Rtas' additions - Birthday gift from El Desperado

A secret project in the suburbs? Maybe it explains lamma's smile. Old Schleich llama is an outdated model but it has that thing that only Schleich knows how to do. It was a very popular figure when available. I think swans go very well with each other. Is the swan made of a lighter material? Do you think it floats? Someone misterious told me Schleich is having some good ideas so I won't be surprised if it does.

Congrats on the new additions! I still prefer the old schleich llama and swan, but the new ones aren't awful, just a different schleich style.

Thanks Paige !

I remember the comparison pic you provided me with Mojo's llama (the best one currently) but I remained too afraid it would be too big... And I'm just starting collecting again, I don't want to spend my money on shipping species I already have so the available model in local shops is enough to me even if it's not perfect.

Roger, I can try to put it in the water tomorrow if you want.

RtasVadumee wrote:

Thanks Paige !

I remember the comparison pic you provided me with Mojo's llama (the best one currently) but I remained too afraid it would be too big... And I'm just starting collecting again, I don't want to spend my money on shipping species I already have so the available model in local shops is enough to me even if it's not perfect.

Roger, I can try to put it in the water tomorrow if you want.

Thinking better, to make a swan float they needed a plastic half as dense as water and none of the brands use anything like that. Even if they use the less dense plastic it could float but with almost the whole figure under the water line and likely upside down. So, I think it is useless that you try it. I asked before thinking. They much probably used their normal pvc that is dense and makes the figure to sink completely.

Two more wonderful additions to complete your Schleich 2021!

Congratulations with your new models

Of course I have also ordered those two, - who can resist a swan or a llama ?

Fortunatly I would never dream of replacing my old Schleich Llama, which I simply adore  

I surely do not want to be negative, but isn't here is something about the new one that is not quite right, - is it all that fur on the legs ?

Wonderful new Schleich additions, and judging by the label the new swan does look rather small. I've yet to get these two. Regarding more swans in the Thames, I have only seen the river once, but never swans on it which was surprising due to the fact there are so many

Go to Windsor, you'll find all the swans you need

Advicot wrote:

Wonderful new Schleich additions, and judging by the label the new swan does look rather small. I've yet to get these two. Regarding more swans in the Thames, I have only seen the river once, but never swans on it which was surprising due to the fact there are so many

Maybe they concentrate in certain sections of the river. In London they must be very abundant since they find more easy food here from humans, but far from the cities and villages they probably get scarcer.
In the Thames during my only visit to UK, besides the swans, I also saw the only wild tufted pochard I saw in my life.

A tufted pochard on the Thames, what a wonderful experience that must have been

Windsor, I'll head there next

A few miscellaneous comparison pics of my latest Schleich and Papo additions.
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That confrontation is the main reason why I wanted to get the Papo grizzly, I needed a powerful adversary to face my fierce Schleich male ! The Papo model is beautiful and I know it has a lot of fans here but the Schleich remains the unbeatable ultimate brown bear in my opinion. One that can't be accused of being "too cute" for sure
Then, I got confirmation that the Papo and Schleich marmots work greatly together. I have hardly ever seen anything cuter
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In my opinion, Papo is Mr and Schleich is Mrs. What do you think ?
Finally, although that pic is useless since Susanne PULLED THE RUG OUT FROM UNDER ME ( ) I am keen to share a pic of my own badger family which is much more traditional than the albatross' As a reminder, I won Mrs Badger (the 2011 model) in an Ebay auction in Greece for 3€ instead of the usual 30€+ price for that model. Spacelab also won the Papo anteater for only 9€ if I remember well. As you can see, she is in perfect condition.
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(Sorry for the female's tail cut, I did not notice that and now it's too late to take a new picture as I have not access to the figures anymore)

Didn't find time to do the new Schleich llama/Papo guanaco comparison but I can tell you they fit perfectly together as far as size is concerned but the llama is not as good as the guanaco so they don't work so well together even if it's ok. Concerning the new swan, it is smaller than the previous ones but nothing shocking.

RtasVadumee wrote:

In my opinion, Papo is Mr and Schleich is Mrs. What do you think ?

In my opinion Papo is the priest and Schleich the pregnant parishioner, what do you think?

Fantastic additions, I love each one: Marmots, bears and badgers!

Nice figures and pictures. 
I really like the marmots together and I agree with you regarding the mrs. and mr.

