Rtas' main collection

Thankyou very, very much for sharing all these great photos of great models

It is a topic I will re-view for sure

Great contribution for this forum.....

Ohh, I feared that somewhere this day would arrive I'm very sad to see this finished, but every good thing in life have to end some day. I enjoyed enormously the revision of each figure of your collection with your unmistakable charismatic style and lighting up childhood memories and history of how you get every figure that shows how passionate you are about this subject. And I loved all this. However, is not a dead end, since you will continue presenting us your newest additions in other threads. And this thread finished in the most glorious way possible. I agree the Schleich humpback whale is an atonishing masterpiece. Sadly I think that I'm absolutely unable of get pieces of this size unless I buy a new home I especially love totally your description of your feelings about this figure. You could be a good writter too

I just finished my last homemade model and as it happened in the very same minutes that I'm reading your thread end, I think that I will call it Rtas in honour to you

Thank you everyone, I am glad my topic was useful and enjoyable !

Rogerpgvg, if the whale you're talking about is larger than my humpback then unfortunately, it's not for me. The size of my M&B whales already prevents me from buying the excellent Safari right and CollectA bowhead whales.

Thank you Pardo, it has been a pleasure to talk about figures, zoology and zoos with you here, I learnt a lot from you ! I am curious to know which species it is, there is already a Mandarin duck who bears my name in England

28 years old... The end ???? Rtas, this is the end for today, I'm sure you will make a come back, it can't be your "tournée d'adieu"
This is a very charming topic, I missed it at the beggining because I work in an hospital so I missed absolutely the confinement period, I was too busy then.  

But since I came back I read it more than once. I love collections and I love collectors. It is great to have you in our village.   .

One question: Why does the CollectA whale's size prevents you to buy it. I don't understand. Of course Safari Ltd Monterrey bay are bigger models than the M+B Schleich ones, but it's not the case for the CollectA or the Safari sealife.

RtasVadumee wrote:

Roger wrote:

Inspite of it, I don't have mine anymore.

In a perfect utopia where I would be the enlightened despot, you would surely get sentenced to death for that.

More seriously, special thanks to you (and Isidro), you contributed a lot to this topic, maybe more than anyone else. You had a huge influence on the evolution of my collection as you provided most comparison pics I asked for, many pieces of advise takink my tastes into account and many websites to order from (a few viruses too). And many constructive comments I enjoyed very much reading and disagree with I was very glad to face you on the SchleichVSPapo battlefield, even if we are actually both double agents

It is very kind from my double agent partner but I only cotributed to the chaos. In any way, you always managed a way to keep your collection tidy. I will study a different strategy to use in your additions topic.

Kikimalou wrote:

28 years old... The end ???? Rtas, this is the end for today, I'm sure you will make a come back, it can't be your "tournée d'adieu"
This is a very charming topic, I missed it at the beggining because I work in an hospital so I missed absolutely the confinement period, I was too busy then.  

But since I came back I read it more than once. I love collections and I love collectors. It is great to have you in our village.   .

One question: Why does the CollectA whale's size prevents you to buy it. I don't understand. Of course Safari Ltd Monterrey bay are bigger models than the M+B Schleich ones, but it's not the case for the CollectA or the Safari sealife.

♫ Ce n'est qu'un au revoir mes frères, ce n'est qu'un au revoir ♫ (même pas en fait, je ne vais nulle part)

What I meant is that the M&B whales are already too big compared with right/bowhead whales so I cannot buy them. I know size does not matter blablabla but I would find very strange to have a right whale smaller than my humpback specimen.

Roger wrote:

It is very kind from my double agent partner but I only cotributed to the chaos. In any way, you always managed a way to keep your collection tidy. I will study a different strategy to use in your additions topic.

Well, chaos is a ladder

RtasVadumee wrote:

I know size does not matter blablabla but I would find very strange to have a right whale smaller than my humpback specimen.

Or a diana monkey larger than a flipper of a humpback whale

RtasVadumee wrote:

What I meant is that the M&B whales are already too big compared with right/bowhead whales so I cannot buy them. I know size does not matter blablabla but I would find very strange to have a right whale smaller than my humpback specimen.

Size matter a lot for me, thats' why I don't limit myself with one approximate scale

Topic updated with most of the new additions since one year.

The collection continues with the following topics :
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I wanted to do it for quite a long time, now it's done :

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That's quite a cool graphic! (but then I enjoy graphs, schemes and all sorts of numbers displayed graphically )

I was wondering, do you expect a specific share to grow or shrink in the future compared to the others?

Interesting graph! I have considered doing something similar with my collection as I have recorded their conservation status for my own interest. Great work and interesting comparisons.

Schleich will not evolve or even shrink as I have all I want and the new releases are not so good as they used to be.

CollectA neither or very slightly.

Papo is likely to keep growing as I have a very good toy shop selling it very close to my job and that's a little pleasure of mine to pick a figure in the evening or during my lunch break.

Mojo very slightly too as it's a brand with remarkable models but most species are common and thus, not exciting enough to justify an internet order.

Safari is more likely to grow faster as it offers a much wider range of species. Yet, oversizing is a limiting factor with this brand more than any other.

Sadly, Southlands is going to disappear.

