Rtas' Beauty of the Beasts walkaround and reviews : The complete feline series !

Hi everyone !

I recently stated on my collection topic that I had reached a turning point in my collecting hobby. Even if some models I like are still missing, I basically got all the must-have I absolutely needed since I reunited by accident with the Schleich seller of my childhood and bought these pangolin and puffin, back in 2018. I can still complete my families and herds with new renditions of species I already own but major brands have nevertheless, much less to offer me than before. As a consequence, I have decided to focus my money on two new collecting subjects. The first one is taxonomic groups I neglected, wether it be by lack of offer from major brands like reptiles or lesser interest from my part like bony fishes. The answer to that new need was to be looked for in the East. I already presented the Yujin/Takara Tomy turtles set and I can tell you much more Japanese stuff is already on its way. The second is obscure, or at least less-known, species from popular and "mainstream" orders and families that major brands neglected because of their lack of commercial relevance. The answer was here quite easy to find too but certainly required even more motivation and investment.

As our friend Isidro often says, "when you want badly a species which is not availble on the market, just do it yourself !". But I'm a lazy man, living a lazy life and when it comes to "investment", I may be poor but still prefer to invest money than try hard over and over again for miserable results in the end. Well, that philosophy may reach beyond the only field of collecting actually.

So, when you want something very badly but are not able or too lazy to do it yourself, just pay someone to do it for you. Then, the cost-benefit analysis takes the stage.

Collecting is managing a budget : you basically have many more figures to buy than you can afford so you have to make choices. Those choices will be based on various criteria that you're going to gather, sum up and confront in order to be able to summerize them into a final binary answer : yes or no. That's why wishlists exist, that's why they often rank figures by priority levels.

Buying a homemade model of an obscure species basically means renouncing to eight or ten figures of more common animals from major brands. With the money you spend on them, you would be able to order eight figures but will actually receive only one. And that's absolutely normal : these are handmade stuff, they are not industrially produced and thus don't benefit from economies of scale. They cost money and time to those who craft them and may have another job besides that activity. But from a customer's, homo oeconomicus' point of view, quality has to justify the investment. Whatever may be your level of excitement for a given species, it cannot justify sacrificing eight figures for one alone. Quality has to be a main criteria here and the figure you buy not only needs to represent a species you're much excited in, it has to be the best representation of that species that could ever exist, it has to be a masterpiece. I would not pay 60 or 80€ something which is not as good as a giant eland from CollectA because a giant eland from CollectA is a masterpiece and it costs less than 10€.

That's why, however worthy and deserving their work may be, no sculptor had ever managed to make me answer "yes" to the cost-benefit question. Until now.

When I got in touch back with Andrés after he was banned as Pepi, he quickly showed me a sculptor he had started collecting stuff from. One much less active and known on forum than others. I know some of you already know her and even own some figures from her. But I also know some of you have never heard about her and that's why that topic was so important for me to be done, because she deserves to be known.  When I first looked at the link Andrés sent me, I probably spent a fair part of the night watching every picture of every figure over and over again. Now, I hope I am going to spend a fair part of many nights to come reviewing every one of them to you.

Her name is Qingyu Li and she lives in Canada, in the city of Halifax in Nova Scotia, on the South-Eastern coast, not far from the United States. Her story begins by a tragedy we, animal lovers, all experience at least one in our life : the loss of a family member people who have never shared their lives with one call "pet". When her cat died of old age, Qingyu wanted to have something in memory of him. She collected little tube animals as a kid so the plan was initially to find a mass produced model and repaint it. But she couldn't find one that resembled her cat enough so, she eventually decided to make one herself. That's how she started to take an interest in the "wonderful world of the modern day animal figurine collection" and, eventually, started sculpting.

As a consequence, her main focus is cats and she now basically offers EVERY SINGLE species of wild feline in the world (except the few which are out of stock/retired) in figurine form. Not in toy form though, as her models are made of resin and not plastic materials. However, as I will explain it later, that resin is very light and a collector will hardly see the difference with plastic and in no way will be disturbed by it. She offers other species from other families of course. Now the feline series is complete, she is going to focus on dogs and wild canines so maybe she'll count Roger and Bonnie as future faithful customers. She also has a very nice tapir line (may buy the mountain one one day or another) a killspringer, a kinkajou and a few others. But what really holded my attention was her initial and main focus : the cats.