Wonderful new additions, in my opinion the Papo marmot doesn't disappoint

Roger wrote:

RtasVadumee wrote:

In my opinion, Papo is Mr and Schleich is Mrs. What do you think ?

In my opinion Papo is the priest and Schleich the pregnant parishioner, what do you think?

I agree

Very nice catches Rtas and very nice families too

Hi friends,

Again, a few new additions that week, a kind of little interlude before the next big Safari order arriving on monday if everything goes right. A few rarities too or, at least, retired figures not so easy to find. All arrived the same day but from two different places. One package contained the last two Schleich I was seriously looking for and another included the missing figures from my first Mojo and Safari purchases. Let's start with the first one.
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Schleich has been recently praised here as being the best badger maker on the market but they should be equally congratulated for their hare. Despite it is quite an old figure (2005) and not a very textured one, it is, in my opinion, the most "hare-looking" hare on TAI. I have been watching the Papo rendition for years in my usual shop, and often be tempted to get it, but it looked too "rabbit-looking" compared to the perfect body shape and proportions of the Schleich model. The funny thing is that I am now looking for the Papo hare as I saw on one of Paige's pics that it would make a good female.

In the meantime, he can count on the company of his fellow wild lagomorph buddies.
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Second jewel to come is what I probably consider as the "final boss" of my figure hunts game.
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A very beautiful model, unique among Schleich lionesses, but also a very rare one. Indeed, lions are popular so there is often no retired model left in local shops and I just can't stand paying 30€ on Ebay for a single figure. So I had to call upon dark forces to get it at a fair price.

That's undoubtedly the best lioness figure from Schleich and the only one that may approach the beauty of Papo's. The unusual pose makes it even more special and it gonna have a special rank in my pride. Since it's the most beautiful and the only one not hunting the poor CollectA black wildebeest in my African diorama, it's gonna be my Sarabi.

Here it is with Mufasa (my pride is now 10 strong : 2 males, 5 females, 1 juvenile maneless male and two cubs, a perfect social structure)
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The second parcel came from some Italian crooks. Don't ever use that website, they are total assholes. They let you choose your country to calculate shipping and ask for like 6€ to send to France. Then, they keep your package for days, not sending it, waiting for you to re-contact them. When you do, they say that they're sorry but you only paid for domestic shipping and to send abroad they need 10€ more. So quite disreputable characters, yet not as sinister than that "powerful secret friend" who got me the hare and lioness. As a good sucker, I paid because that was for two retired figures I could not find anywhere else in Europe. Two species that were initially planned to be part of my first reviews of their respective brands but were not because of availibility issues. I'm talking about the Mojo pronghorn and the Safari peccary.
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I took advantage of the opportunity to add another retired figure from Safari, the red-crowned amazon. It's quite a cartoonish figure with that typical "comic book paintjob" from Safari and not a very exciting species for me, but it's "ABC" and thus, a hole in my collection I had to fill. It's "cockatoo-sized" so too big for Schleich macaws but as I already said, I gave up scale a long time ago as far as parrots are concerned.
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The pronghorn was a much bigger must-have. When I learnt as a child that there were antelopes in America, I couldn't believe it ! Those animals were so much associated to Africa in my mind that I found that discovery prodigious ! I know the paintjob is not 100% accurate as it misses the black mark on the side of the neck but I have always preferred the Mojo model to its Safari counterpart, that's why I waited for the good opportunity to get it. It was supposed to be one of my first Mojo figures but the American seller who was offering it refused to combine shipping so I had to choose between it and the tamandua, and finally opted for the later.

As far as size is concerned, the Mojo pronghorn works perfectly with CollectA antelopes. Here it is with a species sharing a similar way of life and environment, yet on another continent (however, take into account that the saïga is a bit oversized for CollectA standards) :
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Pronghorns are not exactly antelopes though. As an Antilocapridae, it's the only representative of its family and is more closely related to giraffes. However, it would make no sense to compare it to a giraffe figure so I thought a North American great plains' neighbour would be more relevant.

