Rtas' additions - Birthday gift from El Desperado

Wonderful newcomers And like Roger, I would love to see some comparison with the Gorillas and yor thoughts about the species - maybe you help people like me with your identifications, too :)

So many wonderful models!

As previously announced, Andrés has been recently repainting a Schleich 14632 Emperor Penguin with Chick [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] into a king to go with my new 14617 King Penguin [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which now replaces the 14652 Emperor Penguin in my collection [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] .

The result is absolutely faboulous and it's impossible to tell that this figure was not a king in the first place and that these two were not initially made for each other.
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Here they are with my new Emperor, the Papo model :
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And finally, a comparison with the original model.
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This is the first of many upcoming weddings as almost all my penguins are going to find love next week

Beautiful repaint! What an exciting figure.

I am still to dumb to understand and "see" the difference between Royal and Emperor Penguin. I don´t even know which species (or perhaps a mix of both?) I have in my collection. And looking on TAW, there are models that are debatable.

So I congrat you on your newcomers and this thread will be watched again, when I decide to make my penguin parade more "realistic".

Beautiful repaints!

Duck-Anch-Amun wrote:

I am still to dumb to understand and "see" the difference between Royal and Emperor Penguin. I don´t even know which species (or perhaps a mix of both?) I have in my collection. And looking on TAW, there are models that are debatable.

So I congrat you on your newcomers and this thread will be watched again, when I decide to make my penguin parade more "realistic".

Royal penguin no, you are introducing one more to the confusion. Royal penguins are crested penguins and easy to tell from these two. Check here!
The confusion between king and emperors is already a classic and Schleich was not the only brand mixing both.
Remember, emperor the biggest and king the 2nd largest. They are similar but I think the most efficient way to distinguish them is through their ear patch. Emperors hav them large and the yellowish color "touches" the white parts. On the other hand, Kings use to have them bright orange and it does not touch the white part. Actually, there's no white part on the ear patch. Differences like the longer bill of the king, brighter lower beak of the king or the most massive body of an emperor are not easy to tell. The grizzled back of the king is a good indicator but there's some seasonal variation and the best is to avoid these features. To be fair, despite knowing their differences, some figures are really hard to tell but the tendency is towards emperors once they're more popular.

Roger wrote:

Royal penguin no, you are introducing one more to the confusion. Royal penguins are crested penguins and easy to tell from these two. Check here!

That's likely because he is from Luxembourg and the king penguin is named "Manchot royal" in French. And also because of the title of my update

Roger wrote:

Remember, emperor the biggest and king the 2nd largest. They are similar but I think the most efficient way to distinguish them is through their ear patch. Emperors hav them large and the yellowish color "touches" the white parts. On the other hand, Kings use to have them bright orange and it does not touch the white part. Actually, there's no white part on the ear patch. Differences like the longer bill of the king, brighter lower beak of the king or the most massive body of an emperor are not easy to tell. The grizzled back of the king is a good indicator but there's some seasonal variation and the best is to avoid these features. To be fair, despite knowing their differences, some figures are really hard to tell but the tendency is towards emperors once they're more popular.

Actually, what I could do is take a picture of both penguins from Schleich using the same mould. It might help with the ear patch. But only tomorrow, I'm doing something else right now.

Duck, here are comparison pics to help you with the penguins' ear patches. King is on the left and emperor on the right.
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RtasVadumee wrote:

Roger wrote:

Royal penguin no, you are introducing one more to the confusion. Royal penguins are crested penguins and easy to tell from these two. Check here!

That's likely because he is from Luxembourg and the king penguin is named "Manchot royal" in French. And also because of the title of my update

Roger wrote:

Remember, emperor the biggest and king the 2nd largest. They are similar but I think the most efficient way to distinguish them is through their ear patch. Emperors hav them large and the yellowish color "touches" the white parts. On the other hand, Kings use to have them bright orange and it does not touch the white part. Actually, there's no white part on the ear patch. Differences like the longer bill of the king, brighter lower beak of the king or the most massive body of an emperor are not easy to tell. The grizzled back of the king is a good indicator but there's some seasonal variation and the best is to avoid these features. To be fair, despite knowing their differences, some figures are really hard to tell but the tendency is towards emperors once they're more popular.

