Building a Synoptic Collection of Penguins ... now without Japanese figures

I received the set of my dreams as a pehnomenal gift from Christophe and it is a good chance for my contribution regarding this subject.
1, 6, 18 or what?
Building a synoptic collection of standard sized figures presents some dilemmas and challenges.
I believe penguins is one of them. Explaining quickly this terminlogy, it is someone that wants to collect a single figure for each species and compatible with major brands
I think there are 3 main ways of collecting these beautiful birds.

1. A single representative for all species, 1 figure;
2. A representative for each group (genus) of penguins, 6 figures;
3. A representative to each of the confirmed extant species, 18 figures (disputed);

If the choice is 1, it is easy, emperor penguins are the most representative without any doubt. They are also the most popular, represented in toy shape and also the largest species.
Considering an emperor penguin is probably taller than the kid you have at home, a large one is a good choice. Papo, Safari and Colorata are my suggestions. The Schleich emperor with chick is also a good model and probably easier to find but it is smaller.

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Here it is Safari and Colorata emperors together with the Schleich king penguin. I don't have the Papo model anymore.

However, I think penguins will be misrepresented with just a single species. It is like using a bald eagle to represent all eagles and vultures.

If your choice is option 2, you will have the entire family decently represented in your collection with a moderate number of figures.
The 6 types are:

1. Great penguins (2 species);
2. Brush-tailed penguins (3 species);
3. yellow-eyed penguin (1 species);
4. Crested penguins (7 species?);
5. Banded penguins (4 species);
6. Little blue penguin (1 species);

This option allows you to avoid an apparent repetition because the differences between species of the same genus are not always evident. On the other hand, penguins of different genera are quite easy to distinguish.
I will try to present daily updates according with each group, provide ways to complement, alternatives and tips to distinguish species trying to not be exaustive.

Colorata set has representations for 5 of the 6 genera, the 3rd model is an intruder representing the yellow-eyed penguin. Here we have the first problem because this figure is rare, not that accurate and a little big. I will talk about it later.
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Emperor (great penguin); Gentoo (brush-tailed penguin); yellow-eyed penguin, Rockhopper (crested penguin); Jackass (banded penguin); Little blue.

Now, if you want to collect all species, option 3,  it is a lot of fun and the Colorata Penguins of the World set is a fantastic way to start it. Those are perfectly sized figures for a collector of major brands, they look nice together with a good relation of sizes. They are only smooth figures, if you have the Safari chinstrap, you will know how it feels because it is the exact same figure as the Colorata.
With this set of 13 figures, we already have 12 of the 18 species and they are correctly represented. It is like an encyclopedia of penguins.

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(in this picture it is missing another little blue, I don't know why they made a pair of little blues instead of a yellow-eyed)

I will let you know later on this topic how to complement the Colorata set or which alternatives to find to the Colorata models.
However, the number of species is variable depending of the authority but it is exclusive to the Crested Pneguins genus.
This is also the group I have more difficulties to identify species and it is clearly misrepresented in my collection but I will do my best and likely it will be the last group to be discussed and I really hope with your help that we can find good species matches for all models.
It is debatable but I am assuming there are two species of rockhoppers: Northern and Southern but sometimes the Southern subspecies (Eastern and Western) are considered two distinct species. Sometimes they are also considered all 3 subspecies of rockhopper.
Now, the Snares penguin is often considered a subspecies of the Fiordland penguin and the Royal penguin often is considered just a morph of the Macaroni penguin but at this level we will take them all as species and fortunately their differences are translatable to figures and that's great!

To turn it simpler, I am sharing this wonderful chart [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] shared with us. We can see the 18 species here and their relative sizes.

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Very interesting topic! I really love penguins and I have quite a few of them, I honestly have never heard of a yellow-eyed penguin before, they are really unique-looking! I really love the Colorata penguins. I wish Papo would make some little blues nice and small, I gave the Colorata little blues to my friend.

