Rtas' main collection

I got the adult figure in 2015 after I had been looking for it for 6 years. The cub was my only leopard figure until 2013 when I got the Bullyland adult and two cubs.

You're right, this Schleich leopard shares the same design style of the generation of Schleich figures you are most pleased with. So, surely the perfect for your collection. By the way, you're not allone in any way once I think it was the most popular era of Schleich. CollectA's African leopard, you already know, it is big for you but I think the Amur leopard has a good size. I have it but strangely it is not with me, I confess I searched for it convinced it was. If my memory serves, Amur is smaller than the African and it is slightly toyish what may work even better. It is heavily texgured but it is because Amur leopards are furry creatures. My first leopard was Papo's although it was one of the least favorite felines of the company, I only loved the pose. I think I have the Mojö Fun early variant with strange stars, the mentioned Amur leopard and recently acquired the African leopard from CollectA. I have the Schleich black panther, brother of your leopard but I can't remember buying it. If Safari survives to this pandemy, I expect a new leopard from them soon. If they do it well as they did the clouded leopard, we will be well served. Now anytime I see leopards I remember that genial sentence - "my favourite leopard is the Papo jaguar".. who said it?

Ben, I enjoy watching your collection.
Thank you for keep sharing.

Roger wrote:

Now anytime I see leopards I remember that genial sentence - "my favourite leopard is the Papo jaguar".. who said it?

 This is a question , can also fit for the topic : ''How well do we know oneanother?'' ...

RtasVadumee wrote:

Are you talking about the running one : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ?

No, we're all time talking about the cheetahs in your collection and you don't have this one. I was talking about your Papo adult cheetah.

RtasVadumee wrote:

And I don't understand why you are talking about "substituting" it, can't you have both ?

My collection is strictly synoptic.

RtasVadumee wrote:

I may also purchase CollectA's Amur leopard but again, I am not sure about how big it is.

I've seen it for sale at my favourite toy shop, they're good in size if I remember well, but take in account, the paintjob is absolutely horrible and very different from the promo picture. Maybe this vary depending on individual figures.

It's pretty obvious to me that Collecta's models were made to be in scale with Schleichs, a safe and clever approach IMO for a new company. From 2017, It seems that this strategy changed, as far as big cats are concerned and is making models in scale with Papo (I guess understanding the popularity Papo has gained with big cats to collectors), starting with the current male lions.
So, the african leopard is perfect with Papo tigers & lions and Collecta's new lion but at least as big as a Schleich lioness, maybe slightly bigger.
It's just a matter of how your collection is made and how much you care about scale. The amur leopard is ok, but not a great figure for collecta's standards. BTW, your leopard is a lot different in colour than mine. I guess it's from a different period or different country. The eyes of this model are unbeatable.

Roger wrote:

You're right, this Schleich leopard shares the same design style of the generation of Schleich figures you are most pleased with. So, surely the perfect for your collection. By the way, you're not allone in any way once I think it was the most popular era of Schleich.

I am not especially "most pleased with" this kind of figures. As I already said, my favourite Schleich figures are the last spotted hyena, American bison, gemsbok, gorillas, moose bull, dromedary mare, eating and drinking giraffes... which are all, in my opinion, pretty realistic figures. I enjoy realistic-looking models as much as any of you guys. I just need a good sculpt to have a good painting and, as I have the taste of a 3 years old child, I do like beautiful eyes Thus, I will often favour a figure with a more toyish look but beautiful eyes over a good sculpt badly painted and that's why I often prefer Schleich over Papo. But, just like you guys, my favourite figures are those with BOTH a realistic sculpt AND beautiful eyes, like most CollectA figures.

V Mammals

H) Carnivorans

1) Feliforms

d) Felids

4. Black panthers

Species : Javan leopard, African leopard
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Figures on this picture :
- Schleich 14688 Black Panther (2013-2017)
- Papo 50026 Black Panther (2004-still in production)
- Schleich 70428 Noctis and Black Panther (2011-2013)

Fun facts :
- Since it is thinner and less muscular than the others two, I am using the 14688 model as a Javan leopard in my collection, a subspecies known for its high melanism rate.
- The Papo and Bayala models form a pair of black African leopards.
- The Papo black panther is too big for my collection but its pose makes it look smaller so I can accept it. Anyway, I like its pose too much and could not resist buying it.
- I have two Papo black panthers. The other one is on my desk, in my flat. I bought the second one (the one you can see on this picture) because its spots were more visible and thus, it fitted even better with my Bayala panther.
- I found the Javan and Bayala black panthers during my figure hunts. Both Papo ones come from local shops.
- I have seen black panthers in zoos.

