Spacelab's Collection FINAL PART.

RtasVadumee wrote:

However, I would not qualify the Safari mandarin anything near to "wonderful", it's rather cartoonish and ridiculous, even if I kind of like it because it gave me the opportunity to meet a kind fellow collector and recruit her for STS (even if she's not active).

I understand that the meaning of cartoonish in this industry in 2020 is completely different from what it was in 2008. I'd say most of the realistic figures appeared after 2011. Sure, there is a good number of good models before 2011 but most were cartoonish. Safari mandarin duck continues being a wonderful model to me even if a few more recent releases make it look somewhat outdated. Maybe I'd give that label of cartoonish more to the Bullyland figure but it is a cool model anyway. Enjoying the Bully is comparable to enjoying a Schleich fennec these days, but you know, collecting tastes are quite variable.

Beautiful waterfowl, I like that old schleich mallard a lot!

This thread is interesting on so many different levels, both the models and the music I've never heard of. I really like the Into a Swan song, and also that black swan model.

part 6: Hippopotamus

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Hippopotamus (Collecta 2018)

Just one? Well yeah, one. As I already told you my collection is mostly synoptic, but also in this case this model is so amazingly perfect that I really need no other. The realism, the proportions, the details, the open mouth.. Everything in this Hippo is made to please my collecting taste.
So, this is my Hippopotamus and I can't resist to post one more photo with his ugly-beautiful sharp teeth..

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The music thing could be really hard, but Sparks saved my concept. I can't post "happy hippo" children songs and Hippopotamus is not a common theme for pop, rock or alternative music, right? Right.
When I was a teenager, in the mid 80s, I knew Sparks only as a name. It was this mysterious 70s band that was very influential to the bands I was into at that point. I knew some of their songs only from cover versions of the current artists, you know in the 80s if you wanted to hear something you should buy the record or visit someone that already had it. No internet, no access, but much fun. But anyway I would not spend money blindly on a 70's band, so I passed.  
In 1988 I was staying for some weeks in Paris and there was a song on heavy rotation on French music TV channels that was so hilarious I just loved it. That was called "Singing in the shower" and in the video they were singing in the shower and "feeling clean".... I'm sure our French collectors here like [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or Ben's parents know what I'm talking about. This was a song from a french band I knew nothing about, Les Rita Mitsouko. I thought that besides the hilarious song that was stuck in my head, the female singer was quite interesting. She had this "I don't give a shit what everybody thinks" attitude that I really appreciate, was kind of trampy actually, later I found out that she was also associated with pornography.. Anyway, that song was a collaboration with the mighty Sparks. And that's how I really discovered them.

Sparks are not an easy issue. Their glam pop, their sarcasm and the intellectualism might take some time to get into you, but worth the trouble. Talented weirdos from Los Angeles. In 2017 they released their 23rd album and named it "Hippopotamus".  The artwork of their album had a hippo in a swimming pool, a hippo in a swimming pool, a hippo in a swimming pool. A Hippo in a swimming pool!!! Respect.
The excess of sarcasm is obvious, here is the video and the album cover.



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Thanks for your comments!



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Great model and music again. you are definitely educating me on musical history!

Yes, it's so interesting to read about the history! And this is definitely a wonderful choice of Hippo for your collection!

There's a hippopotamus, there's a hippopotamus, there's a hippopotamus in your pool
How did it get there?
Thate's a sculpt by anonymous, by anonymous, by anonymous.
That's a painting by Hieronymus,
it does not look like a Volkswagen microbus,
painted by an hippie driver while reading Titus Andronicus.
It is marked China, marked China, marked China...
Not that I'm prejudice, Not that I'm prejudice, Not that I'm prejudice,
Not me.

If there were only one to have, that would be this one indeed ! BUT, if you are looking for a Mrs hippo, the last Schleich is a perfect candidate and the Papo is nice too I think (I will unlikely ever have a chance to figure it out as the silly seller finally didn't send the parcel and I was automatically refunded...)

Thanks fo the info about Les Rita Mitsuko. And that hippo song evokes something to me, I'm pretty sure I heard it or a parody in some pop-culture stuff.

Nice again

RtasVadumee wrote:

BUT, if you are looking for a Mrs hippo, the last Schleich is a perfect candidate and the Papo is nice too I think (I will unlikely ever have a chance to figure it out as the silly seller finally didn't send the parcel and I was automatically refunded...)

I'm not looking for a Mrs, but I've thought of buying the last Schleich several times because it would be cool to have a calm friendly hippo. And that model is really good. Papo is a great model too, but nothing to add to the CollectA one. Similar and less detailed in my eyes.

