Project : Rtas' farm of freaks

Taos wrote:

With regards to your Chihuahua he could be the 'deer' type.Originally there were 2 types of Chihuahua but when they were standardised for showing they went for the 'Applehead' type and this is the commonest one seen today.The deer type however can still occur and these tend to be longer legged,lighter, with less rounded head and a bit more terrier like.

INDEED ! I checked pictures on google and he's exactly like that !!!
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RtasVadumee wrote:

Taos wrote:

With regards to your Chihuahua he could be the 'deer' type.Originally there were 2 types of Chihuahua but when they were standardised for showing they went for the 'Applehead' type and this is the commonest one seen today.The deer type however can still occur and these tend to be longer legged,lighter, with less rounded head and a bit more terrier like.

INDEED ! I checked pictures on google and he's exactly like that !!!
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I believe it's even possible to combine the 'Apple' head with the 'Deer' body, and vice versa!
Very cute boy, by the way!

Ladytilly wrote:

RtasVadumee wrote:

Taos wrote:

With regards to your Chihuahua he could be the 'deer' type.Originally there were 2 types of Chihuahua but when they were standardised for showing they went for the 'Applehead' type and this is the commonest one seen today.The deer type however can still occur and these tend to be longer legged,lighter, with less rounded head and a bit more terrier like.

INDEED ! I checked pictures on google and he's exactly like that !!!
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I believe it's even possible to combine the 'Apple' head with the 'Deer' body, and vice versa!
Very cute boy, by the way!

Oh yes, definitely, I forgot about this, thanks Taylor! He is such a gorgeous Chihuahua!
And I've also heard it said that when you breed the two together you get what's called a 'Pear-headed' Chihuahua!

Glad to have helped out!!

The first inhabitants of my farm are here : Benjamine and her calf
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Indeed, in my Netflix adaptation of the Animal Farm, Benjamin will be portrayed by a strong and brave single mom

I'm kidding, I'm just still undecided about which male to choose : old or new Papo.

These two figures are, anyway, pure golden age classy Schleich as I love. They are not in perfect mint condition, the mother having a few scratches on the muzzle but that was an unique opportunity to get both the female and calf at the same time for a cheap price (10€ for both).

Next arrival will be the Boer goats Roger advised me and then, the whole Papo bunch will follow as soon as the shops open again.

What a good looking pair to start things off! Love that foal's sweet face.

Beautiful Schleich donkeys! I think your farm has already some inhabitants lost in the wild, won't you get those in too?

I love these Poitous more than any of the Papo representatives. The old Papo even looks like it was crossed with a sheep. I think also that the Papo donkey will be not interested in that Schleich lady, you must manage a way to give him a Poitevin mare.

Roger wrote:

I love these Poitous more than any of the Papo representatives. The old Papo even looks like it was crossed with a sheep. I think also that the Papo donkey will be not interested in that Schleich lady, you must manage a way to give him a Poitevin mare.

The old Papo looks perfect Poitou-Donkeys have to look like a sheep^^ I love it when they are fuzzy and this guy reminds me of a donkey that was living in my neighbourhood. Beside there height, I think the fuzziness is what makes them so special

spacelab wrote:

Beautiful Schleich donkeys! I think your farm has already some inhabitants lost in the wild, won't you get those in too?

Yes but only the Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, the watusis will remain with my African fauna, and the llamas, dromedaries, alpacas, peafowls etc... will remain in the wild collection too.

Roger wrote:

I love these Poitous more than any of the Papo representatives. The old Papo even looks like it was crossed with a sheep. I think also that the Papo donkey will be not interested in that Schleich lady, you must manage a way to give him a Poitevin mare.

I don't understand, do you mean they won't fit aesthetically ?

By the way, "your" goats arrived this morning, thanks for showing them to me.
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Released in 2002, during what I consider as the transition period between the stone and golden ages of Schleich, they are quite vintage and not as finely textured as nowadays models. Yet, they are still very acceptable in a modern collection and one will easily recognize the typical charm of Schleich oldies. I bought them on Gaschers.de, certainly the best internet shop in Europe for retired Schleich. Unfortunately, the kid was not available but I have no doubt I will find it on a second-hand website sooner or later. That breed, with its large ears and exotic origins, is exactly what I'm looking for in a farm of the unusual. They may be joined by the Papo angoran goat from local shop.

