, from Bullyland, in a shop of National Museum of Natural History. It's the 58 352 which is on the 1999 catalog (but maybe released 1 or 2 years ago) among a very interesting and accurate range of prehistoric mammals which includes Neanderthal humans.

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As it was the only third cave bear model I knew, I bought it of course, but I was not very satified whith it, because of its Commonplace standing position and its too big and "toony" head.

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from?..
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from Zdenek Burian


Standing up fighting (with human hunters) cave bear is a commonplace of prehistoric representations but we know now, Thank to ethologists, that bears never stand up when they attack, they charge, beat and bite their preys or opponent!..

moreover, it's difficult in such a position, to correctly judge the accuracy of the model!

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..so, as I recently could get 2 cheap models more, I tried to put one back on its 4 feet :

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..that made me realise that this model is not so bad with its well marked stop, its high shoulder and its falling back line, even if its head is a little big..

comparison wit the so accurate Zdenek Burian painting:

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..and released in pleistocen epoch:

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Interesting again

thank you Andreas! :)

Don't forget, there's also a small Play Visions one, from their bin series. It's... okay.

..and the Geoworld one which is probably the worst! :)

Nice!!!

thank you Shanti! :)

Caracal wrote:

..and the Geoworld one which is probably the worst! :)

And one from a blind bag set. I think Predators.

I don't know this one!..

I wasn't too fond of the original version of Schleich's cave bear, the thin neck made it seem unusually long necked, you have honestly saved this model, and that without even having to shorten the neck.
I might attempt to do that with mine as well, would be at least worth a try.
The diorama shots are also just amazing, both with the Schleich one and the reposed Bullyland cave bear.

Thank you Burgerenby! :)