Jill's (growing) Collection [update 4.30.24]

your shelf displays are wonderful Jill! I love the brown shade on your walls too :)

and what super new additions you have!!
those multi colour cats are just superb, I really like figures like that - crazy and unusual but so very attractive the one on the left looks like a soft version of a cheshire cat. haha and I can't get over their expressions!
I love that poodle, it has amazing details with the puffy bits.
and those cats are crazy! the red eyes haha and webbed feet

the little green dragonfly is particularly beautiful :)
so wonderful to have the help of your friends here!

now I can see more of the things you like, I will keep my eyes open here especially

What a nice lot. I think if you mix all these figures in a box and then if you try to sort them by series, the easiest ones to be sorted will be the New-Ray Novelty Cats. They have a remarkable family look, they clearly belong to the same collection and I think you enjoy that feeling. We call it coerent design, maybe there are much better words to describe it.
I am a little distracted and I should find a way to get some Yowies USA I really want. Namely the glider among a few ohters.
Your koala and sloth are family. Do you want to see the rest of the series? Check here!

sunny wrote:

your shelf displays are wonderful Jill! I love the brown shade on your walls too :)

Thank you so much!

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the one on the left looks like a soft version of a cheshire cat. haha and I can't get over their expressions!

You're right, their faces are pretty hilarious. Not quite cartoony, but definitely full of more emotion than a real cat's face.

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now I can see more of the things you like, I will keep my eyes open here especially

Haha, thank you!! A pretty eclectic variety!

Roger wrote:

What a nice lot. I think if you mix all these figures in a box and then if you try to sort them by series, the easiest ones to be sorted will be the New-Ray Novelty Cats. They have a remarkable family look, they clearly belong to the same collection and I think you enjoy that feeling. We call it coerent design, maybe there are much better words to describe it.

That's a great way to put it, and you're right, I love when a little family comes together. :)

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Your koala and sloth are family. Do you want to see the rest of the series? Check here!

Oh thank you! I have several of those little critters! So what about that arctic wolf, which looks just like the Yowie Bites Gray Wolf? Are they pretty much the same? Because I have one of them, but I don't know if it's the Bites or not now . . . I guess it doesn't really matter too much since they look the same, but I do like to know how to tell who belongs where . . . .

Wonderful additions to your collection!

Glad you like them! I added the sloth because they're so obviously family. Looks like Yowies got their Bites figures from Nayab. And the Gummies Siamese looks like BatCat!

Rogerio, which Yowies interest you most?

Many many nice additions

Jill wrote:

Your koala and sloth are family. Do you want to see the rest of the series? Check here!

Oh thank you! I have several of those little critters! So what about that arctic wolf, which looks just like the Yowie Bites Gray Wolf? Are they pretty much the same? Because I have one of them, but I don't know if it's the Bites or not now . . . I guess it doesn't really matter too much since they look the same, but I do like to know how to tell who belongs where . . . .[/quote]

Obviously it matters when your goal is to complete small series. It is also fun in my opinion. To be fair, I was not even sure I was aware of the Yowie Bites series. I mean, I surely read about it but I didn't give too much importance to the series.
It is poorly represented on TAW, I will try to study it better.These Nayab little figures were part of several different collections and their combinations are quite variable. Wild Republic sold a good number of them in their Wildepedia sets.
The few Yowie USA figures I have are made of a denser pvc than the traditional Nayab small models.Though, I don't have a single one from the Bites series to compare. Also, aren't they marked with the number of the piece? At least the corresponding puzzle piece has a number. If they have that number, it will be easy to identify them since this series does not correspond litterally to any other known set using these figures.

pipsxlch wrote:

Glad you like them! I added the sloth because they're so obviously family. Looks like Yowies got their Bites figures from Nayab. And the Gummies Siamese looks like BatCat!

Rogerio, which Yowies interest you most?

Well, actually a lot but I reduced this list to my top 10 by order of importance. If I get the first 3, I'd be very ahppy since the most important figures, like the foxes, pangolin, anteater, etc., I already have.

Northern Glider
Andean Mountain Cat
Fossa
Sunda Colugo
Brown-throated Sloth
Kipunji Monkey
Silky Sifaka
Yellow-eyed Penguin
Golden Mantel Tree Kangaroo
Black-flanked Rock-Wallaby

Thanks everyone!

pipsxlch wrote:

Glad you like them! I added the sloth because they're so obviously family. Looks like Yowies got their Bites figures from Nayab.

I love him, he is living on the Yowie shelf for now as an adopted son.

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And the Gummies Siamese looks like BatCat!

Both the cats are gremlin cat molds, I am so excited, haha!

