Spacelab's Collection FINAL PART.

spacelab wrote:

Roger wrote:

In my perspective, my interpretation of that cover is that it is about local gastronomy.

Lol, said the Lisbon lion.

Actually it was the STS crocodile talking instead.

It's been some time, I'm a bit lazy with this thing... Anyway, meanwhile and before I move to the new set of photos, 2 more Pigs entered my farm. So I will show them here and later I will edit the original piggies post. It's the Collecta Hungarian one and the Schleich Vietnamese Pot-bellied. Here they are:
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So, to the main dish of my presentation, with the usual music interruption and record cover.

Part 12: Seals

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photo 1 L to R
Walrus (Collecta 2012)
Elephant Seal (Mojo 2018)
Harp Seal (Safari 2005)
Leopard Seal (Collecta 2017)

photo 2 L to R
Weddell Seal (Happy Kin)
Antarctic Fur Seal (Happy Kin)
Sea Lion (Collecta 2010)
Harbour Seal (Schleich 2013)

My Seals collection is not complete yet, possibly the Collecta Spotted Seal will be the next one I get, but I think these are all excellent models. Even the Happy Kin ones are very detailed and beautiful. The Weddell Seal would please me more if it was a bit larger, but I can I pretend it's a small specimen while all the others are big. Generally they all scale very well together.
I think my favourite one is the Walrus, such a heavily built model with so many details and great sharp tusks. And the mouth of the Leopard..wow! A scary fellow.

To my intermission now, a 5 minute music break.

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I'm not really a Beatles fan, people often need to apologize about this. I was developing my music taste in the 80's and with so many new waves of music around at that time it was hard and uncool to follow the oldies. Still, I appreciate their songs and innovations especially in their less poppy period and as a music lover and collector I own their records. They are too important to miss.
Well, The Beatles made a song about a Walrus.... Actually mentioning the Walrus and I won't go deep trying to explain the meaning because I think that John Lennon was just trolling the world with this song. You know, everyone was thinking deep at that time trying to find hidden meanings and metaphors. And still, people would go to their jobs in the morning singing: "I am the Eggman, I am the Walrus, goo goo a'joob". How cool is that?
Sure, it was 1967 and LSD was high on demand and consumption in the Beatles camp...

goo goo a'joob!!!



---ALBUM COVER----

The record artwork I chose from my collection is a CD I got in many copies as promotional material for the A-ha concert in Athens in 2005. I don't usually buy live albums, but this one is keeping some good memories in time alive. So I kept a copy and it's actually nice. Good voice, catchy tunes and Norwegian sense of drama and melancholy flooded everywhere. And a cute seal on the cover!  
A-ha - How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head (2003)
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Wonderful seals and wonderful pigs and wonderful song to go with them! I love the pot-bellied pig, he has so much personality! The pose of the Leopard seal (?) is wonderful too, it really captures the ferocity of this animal and looks just as though it's darting through water!

I love your selection of seals. It is actually more complete than mine once I never got a leopard seal. I had a penguin revolution when I thought about buying it. It is also nice to see how Happy Kin Toys models work so nicely among the major brand models and how they contribute decisively to a richer diversity.

The walrus of the lyrics is from the poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter - Alice in Wonderland
It is a very sophisticated song, both lyrics and music and it is actually nice even if I am not too much into the Liverpool guys.
Here goes a part of the poem and curiously or not, there are pigs on it. I am not surprised if these pigs are Hungarian or Vietnamese.

"The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings.""

Hehe, funny coincidence the pigs and of course the walrus is "considered" to be from "psychotropic" Alice, though that Walrus is not a Walrus and I still think Lennon was just trolling in his illusion fever..

Yes, you are right about these 2 Happy Kin, they look of the same quality of the much more expensive brands and they fit nicely adding the diversity you mentioned.

thank you both!

I want the CollectA pig and Happy kin Antarctic Seal .

Congrats.

Thank you Fernando!

Wonderful seals

Thanks Andreas!