The "others" share has the biggest growth potential as it includes all the Japanes brands and homemade models I'm going to focus on for now. A few Bully may feed that share but not many, that's not a brand I usually like.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Interesting graph! I have considered doing something similar with my collection as I have recorded their conservation status for my own interest. Great work and interesting comparisons.

It took me a few hours but it would take you weeks to count everything

Fabulous idea to put it in a graphic form! I have the numbers in my signature (like you), but a graphic is much more charming!

Here it is

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Snazzy work Ben, I have always loved the thought of pie charts for collections, I wonder how one would look for my collection?

You can do it here : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Or give me your numbers and I'll do it for you ASAP

Quote :

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Interesting graph! I have considered doing something similar with my collection as I have recorded their conservation status for my own interest. Great work and interesting comparisons.

It took me a few hours but it would take you weeks to count everything

Oh everything is counted already. Last year my project was to create a info list for each model in case the worst ever happens (to go through all 4,000 pieces took me about 8 months). I listed species, brand, model #, years sold, a short description of the figure and then the conservation status if available for each species group. The last part was educational to see how many species were threatened with extinction or had recovered from my concept of it... it was an interesting experiment in the current world climate for wildlife.

Wow, these pie charts are perfect for displaying information!!

Wow, absolutely fabulous, thanks a lot Rtas!

These pie charts are very interesting, it gives us a very quick overview of what brands you collect. I hope you don't mind if I show you mine (delete it if you don't like it, perhaps it is better in a new topic). It looks very different. I should say I have so many Britains because I collect variants. I haven't counted my doubles. Sorry, the font is small, you need to click on the graph to see it larger.
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No problem Roger, but indeed, it may be interested to open a new topic on which everyone would be able to post his/her pie chart ! I can do it for you if you provide me with your numbers, I have nothing else to do.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Oh everything is counted already. Last year my project was to create a info list for each model in case the worst ever happens (to go through all 4,000 pieces took me about 8 months). I listed species, brand, model #, years sold, a short description of the figure and then the conservation status if available for each species group. The last part was educational to see how many species were threatened with extinction or had recovered from my concept of it... it was an interesting experiment in the current world climate for wildlife.

Then, if everything is already counted, I would be glad to make your pie if you wish

That sounds like a huge and interesting work, might be nice to have a look at it, why didn't you publish it on forum (at least the final results, the stats) ?

What do you mean when you say "in case the worst ever happens" ? Do you also have the nightmare that your collection is one day heavily damaged (fire, hurricane or just someone living in your house does a big mistake) ? Actually, my figures are not displayed but stocked in drawers and I am afraid everytime I manipulate them because I know it creates microscopic scratches which can become larger and larger with time. When I see the awful condition of my vintage childhood toys (like the manatee I showed you) I'm terrified that the same would happen to the main collection. That's silly paranoïc fetishism but you cling to what you have.

I posted brand stats n such when I finished my project last year in my collection group photos thread. But again, with 4,000 models there are some doubles/variants, repaints, unknown makers/species etc. So some of the number considerations are a bit  fogged by those factors. 

As for worst case scenarios we have had some members on forum whom have had terrible things happen to their collection. Fire, flood, theft, family or pet accidents, etc. For the longest time I knew every single item in my collection (i.e. back when I was a big Schleich enthusiast) but again my collection has grown a lot these few years so I have noticed I am starting to forget some of what I have. Plus again it is nice to see the stats specifically like the years produced etc. 

Anyhow I will quit taking over your thread. But the pie chart graphic is a very useful idea!

Hi there,

As you may know, I don't have the possibility to display my figures. So, I store them in three blocks of drawers, two large ones and one small one. It won't be beautiful for you to watch but I think that, maybe, showing you my storage system may help some collectors who have the same problem than me and are unable to display.

Large blocks

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First large block
One drawer for marine mammals
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One for big carnivorans, one of the most crowded one, there are as many as three layers now...
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One for giraffids, camelids, horses/tapirs, big apes and big marsupials
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One for the "pachydermatas". The bubble paper was compulsory here as these are heavy figures and the back of some elephants was already slightly scratched.
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Second large block
One drawer for fishes (sharks) and big reptiles. Originally, reptiles were with birds but birds are such a pain in the ass to tidy up that I removed the reptiles and added a second layer to the sharks.
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Birds now have their own drawer, what a nightmare it was to store them before with all those open wings...
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The deers/antelopes is my best drawer as every figure is in a standing position and will thus suffer minimal damage.
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Finally, one for bovids with goats on a second layer
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The small block dedicated to small figures
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One for intermediate sized figures (pigs, wolves, monkeys, toothless mammals)
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One for small figures (rodents, foxes, mustelids, small marsupials, small birds and reptiles)
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One for all babies
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The vintage are not as lucky, they are all in a big box... Anyway, most are already in very bad conditions.
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A few perhistorics...
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I'm using the original humongous box which all my collection used to be gathered in for the whales now.
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Here are a few old (and quite ugly IMO) figures in bad conditions, mainly AAA, old Safari and Bullyland.
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It's impossible to prevent completely minor damages when you are forced to store your figures but I think I achieved a sustainable "lesser-evil" system here.