Jill's (growing) Collection [update 3.31.24]

Nice newcomers

January and February get to be mashed together! I had some great finds for the beginning of 2022 (which was nice since I also had both Covid and a horrible stomach virus [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] )

Still hunting for these Kid Kore horses and information about them. The mare and foal set here came in package, which was great and helped fit a few more pieces of the puzzle together, but there are still so many figures showing up that I have no idea where they belong! It's always exciting to find more of them, though, and I can't wait until I find the next backcard to help with the mystery . . . (They also do not stand well on their own, haha)
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Also on the horse front, I completed a second Funrise International Show Horse set, the 1991 series, which is probably my favorite if you start splitting hairs. This is the Brabant and the Haflinger.
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Relatedly, I found this Safari toob set from 1998 that I bought primarily because they were colored like little minis of the Funrise 1988 set. They turned out to be a bit of a mystery themselves, so thanks to this forum for once again helping me sort random pieces of my collection!
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And speaking of Safari, I bought my second brand new toob because I could not resist the cane toad. The whole set is really nice! I love the toad and snakes and the scorpion and the komodo dragon especially. They seem very nicely done to my unpracticed eye, I was really glad I splurged a bit and went digging to find these, since they vanished from the Safari page before I committed.
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Added a few more Play Visions as well, to finish my civet/gennet set!
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And of course, more Yowies. :) I really love the pupfish, blue winged goose, hyena, dingo, and blue tonged skink the most I think. (And it's not just me that thinks the reindeer looks like it's in rather shabby health, right??)
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And last but not least, I was really surprised and delighted to find this set! I am hoping to someday have the panini horses, dogs, and cats, but I didn't really expect to actually find them. Again, stalking Whitelightningwolf's ebay has proved extremely fortuitous, and I was able to get all of these guys together. Still missing a few, but a much better launch for my collection than I ever expected to find! They are a really delightful set, a little bit cartoonish but still loyal to the look of the breeds and quite realistic all the same. I'm tickled with them.
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I hope your covid has gone away by now! Mine has left lingering effects (I now puff and wheeze like an old asthmatic after any heavy lifting, and can't run more than a few steps cos I just don't have the breath for it) so I always feel concerned when people say they've had it, and hope that it's really, really gone!

Love how you always seem to be discovering more mysteries, just as quickly as you fill in some facts you end up with more to seek out!

The cane toad really is great, the tube animals seem to vary hugely in quality for sculpt and paintwork, so it's really nice when you get figures which tick both boxes and look as good as something from the main range.

Hurrah for genets! Forever a favourite, in my teenage job one of 'my' animals was a genet called Geoffrey and I still have the scar to prove it

Jill wrote:

And it's not just me that thinks the reindeer looks like it's in rather shabby health, right??)

Try as I might, I cannot see a reindeer here, did you accidentally miss a photo?

And yes, the dogs are great, they have a hint of cartonnishness in their cheerful expressions and big features, but not enough to detract from the breed characteristics, or make them too unrealistic to count on the figure side of toy animals.

Two lovely months of models to add to your collection and your happiness!

Thanks, George, I do love looking for mysteries!

George wrote:

I hope your covid has gone away by now! Mine has left lingering effects (I now puff and wheeze like an old asthmatic after any heavy lifting, and can't run more than a few steps cos I just don't have the breath for it) so I always feel concerned when people say they've had it, and hope that it's really, really gone!

Oh no, I hope yours clears up entirely soon, that sounds awful. Thankfully mine was a pretty mild run. I didn't have any respiratory effects, only a fever and body aches for about a week and then lingering stuffy head and nose for a while after. It has left me alone completely now!

Quote :

Hurrah for genets! Forever a favourite, in my teenage job one of 'my' animals was a genet called Geoffrey and I still have the scar to prove it

Oh very cool! Maybe not getting the scar, haha, though that has a certain pride to it as well. I've never worked with anything in that family, but I did see a wild civet in our yard in Indonesia once.

Quote :

Jill wrote:

And it's not just me that thinks the reindeer looks like it's in rather shabby health, right??)

Try as I might, I cannot see a reindeer here, did you accidentally miss a photo?