Actually, what I could do is take a picture of both penguins from Schleich using the same mould. It might help with the ear patch. But only tomorrow, I'm doing something else right now.

Oh my gosh, now I was very confused
I think the thread name and the fact, that King and Emperor are "royal" titles confused me^^ Yes, coming from Luxembourg, we always use a mix from french and german, so this can be confusing. In German, it´s the same (Königspinguin und Kaiserpinguin).

Thank you for your helpful pictures and thank you Roger. I mean, seeing them together, it´s quite obvious. But seeing only pictures of one of the species, I always had problems, don´t know why :) But you made it clearer

Hi there !

I have A LOT of new things to show you, actually so many that I was thinking it would be more digestible to show them little by little rather than gather them in a humongous update as I often do. Then, it will be more pleasant to read for you and will leave me with less work to do at the same time. So let's start today with a few banal additions from Modellpferdeversand.

First of all, after my brilliant success with the white rhino conservation program, I decided it was time to give a chance to another rare species very dear to my heart, and maybe even my favourite of all, that strange forest dwelling short-necked giraffe they call okapi.

The "historic" okapi of my collection is the Papo male I got for no collecting purpose. I think I already told this story several times : I bought it in that shop close to my job, maybe one decade before I actually work here, because I'm fond of the species (the short-necked giraffe concept and mostly its very late discovery making it quite a mysterious ghost of the jungle) and liked the figure very much. At that time, I still had the old beliefs of my childhood according to which Schleich was the only reference brand for animal figures and Papo was a second-class company. And, actually, I was convinced my figure was a Schleich until I started collecting again back in 2018 and discovered on TAI that is was a Papo ! I bought a second sample for my father at the same time I got mine, because he loves that animal too and these okapis have always been some kind of link between us, even if we've never really loved each other like father and son.

Then, one year after I started collecting again, I logically acquired the new Schleich female, one of their late very nice models, and paired it with my Papo. Finally, I didn't manage to resist getting the old Schleich male when I literally raided the shelves of a fellow collector from my region who was selling her childhood jewels. Finally, even if it's bigger than my female while it should be the opposite (females are larger within that species), I think that it fits better aesthetically with it, despite the Papo remains my favourite (but I would say the most accurate rendition is the recent Schleich female).

Anyway, that little trio recently gave birth to a lovely calf but I'm unable to tell you who the father is

One thing is for sure, the Schleich male acknowledged paternity and clearly considers it as his child. Okapis being black animals, the more textured fur of the CollectA calf does not prevent it from fitting perfectly with the Schleich pair as those details are less visible on dark figures.
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It's an equally perfect match for the Papo lonely male, who behaves like a mentor for the calf, showing it the mysteries of the jungle and teaching it how to remain hidden from those strange bipedal demons looking like tall chimps.
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In fact, I prefer to think that the Papo okapi is the biological father of this calf I gladly see as a metaphor : after all, isn't CollectA as a brand, the perfect fruit of the union between Papo's realism and Schleich's aesthetism ?

In any case, all four cohabit together, as it is well known the okapi is a gregarious species by nature, from which it draws its nickname of "wildebeest of the jungle".
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After that second "miracle of life", I thought that I was doing so well as an EEP supervisor that it was no time to stop. So, I organised a penguin speed dating, hoping for new future births.

That was not my only purpose however. Indeed, I have always had kind of a natural sociologic curiosity and wished to know what were the main criterias taken into account by young urban penguins when choosing a mate in the 21st century.

The results reveal that penguins tend to remain quite traditionalist since they will systematically date partners from the same ethnicity. However, the social background was of lesser importance in their choice as we saw an African lady from the old nobility bring a young playboy from the new bourgeoisie back to her beach for example.