Yet, I am not a cat guy. I do not enjoy cats as pets, I think there is so much more to share emotionally with a dog. I even think that's a matter of personal philosophy : tell me which pet you have, I'll tell you who you are and I once stopped dating the most beautiful girl who has ever and will ever walk on earth only because she preferred "the independance of cats" over the "loyalty of dogs" (I'm kidding, just quited to avoid restraining order). I didn't especially appreciate wild felines either until grown-up age because wild felines in zoos basically came down to lions, tigers, and a few leopards if you were lucky in my childhood. Later, snow leopards and jaguars made the family slightly more interesting, clouded leopards even more. But it was only a couple of years ago that I really fell in love with the family, when I spent a day in a wonderful park any zoo freak should absolutely visit if he/she ever visits France. I'm talking about this one : https://www.parcs-zoologiques-lumigny.fr/univers/parc-des-felins/

It's a zoo exclusively dedicated to felines and with an admirable phylosophy. Indeed, enclosures are very large and include a lot of vegetation and shelters for cats to hide. Trees are let to grow so that cats can climb on them and it's not rare to see a leopard five metres from the ground. As a result, despite the number of species being lower than in a generalist zoo, one has to spend the whole day here to make sure he/she sees every species and subspecies. Diversity is important and about half of the wild cat species in the world can be seen.

Its visit was my father's Christmas present a few years ago. But we finally did not go because, you know, there were always marital issues back then. Then it was my birthday's present one or two years later but again, we didn't go. Finally, it became kind of a running gag between us. But, eventually, we visited that bloody park. I don't remember very well the circumstances, but I do remind that I didn't feel very good, that it was a wonderful day, and that I were very sad to leave. Maybe that context explains why I enjoyed so much my visit and why I fell so much in love with small wild cat species. Of course, seeing them in real surely played a big part in increasing significantly my interest in them too. French explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau said : "My goal is not to teach, I am neither a scientist nor a teacher. I am a discoverer, my goal is to amaze. We love what amazed us, and we protect what we love." That was more or less what this park brought me.

This could be also Qingyu's moto as a sculptor even if she is more about the scientific and educational thing, for the greater pleasure of picky, meticulous zoology freaks of collectors most of us are ! She believes in the value of educating the public about lesser known animals through collecting and consider it as a mature way of playing. According to her, collecting allows "people of all ages to use a fun way to learn about species we didn't know before, as well as the different aspects of a certain animal as opposed to the somewhat stereotypical impression of certain species that is taught to us conventionally". So, scientific accuracy is a main concern here even though the artistic part, as you'll see, it not outdone either.

That combination of factors, an advanced interest and personal attachement to lesser-known small cat species, a deep concern about both accuracy and aesthetism and, finally, a very honest price-quality ratio (I'll talk about prices later), ultimately decided me to give a try to that sculptor's work with a first order of three figures selected on the basis of both species and aesthetical preferences. Here they are :
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But let's not beat around the bush : that first order fully satisfies me and I am now basically considering buying the COMPLETE FELINE SERIES from Beauty of the Beasts (except large common species of course). Of course, I'm not a blinded bigot, some of Qingyu's figures are not as good, namely the sand cat and the manul in my opinion. But you'll notice that prices are also lower, as if she was aware that these ones were not as tremendous. Thus, the price-quality ratio remains interesting and that's still a "yes" for me ! As a result, that topic is going to become a main focus of mine on that forum in the future since I'm going to review every figure I'll get from her. Each review will normally include a bit of contextualisation that will explain my relationship with the species, a walkaround in daylight (might me more difficult in winter though) and of course, the usual comparison part. Qingyu provides comparison pics on her website, using a Papo lion as a reference. I will provide further comparisons as I think the Papo lion may not be the most relevant example for every collectors. First because, even if they are much praised an favoured by collectors, Papo lions a quite oversized compared with most other orders. And second because major size compatibility issues are likely to occur between closely-sized species and, as a consequence, comparing small cats to the second largest one on earth may not be the best idea. Thus, I will use instead the Papo ocelot as my reference figure because it's basically the only small feline produced by major brands (excluding bigger lynxes and puma). Each model will also be compared to two big cats which will depend on the continent where that species lives. For Asia, the large feline reference figures will be the Papo roaring tiger and the Safari clouded leopard. For Africa, they will be the Schleich 14373 lion from 2008 and the last Schleich cheetah and for America, the Schleich 14359 jaguar from 2007 and the last Papo puma. Of course, I'm not a robot, I will adapt the comparisons when needed : for example a Pallas' cat will be compared to a snow leopard rather than a clouded one or a Canadian lynx to an Eurasian fellow rather than an ocelot.

