Loon's Collection: PNSO Suchomimus (Jan. 16)

This is such a beautiful figure, a wonderful addition from this talented sculptor! So realistic!

A really beautifully detailed art work! Congrats! I wish I could afford some of the wild dogs from this artist but as you said, expensive and delicate may not be the best for everyone's shelves.

Loon wrote:

Hi all, been a bit, but I'm back. I've said this in my new searchlist thread, but the reason for my absence was that school was ending and I wanted to focus on that more than anything. For my research writing class, I wrote a paper on the media reputation of the spotted hyena,

That sounds like a really interesting paper, and that is a really exquisite model!

Very realistic spotted hyaena model!!

The long awaited package from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] arrived last week, but, I was in San Francisco at the time. I finally got to open and really enjoy the contents this week, but our air conditioner was broken and the temperature has been consistently hitting 99 or so degrees (37 Celsius) around here, so I didn't want to take out my "photography lights." But, that's fixed now, and I've finally got to take some decent pictures.

Burgerenby even included a little drawing of my namesake, the great Common Loon.

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I'm going to stick to just the real animals in the box, as hard as it is for me to not talk about How to Train Your Dragon. First, I'll be sharing the Southlands Replicas models: the Dingo, the Tasmanian devil, and the red kangaroo buck.
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I was hesitant about the dingo, because honestly, the face looked a bit off. But, it's grown on me, especially since the only other one that interested me was the Safari one, which looked a bit stiff.
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I also like it because it reminds me of my Chihuahua.
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There's not much to say about this devil, other than that I like it, a lot. I think it's the best overall, even though Safari's does look really nice too.
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Finally, the "holy grail" in this lot, the red kangaroo buck. This is THE Southlands Replicas figure, at least to me. It's such a beautiful thing, and I love how the muscles look. Unfortunately, this thing is hard as heck to find, so I'm eternally grateful to Burgerenby for helping me get a hold of it.
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He also goes nicely with Papo's female, at least, I think so.

Alright, I'm happy to have finally shared some of this package, but there's still more. So, I'll post more figures in a few days. Till then, thanks for reading!

Congratulations

We are lucky of being active collectors during an era when Southlands figures are still available. Thus, it is always a good decision to get them as soon as possible or we risk to have huge troubles to find these figures. I like all of their designs, red kangaroo is quite impressive, I just hope these legs do not melt with such high temperatures. Yes, it is not easy to see due to their pose but Southlands and Papo are roughly at the same scale.
If you have the chance, could you please take a closer picture of the spirit drawing?

Big congrats for these 3 Southlands models!

Wow, that's a HUGE Chihuahua !

The Southlands kangaroo is indeed the star, it's a truly wonderful sculpt but nice to see it does work well with some other brands, so you could gather up quite a lot without any duplicates if you were making a little...um... ok I had to google the word for a group of kangaroos, and apparently it's a mob.

What a great package! The recently "retired" Southlands definitely steal the show, big congrats on being able to get some of the models! The tasmanian devil and roo buck are true masterpieces. And that dingo does look like your chihuahua.

Wonderful models, I love that Dingo! I must find one before they stop making them!
I also love your Chihuahua, such a sweet dog!

widukind wrote:

Congratulations

Thanks!

Roger wrote:

We are lucky of being active collectors during an era when Southlands figures are still available. Thus, it is always a good decision to get them as soon as possible or we risk to have huge troubles to find these figures. I like all of their designs, red kangaroo is quite impressive, I just hope these legs do not melt with such high temperatures. Yes, it is not easy to see due to their pose but Southlands and Papo are roughly at the same scale.
If you have the chance, could you please take a closer picture of the spirit drawing?

Unfortunately, the kangaroo has already faced the cruel wrath of the California sun. Poor guy fell over barely an hour after being put on the shelf. Luckily, the blow dryer trick seems to have fixed the problem, for now at least.

Also, I'll make sure to include the drawing when I share the loon model.

Caracal wrote:

Big congrats for these 3 Southlands models!

Thank you!

RtasVadumee wrote:

Wow, that's a HUGE Chihuahua !

Yeah, she's strangely very big. Especially considering she's only two and a half.

George wrote:

The Southlands kangaroo is indeed the star, it's a truly wonderful sculpt but nice to see it does work well with some other brands, so you could gather up quite a lot without any duplicates if you were making a little...um... ok I had to google the word for a group of kangaroos, and apparently it's a mob.

Yeah, that could work. I've had the CollectA female, and I believe she's only slightly bigger than papo's.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

What a great package! The recently "retired" Southlands definitely steal the show, big congrats on being able to get some of the models! The tasmanian devil and roo buck are true masterpieces. And that dingo does look like your chihuahua.

Thank you. I really hope they're not gone for good, since I would love to see that saltwater crocodile get released.

Bonnie wrote:

Wonderful models, I love that Dingo! I must find one before they stop making them!
I also love your Chihuahua, such a sweet dog!

Thank you, she really is a special little thing.

Alright, part 2 of the  [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] haul!

