Mitsukuni’s Hyena Collection Updated 7.19.21

A very interesting hyena collection. The stripes never get the spotlight...thankfully Kiplings book did bring the focus a bit on these classic hyenas.. Your collection of stripeys is unique among collections I see around on the net.. Hope it keeps growing.. For me Collecta producing a Striped Hyena was not surprising since they were at their best in those years producing species not common. A sculptor friend of mine here in India had sculpted a beautiful scene of a Stripey and a Tiger (both stripeys actually ).. The hyena sculpted running off with a piece of meat taken from the tigers hunt!!

Very interesting and great collection of hyena's there Isabella!
The best are still some of the modern figurines when it comes to realism, but guys like Christophe and me like the old "stuff" which is hardly known or even hardly recognisable as even a hyena.
but ok, we ourselfs are "old stuff' to haha, we like the history in the development in sculpting, the knowledge of the time back then(most people didn't even knew how a hyena would look in real life, not even talking about the fact that there are 4 species of them!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve visited this thread! Thank you sbell! Yes you still have many that I don’t! Your collection continues to inspire me to grow my own

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] you should definitely add it to your wishlist Fernando, it is an amazing figure with lots of personality!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I’m sorry it’s been so long since I checked this thread!
Thank you for your comment
I am always at the ready to talk about the virtues of the striped hyena, I originally planned to only collect striped hyenas but through collecting I fell into the spotted hyenas allure as well Though striped hyenas will always have first place in my heartXD I will have to check out Kiplings book, thank you for the recommendation:D The CollectA striped is certainly very special if for no other reason than the fact that it is the only modern major brand release of a striped we have

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I’m sorry for the delay in replying, I forgot to check back on this thread!
Thank you! I am planning on adding more of the modern figures to my collection but you can blame my love of vintage/antique things for the delay. You can definitely add me to the "old stuff" fan club sometimes the less recognizable it is the more I like itXD your added nostalgia surely contributes to your love of these precious pieces of history!

What an absolutely delightful collection. It's wonderful to find that collectors love these animals so much! They go so under-appreciated by many. And these models, wow, there is so much diversity and so many that are beautiful in many different ways. Some really elegant vintage things, I absolutely love them the most! Quite a collection to be a proud of.

Thank you soooooo much [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] !
Hyenas are by far my favorite animal and as you said they need more love, they’re incredible animals with very important places in the ecosystem!
The vintage figures definitely bring me a lot of joy and I’m so glad that you appreciate them as well, it makes me so happy when others enjoy these unusual little creatures:D
Thank you again so much for your lovely comment

I finally updated this thread with all my new treasures, I put all of the new ones below but please check the original post for details on each one. I again want to say a huge thank you to all of my lovely friends here on the forum for selling, trading, or gifting me hyenas, you don’t know how grateful I am!

Coca Cola and an unmarked duplicate (possibly a copy?)
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WizKids
Possibly the smallest hyenas in my collection but bursting with detail and personality
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Feramune ( フエラムネ )
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Jeol
I honestly thought I’d never be able to get one of these, absolutely elated that I was able to purchase this one from Ricardo
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Shing Hing Toys
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Lineol
A lovely figure received from Robin ( VintageLineol ) on the forum, it was originally their childhood toy:D
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K&M
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Colorata
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VEB Plaho
Affectionately named Loki by Susanne for his charmingly mischievous look
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AAA
Really need the crouching version and the rare color variation of this one
Does anyone know if the crouching version also came in the rare color variation?
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Bullyland
These are from Susanne’s personal collection, I’ve already said this but I honestly can not say it enough I am so thankful and grateful to her for gifting me these beautiful figures  
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Papo
These guys are not too well loved in the community but to be honest I find them quite charming in person, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked them
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Schleich
Still need the older paint version:)
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Lineol
Another amazing gift from Susanne  I showed this to her since it was from a Dutch seller who didn’t ship to the US and she bought it for me and refused to except any payment! Susanne is an absolute gem of a person! We named him Thor:D
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Boley
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Eikoh
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Vintage/antique bisque porcelain
She is absolutely the coolest little figurine! It’s hard to see in my crappy photos but she is chowing down on a human skull!  
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PECH
So happy to have two of these now thanks to Roger and Ricardo respectively, I love having color variations!
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Lineol
The newer one is also from Robin’s childhood collection:D
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Marolin
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Toy Major
I’m assuming this one is Toy Major since it has the same T.M. in a circle on the bottom that my other Toy Major hyena has, if I’m wrong though feel free to correct me!
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French porcelain Bean
This one is just so funny and cute to me I had to get itXD
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Dosco
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Vintage/antique handpainted tin/lead
Got this one when Christophe was purging some of his collection, I seriously gasped when he showed me a picture of it, I could not be happier to have it in my collection, thank you again Christophe!
Also very interested in adding more of these thin tin/lead figures, so if anyone sees any for sale please let me know:D
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Also thought I’d show where I have them displayed:D

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You have an awesome collection! So many of the vintage "blob" hyenas are so endearing and neat looking. Great displays too!

