Play Visions Mini Dogs, A numbers mystery

Oh, the light colored Pom is there, too! I missed it! I do hate to ask sellers to break up lots that they have already listed, I know that's a pain . . . I'll keep my fingers crossed to see it again someday. She has had several little gems in these big lots for sure! I decided to buy a bunch of her Play Visions instead, though.

I can't wait to see what the one you reserved looks like, too. These molds are just all over the place! Someday one of them will have an actual brand stamp, I just know it, hahaha.

Quite easy to miss with so many beautiful animal figures to look at! Yes, I agree, it can be a real nightmare to try and separate lots- fingers crossed you'll find another! The Play Visions sound wonderful though! I think the one I reserved is a different mould, it just fooled me for a second because it looked quite similar from a distance- and it's another little dog that's nicely made and I don't know the brand of, so many mysteries! Definitely, moulds all over the place!
Yes, yes, one day there just has to be one with an actual brand stamp!

So I just found this screenshot I had forgotten I got from someone's collection (not for sale). Gonna put it here as well, because it's got some more new ones, including an even more accurate malamute (almost a husky look, actually) and a brown dachshund (I haven't seen anything but a black and tan dachshund yet). That Yorkie is actually more accurately colored than the orange and black one, and I think that's the normal colored pug as well.

I know this isn't quite on topic for a Club Earth thread (especially since so far none of these are proven to be Club Earth at all), but I'm personally invested in sorting out these little dogs and every clue helps. Or more accurately, every clue makes it more confusing.

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That's such an interesting screen shot, so many interesting and confusing little dogs! Do you remember where you found it from, it looks like this collector has many interesting canine models? Another malamute, this is getting so confusing! maybe this is a repaint by the collector? Or maybe there were variations depending on the year of release! The yorkie looks really nice in that colour, as does the pug! Thank you for the photo, I've saved this one too!

Well, I can't remember who it was, but it is someone on the Facebook group International Friends of Animal Figures Collectors. This is someone who regularly posts pictures of their very large dog collection, yes! I am sure you would love their photos!

I doubt it is a repaint because there are three of them in that photo, but other than that, I have no idea.

Wow, I love other dog collections, I'd love to see! Thank you very much for telling me about this Facebook group, I'll have to have a look at some point!
Oh yes of course, if there are three it probably isn't- such a mystery!

I was fortunate to find multiple of these and the cats thrift shopping the other day. Some of them I found 1 example of, others there were 4 models present! All the numbers and breeds match TAW but especially the cats I found have different paint jobs on them.

Here are my new dogs:
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I had the pug before, clearly marked 3. The new pug I found is marked 8 which fixes the following numbering issue I had:
Scottie 1
Yorkie 2
Pug 3/8
Maltese 3
Shih tzu 4 (not a lahsa apso)
Sheltie/collie 5
Pom 6
Westie 7
(*pug*
Poodle 9
Malamute 10
Dachshund 11
"Brittany" 12 (mastiff)

Then my cats. Only missing the persian sadly... but the numbering is messed up.
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Rex 2
"Cat" 3
Burmese 4
Siamese 5
Manx 6
Domestic shorthair 7
Abyssinian 7
Birman 8
Somali 10
Himalayan 11
Angora 12

That's interesting about the dog numbers, at least they mostly match and there aren't many new mysteries! The pug is the only confusing one but it seems he fits in two places on the scale of 1-10, there were probably two batches at different dates or something where the models were numbered differently!

Wow what a find!!! I am still searching for several of those, and to find so many of them at once! I am super stoked to see the shih tzu at last and know that it exists, haha. A mystery solved!

I think your Domestic Shorthair cat maybe is actually 1? All mine are, and the 1 kind of looks like a 7. Otherwise the rest of the numbers match.

Thank so much for sharing and huge congrats!!!  

Thanks to Paige for helping me complete the two Play Visions sets! For the purposes of finishing the sets on TAW, here's a photo of the Shih Tzu (to go in the place of Lhaso Apso, as I guessed the breed wrong).

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Also I noticed This page still lists them as Club Earth, when the 1998 catalogue page has confirmed them as Play Visions. This thread name should probably be changed now that we know, which I can do if that would be the right thing to do!

Hurray for Paige, I added this Shih-Tzu and now the gallery is complete.
I can rename this topic and move it to PV section. Though, I must be sure it is the best option because on TAW I have to rename 13 pages and edit links in almost 30 pages, breeds, figures and the own gallery.