I really do appreciate this [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and am looking forward to future posts. I think I may have been a bit too harsh in my appraisal of Colorata's set. While I'm not the biggest fan of the relatively smooth, glossy look their figures can have, seeing how nice your set looks makes me regret getting rid of them. May have to pick them up again sooner than later.

Thanks Jolie and Loon. This topic is not to make anyone regret anything, just a help to everyone take the best decisions. This story has just started, the non Colorata models are excited to enter the game and we can make a quite decent group with them and probably their more "modern" finish is more according with your likings.

Roger wrote:

Thanks Jolie and Loon. This topic is not to make anyone regret anything, just a help to everyone take the best decisions. This story has just started, the non Colorata models are excited to enter the game and we can make a quite decent group with them and probably their more "modern" finish is more according with your likings.

No worries Roger, I guess I should have said that your post made me appreciate them more than I did at the time. Still, I am eagerly awaiting what else you have to share.

Impressive and so enlightening topic! Now I understand the latest obsession. I might try to take a photo too. I belong to option 2++. I know this chart, though I don't remember sharing it...

Try to walk normally now, the drunk-man's way is only proper in Antarctica.

This is such an interesting topic, with so many wonderful penguins to look at! That Colorata set is fantastic, hurray for Christophe! I love how they all scale so well with each other, such a beautiful row of these birds- they would fit well on the SUY conga lines topic!

After my long introduction, here is the first group, great penguins (genus Aptenodytes). Two species of large penguins, the emperor and the king.
The way brands mess the features of these two species is a classic subject being Schleich the main protagonist.
It is important to mention that among major brands, it was also Schleich the only company representing both species.
Those are large birds, an emperor can be as tall as 120 cm while a king is 90 cm. At a first glance these sizes do not sound quite different but they are proportionally as different as comparing a human of 1,5 m with another of 2 m. Thus, having these two at the same size does not work at all.
Emperors are more massive and noticiably bulkier than kings.
Kings have relatively longer bills than emperors.
Emperors have black or very dark backs while kings have grey backs with darker heads.
All these features are hard to see in a model. I think the most effective way is through the ear patches.
Emperors have bright yellow ear patches and the color fades towards the chest. They are very large and there is a wide area connecting them with the white ventral part.
Kings have orange ear patches, much smaller and placed back on head, they connect with the white area through a narrow line. It is sometimes called a spoon shaped patch.

Here a group of emperor penguins in my collection.

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Adultes are: Schleich (Animal Paradise knock-off), Safari Ltd, Colorata and 1998 Schleich sold as King penguin
Babies are Happy Kin chicks pair, K&M Polar tube 2005 chick and the one on Colorata feet.

Now 3 king penguins with similar sizes
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Colorata, Happy Kin and Schleich

Now that we know how to identify them let's take a look at a few options.

First the Colorata you already know from the initial post.
All mentioned differences are perfectly represented in these two models.

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Now let's see the alternatives.
Here a pair that works nicely together, the Safari Emperor with the Happy Kin King.
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This picture is for Bonnie, the Colorata set is not a Conga, I guess. But this pair could be the start of one.
It is the Schleich 2010 king penguin with a knock-off of the Schleich 2011 Emperor penguin. If I get the 2011 Schleich emperor, it will make a conga of 3 different models with the same sculpt.

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I think it is quite boring that two species share the same mold but the king penguin version is very good in my opinion.
I don't have the Papo Emperor penguin but they work nicely together.

If you have noticed, I pictured the 1998 Schleich king penguin together with my Emperors but what do you think it is in fact?
Here a picture with the Schleich 2010 penguin.

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Very interesting, my knowledge of penguins is definitely growing thanks to you!

Very interesting! I actually had no idea the two Schleich color variants were supposed the be a king and emperor. I thought I just had two slightly different color variations

A few weeks ago in the crazy macaque headquarter.

- My friends, the situation is critical, we are running out of space, the sea ice is shrinking, in short, we are suffocating here!

- Penguins noises

- Don't worry I have a plan, I must send an Asian Elephant to a crocodile well known to us. I know his weaknesses, we're going to give him the Trojan horse. My dear penguins, be strong, here is the code name of your mission if you accept it: Invasion of Portugal!