Thank you Paige!! I completely agree! I find the blobby ones so adorable, honestly anything vaguely hyena shaped has a place in my collectionXD I’m so glad you like the displays too!

Many very interesting additions. Can you please share the brands too?

Thank you Andreas! I have listed their brands in the original post along with their marks and if they’re from a member but I’ll edit the brands onto the last post too to make it easier

Love how you have them displayed, so tidy and perfectly highlighting each one. And what gorgeous new additions! I can't pick a favorite because every time I would scroll down it was like, oh I like that one! Oh I like that one! Those long tongue striped are really neat, and the spotteds above them, and that K&M one! :)

Thank you so much Jill! I’m so glad you like the displays, it took me a while to get a good balance but I’m pretty happy with how they are now, I will very soon need more shelves though I’m sure
I’m so happy you like the new additions as well, I’ve added more info on each one so it’s a bit easier to look through. The Lineol striped is one of my absolute favorites and it somewhat started my love of hyenas:D the PECH are so precious and make me think of my lovely friends Roger and Ricardo from the Iberian Peninsula the K&M is so unique and I’m so happy to finally have it, now if I can just find the PV spottedXD

You start with a few premium figures I've never heard about.
Then the Jeol, a rare and beautiful model.
The childhood toys of a bird named member.
Susanne's power! Susanne always loved hyenas and we can try to be as much generous as Susanne is but nobody can be more generous than our Danish friend.
About specific variations of AAA hyenas i don't know but variations are relatively common in AAA figures.
Papo hyenas were relatively well accepted when they were released. They just outdated very fast.
Hahah, Thor is one of these figures I really love and yours have a beautiful story.
I am glad to know crocodiles are not the only animals having fun with humans.
I don't know your Toy Major but I am sure it is Toy Major. Nobody knows all Toy Major models. It is marked 1998 and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] so it confirms once TM use to be marked with the year and 1998 was a proficuous one. I will use your picture on TAW, is it fine?
Also thanks from the Portuguese side of the Iberian peninsula, you are very kind and I am very lazy since I haven't presented yet the wonderful figures I received, including a epic box from you.
After my long post, I still want to praise you for finding such beautiful way to display your figures, especially the asymmetrical display. My Mother loved that kind of asymmetrical displays to put some useless trinkets that she loved.

Wow, i never knew there were so many Hyena figures!
You have found so many unusual models from such a variety of brands- and so may brands I've never heard of before! I'd love to know how you discovered the brands of all these Hyena because I can't imagine that there's much information about Hyena figures on the Internet!
The Wizkids ones amazed me- so small but sooo detailed! But my favourite has to be the Lineol model 6th from the top, such a realistic vintage figure and unusual pose!
You have such a good eye for Hyenas- it must take ages searching through lots to find some of these, especially the ones from more obscure brands!

That's a lot many I've never seen. Still the Colorata, but I just can't justify the whole Ethiopian set.
Wizkids is one of several RPG figures companies that have made hyenas. They're popular as animals in games. I have a few Ral Partha and Wizards of the Coast ones as well, but not the Wizkids yet.
And they might be small, but the tiniest is likely the Schleich mini from the late 90s. Given the thick mane, it might be the only true brown hyena figure out there.
Also, a Yowies hyena is being released soon!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] sometimes the little know premiums can be some of the most charming in my experience:D
Yes the Jeol is even more beautiful in person!
You said it Roger, all of the members are so amazing and generous but I don’t know that any can beat our lovely Susanne

I didn’t know that about the Papo, it’s good to know they were at least well received upon release:lol:

Thank you Roger, Thor is a treasure to me and I can not be happier to have received him so generously from Susanne and to finally have him home

I knew you would have more info for me, no one can beat our Roger on knowledge! It’s good to know that it is almost positively Toy Major:D You can always use any photo of mine for the TAW

It has been a crazy year for you moving back and forth, no need to rush with showing your figures, just enjoy them for yourself until you are feeling up to posting them:D I know I was being very lazy with posting this update myself

Thank you so much for your lovely comment Roger, you’re always so supportive! I really love this asymmetrical display too, it is just from Target but it has a nice mid century feel to it. It makes me happy to think your mother would also have liked it