I don't collect black panthers but my favourite will be probably the new CollectA. I also enjoy the pose of the Papo. Regarding black jaguars, maybe the Schleich with ghost rosettes is the nicest.
If I am a collector now, it is thanks to a 3 years old child, the first time I considered to spend my money on animal figures was based on the taste of that child. Don't take this kind of argument in a depreciative way because I collect toy animal figures that are designed for children and it would be too much non sense. I was just telling you that everyone love figures with beautiful eyes and brands know it, they are so much aware of it that when realistic eyes do not work appealing, they sometimes design it with a slight antropormophic touch. I gave several examples in the past how it happened with some Schleich figures, for instance, but I won't bring it back.

costicuba wrote:

Roger wrote:

Now anytime I see leopards I remember that genial sentence - "my favourite leopard is the Papo jaguar".. who said it?

 This is a question , can also fit for the topic : ''How well do we know oneanother?'' ...

Exactly, and not as easy as asking who is the most notorious dentist of this village.

Very nice leopards indeed and I like how you identified the most recent Schleich black leopard as a Javan. Do you still have the figure who came in the Noctis set?

Yes, I still have it, as well as Umitok (warthog) and Gregis (wolf)

Would you mind sending them?

V Mammals

H) Carnivorans

1) Feliforms

d) Felids

5. Snow leopards

Species : Snow leopard
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Figures on this picture (from left to right) :
- CollectA 88497 Snow Leopard Cub - Playing (2011-still in production)
- Papo 50160 Snow Leopard (2014-still in production)
- CollectA 88498 Snow Leopard Cub - Running (2011-still in production)

Fun facts :
- It's definitely one of the species for which I prefer the Papo rendition over the Schleich one. The snow leopard was probably the first Papo figure I bought when I started collecting again (but not my first Papo figure ever since I got the okapi before, when I was not collecting). I needed a snow leopard in my collection and Papo's was good enough.
- But I was not fully satisfied with its eyes. So, I bought another, better painted one later. Still, it was not looking as the promo pic and I was still looking for the perfect snow leopard. Finally, I talked about my issue on the topic "Papo is getting not so good as before year by year" and that's where I saw Caracal's samples... Fortunately, he had two of them so I sent him a PM to ask him if he could sell me one. He accepted to trade it and that's how I finally got the ultimate snow leopard replica. Thus, the figure you can see on this picture once belonged to our friend Alain !
- I later ordered the two CollectA cubs from my favourite Ebay seller to go with my Papo adult. They fit very well together and I don't regret buying them.
- I also sent a Schleich snow leopard to Alain so that he repaints it for me. He will send it to me as soon as the confinement is over.
- In France, a famous publicist once said : "If you don't have a Rolex watch by the time you reach 50, then you have clearly failed in your life." I prefer saying : "If you have seen a snow leopard in the wild, you have clearly succeeded in your life." Well, I knew a guy who said he had seen one in Nepal. But he was a hippie who smoke too much cannabis and believed that mankind was born when an extraterrestrial people landed on earth and copulated whith chimps. So I am not sure he said the truth about that snow leopard
- As for me, I have only seen snow leopards in zoos so I have half-succeeded in life.

Bonus pic : my other snow leopards
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Advicot wrote:

Would you mind sending them?  

Of course, I can send you all of them but I think we should talk again about the female ostrich first, don't you think ?

Of course, PM me :)

Here is my snow leopard by Papo: [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

In my snow leopard family I have these 3 and the CollectA adult as the father. The mother's (Papo) name is Crystal and I got her in London with a few Papo chickens, she was the last one in the shop and my first ever snow leopard. The CollectA figures came the next year to complete my family. It seems your cubs are lighter than mine, but it may be the lighting

My figure best resembles your figure in the middle but mine seems to have different eyes. Would you like to see the male CollectA figure?

