Schleich Snow Leopard Walkaround

When I heard that Schleich was making a snow leopard, I knew we were probably in trouble, and unfortunately I was right about that. Schleich has been on a downward spiral for awhile in my opinion, which is sad, because they are one of the first companies I started collecting. The coloration and anatomy of this figure is pretty poor, but the one upside is the face, which is actually very nice. Plus it not having the weird almond-shaped alien eyes that a lot of newer Schleich figures have is a plus. I would like to see someone do a repaint of this figure, but I honestly think some rescultping would also be needed to truly fix it. The tail is too short, and what is even going on with the feet?

Despite all of my complaints, I knew I had to pick this figure up. Snow leopards are tied with cheetahs for my favorite wild felines, and I wouldn't miss having a snow leopard figure from a major company in my collection. One thing I find endearing about mine is what I can only assume is a factory error where the head spots are all to one side and one ear is darker than the other, which I think gives it a little bit of character.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I ordered the figure too

To be honest, I expected her to be worse... The face is OK, the pose is OK, but the painting seems terrible. I wonder why they decided to give this animal such a minimalistic and childish fur pattern...
Shame that is, cos with a little more effort it could be a cool figurine .
Not a great nor accurate sculpt, but I could live with it if there were more pros overall. It seems that I have to live without a snow leopard for now, because I'm not too keen on the Papo figurine either... I know most of you love that leopard and the sculpt is great for sure, but I just can't look her in the eyes, she irritates me..
Very informative pictures, thank you!!

the face is better than promo pics showed (does not look so cartoony here). Those spots are awfully symmetrical, though.

It looks better than on the first catalog pictures and I really like the face. And I´m sure, it will fit nicely with my others feline.
But yes, it rather looks like a normal leopard, coloured as snow leopard. It has a very minimalistic pattern and so I don´t really like it.

However it´s hard to get a good snow leopard figurine. The Papo one is nice...but this face:
I think the CollectA is very nice, but also here, there seems to be different levels of coloration as the one on TAI looks much better...

Thanks a lot for this walk around.
I remember when other brand figures seemed cheap when compared with Schleich because the painting finish of the German brand was generally superior.
Now it seems the opposite is happening. The last lynx and this snow leopard look like paintworks from a starting company. Very poor pattern and the back is particularly bad.
I also think the pose do not favours the figure because it gives the impression that hind legs, relatively long in snow leopards, look like they are short and puts the animal with a unpleasant droping back. All other snow leopard figures have much nicer poses. The long fur on belly maybe results better in real, here it just looks like the animal is obese.
I agree the face looks nice. Companies know that the face is the part of the figure that most buyers use as reference to evaluate the quality of the figure. The previous lioness was a good example how it should not be done, thus their early replacement.
I Will probably pass on this figure as I did with the lynx but that's something that I can rethink later.

The sculpt itself isnt great, lots of anatomical anomalies. But I think with a better paintjob it would appeal to more people here. The face is actually quite nice. I like that the one you have has some factory mistakes to it, very unique indeed. Probably will get this one, but I had hoped they did a better job.

Ohh, dear !

Well, I think we all agree , and most has already been said.

It is terribly hard for an old collector of Schleich to see a Schleich snow leopard, and decide that I really do not need this one. Perhaps mainly because of the paintwork and the paws, but also it looks like sombody hurried to make the body and then spent some time on a small from too little material of the neck  

Fortunately I am the lucky owner of the repaint, Kosta made of the SL from Golden Compass

BUT thankyou very, very much for a great walkaround, with extremely informative comparisons      

Thanks for the walkaround and especially for the comparison with snow leopards from Papo, CollectA and Safari. Yes, Schleich snow leopard is definitely not the best one, but because I’m a fan of felines, I’ll buy it anyway. If I should find something positive about it, then perhaps the fact that its size more or less corresponds to that of snow leopards from the other three companies. If we were to make two pairs out of these four figures, what combinations of brands would be, in your opinion, the best in terms of colour, painting, proportions, pose etc.?

spacelab wrote:

To be honest, I expected her to be worse... The face is OK, the pose is OK, but the painting seems terrible. I wonder why they decided to give this animal such a minimalistic and childish fur pattern...
Shame that is, cos with a little more effort it could be a cool figurine .
Not a great nor accurate sculpt, but I could live with it if there were more pros overall. It seems that I have to live without a snow leopard for now, because I'm not too keen on the Papo figurine either... I know most of you love that leopard and the sculpt is great for sure, but I just can't look her in the eyes, she irritates me..
Very informative pictures, thank you!!

