Project : Rtas' farm of freaks

lucky luke wrote:

Fantastic cattle and I hope you can complete your family. My farm project is only considering a single ovine but I see there's more to look after.
Left rabbit is male and right rabbit is female, it is easy to identify because I can see easily which one is more interested in the neigbour's conversation. Are rabbits sexist?

Some really fantastic choices! Congrats on the new livestock.

Roger wrote:

Fantastic cattle and I hope you can complete your family. My farm project is only considering a single ovine but I see there's more to look after.
Left rabbit is male and right rabbit is female, it is easy to identify because I can see easily which one is more interested in the neigbour's  conversation. Are rabbits sexist?

Which ovine is that ?

I actually did complete the Texas family today ! I was supposed to wait for the CollectA bull but found that Schleich nice enough. I was totally unaware of it, it's not on TAI and was never mentionned on forum I think
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Those sheep and highland cattle are incredible. Really nice choices all across the board! A really excellent farm you're building.

Congratulations for completing the Texan family. You are right, the bull was not showing on breed gallery, I fixed it now with Paige's picture.
About the ovine for my project, it will be the Schleich black sheep.

Thanks Jill !

Roger wrote:

Congratulations for completing the Texan family. You are right, the bull was not showing on breed gallery, I fixed it now with Paige's picture.
About the ovine for my project, it will be the Schleich black sheep.

Oh yes, that's one I want too !

Hi there !

Today, a new update for my farm but before that, let's post the guinea pig I recently bought with its new friends for the only sake of "official inventory".
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Now, as I told George on the fish topic, I recently acquired something that was still recently quite far from my usual collecting subjects and tastes, but closer to his and Jill's.

Indeed, I resisted quite a long time to add a domestic horse to my collection. I am indeed a wildlife collector, and my farm project is the only thing that finally allowed me to consider another horse than the Przewalski. Yet, I dragged my feet to deal with the equine issue as the "the noblest conquest of Man" has never been my cup of tea. I have indeed no particular affection towards the horse as a species and that's quite reciprocal as a few of them tried to kill or amputate me on several occasions.

But the farm idea was meant to add at least one representative of every domestic animal to my collection, so there had to be a horse too. Or several, as horse breeds are so diverse, and models of them so numerous that a unique specimen would not be representative enough. I quite quickly decided to restrain myself to three models, in an attempt to mirror the three horses of Orwell's farm. I asked for opinions and advices here on which breeds and models would be suitable for my project and you helped me realize that I wanted to play on contrasts and display the largest horse on earth next to the smallest one, for kind of a comical effect ! So, the obvious choices were a Shire as the giant and a Falabella as a dwarf !

Well, opportunity makes the collector and believe it or not, I found the retired Schleich Shire stallion... in a local shop of my town I regularly visit ! I just had never paid attention to it because I didn't look at horses back then !

This is a dynamic and majectic figure that would almost make me fall in love with horse models, and the typical snout and skull shape of the Shire is perfectly sculpted.
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A good casting choice for the character of Boxer, and I'm sure he will look great next to his friend and advisor Benjamin.

I know from George's comparisons that the Mojo Gypsy mare will be a perfect match as Mollie. And I still need to find a Clover, for which several of you advised me a Suffolk punch.

But I still want a miniature horse and still had the Falabella in mind when I went to the checkout to pay for my Shire.

However, my plans may change as the cashier gave me a poney as an extra figure for free. These are damaged models that can't be decently sold and I tried to select the least rubbed one, even if she didn't want to let me choose at first. I finally ended up with a cute brown Dartmoor mare.
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I had previously done my research on the Shire but I don't know anything about Dartmoors, so any piece of information from our equine specialists is welcome !

I said that my plans may change now because the funny size gap effect is actually achieved with this mismatched pair
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So maybe I don't need a Falabella anymore ? Actually, I'd like your opinion about that.