Oh, I thought you were aware that these Boer goats are not new models at all. However, i think they only bear a slight vintage touch, nothing disturbing and still a beautiful family for a farm. The kid was also the last of my trio, I am sure you will find it.

Duck-Anch-Amun wrote:

Roger wrote:

I love these Poitous more than any of the Papo representatives. The old Papo even looks like it was crossed with a sheep. I think also that the Papo donkey will be not interested in that Schleich lady, you must manage a way to give him a Poitevin mare.

The old Papo looks perfect Poitou-Donkeys have to look like a sheep^^ I love it when they are fuzzy and this guy reminds me of a donkey that was living in my neighbourhood. Beside there height, I think the fuzziness is what makes them so special

I remember a a few hairy donkeys living in my neighbourhood but none of them looked like a sheep.
I never had the chance of seeing a Poitou or if I have seen it, I thought it was a sheep.

RtasVadumee wrote:

Roger wrote:

I love these Poitous more than any of the Papo representatives. The old Papo even looks like it was crossed with a sheep. I think also that the Papo donkey will be not interested in that Schleich lady, you must manage a way to give him a Poitevin mare.

I don't understand, do you mean they won't fit aesthetically ?

No, these poitou jacks stallions are almost exclusively crossed with Poitevin mares to produce Poitevin mules.
Seriously, benjamin, look at a female Poitou donkey and a Poitevin mare and tell me which one would you choose if you were a Jack?

Beautiful goats and donkeys, and excellent choices for your farm!

Roger wrote:

Oh, I thought you were aware that these Boer goats are not new models at all. However, i think they only bear a slight vintage touch, nothing disturbing and still a beautiful family for a farm. The kid was also the last of my trio, I am sure you will find it.

Don't worry, I love them !

Roger wrote:

No, these poitou jacks stallions are almost exclusively crossed with Poitevin mares to produce Poitevin mules.
Seriously, benjamin, look at a female Poitou donkey and a Poitevin mare and tell me which one would you choose if you were a Jack?

Oh, I was not aware about "Poitevin mares" but that parallel reality you are describing certainly sounds much enjoyable to me (I wonder if horse stallions are destined to the slaughterhouse in that equine ideal world ? )

RtasVadumee wrote:

!

Roger wrote:

No, these poitou jacks stallions are almost exclusively crossed with Poitevin mares to produce Poitevin mules.
Seriously, benjamin, look at a female Poitou donkey and a Poitevin mare and tell me which one would you choose if you were a Jack?

Oh, I was not aware about "Poitevin mares" but that parallel reality you are describing certainly sounds much enjoyable to me (I wonder if horse stallions are destined to the slaughterhouse in that equine ideal world ? )

Surely not, it is an endangered breed and when you produce these mules over crossing two breeds, you first need to warrant the continuity of these breeds. Also Wikipedia is clear about the slaughterhouse.

"Poitevin is a slow-growing breed with heavy bone, and is not suitable for meat production."

Well, Benjamin finally joined the farm. He's way more handsome than on his profile promo pic. No match with any Poitevin mare but with a fellow Poitou single mother.
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I hesitated a lot over this casting choice because the older rendition had a darker, more similar colour to the Schleich mare and foal but the sculpt of the new one is way better and definitely less silly-looking. I, moreover, found a sample with nicely painted eyes.

I also bought the originally planned goats before the Boer were suggested by Roger as an additional breed. I'm talking about the Angora nanny with her kid.
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Again, a great looking model definitely better in real than on pics I had seen on this forum. I remember that, not long ago actually, Papo had a very bad reputation as far as farm animals were concerned. But with this goat and the Highland cow, silkie hen and Merino pair which are all going to join soon, they significantly improved.

Here are all my goats together :
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Oh, the Papo Poitou is very handsome, and I like the way they've interpreted his long coat with a neat smooth finish, not really rough - I might end up being tempted to expand my herd of hairy donks, too!