So, here are the couples at the end of the meeting :
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You already know the first one whose story is definitely a modern fairy tale. Indeed, Elisabeth, the young mother you can see on this picture, did not always bear that name. She was formerly known as "Victoria" and was born an Emperor penguin. She grew up feeling so different and got convinced that she did not belong to the right species. So, she left the conservative republic of Antarctica that forbid trans-species operations for Spain where a talented surgeon made her what she had always felt she was. She then met a nice king guy in France and formed a pair with him. However, things were going on too fast and she still had doubts about her choices and wanted to make sure she had made the right ones. That's why she took part in the speed dating but eventually remained faithful to her mate, which confirmed her that she now had the life she had always dreamt about. Together, they adopted an orphan prince.
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The second couple is more conventional even if they kind of show very different builds. Indeed, tiny and chubby Miss Jackass has always loved tall and slim guys such as her new boyfriend. But both are so perfectly matched that no one in their entourage cares about their size difference.

The last pair is another beautiful story made possible by the progress of medicine. Indeed, Mr Gentoo was facially disfigured and got his beak broken in a car accident during holidays in Europe to visit his friend Razorbill. He thought that he would always remain awful and that no woman would ever love him. But French doctors managed to repair his beak even though he keeps a scar as a painful reminder of his misfortune.
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But that's of no importance to his new girlfriend who only sees his fortune inherited from Humboldt uncle from America inner beauty
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Unfortunately, the evening did not end so well for several participants... Mrs Empress is a single mother struggling to raise her new born child alone after her husband left to fish some mackerels and never returned. She didn't even manage to find a chicksitter to keep her baby so she had to bring him to the speed dating. More than a lover, she needs a father for him. Unfortunately, the kid frightened most young penguin dudes not ready to engage. Except a drunk chinstrap loser who started harassing the honourable mother.
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Little Rockhopper who had been admiring the big lady for hours without daring to talk to her tried to defend the virtue of his secret crush but he was no match for the chinstrap giant and got his ass badly kicked. However, his brave stand was enough to make the other penguin cowards react, step in the argument and kick the chinstrap thug out.
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That unfortunate incident at least had the merit of giving Rockhopper the opportunity to talk to Empress and reveal her his feelings

What she answered to by saying that he was a wonderful and so worthy penguin but she "preferred things to be on a friendship level" with him, not mentionning his 20 inches but thinking about them out loud.

Well, sometimes, (penguin) life sucks.
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Wonderful Penguin and Okapi families!

More penguins
Speaking about them and the discussion we had -what would you say is the new Schleich penguin? King or Emperor? For me, it looks like a mix and this is why I probably have those problems...but maybe I missed a discussion or a review of the figure, which isn´t on TAW yet.

The new Schleich penguin is an emperor but with some features of a king penguin. It is not very accurate model but it is an emperor.

Ben, having fun with penguins? I love it!
I hope there's no trauma for that tiny chick.
Mojö should have used eyeliner in that Gentoo. The headphones effect got lost.
So your favorite animal is a very dark chestnut one with code bars in their legs.

A quite special "adventure" of mine prevented me from advancing on my major updates so today, I will only present you a few ordinary acquisitions from second-hand webpages I absolutely didn't need but still enjoy very much having now they're here
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I was looking for a skunk for Andrés on Leboncoin, the main French second-hand website, and finally found the model from 2012 a fellow collector was removing from his shelves. He also sold several other figures, including the last Schleich squirrel and young short maned lion. As I said, I absolutely didn't need either of them but that was an opportunity to get two vaguely considered models I would never have acquired otherwise.