Anyway, sorry for that endless introduction but I felt like it was important to set the stage properly once and for all because we're going to spend quite a long time here together. Now, it's done, let's start the reviews !

Model N°1 : The Asian Golden Cat

Species : Pardofelis temminckii
Natural habitat : Forests of South-East Asia and China
Dimensions in cm : 9x4x1.5
Scale : 1:10
Colour(s) : Five different morphs, red, striped, spotted, brown, black
Gender : Ungendered, female by default
Price in € : 48.02 to 54.98
Availability : Available and in stock

1) My story with the species

That one was scheduled to be the first one from the start. It had to be.

As you may know, one of my main priorities is to have a collection as much "representative" as possible which implies "filling the gaps" left by missing "ABC species" as soon as possible. The Asian golden cat is not exactly what one would call an "ABC species", so it should not be so high in the wishlist according to that collecting methodology. Thus, it's just a "little pleasure" I afforded myself ! Actually, it's even the rarest feline I have ever seen in my life. And I only discovered its existence during my visit in this fabulous park I told you about. It was also the most surprising encounter for me on that day. I remember we looked at the information board with my father, then progressively understood how rare in captivity this was and then finally saw the beast and both thought "What ?! That's not a cat, that's a little puma !" Indeed, what stroke me the most was how massive it was for a "small" feline and how possible it was that I didn't know such a charismatic species yet. Like the puma, it looked like a panthera imprisoned in the body of a small cat ! Well, I might not be the only one to see that similarity as its former scientific name was indeed Catopuma. That's how I got in touch with Pardofelis as a genus and that's how temminckii became my favoured Pardofelis species, funnily enough the only one our Pardofelis has never made a figure of

Thus, the Asian golden cat is the species which reminds me the most strongly my visit in the felines' park and that's why I chose it to be the starting point of that new collection of mine. I was able to choose between five different colourations and patterns : red, striped, brown, spotted and black. I obviously chose the brown version representing the morph I had seen in real. That was moreover a clever choice as it will eventually allow me to tell it more easily apart from my future bay and marbled cats, the other Pardofelis which are respectively light brown/reddish and spotted. Here is a video of a golden cat in the park I visited, maybe even the exact individual I saw.


2) Walkaround
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Far from the informed moulds of some mass produced models like the Papo ocelot for example, the Asian golden cat's sculpt is anything but plain and highly detailed. The muscles, especially, are quite ostentatious which I appreciate because it helps catching the muscular, bulky and powerful general look of the small yet imposing predator I have seen. On pictures I found on the net, the animal does not look so muscled but slenderer though. However, I guess it depends on individuals and that figure is at least faithful to my memories.

The pose is a classic, yet efficient walking one. The paws are thick enough but not too much. The right shoulder blade is surrelavated compared to the other to reflect the walk. That's an appreciable attention to detail, yet expected and required from a homemade model of this price.