Hey Roger,
Thrown in a hippo, a little Dutch art
An actor performing a Shakespearean part
Summary book and Germanic van
Asian lady, isn't it grand?

The trippy old hippie. (definitely)



Thank you all!

spacelab wrote:

RtasVadumee wrote:

BUT, if you are looking for a Mrs hippo, the last Schleich is a perfect candidate and the Papo is nice too I think (I will unlikely ever have a chance to figure it out as the silly seller finally didn't send the parcel and I was automatically refunded...)

I'm not looking for a Mrs, but I've thought of buying the last Schleich several times because it would be cool to have a calm friendly hippo. And that model is really good.  Papo is a great model too, but nothing to add to the CollectA one. Similar and less detailed in my eyes.

Hey Roger,
Thrown in a hippo, a little Dutch art
An actor performing a Shakespearean part
Summary book and Germanic van
Asian lady, isn't it grand?

The trippy old hippie. (definitely)

I really don't like the Papo male hippo with open mouth and won't advise it to you as you CollectA is 1000 times better IMO. But I do like the Papo (retired) female and was referring to that one. The last Schleich is a female, it has udders.

I just KNEW it was going to be that song as soon as I saw the thread title had updated to hippopotamus

part 7: Apes

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L to R
Chimpanzee -Bonobo to be- (Nayab)
Orangutan (Collecta 2015)
Adopted young Orangutan (Schleich 2003)
Gorilla (Schleich 2017)
Chimpanzee (Schleich 2013)
Lar Gibbon (Schleich 2014)

My Nayab Chimp is painted different than the one on TAW and I'm just keeping it to my main collection in order to transform it like a Bonobo at some point. He has many characteristics that can make an acceptable Bonobo until a brand releases a more accurate one. I don't usually buy babies, but it was hard to resist to this cute little orangutan, so it was adopted. We have recently talked too much about Gorillas, nothing left to say about this Schleich model, it's just glorious!

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Time to get "grungy"... Originally I had a "purple gorilla" song, but I thought of pleasing our friend Rogério who is in a festive mode from the day before yesterday. Also the song is really cool, to me it's about human arrogance but various different interpretations can be given to it and I enjoyed it very much when it was out back in 1993. So, get your All-Stars and checkered-shirts on, here is Nirvana's "Very Ape"!




For an album cover from my collection I chose without a doubt the debut album by The Mekons, a post-punk art collective from Leeds. Τhey are quite strange and crabby but very interesting. The album was released in 1979 and its cover is fabulous. A pretty clear allusion to the infinite monkey theorem, google it if you have never heard about this theory. It's fun.  

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So many beautiful Apes, with some really realistic sculpts and great poses! I love the Schleich Gorilla, this model has captured this animal so well!

I love the dark faced chimp. Great new update!

Nice collection of apes

Thanks for this post, Kostas! I am really Very Ape these days.
Oh, I confess I was not expecting to see my favorite band of ever in this topic and I feel really honoured.
So, to thank you I will second Kurt's words:
"If you ever need anything please don't
Hesitate to ask someone else first"
I'm kidding of course, you can ask, I know there is always a chance that I can do anything, do you know the Infinite Croc Theorem?
I must check The Mekons, listening their first track, it seems they like sloopy chords and I may enjoy it.
About the models here presented most are also among my favorite although I noticed the Schleich gorilla only thanks to the recent discussions on forum.

This orangutan is undoubtedly a Sumatran orangutan and several members claimed that all orangutan from major brands were Sumatran too, except the Safari family.

Your Ape update made me study further that question again, and I came to the conclusion that, considering the tiny differences between both species, with individual variations within a same species potentially more important than between members of two different species, there was no objective reason to pretend the old Schleich and even Papo models had to be necessarily Sumatran too. Actually, the comparison of both makes the Schleich model pretty plausible as a Bornean : bulkier build, darker fur, wider cheek pads. As a consequence, and being reminded by your sample how a masterpiece that orangutan is (one of my biggest aesthetical disagreements with Andrés actually), I am planning to buy it next time I'll do a CollectA purchase as a different species from my Schleich family. I had always plan to buy it at the same time than the mountain gorilla but completely forgot about it, thank you for reminding me its existence.

Your "bonobo" has indeed a different paintjob than the TAI sample, with a lighter face which makes it look more chimp-like.

I have nothing to say about the other models, except that even if you don't collect babies, maybe you could do another exception for the gibbon which is another intersting baby in my opinion.

Thanks for making me have a look at the infinite monkey theorem, I'm always very amused by that kind of hypothetical projections.

RtasVadumee wrote:

Thanks for making me have a look at the infinite monkey theorem, I'm always very amused by that kind of hypothetical projections.