That's the first time I think I've heard anyone say anything negative about the Papo figure, to be honest. Well, other than the fact that the newer paintjob on it is awful. And thanks, I'm glad you liked my photos!

bmathison1972 wrote:

the face is better than promo pics showed (does not look so cartoony here). Those spots are awfully symmetrical, though.

Agreed on the face, it actually looked worse in the stock photos.

Duck-Anch-Amun wrote:

It looks better than on the first catalog pictures and I really like the face. And I´m sure, it will fit nicely with my others feline.
But yes, it rather looks like a normal leopard, coloured as snow leopard. It has a very minimalistic pattern and so I don´t really like it.

However it´s hard to get a good snow leopard figurine. The Papo one is nice...but this face:
I think the CollectA is very nice, but also here, there seems to be different levels of coloration as the one on TAI looks much better...

Yes, the stock image did nothing for the face on this figure. That's the second time I've heard someone say something negative about the Papo figure, which is honestly a shock to me because I had no idea there were collectors that disliked it. The face is actually pretty accurate, as snow leopards have a kind of unique facial structure [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] The only issue I have with the figure is that some of the newer paintjobs are really cheap-looking. I think the photos didn't do the Collecta figure any favors. In real life it's almost an exact match for the one on TAI. There might be a tiny bit less gradient, but it's minimal. The flash makes it look a lot worse.

Roger wrote:

Thanks a lot for this walk around.
I remember when other brand figures seemed cheap when compared with Schleich because the painting finish of the German brand was generally superior.
Now it seems the opposite is happening. The last lynx and this snow leopard look like paintworks from a starting company. Very poor pattern and the back is particularly bad.
I also think the pose do not favours the figure because it gives the impression that hind legs, relatively long in snow leopards, look like they are short and puts the animal with a unpleasant droping back. All other snow leopard figures have much nicer poses. The long fur on belly maybe results better in real, here it just looks like the animal is obese.
I agree the face looks nice. Companies know that the face is the part of the figure that most buyers use as reference to evaluate the quality of the figure. The previous lioness was a good example how it should not be done, thus their early replacement.
I Will probably pass on this figure as I did with the lynx but that's something that I can rethink later.

You're welcome, I'm glad it was helpful! Oh man, are you talking about that lioness that looked like the result of several generations of inbreeding? I shudder to remember it. At least it's not as bad as the German shepherd puppy that looks like a bloated corpse left on the side of a highway.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

The sculpt itself isnt great, lots of anatomical anomalies. But I think with a better paintjob it would appeal to more people here. The face is actually quite nice. I like that the one you have has some factory mistakes to it, very unique indeed. Probably will get this one, but I had hoped they did a better job.

Yes, as poor as the anatomy is, I feel like a better paintjob would have made a lot of people more forgiving of that. Sort of like the Chap Mei snow leopard, which looks NOTHING like an actual snow leopard, but is just so pretty I can't help but love it.

SUSANNE wrote:

Ohh, dear !

Well, I think we all agree , and most has already been said.

It is terribly hard for an old collector of Schleich to see a Schleich snow leopard, and decide that I really do not need this one. Perhaps mainly because of the paintwork and the paws, but also it looks like sombody hurried to make the body and then spent some time on a small from too little material of the neck  

Fortunately I am the lucky owner of the repaint, Kosta made of the SL from Golden Compass

BUT thankyou very, very much for a great walkaround, with extremely informative comparisons      

Yes, it's pretty disappointing, especially considering a lot of Schleichs earliest figures were big cats. You'd think they'd have it down by now. And thanks, I'm glad my walkaround was helpful to you!

Martin P. wrote:

Thanks for the walkaround and especially for the comparison with snow leopards from Papo, CollectA and Safari. Yes, Schleich snow leopard is definitely not the best one, but because I’m a fan of felines, I’ll buy it anyway. If I should find something positive about it, then perhaps the fact that its size more or less corresponds to that of snow leopards from the other three companies. If we were to make two pairs out of these four figures, what combinations of brands would be, in your opinion, the best in terms of colour, painting, proportions, pose etc.?

Same with me. As much as I think the figure is pretty poorly made, I knew I would end up buying it just because I love snow leopards so much. Out of these four, I think the two best would be the Papo and Collecta figures, as much as I really like the Safari one. If I had to pick out of all the snow leopards I own, it would be the W.A.I. cub and probably the Papo figure again, though I really like the Collecta cubs and the Recur figures as well. I'm not counting my Beauty of the Beasts snow leopard, as that one is resin.