Part 13: Foxes

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L to R
Arctic Fox (Schleich 2011)
Arctic Fox (Schleich 2018)
Red Fox (Schleich 2017)
Red Fox (Papo 2013)
Fennec Fox (Papo 2017)
Fennec Fox (Collecta 2013)

Miraculously I ended up with 3 pair of foxes, which is a bit unusual for my synoptic collection. A Tibetan Fox is highly missed as I love this animal, but patience is my friend. The Schleich Red Fox is from the forest set that I mainly bought for the red deer and I believe it's somehow better painted than the spare ones I see in stores.
I don't have a favourite, I love them all. It's Foxes we're talking about after all...

.......

The song I chose is from the Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian. It was contained in their second album from 1996 and it's a modest melancholic ballad called "Fox in the Snow". It brings me a feeling of desolation and loneliness but with a hidden warm ending. Very sweet actually. Watch the unofficial made video with this lovely creature searching in the snow.



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Record artwork now.. I will start with a 7" single that I love. It's a very obscure early 80's band that released nothing else. Just a single. They are called Fox In Socks and the Sound Patterns single comes way back from 1982. A very rare DIY record, especially in this condition. See the cute little child's drawing of a..fox in socks? Isn't it lovely?

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I chose an album too, not obscure at all this time. A classic electronica / electropunk band from England, in their 6th full length offering. It's not their best work, but still their quality and character is obvious in this one too. The Prodigy - The Day Is My Enemy (2015).
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cheers!!

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3 batches of great models! And the music to go along with them is a fun addition, as always.

Roger's day!
So many wonderful foxes, I love the sweet faces of the Arctic ones and that Papo fox has to be one of the best models out there- so realistic! And I love the songs to go with it too!

Nice foxes too

13th part on 13th August, no superstition.
Beautiful cover, wonderful video with the best hunting technic of ever and a perfect song to allow the fox to hear what's happening under the snow.
You know Papo makes my favorite trio of foxes but i really love them all. CollectA is providing interesting species of wild canides but just an old red fox and a nice fennec to go. Thus, no brand is enough satisfying and the best is to mix them all.

Roger wrote:

13th part on 13th August, no superstition

You are very good on finding details like that. They really amuse me. The truth is that I'm not superstitious at all, but also Friday the 13th means nothing to Greeks, except for the American Horror movies of course. Instead, we consider Tuesday the 13th as an unlucky day that everything can go wrong.
Also, number 13 is very unwanted for Olympiacos fans like me and usually it's never used as a shirt number on Olympiacos teams. It's our main rival's number.

Thank you all 4 for your comments!

spacelab wrote:

Roger wrote:

13th part on 13th August, no superstition

You are very good on finding details like that. They really amuse me. The truth is that I'm not superstitious at all, but also Friday the 13th means nothing to Greeks, except for the American Horror movies of course. Instead, we consider Tuesday the 13th as an unlucky day that everything can go wrong.
Also, number 13 is very unwanted for Olympiacos fans like me and usually it's never used as a shirt number on Olympiacos teams. It's our main rival's number.

Thank you all 4 for your comments!

Not being a superstitious person either, I enjoy to know these things. They're part of the identity of a club, a country, a tribe, whatever.
The team I support, also has the curse of the number 7, it is best known from M. United because of Cristiano but it exists on Sporting since Luís figo wento to Barça. I was aware you did not belong to the Gate 13. :lool:

Part 14: Bulls, Bisons, Buffalos, etc

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photo 1 L to R
Wild Water Buffalo(Collecta 2014)
African Buffalo (Schleich 2011)
Yak (Schleich 2010)

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photo 2 L to R
American Bison(Schleich 2014)
American Bison(Schleich 2005)

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photo 3 L to R
Texas Longhorn Bull(Collecta 2021)
Ankole Watusi Bull (Collecta 2014)
Texas Longhorn Bull (Schleich 2013)

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photo 4 L to R
Brahman Bull horned(Collecta 2012)
Andalusian Bull (Papo 2005)
Hereford Bull (Collecta 2008)
Red Angus Bull (Collecta 2011)

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photo 5 L to R
Scottish Highland Bull(Schleich 2010)
Black Bull (Schleich 2013)
Brown Swiss Calf (Schleich 2002)
Tyrol Grey Cow(Collecta 2020)


I don't really collect Bulls, I just wanted one or two, but things went wrong. The brand new Collecta Longhorn is obviously a masterpiece, same for the Tyrol Cow.  My Brahman is horned and that old sweet swiss calf was a present from Maria (teardrop) so I'm keeping it though I usually avoid offspring. I just wish those Bisons were a bit larger, but I won't complain about size now.