Actually, this is the second time I buy this squirrel. I used to own it but once gave it to my grandmother to console her after the squirrel she used to see in her garden disappeared suddenly. I didn't especially miss it, having the older still decent model and then the new Papo, but was decided to recover it if I ever had the chance too. That chance finally presented itself and thus, I logically added it to the parcel in order to pair it with my Papo. That might not be the most spectacular marriage in my collection but they nonetheless fit very well as husband and wife, as it is clear that, from an anthropomorphic point of view, the Papo clearly looks masculine while the Schleich has a more feminine touch.
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Paige also recently reminded me with her topic that I had completely forgotten the river otter from Safari Ltd in my collection. By association of ideas, I also remembered I missed an American beaver since I use both Schleich as an Eurasian couple. I was aware that the Papo model was marketed as the American species and that it was also the only decent one. I also knew one was available from Vinted at a fair price. So, I did some unconvincing researches about the differences between both which paradoxically convinced me that I really wished this model whatever its accuracy Not that it's especially good but being officially marketed as a new species and not too awful, there was no good excuse NOT TO add it to the collection Actually, some features are very coherent for an American beaver, especially the shorter rounded muzzle and the wider tail. However, it's bulkier than my Eurasian male while it should be slightly smaller and lighter than both while it should be slightly darker. But of course, just like gorillas, I'm talking about the typical phenotypes, there may be individual variations.
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Its face is especially funny IMO
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The lion is not further presented here as he has its own dedicated topic [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Beautiful additions, and that Schleich Squirrel fits wonderfully with the Papo!

The squirrel is my favourite, both the newcomer and the Papo are great little sculpts with a lot of feeling and realistic posture, they do go well together despite being distinct styles

I also got a couple of months ago the American Beaver and did the same thoughts and research you describe. I concluded that it's such an enjoyable model to watch, that all these details make no sense. He puts a smile in my face, so he has his place reserved in my shelves.

Nice catches again

Today, something a bit more exotic and exciting for most of you I guess since I will be welcoming two new brands on this topic and in my collection : Kitan and Kaiyodo

After my last Safari purchase, I felt like I had all I really wanted from major brands and that I wouldn't find many new species within their ranges anymore. However, my knowledge about Japanese brands and models was close to zero. So, my friend Andrés had to make my education and I spotted my first wished figures watching his collection on video.

From time to time, he offered me to take part in his purchases to share shipping, that's how the spectacled owl from Kaiyodo became officially my very first Japanese figure, even before the Yujin turtles, even if it remained in Spain for a long time, waiting for trip buddies to travel to France (the custom king penguin with chick actually).

Kitan however, was certainly the very first Japanese brand I started to be familiar with, long before I began chatting with Andrés on a daily basis. Its models systematically catched my attention everytime I saw them on forum. There is no coïncidence in that as this is certainly the Japanese brand closest to the general Western design, with models made from one piece, lacking any seems and not as smooth-textured as most other Japanese figures. Some of them are absolute masterpieces surpassing any Western renditions of the same species, like their brown bear for example. I already knew their macaque and giant salamander and Andrés' collection video made me discover my third main target : the ibis.

So today, I'm glad to present you my first "true" Japanese figures, as the Yujin turtles were merely an unplanned starter bought to take advantage of a good opportunity on Ebay. Don't get me wrong, these are cute, but nothing compared to the little jewels I'm showing now.
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I had always thought that my first Japanese figure would be the Kitan macaque but as Andrés often says, buying Japanese figures is more a matter of opportunities than priorities. I was quite unaware of Kaiyodo's offer before watching his collection video and definitely ignorant of their owls before he showed them to me on Ebay. He was actually buying the whole second line of this collection [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and asked me if I wanted one or two for myself. I'm not a impulsive consumer so I didn't see myself spend 50€ on something I had just discovered. But I still wanted to give them a try, so I told him to take only the spectacled owl for me.
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I was quite charmed by all these owls at first sight. Andrés has a lot of diurnal raptors from Japanese brands and I don't like them because their smooth finish and visible seems make them incompatible with those I already have. But the Japanese design works much better on nocturnal raptors in my opinion as these rounded and chubby birds match perfectly the definition of "kawaï". But the stripped owl was not familiar enough to me, the barn owl was white immaculate and Andrés told me that a yellowish rarer and retired version existed, and the burrowing owl was not quite what I imagined when thinking about a replica of this species (Burrowing owls generally appear raised up on their feet with a tall elongated body, and more rarely huddled up and chubby like this model). So my choice was the spectacled owl because it was my favourite of the four and the most interesting species for my collection for several reasons.

