Rtas' main collection

V Mammals

M) Even-toed ungulates

4) Bovids

b) True antelopes

3. Grazing antelopes

Species : Scimitar oryx, gemsbok, giant sable antelope
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Figures on this picture (from left to right) :
- CollectA 88637 Scimitar-Horned Oryx (2013-still in production)
- Schleich 14759 Oryx (2016-still in production)
- CollectA 88564 Giant Sable Antelope Male (2012-still in production)
- CollectA 88578 Giant Sable Antelope Female (2012-still in production)

Fun facts :
- More masterpieces frome CollectA AND Schleich. The gemsbok has nothing to be ashamed of next to its CollectA cousins.
- The scimitar oryx impressed my parents very much when I received it. The dynamic pose makes it look particularly "alive".
- As a pair/family collector, I was very pleased by CollectA's decision to release a male AND a female sable antelope. I would like them to do it more often, even if there is no particular sexual dimorphism. However, if I have to choose, I prefer new species of course.
- I bought the gemsbok during one of my figure hunts as a "consolation gift". I had come to a toy shop one hour away from my town to find some retired figures. I had seen the green budgie and the koala mom with joey on its website. However, there was a stock error and they did not have the models. The gemsbok was still in production, I could get it at anytime, but I still bought it that day so that I would not come back home empty-handed. I ordered the other antelopes on Ebay, from my favourite seller.
- I have seen scimitar oryxes and gemsboks in zoos. I have seen black sable antelopes too but I don't think they were from the giant subspecies.
- I have seen a scimitar oryx giving birth once. It was such an amazing moment knowing this species is extinct in the wild.

Great antelopes! The pose of the Schleich scymitar oryx is remarkably similar to that of the much earlier Starlux scymitar oryx (photo from TAW/Kikimalou):
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Wonderful models again, CollectA antelopes are always very good!

Ahah some more great figures, which I also have. What Arabian oryx are you thinking about getting? I can do a comparison of Mojo and Safari if you'd like

Roger, what a great tribute !

Advicot wrote:

Ahah some more great figures, which I also have. What Arabian oryx are you thinking about getting? I can do a comparison of Mojo and Safari if you'd like

Yes, thanks !

I couldn't explain why but the Safari looks more like an Arabian to me. The Mojo Fun is too "gemsbok-like"

rogerpgvg wrote:

Great antelopes! The pose of the Schleich scymitar oryx is remarkably similar to that of the much earlier Starlux scymitar oryx (photo from TAW/Kikimalou):
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CollectA... Not Schleich

Great addition Rtas

I prefer the Mojo Giant sable but the CollectA are nice enough.

V Mammals

M) Even-toed ungulates

4) Bovids

b) True antelopes

4. Alcelaphine antelopes

Species : Blue wildebeest, hirola, black wildebeest
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Figures on this picture (from left to right) :
- Schleich 14386 Gnu (2009-2013)
- Schleich 14387 Gnu Calf (2009-2011)
- CollectA 88757 Hirola (2016-still in production)
- CollectA 88542 Black Wildebeest (2012-still in production)

Fun facts :
- For quite a long time, I have been happy enough with my old blue wildebeest from 1999. I did not plan to replace it, that's why I did not especially look for the 2009 version. Too be honest, I thought that the newer gnu was not dark enough. But when I finally found it during my figure hunts, I realised that it was much more detailed and decided to buy it anyway, as I did not know if I would still find it later. Then, I looked more carefully at pictures on the net and realised that it had the good colouration and pattern. I had always thought that blue wildebeests were uniformly black and this figure showed me that their coat was much more nuanced than that !
- It seems that noboby wants to own a blue wildebeest calf ! Indeed, although it has been retired since 2011, this figure was still very common in shops at the time I was "figure hunting". Unlike the adult which had become very scarce. I remember seeing dozens of unsold gnu calves in shelves. That's not very surprising : there is not such a high demand for baby animal figures than adults and the wildebeest is not especially an attractive or cute species.
- The black wildebeest from CollectA has probably one of the most amazing poses in my whole collection. It is very convenient for my African diorama : I always place him surrounded by my lion pride, trying desperately to fight for its life.
- The hirola figure is a conservation ambassador as it represents the most endangered antelope species and that's a great thing. However, I have to confess that I would probably have preferred a blesbok, which I am much more familiar with.
- I got the blue wildebeests during my figure hunts and ordered the two others on Ebay.
- I have seen blue wildebeests in zoos but I have never seen hirolas nor black wildebeests, even though a zoo not so far from my hometown keeps them (I still have to visit this one !).