I have some more Bulls that are not for various reasons to my main collection and will be on my sailing list sooner or later, I'm showing 3 of them in the following picture. Somehow vintage but still cool and iconic models:
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L to R
Texas Longhorn Bull (Schleich 2003)
Charolais Bull (Papo 2004)
Zebu (Papo 2008)

Ok, enough of my models, some music now.

....

Marc Almond - The Bulls (1989)
I love this one. It's very touching. It is not a Marc Almond song, it's a cover version of a Jacques Brel chanson that was first issued in 1963 in French. The English interpretation has been altered a bit, especially in the last sentence. Jacques Brel was a genious, an iconic artist with great impact on legends of music history like David Bowie, Scott Walker and Marc Almond of course, that tribute a whole album on his songs. I'm a bit tired to comment more, though I wanted to, but the lyrics are simple and to the point..

On Sundays the bulls get so bored
When they're asked to drop dead for us
The sword will plunge down
And the mob will drool
The blood will poor down
And turn the sand to mud......
.........
.And perhaps with their last breath
Would they pardon us their death
Knowing what we did at
Carthage, Waterloo, Verdon, Stalingrad, Iwoa Jima , Hiroshima, Saigon...



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Two artworks, a Long Play and a single. The album is Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" (1970), definitely not fans favourite, but the cover featuring a cow is one of the most iconic album covers ever.
For the single I chose an Inspiral Carpets release from 1990. "She Comes in the Fall" was a big success in my early clubbing years, when the Madchester scene was at its peak. A cow here too. Here they are:

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Wonderful collection

Where did you get the Happy Kin models?

Thank you, from a guy that had bought them in a small Greek city's toy-shop many years ago.

Nice bovines! The Schleich American bison are particularly nice, as is (of course) recent CollectA ungulates :)

Nice again

spacelab wrote:

Thank you, from a guy that had bought them in a small Greek city's toy-shop many years ago.

There are not many toy shops in Greece. I only have seen a small toy shop in Rhodes town, but with any CollectA figures.

Andreas, I buy 90% of my models locally in Athens, you just have to know where to look. The big-chain toy stores are usually selling cheap animal replicas but you can find most of the major brands models in book-stores or special modeling shops.
For older vintage models there is always the flea market in the center of Athens, mostly on Sundays. If you visit again Athens in the future, I will gladly send you info and addresses where to look.

Beautiful models, it seems this is a category of animal always made to a high quality! The CollectA Texas Longhorn really stood out for me but I love the Schleich yak too- so many beauties!

What we suffered to see an Asian wild buffalo at that scale. Every Schleich collector's website used to describe the 1996 African buffalo as a water buffalo what caused a huge confusion among collectors. Non Schleich figures were not very popular at that time and 2008 and 2010 Safari's and CollectA's African buffalos, respectively, never received any special atention, contrarily to the 2010 Papo model that is still very popular today.
Though, Schleich replied immediately in 2011 with an updated adult and a calf that were really very nice.
However, all of these were still the African species.
2012 it was Mojö's turn with a very good model
So many great African buffalos and not an Asian wild buffalo.
It was the CollectA boom in diversity that provided in 2014 an Asian wild water buffalo to our collections. It was supposed to be the second generation of their not popular African buffalo but that 2nd wave of models surprised us with many alternatives to the most common species.
Oh, a dissertation to point that the Safari Carabao from 2017 is even a more unexpected and alternative release, it is the only water buffalo after the CollectA model although this one represents a domestic version very important in some Asian regions. It is completely different from all other breeds you're showing and that diversity is really amazing! Adding the Papo yak to your wild herd, you could move your Schleich yak to your impressive domestic herd but I already know your point of view about it.
Sorry for such a boring post, but surely no sand to mud will result from it.

Roger wrote:

Sorry for such a boring post, but surely no sand to mud will result from it.

You wish Iberian boy. I smell blood!