First, I was very familiar with it since I even stroked one in London zoo when I lived in the UK as an Erasmus student. Then, that's a South-American species from the jungle and I had no South-American nor tropical owl yet. Finally, its size was the best fitting one. Indeed, Kaiyodo owls are basically all the same size, wathever the species. As a consequence, some models are too large, some are too small, but that spectacled specimen was just perfect to go with Western brand owls :
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I was in no way disappointed by my purchase when it finally reached France after transiting via Spain. This is everything you could expect from a toy rendition of that species and both sculpt and paintjob are great, even if the later is not as "clean" as on Andrés' sample. Japanese owls are, just like Japanese turtles, especially interesting to collect for major brands-based collectors. Indeed, these are assemble figures but the seam is located between the head and the body and since owls don't have a neck, it's not visible at all !

That's why I am now trying to recover all the members of this nice little collection. I say "trying" because half of them are retired and, unfortunately but quite predictably, these are the models I am most interested in (the Northern white-faced, Ural, little and Yellow barn owls).

Next comes the Japanese macaque. I have been in love with this monkey since the first time I saw it on the Safari comparison [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I was often tempted to buy it but it was only available in Japan and I felt it was silly to make one figure cross the entire planet alone, so I was waiting for other ones to buy from the same seller to save on shipping. The opportunity presented itself when I finally decided to order the Colorata fossil fishes set which will be presented in the coming days, and was able to benefit from free shipping from Japan.
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Having admired it countless times on forum, I was unlikely to have any bad or good surprise when receiving it. I actually didn't and found a great-looking little monkey in the package. What may have surprised me a bit was the plastic it's made of I expected to be more rigid. I was also convinced that this figure was made from only one piece but it's actually made of three, already assembled and glued together. As a consequence, the seams are almost invisible, even less than on a Southlands koala for example, which makes it extremely Western-looking. Actually, that's what stroke me the most when I discorvered this figure for the first time in pics and, more generally speaking, Kitan as a whole. There is no way to tell those figures are from another modelling "tradition" or "culture" as they could perfectly pass for top tier Western brand products. This is even more obvious when you put this one next to other monkeys from major brands and just can't see the difference. That's not the same for all Kitan but the size of this particular model is undoubtedly another strenght as it scales more than perfectly with its primate fellows, including the Diana absolute reference.
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Talking about references, I definitely needed that figure to be the macaque reference in my collection. Of course I already had the Mojo kiki but I don't really consider it as part of the collection because of its aberrant oversizing.
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Moreover, it's a quite special, unusual looking macaque and I wanted a "vanilla" typical-looking macaque in my collection too, with pink face and red ass, that is to say a magot, rhesus or Japanese macaque. I'm happy it's a Japanese because I don't have many animals from there and because it's the most exciting of the three, being the rarest in captivity and the only one living sometimes in the snow. How exciting snowy monkeys are, and the Safari snub-nosed would be part of my collection too if it was not so big

Fun fact : the Japanese monkey is certainly the last "major" species I have checked on my zoo list with only one park in France keeping them !

And finally, once in a while won't hurt, I kept the best for last.

The Kitan ibis was my firm favourite from Andrés' collection. I instantly noticed it when I first watched his video, then asked for close-ups which definitely convinced me. From then, I checked everyday or so if it was available on Ebay. It's indeed much rarer than the macaque and maybe even more than the salamander. So when I logined one day and saw the seller I was planning to buy my Colorata fishes from offered one and only one sample, I didn't think twice and speeded up my order, getting the macaque at the same time !

It arrived the same exact day as the German parcel from MPV so when I saw that the short, wide beak of the gentoo penguin was broken I freaked out about the long and thin ibis' !

Fortunately, we Asian people are known to be more careful than white barbarians so the ibis was finely protected and unharmed A chance it was not the opposite !
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Having an ibis was an absolute necessity to me. As I already mentionned, I grew up with ibis and more precisely sacred ones as this African species was introduced more or less accidentally in Brittany. I saw them everytime I went on holidays and they became as dear to my heart as the avocets, stilts and spoonbills they cohabited with. But some xenophobic scientists (certainly from the Front National !) decreeted that these ibis were an invasive species threatening indigenous terns and that they had to be exterminated, WITHOUT ANY PREVIOUS STUDY ON THEIR ACTUAL IMPACT ON LOCAL BIODIVERSITY WAS MADE !!! It was even proven later that they had helped spoonbills to settle in France again, by providing a safer environment for this gregarious species through mixed Threskiornithidae colonies. So, that was a tragedy, and even if most people would think my analogy is going way too far, I believe that the extermination of a foreign species on the only basis of its exotic origin is no different to human xenophobia on the basis of prejudice. And that all the sacred ibis of France should not have to pay for a few ones pillaging tern colonies while yelling "Thoth Akbar" !