The Mojo pronghorn fits perfectly with the only decently sized bison from major brands, the Papo behemoth.
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But does not work as nicely with the Schleich dwarf.
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Finally, the Safari peccary was quite an obsession to me. Retired very recently, it had been available for ages when I was checking my usual Ebay seller in the UK and then suddenly vanished when I finally decided to start Safari. The figure is typically one of these models which looks so much better in real than on pics. It's also typically the kind of species which is not going to turn Isidro on but it was a must-have for me because it's ABC and yet very rare in French zoos. And also because I hand fed the only ones I saw and hand feeding a pig is not something you do every day I guess.

Actually, that may be one of the only pig species I would dare to hand feed. Because it's small and cute. Weighing only 20 kg, it's a tiny suids and its toy replica is big. However, I knew it, was prepared to that and ready to accept it.

In fact, it's exactly the same size as a Schleich boar, which is not right. But Schleich boars are known to be a bit undersized compared with other brands' pigs and even Schleich's warthogs.
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That's certainly better with the larger, more standardly sized Papo.
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Finally, there is almost no problem with the CollectA pigs which are all slightly oversized. The red river hog for example is not a big species, yet twice the weight of a collared peccary. I think that last comparison is the least shocking, the red river hop appears clearly bulkier than the peccary and they almost could be at the same scale. We are, in my opinion, in a typical "proboscis monkey situation" here.
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One thing is for sure though : that peccary's size is certainly not a problem for my Schleich jaguar who is going to stuff his face with that fat knuckle of ham.
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Congratulations

You're right, this lying lioness is the best from Schleich's ones and this peccary is far too big but as we have no choice to get one..

About sizes, if we ignore the parrot, the silliest is surely the Schleich bison, at a first glance, it looks like an old blind huge wild boar that smashed his head against a wall. OK, the figure is great but extremely small in any circunstance. Who told here that Schleich is not the best with rabbits and hares? It's one of Schleich strengths and I think the German brand made more rabbit figures than any company of Easter souvenirs. I also have this hare, some figures are debatable once they look more like rabbits as you pointed but this one is clearly a hare and a very good one. I also have the Schleich wild rabbit, mountain hare and I don't have more species from Schleich because all others are domestic. I am sure they will make an Arctic hare someday although I'm not discontent with my Papo. I don't have the pronghorn but I enjoy seeing it in your picture. A species collector cannot avoid the pecary, ow long will you wait to see another company making one? It is large but the model is not that big. I must get also this jaguar, my anteater flock will teach him some things.

So many wonderful additions, you have picked such a lovely variety of realistic models!
And very interesting to read all your views on the figures too!

I agree that this hare is superb, my only worries is that it maybe is too big when compared with my Annamite striped rabbit. I also would repaint the eyes making big orangish iris and small pupils.
The wild rabbit in your comparison photo is amazing too! Really well done especially the fur coat colour.

If your lioness is Sarabi and your lion Mufasa, obviously one of the cubs has to be Simba... but who's the forgotten brother?

Thanks for warning against the Italian website. We have plenty to websites to choose instead

Congrats on the pronghorn (that I have, bought at MiniZoo), in my opinion it's much better than Safari pronghorn, overall regarding pose, thickness of the legs, and position of the horns. The peccary is not in my wishlist, I find it a bit too big. It should be clearly smaller than my Safari wild boar. And about the amazon, is not cockatoo-sized, more goose-sized (and Schleich macaws are as big as eagles haha). And I disagree in the "comical looking", I find it absolutely realistic, except by the too big feet. I also would not call it an ABC species, maybe just "amazon parrot" in general is an ABC concept but not any concrete species, and if we had to choose one more well known it would be the blue-fronted or the yellow-headed before the red-crowned in my opinion :)

Besides being called American antelope, pronghorn is much more related with giraffes than with antelopes, as you said. However pronghorn evolved from escape from its main predator, the cheetah. Yes, cheetahs in North America. That's indeed much more african-asocciated animal! Sadly the North American cheetah is extinct long ago.

Congrats! All are great models.

Thanks for your comments !

Yes Roger, I just underlined it was one of Schleich's strenght since I'm Engehausen's puppet

Pardo, about the Italian website, unfortunately that's the only way to get some figures in Europe, I didn't find the pronghorn and peccary anywhere else and it seems that I am going to have to deal with them again since I now need the roseate spoonbill... They also have your Malayan tapir.

I was indeed talking of amazons in general : I needed a representative of these parrots in my collection since they are among the best-known ones (along with macaws, cockatoos and grey parrots).

Oh yes, I remember reading that about cheetahs when you got that pronghorn yourself !