As far as paintjob is concerned, as you can see, it's very similar to the specimen I have seen. Yet, I would have enjoyed the golden reflection which can be seen on the shoulders of some individuals to be more obvious. Like that one for example :
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However, I absolutely love the face mask and you know how the painting of the face is important to me. It's overall very "clean" and meticulous. The eyes are good and it's a point I would like to develop further. As you know, I have a different opinion about how important well painted eyes are for the general look of a model. Many of you favour sculpt over paintjob and are able to appreciate a very good mould with a "meh" painting. I am not. In my opinion, the painjob, and especially the face's painjob determines if you're going to convert the try or not. Your sculpt may be the best one in the world, if you fuck up the eyes, it's not going to convince me. I often had this discussion with Roger and Pardo, and remember them saying that a good sculpt, whatever the painting, will make the species immediately recognizable, unlike a bad sculpt with beautiful eyes. I remember extreme and quite bad faith examples as a certain penguin zebra were used I don't think the same. My opinion, way more subtle and finely-shaded than theirs, is the following one : [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Eyes are especially important to catch the look of felines as these predators are known to have some of the most mesmerizing ones in the animal kingdom. Yet this is, in my opinion, a major weakness of major brands. Except a few models like this snow leopard or Safari's clouded, I feel like major brands are, generally speaking, quite unable to produce felines as convincing as their other animals. I'm especially thinking about CollectA which gave us the white rhino and hippo, as well as all these wonderful bovid species but failed to take its cats to the same level, as praised its new lion may be here (I personally don't like it). If I had to sum up the work of Qingyu in one sentence, I would say that her figures are the CollectA cats we deserve.

3) Comparisons

Beauty of the Beasts' cats are basically Papo-sized. Well, it's a bit more complex than that actually. I have a theory concerning sizes and I think it's quite proven here. There is a certain size under which you are unable to work properly. As a result, smallest species are always at least slightly oversized. There is also a certain size above which you cannot go because then, you gonna have problems to make your model fit with other orders. As a consequence, the room left between smallest and largest species is much tighter than in reality. Qingyu is not afraid of respecting scale even if it means releasing bigger models for large species. As a consequence, her small felines will tend to be oversized but just as major brands' small species are and thus, be perfectly acceptable in a standard-sized collection, while her bigger cats will be larger than Papo's and thus, not compatible with them. Of course, as you can expect, I spent a lot of time studying every single model and I am able to tell you that a standard-size collector will be able to add to his/her shelfs anything as big as a clouded leopard but will start to break the size hierarchy with a puma. Indeed, Qingyu's puma is as large as a Papo lion for example.

The Asian golden cat is a "big small cat", weighing twice to three times more than a domestic one (9 to 16 kg). It's roughly the size of an ocelot but slightly bulkier/heavier. The BotB model then fits pretty well with Papo's ocelot.
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However, as I explained, the room left for intermediate-sized species like this one being tight, it cannot avoid being a bit big for larger Asian cousins.

According to Wikipedia, a clouded leopard has the same body lenght (excluding the tail) than an Asian golden cat : 75 to 105 cm. But it's heavier, weighing 18 to 23 kg. So not a perfect match but still nothing extremely shocking here.
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Oversizing is certainly much more noticeable with a tiger though. But the most important to me has always been size hierarchy and here, there is much room left to respect it.
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As a conclusion, I'm satisfied with that rendition of a most wished species of mine. There is no chance any major brand is going to represent it in toy form any time soon but Qingyu's one is anyway the (almost) perfect one !

Model N°2 : The Jaguarundi

Species : Herpailurus yagouaroundi
Natural habitat : Forest and savannahs of South and Central America, up to the South of the United States
Dimensions in cm : 4.5x2.5x3.5
Scale : 1:12
Colour(s) : Two morphs available, dark brown and red
Gender : Ungendered, female by default
Price in € : 41.06
Availability : Available and in stock

1) My story with the species

The jaguarundi was definitely not a planned purchase at first. To speak true, Qingyu's model did not convince me at all. Yet, it was a top priority species, if not the second top priority species just after the Asian golden cat. It's indeed a well-know ABC, still quite exciting, species. I had to fill that gap in my collection, albeit not as soon as I finally did ! I have known it for a longer time than almost any of the other small cats. In fact, there was an old book about animals in my paternal grandmother's flat (it's now mine since she is deceased) which I read everytime I was there, that is to say very rarely since she lived in Paris. That book made me familiar with several species at a very young age, including the wolverine and the jaguarundi. At that time, I basically thought there were only big wild cats and domestic ones but nothing in-between ! So that strange "otter-cat" definitely catched my attention !