Yes sure, I would like to see it next to the Papo female !

(but I think I don't like it)

V Mammals

H) Carnivorans

1) Feliforms

d) Felids

6. Jaguars

Species : Jaguar
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Figures on this picture (from left to right) :
- Schleich 14359 Jaguar (2007-2016)
- Schleich 14622 Jaguar Cub (2010-2016)
- Schleich 14774 Black Panther (2017-still in production)

Fun facts :
- I definitely prefer the 14359 jaguar over the last one : the rosettes are better painted and the colour is more accurate in my opinion. However, I absolutely love the black rendition of the most recent model, that's why I chose it to be the male of my spotted female.
- My black male and my spotted female form a pair similar to Aramis and Simara, the jaguars of Paris zoo. I wonder if Pardo has ever seen the magnificent black Aramis, who used to be kept at the menagerie before being transferred to Vincennes.
- Melanism in jaguars is the result of a dominant allele. As a consequence, the spotted cub on this picture has only 25% chance to exist.
- I found the spotted female and cub during my figure hunts and bought the black male in my favourite Schleich shop.
- I have seen jaguars in zoos.

Very nice indeed, i will show you the snow leopards when I get home

Here is a species that I always favoured the Schleich version. I like the previous jaguar better than any other jaguar figure and I also find the black jaguar a nice figure although I don't have the latter. Jaguars are not exactly delicate creatures, so the Schleich design worked perfectly on it.
I suspect the last Safari jaguar is equally great. One of these figures that is forever in my wish list but other priorities always take advantage. Brands like Mojö or CollectA never released a jaguar, something to expect during next years, I guess.

Great! The three-in-a-row snow leopards shows perfectly how Papo decreased the quality of paintjob in this figure with the time, being the left one the best painted both in eyes as in fur. I have the middle one and for me their eyes are enough, but that's because I'm not so keen on beautiful eyes as you are, and like Roger, I prefair a better body proportions and good sculpt over a nice eyes But paintjob is important to me so I've repainted the fur of my Papo snow leopard :) but of course with a much more modest and poor result than the incredible model of Kosta!

I don't know if I saw a black jaguar in Menagerie or not. I tend to not look very much at common species, and at this time I was not exhaustive with my species lists seen in zoos. And if I have seen jaguars I almost would not notice if they're melanic or not. So maybe I've seen her or maybe not. I remember I saw Common Leopard and Snow Leopard, since my photos of them are from this place, but I didn't photographed jaguars here so maybe I passed over their exhibit without looking inside.

V Mammals

H) Carnivorans

1) Feliforms

d) Felids

7. "Sumatran" tigers

Species : Sumatran tiger
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Figures on this picture (from foreground to background) :
- Schleich 14730 Tiger Kitten (2015-still in production)
- Schleich 14729 Tiger (2015-strill in production)

Fun facts :
- I use this tiger as a Sumatran tiger in my collection. I actually first joined this forum to ask you if it would be relevant to do that. That was my first topic here.
- Depending on the country of manufacture, this tiger can look quite different. My sample was made in China and has a darker orange coat with wider strips than the one on TAI which was probably made in Vietnam. Tigers from China looks like more Sumatran tigers than tigers from China.
- In the Schleich French catalogue, this tiger is tagged as "Bengal Tiger" but it is an overinterpretation as nothing is specified on the English and German websites.
- I bought both the adult and kitten in my Schleich favourite shop.
- I have seen Sumatran tigers in zoos.

I have these two and mine look pretty identical to yours

Pardofelis wrote:

I don't know if I saw a black jaguar in Menagerie or not. I tend to not look very much at common species, and at this time I was not exhaustive with my species lists seen in zoos. And if I have seen jaguars I almost would not notice if they're melanic or not. So maybe I've seen her or maybe not. I remember I saw Common Leopard and Snow Leopard, since my photos of them are from this place, but I didn't photographed jaguars here so maybe I passed over their exhibit without looking inside.

I am asking you that because it is a very special specimen. It is a black and enormous male, almost the size of a small lioness. The most beautiful jaguar I have ever seen.

Here it is :
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(photo is not mine)