Roger wrote:

Obviously it matters when your goal is to complete small series. It is also fun in my opinion. To be fair, I was not even sure I was aware of the Yowie Bites series. I mean, I surely read about it but I didn't give too much importance to the series.
It is poorly represented on TAW, I will try to study it better.These Nayab little figures were part of several different collections and their combinations are quite variable. Wild Republic sold a good number of them in their Wildepedia sets.
The few Yowie USA figures I have are made of a denser pvc than the traditional Nayab small models.Though, I don't have a single one from the Bites series to compare. Also, aren't they marked with the number of the piece? At least the corresponding puzzle piece has a number. If they have that number, it will be easy to identify them since this series does not correspond litterally to any other known set using these figures.

I will take a look at the ones I have. I have a couple coming that have their paperwork/puzzle with them and are being sold specifically as opened Yowie Bites, so I will check how they are marked as well and see if I can see anything that will help.

So many fun additions! The NewRay kitties remind me of the sort painted onto collectible ceramic plates. I also love the gremlin cats.

What beautiful plates of lizards, frogs and bugs!.. and you have the Yowie fossa!

Great additions,especially the Kids Core dogs!

Thank you guys!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

So many fun additions! The NewRay kitties remind me of the sort painted onto collectible ceramic plates. I also love the gremlin cats.

That's a great observation, the definitely have that kind of charm to them. Nostalgic and whimsical might be good words for it.

Caracal wrote:

What beautiful plates of lizards, frogs and bugs!.. and you have the Yowie fossa!

And I'm very excited about it!!  



The rest of May (so far) has been less focused on 'obscure' and heavily focused on two things in particular - Play Visions and Breyer.

Play Visions had an amazing month here thanks to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]!

Nearly the complete weasels set, one of my favorites
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The complete bats set, another very favorite set
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The complete lizards set
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So many sharks
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A couple bears
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Some porpoises
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Beautiful frogs
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Galapagos creatures (love these two especially so much!)
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And a handful of crocodilians!
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And I am perplexed by the Cuban crocodile, because he is green on TAW and this one is red. Is that a different year release or something?
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And though not Play Visions, thanks to Cody I was able to get one more addition to my Club Earth Extinct set - just one more to go! This set to me fits really well with the Play Visions sets, they look excellent together on the shelf.
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I've very out of room for Play Visions, I'm not sure where they are going to move to now that their numbers have basically doubled! I can't wait to see them altogether, somewhere. One thing making me crazy, though, is that some of the Play Visions are randomly very large! Like the iguana and the snakes. They do not fit in my little clear shelves! So now I need to find a new display . . .

And then my Breyer splurge! I don't spend much on Breyers these days, buying only about one or two traditionals new every year, but after getting a handful of lovely old vintage guys from Kelly, I got the bug to fill in some gaps in my collection by looking for some horses I had always liked but never got when I was younger.

From Kelly I got these iconic gentlemen. I think the fighting stallion is one of the most recognizable Breyer silhouettes out there, used on merchandise and often seen in the background a program that has a horse-loving kid with stuff on their shelves. This is the mold I have accidentally conga-ed the most as well. The white one is King, the original released in "alabaster" from the early 60's. This one is the matte finish, not a particularly rare model, but I think a great addition to a vintage herd. The bay had a much longer run and is the classic vintage bay paint job. The two have been well loved and carry a lot of history with them. As a rearing horse, it lacks the drama of newer versions of the same like Silver, but what is lacks in flare it makes up for in history.
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I also received this Sham from Kelly. This mold was one of my favorites when I was little, but I only ever had one - and for some reason never opened that one, so he's never been on my shelves. Now I have a grand total of three, haha. I am less into the extreme Arabian look now, but I still have a fondness for the Sham mold. It's nice to have the original! I love the novel King of the Wind as well. He is the "wheat-ear" version as well, which is a sculptural representation of the hair whorl from the novel. That mark was said to be a bad omen, counter-balanced by the white spot on his heel. The wheat-ear was removed from the model in 1988 after customer complaint, as many people believed it was a factory error. The white heel spot is also represented on some models. This one might have one, in that he has a slightly "bald" spot where it wasn't airbrushed. Factory error or intentional? Apparently, that's the question with this guy.
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These traditional foals are also from the same era as the rearing stallions, running from the 60's through the 80's. The running foal is Spice, whose mother is Sugar (I think I may have her, stored away somewhere in a box . . .), and the grazing foal is "Bows" like most of the mold is known. I do not have her mother, but both of these are also just classic examples of the era and I am happy to have them.
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Kelly also had a few vintage Classics that caught my eye, especially the Quarter Horse foal. Another example of Maureen Love's work from Hagen-Renaker (originally an HR sculpt, leased to Breyer). Her work is just incredible! I love how elegant this foal is, just like the stablemates she was also the artist of. The Swaps has the same history and is a Love sculpture. It's a bit rougher around the edges, but I hope to be able to straighten those legs back out . . . The cantering liver chestnut is one of the Wal-Mart sets, and was sold with a deer. I've been on a real liver chestnut kick lately, as will become evident . . .
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Lastly from Kelly were two Stablemates I had been searching for - the new friesian mold and the turquoise and copper blind bag unicorn. This particular friesian (a mold known better as Django I think) was from a Wal-Mart gift set. He's a beautiful color! A great fist of the mold to have, I think. And the unicorn has taken a bit of a beating, but I am debating finding a way to take the horn off entirely. I am not sure I can do it without too much damage, though. I just love his colors, even though they are not at all realistic.
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My hunt to find a few long-standing grails had pretty good success! I ended up with three out of six!