It's been fascinating seeing so much information being filled in about these models since you joined the forum, Jill!

OK, all dogs on TAW and this topic were moved from Club Earth to Play Visions. We don't have any confirmation they're Club Earth and there is an evidence they were sold by Play Visions. So, even if they were also sold as Club Earth as it is expectable, the Club Earth link is now pointing to the PV series.
Another great investigation work from our dedicated members.
The new direct link on TAW is here:
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That's fantastic that this dog mystery is more or less solved! And I am so glad you completed the set with this lovely Shih Tzu, a very sweet model and pretty accurate to the real dog!

Roger wrote:

Hurray for Paige, I added this Shih-Tzu and now the gallery is complete.
I can rename this topic and move it to PV section. Though, I must be sure it is the best option because on TAW I have to rename 13 pages and edit links in almost 30 pages, breeds, figures and the own gallery.

Thank you! Goodness, that is a lot of editing, thank you for doing all that work and helping me figure out all these little dogs (and cats and horses etc. etc.)!!

Well, the editing effort is nothing when compared with all your effort to get and provide info and pictures. I only wanted to be sure it was the right thing to avoid reversing everything.

Hurray for YOU Jill! As we wouldn't have all this amazing information on this set without your hard work. And thanks Roger so much for your hard work as well!!!

This topic is far from being finished. These figures, as mentioned before, were sold under different brand names and also as premium figures.
After some talk with [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and Enrique, a Mexican collector of dog figures.
It is evident there are more little figures like those besides the 12 we can see on Play Visions catalogue.
Using the numbers, it might be possible to list the different series since they're not exactly alike. There are some important variants and also some different breeds.
Enrique knows these as Candy Max premium figures, a defunkt Mexican brand of candy distributed by Ricolino.
The Candy Max series has a few other breeds like a Great Dane, a Shepherd, a Boxer and more.
According to Bonnie and also Enrique, there's the Pedigree series, those are easier to identify because they're marked Pedigree on their flanks and in my opinion those could serve as a faithful chance to sort them by numbers and consequently to sort all others with different numbers too.
Here is a picture from Enrique who allowed me to share it on forum.

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That's very exciting news! I am missing the Dane, Doberman, German Shepherd, and Boxer based on this new photo. I like the Malamute coloration better on this one too.

I like that German shepherd, and the previous collie. Wouldn't mind finding them, but I'd be tempted to repaint so I probably shouldn't get them.

This is really interesting! I had never seen these dogs before, this brand certainly is full of mysteries!

It is good to recall that we used the Play Visions catalogue to sort these models but as mentioned before, minis and premium figures are generic and found being sold or offered by many different brands. We have no idea who manufactured these. What we know now is that the Play Visions set of 12 is just one part of the story. Candy Max premium figures have a different assortment and the same is valid to Pedigree.

Very cool to learn more about these little dogs! I have seen Enrique's photos on a Facebook group and have always wanted to learn more about them.. :) Some of these dogs also resemble the K&M set and the Toy Major sets.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

I was fortunate to find multiple of these and the cats thrift shopping the other day. Some of them I found 1 example of, others there were 4 models present! All the numbers and breeds match TAW but especially the cats I found have different paint jobs on them.

Here are my new dogs:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I had the pug before, clearly marked 3. The new pug I found is marked 8 which fixes the following numbering issue I had:
Scottie 1
Yorkie 2
Pug 3/8
Maltese 3
Shih tzu 4 (not a lahsa apso)
Sheltie/collie 5
Pom 6
Westie 7
(*pug*
Poodle 9
Malamute 10
Dachshund 11
"Brittany" 12 (mastiff)

Then my cats. Only missing the persian sadly... but the numbering is messed up.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Rex 2
"Cat" 3
Burmese 4
Siamese 5
Manx 6
Domestic shorthair 7
Abyssinian 7
Birman 8
Somali 10
Himalayan 11
Angora 12

I know it is just a remark, but...
Is it just me or the PV cats molds somehow look like smaller versions of the FUNRISE CATS molds? Look at the walking ones that look on their side; I've seen this type of mold, with a somehow slightly flattened head, in the Funrise cats series...

Very interesting the Toy Major blister.
I wouldn't be surprised if Toy Major was the comon manufacturer to all these figures. The flattened style with straight poses is convenient when figures are sold in blisters. Blister toys, egg toys, shelf toys, all of them have their own design adjustments.