- Euphoric penguin sounds

The crazy macaque headquarter now

Great topic Rogério, if I needed one more reason to send you the Colorata team I have found it now. I can't wait to follow you

 We miss the Safari Emperor with the Happy Kin King pic

Bonnie wrote:

Very interesting, my knowledge of penguins is definitely growing thanks to you!

Joliezac wrote:

Very interesting! I actually had no idea the two Schleich color variants were supposed the be a king and emperor. I thought I just had two slightly different color variations

Bonnie and Jolie, I am so glad this topic is being useful. Tomorrow the cutest of all.
OK Jolie, I will tell the story once you're new on forum.
In 2010 Schleich released new penguins.  This adult king penguin a huge improvement over the previous models.
But also these penguin chicks.
Whilst the adult is a king penguin, chicks are clearly Happy Feet inspired and they are undoubtfully emperor penguins. King penguin chicks are completely brown and those are perfect replicas of emperor chicks.
In 2011 Schleich noticed their mistake and they renamed the chicks from king to emperors, they introduced an adult with chick, also an emperor and they repainted the king penguin as an emperor too.
In my opinion, they should just release a larger version of the 2011 adult with chick to adopt the chicks creche and the king penguin didn't need any change once it was good like that.
However, they fixed a big mistake and it is good.

Kikimalou wrote:

A few weeks ago in the crazy macaque headquarter.

- My friends, the situation is critical, we are running out of space, the sea ice is shrinking, in short, we are suffocating here!

- Penguins noises

- Don't worry I have a plan, I must send an Asian Elephant to a crocodile well known to us. I know his weaknesses, we're going to give him the Trojan horse. My dear penguins, be strong, here is the code name of your mission if you accept it: Invasion of Portugal!

- Euphoric penguin sounds

The crazy macaque headquarter now

Great topic Rogério, if I needed one more reason to send you the Colorata team I have found it now. I can't wait to follow you

 We miss the Safari Emperor with the Happy Kin King pic

Which invasion?

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I'm sure foxes are worried and Anteaters jealous, I love your conception of a synoptic collection

Very interesting! I didn't know about all that confusion. I wish we could get some more penguin chicks of different species. I have too many emperor chicks

The only onter chicks I know ere Gentoo and King sub adult by Kaiyodo.The king penguin is a secret item so very difficult to find

Hahah, with the arrival of the Coloratas I will try to get rid of a few of these that is something I never do with foxes or anteaters. I really don't need all these small emperors. There are even two spare figures there.
AAA made Humboldt chicks - they were even sold in sets of an adult and a pair of chicks but don't get mistaken because they're just miniatures of a mature animal, not exactly chicks.

Brush-tailed penguins, genus Pygoscelis, is probably the group with the cutest species. At least, I find the Adèlie penguin the cutest and funniest penguin, they waddle like no other.
The 3 species are also easy to identify contrarily to what happens with other genera.
Colorata made them all perfectly and the group is named after their long and brushed tails.
Gentoos are the largest penguins after the emperor and kin, they can reach 90 cm, chinstrap up to 75 and Adèli just a little smaller.

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Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adèli.
From the angle of this picture you can see easily which species is represented just checking a few head markings.
The Gentoo, has that triangular shape behind the eye and they connect through the top of the head like the penguin is using headphones.
Chinstrap is quite easy too, it has a white face and the black line along the chin is what gives the name to this species.
Adèlie has the eye encircled in white, that gives them this cute look.
They have more differences but those are enough to identify them.

However, if we don't have the Colorata models, we can complete the trio with standard sized models from other brands.

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In this picture it is the Mojö Fun Gentoo, the Safari Chinstrap and the Happy Kin Adèlie

Considering the Safari model is the exact same as the Colorata, you can calculate their sizes easily and I think they look nice together.
It is interesting that despite Adélie being the cutest, no major brand did it yet but how lucky we are Happy Kin made such a beautiful one.