I wanted then to pay a tribute to the martyred ibis by having one in my collection. My logical choice would have been the sacred one but none is available in toy form yet. The scarlet ibis would have been an alternative but none was convincing either. I would have especially enjoyed a bald ibis, because it's both well-known and unusual, as well as extremely endangered but again, there was no option for this one. Isidro thinks that it's unlikely a major brand will release a bald ibis anytime soon but I believe that it's, quite the opposite, a perfect species for CollectA. I would likely see Papo release a sacred ibis as it seems birds have become one of their main focus these days.

In the meantime, the only ibis species offering a wide choice of decent figures was the Japanese crested one. I was not especially familiar with it but it was a beautiful species and all I wanted was an ibis, whatever the species. So, when I saw the Kitan rendition in Andrés' collection, I included it to my wishlist.

And I can tell you my friends that I do not regret my choice ! I even am grateful that no sacred or bald ibis exist because they would have likely made me ignore that masterpiece. Andrés often says that pictures cannot make justice to beautiful figures but I do think mine are good enough to, especially now I took them in daylight on my balcony. Yet, I was unable this time to succeed in showing what it really felt to see this figure in real, hold it in your hands and admire it from every angle.

That's one of those figures that look real and alive, like the CollectA rhino or hippo. You look at it and you feel like it's watching you in the eyes for a moment, before starting walking and feeding again. It's one of those figures that are able to be spectacular in sobriety and rival with a glorious giant open-mouthed shark and tell it in the eyes : "Why do you need to show off so much ? I don't." Would I dare to say it reminds me of someone who wished to be invisible so that she wouldn't hurt anyone, yet wounded me profoundly for the only crime of being magnificent and seen by me ?

No, that ibis is definitely not only realistic or accurate, these would be words used by cold, insensitive scientific minds to describe it. That ibis is moving. So, I know I am overindulging in superlatives today but, maybe, this is the most beautiful bird in my collection as I don't see any other serious rival after a few minutes searching in my mind. And if I had to sum up my opinion about this model in only one expression I would just qualify it as the "Kitan perentie".

Back to more "prosaic" things, that jewel is perfectly sized to go with other standard - that is to say over - sized birds from major brands. Still, it does not fit so perfectly with my only other Threskiornithidae, the Safari roseate spoonbill. The crested ibis is a large one and is supposed to be roughly the same size as this spoonbill, with only maybe shorter legs. Yet, you can see on the following picture that its much frailer than it. But we've already discussed that : the spoonbill is the too large one.
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Actually, it's so easy that it's almost disappointing... I am building my Japanese wishlist and, a few weeks later, I already have the top-ranking names with me... The giant salamander is about to be on its way to Europe and then, the Kitan triumvirate will be complete. I'm still looking for the Kaiyodo owls from the first release though, so if you wish to help, don't hesitate to PM me. And I guess the next focus will be rare lizards like the frilled and moloch ones from Kaiyodo. I will soon do the May purchase from my Japanese seller on Ebay, whose main content will be the Colorata sea fishes set with the sunfish. Again, I will take the free shipping opportunity to add a few other figures. The Kitan frilled shark will be part of it, no doubt about it but I'm still undecided about the serow which is great but very tiny. Let's wait and see !

Wonderful additions form the land of the Rising Sun!!

Taos wrote:

Wonderful additions form the land of the Rising Sun!!

There is absolutely NO LINK but I just coudn't resist playing this song after reading your sentence.

Wonderful additions, I just love that Ibis too- it is absolutely perfect, and accurate and the colours are o beautiful!