I saw my first jaguarundis as a child in Spaycific Zoo, a small "roadside" park which was renowed to keep very rare and unusual species back then. It's still quite interesting nowadays but most animals it was the first one to keep in France have now become widespread. Jaguarundis are one of them and can now be found almost everywhere. Here is the only photo I ever took of one though. It's not especially a good one as I ran out of battery with my main device and had to shoot with my "handgun", a small compact camera.
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So, the jaguarundi was definitely a species I had some background with. Yet, as I said, I did not like so much it's rendition by BotB. I mostly thought it looked like an informed black mass on which any detail was hardly visible. That was before I discovered that she was offering it in the other reddish morph which allowed to see the details of the face and fur much better ! Jaguarundis of both morphs can be seen in the wild and zoos but the dark one is widely dominant in zoos and I think it is in the wild too. Thus, a black figure would have been more representative of the species, yet much less aethetically pleasant. Moreover, genetic studies have revealed that the reddish coat was the most ancient morph while the other darker one appeared later as a result of a mutation. As a result, I can still argue that I chose the red morph because I'm a purist

Finally, when it came to choose, I showed the figures to my parents and they both liked it very much. Since it was an ABC gap to fill, the species' importance won over the aesthetic preference and that's how the jaguarundi was added to the basket !

2) Walkaround
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And you know what, I love it ! When I got it out of the package I even briefly thought it was my favourite. However I also quickly returned to senses and I can tell you the best is still to come. I think that my enthusiasm was so high because my expectations were lower. Yet, it's still a very nice model and one thousand times better in real than on "promo pics" !

The sculpt renders well the thin and slender body of the jaguarundi even if the hunched up pose does not really bring it out. As far as proportions are concerned, jaguarundies are known to have a head proportionally small compared to the body, which gives them quite a disharmonious silhouette. On that model, the head is small but I wouldn't say it's proportionally smaller than the rest, maybe this choice was made for aethetic purposes. The tail could have been slightly longer but that's just a detail. The kitty, but slightly rounded ears are good. Finally, the skull shape is probably one of the most distinctive features of that species : it's small, narrow, quite elongated and regularly rounded at first before suddenly falling down and ending in a flat muzzle. It might not be obvious at first because of the very small size of the model but a close-up clearly reveals that Qingyu got it amazingly well.
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Overall, I think that a jaguarundi is clearly recognizable here, even if it was painted as a zebra.

The paintjob is simple and uniform as is the coat of the real animal which has never been an especially beautiful feline... Yet, she manages to give some relief to it with a richly textured fur. The eyes are good. Again, jaguarundies have quite "meh" eyes compared to some other feline beauties.

2) Comparisons

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like that jaguarundi is a bit small That cat is supposed to be roughly the size of an ocelot but slenderer and lighter. From my personal sightings, I would say it's also lower at shoulder height. The pose makes both somewhat difficult to compare but I would say it's ok, maybe slightly undersized compared to the ocelot...
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but therefore better fitted to go with a jaguar...
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or its closest relative the puma (I grew up believing that the jaguarundi was, despite its vernacular name, a little puma as it was known as Puma yagouaroundi instead of Herpailurus in my childhood).
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As a conclusion, the jaguarundi may not be the most spectacular or pretty feline in the world. But that's precisely what makes it so difficult to represent successfully in figure form. Something Qingyu achieved overall, with its general aspect and especially the skull's shape. A must-have then !