Roemer, a portrait of a real horse who was an athletic champion. This was the original release of the mold. I have always liked him in this rich chestnut, and I like his unusual white marking on the chin.
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And then these two guys, handsome chunks! My two favorite releases of Roy are these two - Sebastian and the liver chestnut Sears special run. Both were released in my childhood, and I have liked them ever since. This is more my taste in horses these days, as opposed to King of the Wind, and roan and dark chestnut are hard to beat in my list of favorite horse colors. Sebastian has a tendency to run toward green, but this one isn't terribly green at all (not that you can tell in my terrible photography!). This is an interesting mold because it has a lot of linear work in the sculpture for hair and muscle texture, something you don't see a lot in Breyers. There are even carved lines in the lips for wrinkles. I don't know if Francis Eustis created any other Breyers and if they have the same sorts of carving, but it's one of the things that appeals to me about this guy.
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. . . and last but certainly not least, a surprise from Kelly that came along with the Breyers! I know this is not much in line with the interests of this board, but I had to share because I have been looking for that yellow pony (Magic Star) for YEARS and have never got my hands on her, and then there she was!! The Baby Cuddles was a lovely surprise, too, but you should have heard me squeal when Magic Star appeared. (She's not particularly rare or anything, though she's certainly not one of the most common ones . . . I just never had any luck finding her.) It was a great kindness that fulfilled a childhood wish. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Well what great additions, Jill. I too think the Tortoise and Iguana are fantastic. I also love the grazing foal and the two chunks.

So many wonderful additions! I also purchased the Iguana & complete lizard set from Cody, they're wonderful!

Those weasels are stunning

Congrats!

Awesome additions!

Such an impressive batch of Play Visions models. I remember seeing a few playvisionists taking ages to get some of these models. I have the weasels set in my collection. It was a very popular set among all collectors because these small mammals work perfectly with the traditional brands like Schleich, Papo and counterparts.
Interesting the crocodile variation. The model on TAW is marked 1996 and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. I believe yours is not different. PV crossed the same models through several different sets and some presented a few variations. As it was impossible and useless to list all sets, we simplified it on TAW just listing the main bulks. We later decided to give individual pages to figures of the same mould differently marked to avoid confusion. The bat-eared fox is an example.
I confess these warmblood sporthorses are not my cup of tea but Roemer is disturbingly realistic.

So many treasures :)

So many wonderful Breyers!!!!
The PV mustelid set is a must have,I still have 1 or 2 to get!!

Congrats on all the new models! That is sooo exciting! The PV mustelids is one of their best sets IMHO and you have the 2 bats I am missing from my set (vampire and egyptian fruit bats)

The breyers are so lovely too. I like the old ones also, and wasn't aware the of the drafter! I need one now! And I am so glad the arab got a home with you, I was tempted a few times but kept my self restraint. I am happy he is home with you now. :)

Beautiful and interesting newcomers. But my favourite is Sebastian! Such a outstanding model.

The Baby Cuddles with the pink hair could be from Hasbro. It´s from "My little pony" series around the year 1988. You can find some models here on Ebay.  

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Thanks so much everyone! It was definitely another month where I was like, alright you went a little overboard. But it seems like maybe I'm not overboard, this is just the kind of boat I am always on.

Roger wrote:

Such an impressive batch of Play Visions models. I remember seeing a few playvisionists taking ages to get some of these models.

I am very lucky because I am often riding the coattails of people who worked very hard to find them all, and then sell them as a set. I can only imagine how much work it took to assemble the sets originally and get them sorted! The hardest work has been done, and I am benefiting from it.  

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Interesting the crocodile variation. The model on TAW is marked 1996 and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. I believe yours is not different. PV crossed the same models through several different sets and some presented a few variations. As it was impossible and useless to list all sets, we simplified it on TAW just listing the main bulks. We later decided to give individual pages to figures of the same mould differently marked to avoid confusion. The bat-eared fox is an example.

He is indeed 1996 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Would it be useful to have this variation for TAW, or since he is marked the same, it's not necessary?