Which zoo are you talking about ?

Ah yes, you are a French compatriot, you probably know it !

I'm talking about CERZA in Normandy

Wonderful again, CollectA have made many lovely bovids!

Bonnie wrote:

Wonderful again, CollectA have made many lovely bovids!

Bovids, and more generally speaking ungulates, are CollectA's speciality

RtasVadumee wrote:

Bonnie wrote:

Wonderful again, CollectA have made many lovely bovids!

Bovids, and more generally speaking ungulates, are CollectA's speciality

Definitely, looking through the TAW I was amazed at how many species of ungulates there were!

All very beautiful figures! I don’t have the Schleich friends but they are good figures. Even the calf is very interesting and you are right, these babies are never good sellers but very interesting pieces for collectors. This is one of the babies I should had gotten. I rescued the African buffalo calf only recently. I always have a kind of mania that baby figures are of low interest.
I have the Papo blue gnu, it is a very special model with a lovely pose but it is big and also far from your traditional taste. Curiously, the Safari models, as it happens with the Thomson’s gazelle, do not match my personal taste either.

Yes, I especially like this calf (and most Schleich ungulate calves) because they are not "too cute" as the carnivoran cubs usually are. But it may have the opposite effect on children and parents who would find no interest in a "uncute" baby from an "uncute" species.

On the other hand you have deers. Stags and especially fawns sell very well while does get abandoned on shop shelves for a long time. Here you have the babmi effect. The kudu calf looks attractive to me once it is a nice pattern and very large ears but I have no idea how it worked with kids. They could have made a calf for their gemsbok, they also look cute to me but again it would risk to be a commercial flop.

RtasVadumee wrote:

Ah yes, you are a French compatriot, you probably know it !

I'm talking about CERZA in Normandy

I must say I didn't know that zoo, I looked at the website and I saw very nice species. One more reason to spend a few days in Normandie    

Roger wrote:

I have the Papo blue gnu, it is a very special model with a lovely pose but it is big and also far from your traditional taste. Curiously, the Safari models, as it happens with the Thomson’s gazelle, do not match my personal taste either.

The funny thing is that Papo blue wildebeest is at the same scale than the CollectA White-tailed gnu and not the Schleich one.

Very nice alcelaphines, I still mys a blue wildebeest in my collection, I'm also not enthusiast about it because is a too ABC species, and I'm more excited by rarer species, but if any day I choose one (and find the space for insert it in my very overcrowded shelves!!) I will chose the Papo one probably. Of course I like black wildebeest much more, and the CollectA rendition is really superb. I remember where I was a little kid my second? zoo visit, that was in the Zoo-Aquarium of Madrid and I was excited to see for first time black wildebeests here because this species was much rarer, more endangered and less known than the blue wildebeest. And the same zoo still keeps this species various decades after!

Of course the hirola was a figure I added early to my collection as the very dreamed species that is it. I was aware that it was in the same brink of extintion but I didn't knew that it's the most endangered of all bovids :-( Needless to say that nobody can see a hirola in a zoo since, in the most incomprensible way, there are no hirolas in any zoo in the world, not even in it's native Ethiopia. The CollectA hirola is as perfect as this brand tend to be with the antelopes. A blesbok figurine would be nice and exciting, but of course a hirola figure is 100 times more exciting

Keep up the good job showing us your so nice collection :)

Kikimalou wrote:

RtasVadumee wrote:

Ah yes, you are a French compatriot, you probably know it !

I'm talking about CERZA in Normandy

I must say I didn't know that zoo, I looked at the website and I saw very nice species. One more reason to spend a few days in Normandie    

Roger wrote:

I have the Papo blue gnu, it is a very special model with a lovely pose but it is big and also far from your traditional taste. Curiously, the Safari models, as it happens with the Thomson’s gazelle, do not match my personal taste either.

The funny thing is that Papo blue wildebeest is at the same scale than the CollectA White-tailed gnu and not the Schleich one.

Yes, you are right. That’s the old question. If everything looks large next to Schleich, so maybe the problem is not the large size of the other models but the small size of the Schleich models instead. I acquired the Papo gnu in an early stage of my collecting hobby when I was less openminded and as it happened with several models, it was a certain French Macaque who convinced me to get it. It remains my blue gnu...