Model N°3 : The Fishing Cat

Species : Prionailurus viverrinus
Natural habitat : Marshes of South-East Asia
Dimensions in cm : 7.5x4x1.5
Scale : 1:10
Colour(s) : Only one
Gender : Male
Price in € : 59.16
Availability : Available and in stock

1) My story with the species

Now we finally get to the big gun ! All cats (I mean, domestic ones ) like fishes but this one love them especially ! So much that it lives in wetlands and even has semipalmated paws ! It's thus close to another species Qingyu made a tremendous figure of : the flat-headed cat. However, despite it's strange and unusual way of life, it's a very well-known species because of its commonness in captivity. Isidro may confirm it or not but I feel like it's the most widespread small cat species in zoos (excluding pumas and Eurasian lynxes of course). So, my first contact with it occured at a fairly young age, when the closest big zoo to my hometown got a pair of them. Fun fact, these fishing cats have left the zoo since then and their enclosure is now occupied by... jaguarundies !

I don't have especially a very good pic of fishing cat but here are two decent ones among others :
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Since I saw it very early, that species never really excited me, I mean, it's not a holy Grail I desperately looked for for ages like others. But it's, on the other hand, one I'm much familiar with. However, that model was not chosen for the species it represents like the jaguarundi, but definitely for its inherent quality.

2) Walkaround
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To be honest, I feel kind of lazy to review that one. Maybe partly because I have already written eight pages about those shits and I'm tired. But also clearly because anyone who has ever seen a fishing cat will know straightaway how an ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE THIS ONE IS ! I mean, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I gave you three, just look at them ! Everything is perfect, the stocky body, the wide and rounded head, the short cute tail, the small rounded ears. And that painjob god, that so delicate and precise paintjob on such a detailed and finely textured fur... I said that BotB cats were at the quality level of CollectA but that wonder surpasses the giant eland.

The pose is perfect too. It's not too original to disturb the conservative boring Schleich guy I am, yet dynamic enough to make it way more exciting than las famosas "four static legs with head turned to the side". That pose actually represents the cat fishing as it often kills its prey by a simple paw kick in the water. This adds way more character to the figure and to its perfection

Even watched from the front, the eyes' expression is great, something which is difficult to achieve (just look at the new Papo good, but still loopy-eyed, heron and emu). Finally, unlike the two others, this one is clearly gendered and has tiny "bijoux de famille". A small but much appreciated detail.
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3) Comparisons

The fishing cat is a pretty solid dude. It's somewhat shorter than an ocelot but bulkier and we can legitimately say they are roughly the same size. I think that first comparison pic illustrates well that difference of physiognomies.
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It fits also well with larger Asian felines in my opinion.
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As a conclusion, I can understand one is not ready to spend the price of eight mass produced figures just to add one single more obscure species to his/her collection. But here, it's not only about fulfilling some zoology freaks' twisted desires. The fishing cat from BotB is truly a wonderful model whose price (the most expensive of the three) is justified by the quality of the rendition before the rarity of the species it represents. It's quite difficult to analyse and review a figure with a 100% Cartesian approach. Sometimes, the figure gets everything right on the checking list but doesn't "feel" like the real animal or just remains what it is, a figure. Sometimes, there is something more which makes it look alive and like a tiny version of a real individual but we're not able to explain what that "little more" is. This is the principle of art that fishing cat definitely is.

Well, that's all for now but as I said, we're just getting started with those kittens !

If you liked these three starters and want to have a further look at Beauty of the Beasts' models, here is Qinguy's online shop where you can directly order your figures : https://www.etsy.com/fr/shop/BEAUTYofBEASTS

If you want to keep yourself informed about future projects, especially the upcoming canine series, you can follow her work on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/beauty_of_the_beasts_figurines/

Taking the plunge of homemade models is not an easy step. That's expensive and you invest a lot to receive little in quantity. But if you love cats and if you are looking for an expensive new hobby to fill your extistence and empty your wallet, then give a try to BotB models. That's a costly hobby indeed, but again, price may not matter as much as the price-quality ratio which is more than good with BotB from what I've seen so far. In my opinion, and that's just my opinion, it's even better than with any "competitor" I know. Fortunately, the very expensive models are the big common pantheras we all have dozens individuals of each so you may not ruin yourself as much as you may expect since I guess most of us will focus on smaller lesser-known species which are cheaper. These are usually worth around 50€, sometimes slightly more, sometimes slightly less. Considering they are hand-made by a single person who may have another job for a living (don't know, didn't ask her) and considering the actual beauty of her resin beasts, it may not be a gift but it's not daylight robbery either. Closer to gift than robbery actually

Very jealous of the fishing cat, but they are all really wonderful!