Whoops, he is quite hard to see in the back there. Here he is! Saggy neck and loose skin and knobby knees and all.
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Mine was back in September, so I think I might be stuck at this rather unfit stage - it's had plenty of time to improve but hasn't. I'm fine for general work and barrowing and long walks, seem to be as strong as ever and don't get tired or sleep extraordinary lengths of time anymore, I just can't hurry or do anything very energetic without getting out of puff. I never liked going for runs much anyway

And I'm covered in scars, I tend to think of them as just a sign of an interesting life! The other day I found one on my shin I don't remember getting, and it was a case of 'That's not the surgical pin, not the barbed wire, not the tangle with a metal post, not the stab wound, not the venomous spider bite, not the burn....blimey that leg's been through a lot'

George wrote:

And I'm covered in scars, I tend to think of them as just a sign of an interesting life! The other day I found one on my shin I don't remember getting, and it was a case of 'That's not the surgical pin, not the barbed wire, not the tangle with a metal post, not the stab wound, not the venomous spider bite, not the burn....blimey that leg's been through a lot'

Oh lord. You can tell you've had a life working with animals (and, it sounds like, working as a secret agent maybe )

Nice addition Jill, the Safari ltd poisonous toob is an absolute must have for toobs collectors (even for no-toobs collectors indeed ) and the PV are still great icons. I'm not too much on Yowies but seeing them all togetheris very nice 

Great additions and those dogs are excellent!

The dogs are fantastic! I don't know about cartoonish, they just look very friendly to me. I love the new horses too, especially the the Brabant and the Haflinger. Yes, the reindeer isn't the best Yowie, but important to have as a collector and many of the others are really nice.

Thank you all! The panini dogs DO look very friendly, they make me smile.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Part of the appeal to Yowies for me might just be seeing them altogether in (eventually) complete sets. They have such good diversity, even if the representation ranges very broadly from the beautiful goose to the poor reindeer! (I have a completionism streak to my collecting that favors sets like these, haha.)

Nice animals, specially the birds.

Congratulations on some cool acquisitions! That poisonous toob set is great, and the pup fish and goose are two of my absolute favorite Yowies too.

So many great new models, congratulations! I love those Panini dogs. The terrier(!), keeshond(?), and whippet are especially great!

Nice additions again

Thanks all! That is a keeshond, yes.

Jill wrote:

Thank you all! The panini dogs DO look very friendly, they make me smile.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Part of the appeal to Yowies for me might just be seeing them altogether in (eventually) complete sets. They have such good diversity, even if the representation ranges very broadly from the beautiful goose to the poor reindeer! (I have a completionism streak to my collecting that favors sets like these, haha.)

I understand, it is obvious on your pics, my problem is I suffer from a severe form of non-completionism, just at the thought of buying a figurine that is missing from a series just because it is missing and I am feverish, anxious, paralyzed. I then have the feeling that it is my collection that dominates me and not the other way around. 

I enjoy following your additions, especially those from USA affordable brands that dominated the market in late 1980's and 1990's. They're a kind of particular wave, an isolated phenomenon even if we know most are just used, resued and abused sculpts from Chinese manufacturers. It is also fun to help sorting them, as Kiki pointed, we even listed a green horse on TAW. I am surprised Susanne never explained the genetics complex behind this color.
I am glad you recovered completely from your covid and please stop collecting viruses.

Nice Safari, Play-visions and Yowie additions! What's the cat of the yowie set please?

Thanks everyone!

Kikimalou wrote:

I understand, it is obvious on your pics, my problem is I suffer from a severe form of non-completionism, just at the thought of buying a figurine that is missing from a series just because it is missing and I am feverish, anxious, paralyzed. I then have the feeling that it is my collection that dominates me and not the other way around. 

That's a very healthy approach to collecting I think! I actually stopped collecting anything for many years because it had gotten TOO frantic for me. I was buying things I didn't actually want, just because they were part of the thing I was collecting. Now I have a much better moderation, I think. Completing sets I actually like.

Roger wrote:

I am glad you recovered completely from your covid and please stop collecting viruses.

That's a set I absolutely do not want to complete!

Caracal wrote:

Nice Safari, Play-visions and Yowie additions! What's the cat of the yowie set please?

It's the amur leopard from the Superpowers set :)

Thank you Jill! :)

March had many additions. We will say it was because it's my birthday month so I treated myself, haha. A little bit different turn out than usual, too, I think - mostly more models in a larger-than-tube size.