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disturbingly realistic.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

The breyers are so lovely too. I like the old ones also, and wasn't aware the of the drafter! I need one now! And I am so glad the arab got a home with you, I was tempted a few times but kept my self restraint. I am happy he is home with you now. :)

"Roy" is a wonderful mold! There have been very few regular runs on it, and a handful of special run/limited editions. Not a widely used mold, and not appearing in the regular line since the 90s.

Sham's a beautiful model! I understand why he tempted you!

75senta75 wrote:

Beautiful and interesting newcomers. But my favourite is Sebastian! Such a outstanding model.

I agree, and he has one of my favorite names.

75senta75 wrote:

The Baby Cuddles with the pink hair could be from Hasbro. It´s from "My little pony" series around the year 1988. You can find some models here on Ebay.  

Thank you! My Little Pony is my other big collection, I just don't have it on this forum really since it's not quite on topic.

Jill wrote:

Quote :

Interesting the crocodile variation. The model on TAW is marked 1996 and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. I believe yours is not different. PV crossed the same models through several different sets and some presented a few variations. As it was impossible and useless to list all sets, we simplified it on TAW just listing the main bulks. We later decided to give individual pages to figures of the same mould differently marked to avoid confusion. The bat-eared fox is an example.

He is indeed 1996 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Would it be useful to have this variation for TAW, or since he is marked the same, it's not necessary?

Sure it is a very interesting variation and I will add your picture on TAW but not opening a new page to it, just adding to the existing one.
Here is the official picture.

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Thanks for the reference picture! Interesting that there are several color variations floating around in there, like the blue(?) surinam. I wonder how many actually exist!

This has been another one of THOSE months, and I haven't been to STS at all really. I have a lot of catching up to do on here, but first, some June additions!

Many thanks to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for many of these models! And fingers crossed my half of the trade to Roy makes it . . . eventually. I am quite worried for it, having sent it over a month ago!

I was able to add two Breyer stablemates I have been after for a while. The first is one of the G1 quarter horse mares, one of the hardest of the G1 molds to get at a reasonable price for some reason. She was not produced in very many regular run colors, and this bay version has a lot of variation. She is not in pristine condition, which is why I could afford her. I am glad to finally have a representative for my G1 herd!
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This arabian I had when I was young, but I lost her along the way, so I am glad to see her back again. She was an excellent deal as well, only $4 because of her condition - which to me seems pretty good!! G1 stablemates of course as pricey in general, so finding one at so cheap and one I had been looking for was really exciting.
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More Play Visions as well! All the toads and finishing off my frogs, plus another croc to the family. I love that the surinam toad has babies on it! I hadn't realized it did before it arrived.
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Many Yowies as well - US, UK, Bites, and Gummies. I would love to find more of the UK yowies, but they seem difficult to track down here. The dingo at least was my most wanted one, so it's nice to have it here, to join my slowly growing family of dingoes. :)
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Speaking of dingoes, here's a few more canids, both domestic and wild. Extremely glad to add another Panini dog to the pack! And that sheltie was interesting to me not just because it is a nice looking sculpt but because of the turquoise stripes. I just thought that was fun. The Albert Heijn dingo I didn't really expect to be able to get any time soon, it wasn't really on my radar at the moment, but a trade made it possible and I am delighted about it!
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Some more small AAA dogs to add as well. These were the last ones I needed from the pamphlet page, anyway. I had a version of the Dalmatian but this one is super different than my first, so it's cool to have them together.
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Another AAA lot, this one I got specifically for the painted dogs, but the tortoises and ostriches are really neat as well! And the price was very hard to beat.
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A few K&M creatures - I especially like the long skinny leg style of the African animals.
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And some Safari as well - in particular some of the Authentics I was looking for!
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The PEC figures are particularly interesting to me, they are so odd in some ways. This elk I wasn't certain was one, but it had the look so I took the chance and it turned out it was. I can't find him on TAW, but I assume he is just part of the general mammal group.
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My little Nayab mammals group is always expanding. I love these guys, they are interesting and a little weird.
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This was a very exciting find, the last three Funrise horses I needed! And the baby is the last from the Toy Major mare and foals that use the Funrise molds I needed (I think - I haven't seen any more yet, anyway).
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And two Wing Mau snakes and unmarked hyenas to finish the group. :)
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Great additions Jill, love the goldfish and the AAA tortoises!

Lots of fantastic additions! Congratulations on the Breyers. The Quarter horse mare is indeed hard to find and the Arabian's colour is wonderful.

I didn't realise the okapi was K&M. It's interesting because I've got the same okapi sculpt (different paint style) from a Japanese Zoorasia set. I guess they were probably made by Wing Mao or another Chinese company.

I like the colourful K&M leopard (?) too. The unmarked hyenas are great too!