Yeah, me too. That was the point actually.
I thought you already had the CollectA ape... I should get a memory test. It's a very enjoyable model, fits in your collection's aesthetic. I think the young Gibbon is lovely, but you know..if I start.. So I'll pass. The rest of my babies were acquired unintentionally, I just kept some that were too cute to send them away.

Thanks Andreas, Bonnie, Paige, Roger and Ben!

part 8: The Giants

This is a spin-off to my main collection, just some models that sit on a different shelf all alone because they don't fit size-wise. They are too big for the rest of my collection, but also too interesting to give them away. So, they stay with me. These are my 4 lovely Giants, the outcasts of the synoptic animal-toys collectors.

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L to R
Platypus (AAA)
Malayan Porcupine (AAA)
Bighorn Sheep (AAA)
Aardvark (AAA)

OK, there is no scale in these figures, AAA is a complete inscale-free manufacturing brand. Just look at this platypus, a kid can use it as baseball bat and it's really heavy too. But then, look at this amazing webbing on his feet. Also his fur is very convincing. I couldn't let size matters tear us apart.
I really love the way the porcupine is made. Probably AAA had the best idea so far on how to make porcupine spines and I like that this one has his mustaches added on and not painted. My bighorn is the brown painted one, he looks funny and scary at the same time, ready for a fight. For the adult Aardvaark we said what we had to say recently in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]walkaround, everything's great about it, except...SIZE.

So, my music theme should definitely be about size.

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Well, nobody can make me feel guilty for caring about size in my animal collection. The fun for me is finding and matching models in a miniature world as close to reality as possible.  But in real life, caring too much about size can be blamable and racist.
In 1986, The Smiths released their masterpiece "The Queen Is Dead" and the size theme is presented in all its glory to the closing track of the record. Penned by Morrissey's heavy dose of irony and the frenzy guitar riffs of Johnny Marr, this song is a monument of history for the indie scene and the absolute theme song to one of the most discussed issues on STS.  

From the ice-age to the dole-age
There is but one concern, I have just discovered:
Some girls are bigger than others
Some girls' mothers are bigger than other girls' mothers...



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To complete the concept of my collection topic, I would need to find a record with an animal on the cover and also referring to size that is almost hilarious if you think about it. I think I made it possible.  
Look below, this is an album by UK new wave band The Bolshoi released in 1985. The album is called "Giants" and has a gigantic Seal on the cover.

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I guess for some of you it's not that convincing that I got the right cover for my size theme, but some years later the album was re-released with almost the same cover but a different title. This time it was called "BIGGER Giants". I have both, check:

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The truth is that both issues have exactly the same size, 12 inches...

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..and the "size" difference actually refers to the content of the newer version that has more songs than the original. And maybe my real intention was to make a post as "wacky" as the one with Ben's Albatrosses, but now that I'm thinking about it, I hit the right spot.



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And all 4 really are gems! As is the music of course.

Four beautiful giants- I always love AAA, because it is such a varied and mysterious brand, with both stunning and more simplistic models- but these are all wonderful! I love the spines of the porcupine, and the fur texture on the platypus has been sculpted so well!

Real gems :)

Your post sounds like a friendly satire to STS metric's era.
Starting with your The Smiths' song, no doubts it is a great song and after it I wanted to listen to the Police song, Sending Out an SOS. Not that they're alike, sometimes a song brings me another song.
About the video, I surely want to avoid a sexist comment but defintely some are bigger than others.
That cover is quite surprising, is it what you call a sealed record?
About the figures, I have the porcupine already for a good time, in Mamejo Nature's version and I surely want to keep it with me. Mine is the baby so not that big. You already know how much I love that aardvark and I also like the platypus. That wild ram has also a special design, it is completely different from the other mouflon figures we know.

Roger wrote:

Starting with your The Smiths' song, no doubts it is a great song and after it I wanted to listen to the Police song, Sending Out an SOS. Not that they're alike, sometimes a song brings me another song.
About the video, I surely want to avoid a sexist comment but defintely some are bigger than others.
That cover is quite surprising, is it what you call a sealed record?

I forgot...
About the sealed comment, quite funny one. If I decide to sell one of them I guess I can describe it as sealed, doubling the price.
The video is not official, but Morrissey's inspiration for the song was actually non-sexist people like you. I'm just seeing beautiful spirits and they come one-sized..
I can get The Police song mind-projection, though it's a much more "accessible" sound and attitude. It was a very big hit when I started listening seriously to music. "Message in a bottle" is the correct title and it always brings wonderful careless memories.  

Thank you all, I think I will take a break now.