I know her work but I check it online as visiting a museum. It is wonderful you can get these models, they are out of this world and they deserve every Euro spent on them. They are out of my reach but it is a joy for me to see your pictures and read all your considerations. You really write very well although I was tempted to change two or three words.
It is interesting that the first two models look like pumas, the first as a strong one and the jaguarundi as a slender one. Watching the Papo puma with these models, is a good way to see how far is Papo or any other brand from making a good rendition of this iconic animal. If I could afford a single figure, I'd not expect for a fox, my choice would be the Iberian lynx, even if the pose is somewhat lazy, it is such a perfect model. Paraphrasing someone who quoted me, I think it would be recognizable if it was painted like a zebra.

Real treasures

Thanks !

Roger wrote:

It is interesting that the first two models look like pumas, the first as a strong one and the jaguarundi as a slender one. Watching the Papo puma with these models, is a good way to see how far is Papo or any other brand from making a good rendition of this iconic animal.

Well, we've been talking about that with Paige a few days ago, the choice of a Puma is not an easy one... As you may know, I dislike mine, this is a default choice because of size and availability. I recently found the old Papo puma on Vinted which I like very much but it's absolutely tiny and I can't afford such a small puma, especially now I am buying BotB models. Paige showed me the Mojo female and Safari male that form a nice couple but size is again an issue, the other way around this time. So I think the puma issue is quite different from the Eurasian lynx one : there are decent pumas from major brands but these intermediate-sized species are difficult to represent at a fitting size (to the contrary, even if everyone likes the Papo lynx, I don't think there has ever been any decent Eurasian lynx produced by major brands).

Roger wrote:

If I could afford a single figure, I'd not expect for a fox, my choice would be the Iberian lynx, even if the pose is somewhat lazy, it is such a perfect model. Paraphrasing someone who quoted me, I think it would be recognizable if it was painted like a zebra.

It's good yes, and I understand you want it, especially as an Iberian. But my favourite lynx has always been the Canadian with its big paws and long legs, the pose is particularly refined.
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It's second or third on the priority list (before it comes the Serval from Joan Milelire which is better than Qingyu's in my humble opinion and then, it will depend if I buy the caracal from BotB which is only available on commission and is worth 120).

These are absolutely beautiful, what a talented sculptor- so much to learn from these masterpieces!
The fishing cat has to be my favourite- I love how the fur is so detailed, each stroke in the right direction- I am just so excited for her canine series!
And thank you for the link to her shop, I was amazed by them all but especially the Ethiopian Wolf! This is a project I have been working on recently and hers was of course much better than mine, but in almost exactly the same pose and colouring and her photos were almost the same angles and background as the ones I have just taken- I thought I was seeing double! But it was very useful to see something so similar, as it was easier to see what improvements I could make for next time!

Those models are absolutely, completly gorgeous

I have a few of these cata, plus he 1:10 Ethiopian wolf

Nice to read you
Thank you for the very informative reviews

I know the wonderful work of Qingyu Li for few years and I didn't yet decide to order its willd scottish cat. Her fishing cat is a gem but all of her models are very beautiful, accurate and living looking! I visited the "parc des félins" 4 years ago and saw there cat species for the first time of my life (fisher and swamp cat for exemple..) I spent my day walking in the park because some were hard to discover in their shelter or tree.. and at the end, in the shop, I found the wild cats toob from Wild Republic with my first serval!