We have another good alternative for a Gentoo since CollectA released one too and it is as good as Mojö's.
Here are Mojö's, CollectA's and Colorata's.
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Chinstraps options are not so exciting. Safari and Colorata are the exact same, I have a tube sized K&M in that picture, a gliding one but a humble model.
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Here the Happy Kin, Colorata and again a little K&M Adèliie penguins.
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There are other Japanese representatives, I don't have them, some are really very good.

I haven't been following this thread daily, it enjoy it. If I were to 'start a synoptic penguin collection' from the beginning, I would recommend starting with the Colorata box set and build off of that :)

Chinstrap penguins have always been my favorite Safari's model was one of my favorite childhood figures

These brush-tailed penguins really are so sweet! Three wonderful species too!

Thanks Blaine, Jolie and bonnie.

bmathison1972 wrote:

I haven't been following this thread daily, it enjoy it. If I were to 'start a synoptic penguin collection' from the beginning, I would recommend starting with the Colorata box set and build off of that :)

Thanks for being here, Blaine. Tomorrow I will present one of the species missing on Colorata's set. Curiously, we use different models to represent it in our collections.

Joliezac wrote:

Chinstrap penguins have always been my favorite Safari's model was one of my favorite childhood figures

Interesting once it shows you have a connection with Colorata since your youth since it is the same model.

I would love to add something interesting about Gentoo penguins.
No, it is not the fact that they have the most prominent tail of all penguins.
It is also not that they are the fastest underwater swimmers of all penguins, reaching speeds up to 36 km/h.
I borrowed it from Wikipedia.
What I want to point, since it is a synoptic exercise, is that they are since recently considered a species complex.
It means they might be 4 species instead of only one but there aren't morphological differences to be translated in toy shape so it is useless that you use 4 Gentoo penguins as it is in the picture below.
Northern, Eastern, Southern and South Georgian Gentoo penguins are the common names. Northern is the type species and it can reach 90 cm while the Southern species is only 80 cm.

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I have a spare CollectA once Kiki decided to add an extra one to the penguins invasion.

That is very interesting fact!

Today our first problem, the genus Megadyptes with a single species that is not on Colorata series and it was never released by a major brand.
The yellow-eyed penguin. So, the goal is to find one that is reasonably compatible withe these models.
In my collection I only have the ultra rare SSS model. It was never released and the few existing figures were just from an experimental batch. This is a company from New Zealand what also does not turn the task of finding one an easy job.

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It is important to mention that the Colorata set flutuates between 1:10 scale for smaller species and 1:12 scale for larger. To work perfectly with the Colorata set, a 6 cm figure is the ideal. Though, the SSS model is 7,5 cm high. It is 1/10 and works with the small ones but it is somewhat large when compared with the larger models.
An alternative and I noticed Blaine is using it, is the 2019 USA Yowies model. From the picture on TAW, I calculate it as a 2 inches tall (5 cm) model but I'd love someone to confirm. It looks larger on Blaine's picture and I hope someday to find one for me too.
There's also the Japanese beauties but I don't have them, unless someone posts comparison pictures.

To illustrate the size of the SSS model when compared with Colorata, I am sharing a comparison picture with the chinstrap and the king penguin. Yellow-eyed should be the same size as the Chinstrap and it is actually slightly larger than the king penguin that is a 90 cm penguin in real.

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This species is quite easy to identify because of its yellow eyes and crown, it is not a crest so no way to mix them with any other species.
Something interesting, when this set was released, the Waitaha penguin , an extinct species discovered in 2009, was not yet known. Colorata would not include it on their set anyway.

Among the extant species, it was believed the little blue, also from New Zealand, was the closest related but new researches demonstrated that the closest are crested penguins.
Here a picture of the SSS model with a crested penguin and the little blue.

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It is evident the SSS model is not as realistic as Colorata or even as the recent releases from major brands but it feels like a good quality figure. I am not even sure if they  used a generic penguin sculpt and applied the colors of a yellow-eyed.

Wow, that is SUCH a rare figure, it wasn't even released and yet you have it in perfect condition and it's a lovely representation of this species! However you found it, it must have been a very lucky day!