First, actually my last find of the month, but the first time I have found anything interesting in local thrift and antique malls since the one time I found some celluloid animals a long time ago now. A lead Britain's crocodile! I had to look him up to even know what he actually was, because he was labeled as an alligator, and then I couldn't find anything about a Britains alligator. My first Britains!
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He is missing the tip of his tail, which surprises me with a lead figure. Not sure how to chip one accidentally . . . so perhaps someone cut it off for reasons unknown.
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And leaping up the timeline from vintage to retro, I finally found my missing Safari Authentics wolf from childhood (I still have the rest of his family), and along with him MOST of another Authentics set I've been looking for:
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He also came with some other friends I wasn't actively looking for, but certainly am not sad to have. I think my favorite thing about the authentics series are the facial expressions, honestly. Everyone looks just a little (or in the case of the elephant, a lot) deranged.
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Added a few more Play Visions as well! Missed a wolverine by a nose, but did get a ferret. I did not expect the snakes to be this big, honestly! I have one from the regional sets, a bo constrictor, and it is so much smaller than these. I don't know how they will display in my tiny little plastic shelves, haha.
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These AAA animal babies with pawprint stamp feet were "extras" in a lot. I had one as a kid so I knew they existed, but I had no idea there were so many. Unfortunately, several of mine had their stamps melted in transit and so they can't stamp correctly (or at all) anymore, but still neat.
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And a few non-stampy AAA creatures came, too. The cat was actually in a different lot and is definitely my favorite. It is nice to have the brother for my tiger baby from when I was a kid, though. :)  
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These guys were another very exciting development this month. I hadn't been sure how I felt about collecting the Funrise cats, as I hadn't seen many photos and some that I saw were not my favorite style of paintjob and they looked larger than I was interested in. I saw this lot, though, and they looked genuinely appealing so I got them and I am so glad I did. They are a better size than I expected and all of them have nicer paint work than I expected, too. Just a few more left to get now, since there are significantly fewer cats than horses, but they don't seem to come around as often either.
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In the vein of larger pet figures, I caved and got the Kid Kore afghan because I just like it so well. I like all the other Kid Kore dogs as well, but haven't seen them come up really, and this one was my favorite anyway. So for now, it's alone, but it sits in nicely with my Toy Major and Funrise dogs, so not lonely.
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This Innovative Kids horse set is fascinating to me because of how completely eclectic their mold selections seem to be. You can tell they are borrowed from very different original sets. I love the more delicate ones that seem to match each other, and I also like the two drafters that resemble the mystery set I am trying to complete, but then there's the "Hanoverian" that's just a solid orange foal mold with a longer tail, haha. The bird, rabbit, and bigger pony are also all Innovative Kids and came with the set, but are clearly part of a different set.
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And last but not least, one more Kid Kore horse (plus her Grand Champion companion) and the little soapstone alligator figure my aunt gave me for my birthday. :) This particular Kid Kore foal is really compounding the mystery of how these horses were divided into sets. It looks innocent enough, but it is a trouble maker for sure. One more Kid Kore was supposed to be here before the end of the month, but it's been stuck in Atlanta for a while, so it will get to be part of April.
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Roger wrote:

I enjoy following your additions, especially those from USA affordable brands that dominated the market in late 1980's and 1990's. They're a kind of particular wave, an isolated phenomenon even if we know most are just used, resued and abused sculpts from Chinese manufacturers.

I wanted to come back to this and say that I was just thinking along these lines the other day while out shopping. I was remembering how prolific individual, realistic animal models were when I was a kid and how that doesn't even exist anymore in most modern toy arenas (even at zoos! Which is where I REALLY remember there being SO MANY options). I hadn't realized I guess just how that had changed until I was walking through the Target toy section and there wasn't ANYthing resembling my memories of what was available, except a couple of horses. It's a shame that doesn't seem to be what's popular these days, but I sure am glad I was a kid when it was, ha!

Lots of very interesting additions. The Safari Authentics have real character. Yes, they look a bit deranged, but that makes them so special. I love the Funrise cats too, it's a colorful group. I wasn't aware of the PV ferret, another great find. I am hoping to find the PV donkey one day.

Great new additions! Once again, so many nice ones to appreciate. Congratulations on all!

Surely it is good you witnessed that era as a kid. It doesn't mean it is not good anymore, kids just have different tastes. I know people that loved to play Game Boy or just jumping with a rope or playing with stones. I was just watching today's Formula 1 Grand Prix and remembering how happy I was playing with Bottle caps on tracks we made on the ground pretending they were Formula 1 cars.
This month was surely very special for you. Lots of new great figures. I agree Funrise cats are big for your taste, they're even bigger than those from major brands but they are exactly the concept you enjoy. I mean those small series with a limited number of releases.