Thank you for sharing so useful pictures and comments! :)

Bonnie wrote:

These are absolutely beautiful, what a talented sculptor- so much to learn from these masterpieces!
The fishing cat has to be my favourite- I love how the fur is so detailed, each stroke in the right direction- I am just so excited for her canine series!
And thank you for the link to her shop, I was amazed by them all but especially the Ethiopian Wolf! This is a project I have been working on recently and hers was of course much better than mine, but in almost exactly the same pose and colouring and her photos were almost the same angles and background as the ones I have just taken- I thought I was seeing double! But it was very useful to see something so similar, as it was easier to see what improvements I could make for next time!

Glad it has been useful ! Actually, her Ethiopian wolf, despite being a very very exciting figure, will never join my collection because it's typically the kind of intermediately-sized species that will always end up being too big for the figures I already have. However, you will be glad to know that the canid series has been updated last weekend with two new models, proving once more both her savoir-faire and sense of humour
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Both are likely to join my collection one day or another as they are gorgeous and seem nicely sized.

bmathison1972 wrote:

I have a few of these cata, plus he 1:10 Ethiopian wolf

Yep, sand, flat-headed and Pampas cat if I remember well Surely a wise choice concerning the flat-headed cat.

Caracal wrote:

I know the wonderful work of Qingyu Li for few years and I didn't yet decide to order its willd scottish cat. Her fishing cat is a gem but all of her models are very beautiful, accurate and living looking! I visited the "parc des félins" 4 years ago and saw there cat species for the first time of my life (fisher and swamp cat for exemple..) I spent my day walking in the park because some were hard to discover in their shelter or tree.. and at the end, in the shop, I found the wild cats toob from Wild Republic with my first serval!

Thank you for sharing so useful pictures and comments! :)

Yes, that's certainly one of our most interesting zoos, along with the Valley of the Monkeys in the Vienne, another thematic park. I had already seen fishing and swamp cats before but certainly saw for the first time :
- Asian golden cat
- Rusty-spotted cat
- Canadian lynx
- Oncilla
- And the African subspecies of the wild cat which is alleged to be the true ancestor of the domestic cat.

.. and an arabian sub-species too!

RtasVadumee wrote:

Bonnie wrote:

These are absolutely beautiful, what a talented sculptor- so much to learn from these masterpieces!
The fishing cat has to be my favourite- I love how the fur is so detailed, each stroke in the right direction- I am just so excited for her canine series!
And thank you for the link to her shop, I was amazed by them all but especially the Ethiopian Wolf! This is a project I have been working on recently and hers was of course much better than mine, but in almost exactly the same pose and colouring and her photos were almost the same angles and background as the ones I have just taken- I thought I was seeing double! But it was very useful to see something so similar, as it was easier to see what improvements I could make for next time!

Glad it has been useful ! Actually, her Ethiopian wolf, despite being a very very exciting figure, will never join my collection because it's typically the kind of intermediately-sized species that will always end up being too big for the figures I already have. However, you will be glad to know that the canid series has been updated last weekend with two new models, proving once more both her savoir-faire and sense of humour
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Both are likely to join my collection one day or another as they are gorgeous and seem nicely sized.

bmathison1972 wrote:

I have a few of these cata, plus he 1:10 Ethiopian wolf

Yep, sand, flat-headed and Pampas cat if I remember well Surely a wise choice concerning the flat-headed cat.

Caracal wrote:

I know the wonderful work of Qingyu Li for few years and I didn't yet decide to order its willd scottish cat. Her fishing cat is a gem but all of her models are very beautiful, accurate and living looking! I visited the "parc des félins" 4 years ago and saw there cat species for the first time of my life (fisher and swamp cat for exemple..) I spent my day walking in the park because some were hard to discover in their shelter or tree.. and at the end, in the shop, I found the wild cats toob from Wild Republic with my first serval!

Thank you for sharing so useful pictures and comments! :)

Yes, that's certainly one of our most interesting zoos, along with the Valley of the Monkeys in the Vienne, another thematic park. I had already seen fishing and swamp cats before but certainly saw for the first time :
- Asian golden cat
- Rusty-spotted cat
- Canadian lynx
- Oncilla
- And the African subspecies of the wild cat which is alleged to be the true ancestor of the domestic cat.

These two new models are amazing!!!
And I definitely agree, it really does show her sense of humour!