The angora goats are very nice, too, I was cuddling a real life angora kid this morning (he lives next door to my horse and insists on occasional hugs, hahah) so it's nice co-incidence to see models of the same breed in the same day. Another difficult hair texture captured pretty well!

Really great farm start! The Schleich Boers are a must, such beautiful art pieces really. Great new collection!

Nice again

Beautiful models!

I am also positively impressed with your Benjamin. I must check locally if there is a Poitou available to see if I can resist.
Papo must release a Poitevin mare, and a mule to represent in their range something very peculiar from France.
The reputation of Papo farm models was not always the best because when we compare the early cattle of Papo with what Schleich offered at the same time, there is a huge gap in quality where Schleich models are far superior.
Though, I don't think Schleich improved their quality in this regard during the last years while we already can find some great models among newer Papo cattle figures.
It is not the same with wildlife, if you compare the first generation of Papo giraffes with the contemporary Schleich models, you'll find that the German figures are much better but if you compare the Papo lioness, early variations with the corresponding Schleich, the Papo model is clearly superior. OK, the Schleich lioness available in 2006 was much nicer than the Papo giraffes or zebras and the Schleich 2007 lioness, clearly a response to the Papo model, is a nice figure even if not as good as Papo's. This consistency among Schleich figures was one of the things that contributed to a much better reputation of the German company. Papo was still giving its first steps and in the same range you could find a really ugly zebra or poor giraffe with a masterful lioness while in Schleich range there weren't really very bad figures even if a few were also not as good as the corresponding Papo masterpieces. Papo gained some consistency these last years and ironically quality of Schleich figures is more variable these days. Who is really working perfectly in this regard is CollectA. The fact they are replacing core models, may result a little boring to species collectors but it contributes to a huge increase in average quality of the range they're offering. Who could guess CollectA could present such a glorious hippo? Oh, I am just wandering....

Hi !

I tend to give priority to the updates of the main collection, that's why I have quite a few farm additions from several weeks ago that I still have not presented on forum. Today is kind of the first lazy day since ages so it's time to fix that.

First of all, some cattle arrived to the farm. I remind you that the two selected breeds are the Texas longhorn and the Highland cattle.
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The Texas longhorn family will be a brand-blended one. The choice of that breed was basically motivated by the announcement of CollectA's bull which is already a masterpiece even before being released ! In the meantime, his future wife the Schleich cow is very welcome in my ranch as it is also a gorgeous model.
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I didn't really study the calf matter but I assume a new one was released alongside this cow.

As far as the Highland cattle is concerned, the decision was here again motivated by the very recent release of two new (and very beautiful) renditions one year apart from each other by Papo and Schleich. The competition is thus fierce between the two giants from both sides of the Rhine and despite being well-known as a collaborator (I even bet on Germany against all my colleagues for last monday match), I decided to opt for the status quo in that particular case and make both brands' soldiers become bovine Romeo and Juliet in my collection. Indeed, Papo and Schleich were convenient enough to give their respective models different genders. The marriage is actually one of the most convincing ever and I won't even try to crown a favourite.
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I know there is a retired calf from Schleich's previous generation and will likely look for it on Vinted at some point when I'll have nothing else to do.

After the goats, I also expanded my caprine family with some wooly relatives.
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These merinos are not the breed which was initially planned (it was Jacob's four-horned sheep) but who can seriously resist that amazing fat neck scuplting ? They are one more proof that Papo is now able to rival Schleich on farm animals and are definitely weird-looking enough to qualify for the "freak label" I'm so attached to.

Finally, the rabbit pair will be a mixed-race one and I look forward to see the offsprings of their union.
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I like them both for one good reason : they are big, they are bulky, they would be three times the size of my dog if they were alive animals, they are true farm rabbits and not cutish dwarf pet ones as all I already have from Schleich in tribute to the real one I once kept.

I let you vote for which one you want to be daddy and which one you want to be mommy

Now, I only miss the silkie hen from what is available locally, then it will be time for a big CollectA online order to fill the gaps.

These are all beautiful choices, I love those two rabbits at the end, really lovely models!