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I didn’t know when I first started collecting them either! Lol! and there are many more still that I do not have!
Thank you! I’m very happy that there is such a variety it makes them very interesting to collect and display:) I search a lot on eBay and I type things like "hyena figure" "hyena toy" "plastic hyena" etc. etc.XD There really isn’t a lot of info as you said, to be honest most of my info comes from sold listing.
They are even better in person! I honestly can’t believe how much detail was packed into them
I have wanted this figure for so long even with its age it is still the most dynamic spotted I can think of, and it’s history makes it even more precious to me:D
Thank you so much! To be honest I do take a lot of pride in these little guys and I have dedicated quite a lot of time and *ahem* funds into themXD it’s really very enjoyable to hunt down these more rare figures and it’s exciting when I find ones I’ve been searching for for awhile, I’m sure a lot of us here on the forum can relate:D

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Ricardo gave me a very good deal on the Colorata, but before that I was definitely considering the box, glad I didn’t buy it since I only wanted two figures from it, I hope you can find one for a good deal soon.
I really want to collect more of the miniature hyenas. You can tell they’re good for RPG since you can find a lot of them by searching dnd hyenasXD Yeah the WizKids just released, I preordered them actually, I highly recommend getting a pair for your collection:D You’re right the Schleich Mini is TINY, I’m honestly surprised any of the Schleich Minis have survived being so smallXD It got me thinking about my smallest hyenas so I took a pic, these ones are all about the same tiny size:D

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Thank you for telling me about the Yowies! I didn’t know they were releasing one, I’m so excited! Do you know which species?

It's a spotted of course. It's a series of superpowered animals--so the crushy jaws are the signature

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ah of course, still excited though. I’m glad they’re featuring it for something positive and not negative. Hyenas are, in my opinion, the coolest group of animals, with so many awesome abilities:D

Mitsukuni wrote:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ah of course, still excited though. I’m glad they’re featuring it for something positive and not negative. Hyenas are, in my opinion, the coolest group of animals, with so many awesome abilities:D

I've also loved them for a long time (them and polypterid fish...not sure why African animals are my main jam).

There is a surprising number of them, all told, of varying quality. Lots of vintage ones that I don't have.

Mitsukuni wrote:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I didn’t know when I first started collecting them either! Lol! and there are many more still that I do not have!
Thank you! I’m very happy that there is such a variety it makes them very interesting to collect and display:) I search a lot on eBay and I type things like "hyena figure" "hyena toy" "plastic hyena" etc. etc.XD There really isn’t a lot of info as you said, to be honest most of my info comes from sold listing.
They are even better in person! I honestly can’t believe how much detail was packed into them
I have wanted this figure for so long even with its age it is still the most dynamic spotted I can think of, and it’s history makes it even more precious to me:D
Thank you so much! To be honest I do take a lot of pride in these little guys and I have dedicated quite a lot of time and *ahem* funds into themXD it’s really very enjoyable to hunt down these more rare figures and it’s exciting when I find ones I’ve been searching for for awhile, I’m sure a lot of us here on the forum can relate:D

Sounds very similar to me, I'm always typing 'plastic dog', 'dog figure', 'dog figure lot' into Ebay - but it really is amazing that you have managed to collate all this information yourself only using listings and things like that!
Definitely, I can completely relate to the joy of finally finding figures I thought I would never even see in a lifetime! Collecting brings so much joy in so many different ways!

Toy Major is a box of surprises. This hyena you've found from 1998, is only the 2nd hyena we know from the brand, the other is the 1994 J that you also have in your collectiion.
Toy Major repeats a lot the same species and they have different sets almost every year.
Thus, I'd be surprised if Toy Major had released just two hyenas. 1998 is probably the year we find more TM figures, they used to sell boxed sets of adulte and young during those years.
The use of numbers is not that usual in TM models, they tend to favour letters as you can see the J in your 1994 hyena. Your picture of the markings is very sharp but I can't find the 8, i was trying to see if it is a B instead.
I haven't figured yet to which particular series this hyena belongs.
I find that hyena so familiar, it is like one of my foxes had crossed with one of your hyenas, doesn't it look like a hybrid? :lol
About the new Yowie hyena, you can follow [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] because I am sure someone will update it as soon as more information is available.

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Mitsukuni wrote:

I knew you would have more info for me, no one can beat our Roger on knowledge! It’s good to know that it is almost positively Toy Major:D

Thanks but that's a myth.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] yes, I remember seeing your collection on the animal toy forum years ago:D
Some of my other favorites are African Wild Dogs and Cheetahs so I can understand the love of African speciesXD
There are so many it’s a bit overwhelming, I have many vintage and newer ones I’ve yet to acquire as well.