Nice additions

Dartmoors are lovely, I rode one in lessons for a while. Very strong-willed and independent, tended to think he knew better than his riders, but once you got him on side he was the most loyal, brave little thing, and very clever. He was sold on to a private home cos he was too opinionated and sharp for the riding school, and would only behave for the two riders he actually liked
All I know about dartmoors aside from my old friend, is that they come in solid colours, are always shown unplaited and untrimmed, and they're somewhere between exmoor and new forest in height, which isn't really relevant when your pony is compared to a shire, and couldn't be braided up anyway, what with being plastic

Hmm, what else? Your dartmoor is the same colour as my own current horse, it's called 'wild bay' and is a genetic variation which causes shorter dark 'points' on the legs, with light brown colouring where a regular bay has black to the knees and hocks. It's a very sweet little mould, I do think Schleich did a better job with ponies and drafts than their light horses, especially these ponies from a few years ago - they're really quite decent compared to some of their later roughly-horse-shaped offerings, with much nicer poses and far better proportions. And it's got a nice attitude, with pricked-up ears and a forward going walk.

I think we already covered my opinion on the shire, back when we were discussing options, but for the sake of not ignoring him now he's arrived on your farm I'll repeat that he's one of their best ever moulds, a good pose and nicely done sculpting - and it seems you got a much better painted one than I did (if you remember, I only had a custom painted example to offer, that's because mine was so poorly painted he needed a whole new coat to look presentable! )

I think there'd be no harm in adding a falabella too, as native ponies and miniatures are SUCH different animals : the naturally evolved native breeds which can survive outdoors in all weathers with little or no human interference, versus something man-made for small size and added cuteness, which is now a great pet but wouldn't stand a chance in it's natural habitat.
To bring it from horses into a more familiar domestic breed comparison, imagine a husky and a chihuahua - one looks pretty close to it's wild ancestors, one is very much changed!

A shire was mandatory in your project regardless of your plan. This family of Schleich Shires is remarkable in all regards. From the very famous and debated Princess, the white/grey mare with braids to this stallion in a very dynamic pose, quite unusual for Schleich standards. Schleich even used a softer material to produce it and the lovely foal shedding.
Dartmoor are not exactly farm animals but they were also used to that purpose. Though, being creatures from Devon, they are surely closely linked to British culture. So, you have two breeds from the other side of the English Channel.

Beautiful new models, and interesting horse choices too! I love the sweet Dartmoor and the Shire is very impressive too!

Really nice new models all! The shire is indeed a really nice figure from latter produced models by Schleich. The dartmoor is quite nice also though I haven't found one personally yet. Congratulations on all!

Thanks for these precious pieces of information George, I had busy holidays and forgot to answer.

I share the general enthusiasm towards the shire, it's indeed hard not to love this model even as a non-equine enthusiast !

The next newcomer is not as majestic but certainly still a funny gal !
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This silkie lady was my hen choice for a "farm of freaks" because it's by far the most unusual-looking one available in toy form with its sooooo disco hairdress !

Although it is not retired, I let it pass in my usual shop as I didn't collect farm animals at that time, and they never received any other since then. Fortunately, I found it during my holidays, in a toy shop I had already visited a few years ago and where I had found several jewels, such as the Schleich wolverine and Malayan tapir !

This silkie hen is the last inhabitant of my farm that I'm able to find locally. Now, only the retired Schleich Falabella and black sheep, as well as the whole array of CollectA exotic breeds (African goose, Jacob's sheep and mangalitza) are missing.

I miss those shops with long retired Schleich. I don't know if a chicken could be the reason of my enthusiasm but surely some Schleich retired models still deserve a second chance.

Roger wrote:

I miss those shops with long retired Schleich. I don't know if a chicken could be the reason of my enthusiasm but surely some Schleich retired models still deserve a second chance.

When I went to that one last week, they still had a few Papo models as old as this one : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

No old Schleich left though, first because I bought most of them a few years ago and second because Schleich carried out a huge "cleansing" campaign in France to withdraw every remaining retired models from most toy shops for an unknown reason (fortunately, after I picked everything I needed during my glorious figure hunts !)

RtasVadumee wrote:

Now, only the retired Schleich Falabella and black sheep, as well as the whole array of CollectA exotic breeds (African goose, Jacob's sheep and mangalitza) are missing.

I think I can get you all these, but I'm not sure if shipping from Greece will help for a good deal. Think of it as an option.

This is a wonderful and unusual choice of chicken for your farm!