These are my first two non-prehistoric Bullyland animals, the sitting Giraffe and the Komodo Dragon.
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The giraffe calf is very pretty and in such a nice pose. I'm a fan of animals in non-traditional poses, at least, when they're done well, and this is done very nicely.
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Up until now, I'd been using this Safari giraffe calf, but this Bullyland figure is just so much more accurate and natural looking. Makes the Safari one look kinda like an alien.
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The Komodo Dragon, in my opinion, is the best version out there. Sure, the sculpt's a bit blunt here and there (even when my camera focused on the head, it looked a bit fuzzy), but as far as capturing the "essence" of this animal, I think this one is second to none.
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The Mojö fun figure previously represented this species on my shelves, and while I did really like that model (I personally find the sculpt to be nicer than Bullyland's), the pose left a lot to be desired.
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I have to say, I'm super impressed with these Bullyland models. I'd definitely written a lot of their models off as unappealing, but these are making me reconsider that. More to come in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Seeing them side by side, the Safari giraffe calf really looks like a cartoon character more than anything, a bit overly cutesy.

And two more excellent models! Both are great choices. Bully is one of those brands, often like Safari, that can sneak up on you. Maybe not all models are stellar but there are several done REALLY well. Congratulations again! And hurray for Burgerenby!

I also needed to fix the legs of my Southlands kangaroo. Sculpting an animal figure to turn it into a toy has much more science than we think. One of the important points to consider is the limitations of the manufacturing process and also children safety. Thus, such a pose for a kangaroo when Southlands was still such a young brand, caused some unexpected issues. To avoid it Southlands could sculpt much thicker legs and spread them what would contribute to a less realistic figure. It is more or less what happened with that giraffe calf. Surely legs are short and thick and too far appart what gives to it a very cartoonish look. Safari is needing new giraffes to match the high average standards of their range. Not all Safari are great as well as not all Bullyland are weird. Thus, choosing based upon a brand, may be a mistake. Surely the komodo dragon and the giraffe calf are among the nicest Bullyland and surely nicer than the corresponding Safari. Curiously, I also owned the Mojö Fun model, it is almost flawless but such a boring model. I hope Mojö Fun keeps the sculpt quality in a future release but giving a slightly more dynamic pose to it. They remastered the moose sculpt, why not the Komodo? No hurries about the loon drawing.

Thanks for the comments, as always, I love reading what you all have to saw.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I see your point, I suppose the only way to solve the aesthetic and stability problems would be a base. But, that does ultimately hamper the ever-important playability.

Back to the  [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] box, and this time it's one of the customs in the package, a Schleich mini Tyrannosaurus in the colors of the Walking With Dinosaurs T. rex!
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"In one small valley, there is the stench... of death."

I really love how intricate this one is. For such a small thing, and for such an, admittedly, ugly base figure, it's a miracle it looks this amazing. Next up, some more of the regular figures in the box, plus that promised Loon drawing.

Pyrois, fire horse of the sun god Helios by Safari Ltd. would have been immune to those volcanic gasses.
Seeing your photos of my repaint really makes me want to invest in a proper camera again, the last one died on a field trip in the Pyrenees but that was 2017 and I don't think I'll work in the mountains again anytime soon.

Really stellar new rex! It is a wonderful repaint and it did bring out the better points of this sculpt. It takes me right back to piling onto my parent's bed on saturday mornings to watch WWD... Congrats!

No brand has done as excellent a job with Oceania replicas as Southlands! Figures with a lot of character! Very artistic!
I wish they would produce more and more all the time!
I wish they would also dare with fauna from other continents!

So many beautiful models, I love that Komodo dragon, so much detail!

Thank you everyone. Glad to see people love Southlands so much even after all this time.

Now, time for the penultimate  [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] package post. This set is all mass release stuff, but mostly hard to find in the states (mostly).
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First up, ironically, is one that actually is not hard to find at all, but something I'm still very happy to have, Mojö's Sun Bear.
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With other Indonesian fauna

Also, I really enjoy the folds on the lower back, gives a real sense of weight.
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On my trip to San Francisco, we went to the Oakland Zoo, where the Sun Bear is one of the star animals. Unfortunately, when we were their, the bear was usually hiding, so I only ever got to see his back from far away. At least this Mojö figure somewhat make sup for missing the real deal.

The Schleich male Ostrich; I live the pose on this one. Even if the sculpt isn't the most realistic, it's still very nice
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And finally, the first figure I own that represents my namesake, the Maia & Borges Loon. I'm very happy to at long last have a representative of this species in my collection, as well as a Maia & Borges figure that isn't released by another company.
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Observing Burgerenby's lovely drawing.
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Well, only one more, and trust me, I've saved the best for last.

Mojö Fun, from 2011 to 2015 released 5 bear species in a row, a polar bear, an American black bear, a sunbear, a giant panda and a grizzly bear. How long the other major brands took to release five different species? Well, Bullyland gave us in 2012 its 5th bear, an Asian black bear, Schleich in 2017 a sloth bear and the same year an Asian black bear for Safari too. OK, not counting extinct ones, of course. Papo gave us two subspecies of brown bears but not yet a fifth species. Such a long story to welcome your new wonderful sitting friend. It also makes me think that Mojö Fun is surely releasing an ostrich soon, I hope it follow the style of the new elephant or gorilla, graceful with long legs and small head. In any case, I also enjoy the Schleich ostrich you acquired, it has the traditional good balance between realism and attractiveness typical from Schleich. The same goes for Maia & Borges figures, they have that slightly toyish touch we don't see in Japanese figures but they are so beautiful and with a good finish quality that the only complaint I have is that they should not stop releasing series like these. Obviously you needed the loon. Thanks also for providing a closer picture of the beautiful loon drawing.