Pardofelis wrote:

Very nice alcelaphines, I still mys a blue wildebeest in my collection, I'm also not enthusiast about it because is a too ABC species, and I'm more excited by rarer species, but if any day I choose one (and find the space for insert it in my very overcrowded shelves!!) I will chose the Papo one probably. Of course I like black wildebeest much more, and the CollectA rendition is really superb. I remember where I was a little kid my second? zoo visit, that was in the Zoo-Aquarium of Madrid and I was excited to see for first time black wildebeests here because this species was much rarer, more endangered and less known than the blue wildebeest. And the same zoo still keeps this species various decades after!

I guess every other kid in your class wanted to see the lion and the teacher told you not to stay too long before the black wildebeest because you were slowing the group down

Roger wrote:

Yes, you are right. That’s the old question. If everything looks large next to Schleich, so maybe the problem is not the large size of the other models but the small size of the Schleich models instead. I acquired the Papo gnu in an early stage of my collecting hobby when I was less openminded and as it happened with several models, it was a certain French Macaque who convinced me to get it. It remains my blue gnu...

CollectA's scale seems to be somewhere between Schleich and Papo. Their big cats are closer to Papo but most of their ungulates seem to be closer to Schleich. As far as antelopes are concerned, it is not a simple issue...
- Their scimitar oryx fits perfectly with Schleich gemsbok but is much smaller than Papo's
- Blue wildebeests are supposed to be bulkier than black ones so Papo's wildebeest would tend to fit better with CollectA's black one even though the Schleich counterpart is far from shocking next to it.
- The kudu is a very debatable case, already much debated between Pardo, Spacelab and myself. The Schleich one is too small compared to the nyala and bongo but the Papo one is too big next to the giant eland !

RtasVadumee wrote:

I guess every other kid in your class wanted to see the lion and the teacher told you not to stay too long before the black wildebeest because you were slowing the group down

Haha, fortunately I went with my father, so he can wait all time I needed

Roger wrote:

Yes, you are right. That’s the old question. If everything looks large next to Schleich, so maybe the problem is not the large size of the other models but the small size of the Schleich models instead. I acquired the Papo gnu in an early stage of my collecting hobby when I was less openminded and as it happened with several models, it was a certain French Macaque who convinced me to get it. It remains my blue gnu...

Yes French macaques were very dangerous people at that time
I'm very happy you still have this Papo beauty. I must say this is the only Papo antelope in my collection

RtasVadumee wrote:

CollectA's scale seems to be somewhere between Schleich and Papo. Their big cats are closer to Papo but most of their ungulates seem to be closer to Schleich. As far as antelopes are concerned, it is not a simple issue...
- Their scimitar oryx fits perfectly with Schleich gemsbok but is much smaller than Papo's
- Blue wildebeests are supposed to be bulkier than black ones so Papo's wildebeest would tend to fit better with CollectA's black one even though the Schleich counterpart is far from shocking next to it.
- The kudu is a very debatable case, already much debated between Pardo, Spacelab and myself. The Schleich one is too small compared to the nyala and bongo but the Papo one is too big next to the giant eland !

This is a very old debate on STS, I remember it began in 2010 at forum's birth

The truth is Papo isn't in scale with Papo, Schleich isn't in scale with schleich and it is the same for all brands except maybe Jeol and Britains.

I love to collect animals in scale with each others and I also love to collect animal models I love. I moved to a new home two years ago and my collection stayed in boxes for a very long time. Since I have less place now, I had to reduce dramatically my collection (I will stay with less than half my former collection). Nevertheless i decided to display my collection by scale from less than 1/1 (bigger than life) to 1/120.

Why am I saying that ? CollectA black gnu, Scimitar oryx, Safari Ltd Lesser kudu and Papo Blue wildebeest are on the same shelf because they are at the same scale.
The last Schleich kudu is beautiful, at least in my eyes, but very "small", it is on one of my 1/22 shelves with the Schleich last cape buffalo and the Starlux scimitar oryx.

Pardofelis wrote:

Haha, fortunately I went with my father, so he can wait all time I needed

 too bad it doesn't work in reverse, I used to go to the zoo with my daughter and she always feel I spend too much time with every enclosure...

getting caught up on this thread; love the presentation! And many good species selections, too

I like that figures so much

Pardofelis wrote:

RtasVadumee wrote:

I guess every other kid in your class wanted to see the lion and the teacher told you not to stay too long before the black wildebeest because you were slowing the group down

Haha, fortunately I went with my father, so he can wait all time I needed

I don't know what happened... I read that you went to this zoo with your school but you never mentioned that !

Indeed, zoo visits with dad are the best ones ! (and most importantly : don't bring mom, she gets bored very quickly and can become quite annoying !)