Toy Major/Play Visions 1994 Horses

So, ever since [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] shared the catalogue page from Play Visions with the mini cats, dogs, and horses on it, I have also been keeping an eye out for the larger set of horses (just called "Horses"). They were not super distinctive looking, except for the "dapple gray" with the white spots, and looking for that one helped me find almost the whole set being sold together. Hooray! There are 12 in the set according to the catalogue, even though only 8 are shown. I have 11 and from another lot I know what the 12th looks like. The interesting thing about them is that unlike the minis, they have a brand stamped on them, and it's Toy Major. So I wasn't sure if they would be considered Toy Major or Play Visions, since it is a Play Visions catalogue. The molds and colors are reminiscent of Funrise (though not copies), which makes sense since Toy Major seems to have made Funrise's horses. I did my best to label each color to match a real horse color, but they are not very precise and many of them only very loosely resemble anything real.

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Each one is stamped "Horse 1994 T.M. Made in China" and a letter - yes all of them are just "horse"  There are 6 molds used, and so each letter is used twice. Much like the Funrise line, they are not particularly realistic sculpts, but they are definitely not terrible. The ears on the "D" mold are probably my favorite part, haha. I wish they had specified what breed they were meant to be, though there is really nothing to distinguish them as anything specific.  EDIT: Breeds found on a backcard.

A - Palomino
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A - Hanoverian (missing but he looks like this if anyone has him!)
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B - Clydesdale
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B - Lippizaner
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C - Pinto
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C - Anglo-Arab
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D - Friesian
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D - Budyonny
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E - Percheron
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E - Mustang
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F - Arabian
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F - Andalusian
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Jill, you will turn soon into our biggest expert of Chinamals. Actually, those are not in that category in my opinion. They represente the exact stage before the level we see on major brands.
Toy Major... since I discovered this company, I am almost fighting with everyone telling those are not copies from every other brand but the other way round, Toy Major is a major toy manufacturer for many famous brands in this hobby. I even tend to be convinced the minis we don't know from Wing Mau which are often assigned to Nayab, are also manufactured by Toy Major although they miss the TM marking. I don't know if you find a design style reminescent of these larger models.
So, what are these models? If the North American Chevrolet decides to sell the German Opel cars in USA in tehir stands, you are going to buy it and it says Chevrolet everywhere but the car has an Opel logo, which brand is that model? On the other hand, if Chevrolet asks Opel to produce one of those German cars in the European factories but they are imported to USA and rebranded with the Chevrolet logo, which brand is that car? Why are the Play Visions cats, manufactured by Wing Mau copyrighted as Play Visions and those horses from Toy Major are not? So, these horses are Toy Major for sure and eventually they can also be considered Play Visions.
I will try to list them on TAW tomorrow as Toy Major. By the way, we have two 1994 Horses already on TAW.
Another thing, could you show a comparison of one of these horses with one of the set from 1988?

Roger wrote:

Jill, you will turn soon into our biggest expert of Chinamals. Actually, those are not in that category in my opinion. They represente the exact stage before the level we see on major brands.

Hahaha, I do love all these weirdos.

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Toy Major... since I discovered this company, I am almost fighting with everyone telling those are not copies from every other brand but the other way round, Toy Major is a major toy manufacturer for many famous brands in this hobby. I even tend to be convinced the minis we don't know from Wing Mau which are often assigned to Nayab, are also manufactured by Toy Major although they miss the TM marking. I don't know if you find a design style reminescent of these larger models.

Toy Major has such an extremely varied look to their models that I have seen (even just in the horses), I don't know if you could tell. One thing that has been consistent with horses, though, is the color black with a brown "belt" around the middle. If I see this, I am inclined to think it came from Toy Major or was using them as a reference.

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So, what are these models? If the North American Chevrolet decides to sell the German Opel cars in USA in tehir stands, you are going to buy it and it says Chevrolet everywhere but the car has an Opel logo, which brand is that model? On the other hand, if Chevrolet asks Opel to produce one of those German cars in the European factories but they are imported to USA and rebranded with the Chevrolet logo, which brand is that car? Why are the Play Visions cats, manufactured by Wing Mau copyrighted as Play Visions and those horses from Toy Major are not? So, these horses are Toy Major for sure and eventually they can also be considered Play Visions.

Sounds good to me.  

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I will try to list them on TAW tomorrow as Toy Major.

I never mean to make you feel rushed to add anything to TAW. They can sit as long as needed in the forums.

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By the way, we have two 1994 Horses already on TAW.
Another thing, could you show a comparison of one of these horses with one of the set from 1988?

Ah, they are the same molds as these! The black one is not part of this set, but definitely same mold. The gray looks like this very one. :) I can definitely get a picture - when the sun is back out.

[quote="Jill"]

Roger wrote:

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I will try to list them on TAW tomorrow as Toy Major.

I never mean to make you feel rushed to add anything to TAW. They can sit as long as needed in the forums.

No, you never make me feel rushed, it is just a message to myself. If I take too long to upload and if I feel overloaded, I get lost. Though, topics nicely sorted like this one are never a problem. It is completely different from the dogs topic where I got completely lost.
Now I think I changed my mind, it seems evident you've gotten the exact version Toy Major manufactured for Play Visions. It is common to find sets from different brands with the exact same molds but usually color choices are specifications of the client, in this case, Play Visions so I assume this is the correct set. We did it with the Club Earth Frogs To Go and they're marked with Wing Mau logo.
Whatever is the way they are listed, the page will be linked from both companies.
It is impressive how you can get the right versions you see in a catalogue when there are loads of other versions and sellers rarely identify these models.

Roger wrote:

It is impressive how you can get the right versions you see in a catalogue when there are loads of other versions and sellers rarely identify these models.

I knew it would be hard to make sure they were right since they are pretty generic and not all of them are even pictured, making it hard to know if you have the right complete set, so I waited to find them in a complete (or almost complete) group. Luckily two came up at the same time. The sellers didn't identify them as anything in particular, but both of them had that flagship dapple gray. Both were missing one, but it was a different one, so I could see the whole set. And in both lots, all 11 were sold together and with nothing else, and given that each of them had the 8 pictured, I figured the rest of them were probably also correct and that the seller had gotten them together originally. And then when it came to picking which lot I got, I went with the one that totaled $18 instead of $60.

There still is a chance I guess that any of the ones not pictured on the catalogue page itself are not correct, but the cross referencing with the two lots seems to imply these are the ones!

They're now on TAW. Some little adjustments to do...

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Considering all these lots and the information on catalogue, even if there is a little chance those are not exactly the Play Visions, even if they were sold for a different brand, they're the same manufacturing product.
Oh, surely the price difference was a much more decisive factor than the missing horse. It is weird that both sets miss one of the horses.

It looks great! The white horse appears twice instead of the Pinto, but the placement and description make sense to me.

Jill wrote:

It looks great! The white horse appears twice instead of the Pinto, but the placement and description make sense to me.

I fixed it, thanks for checking.

Jill, my hands shake when I see you have a new topic : What has she found now ?

These are wonderful, and I siuppose they are extremely rare ?

Thankyou for taking these small models to a new level

Here is the comparison with the 1988 palomino. Bigger than Funrise, certainly.

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SUSANNE wrote:

Jill, my hands shake when I see you have a new topic : What has she found now ?

 I wake up every morning and say, what can I find to give the TAW editors some work today?  

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These are wonderful, and I siuppose they are extremely rare ?

Well, who knows! I think they might be easy to lump in with lots of other horses of the same size and similar quality, and so there might be many of them, just unnoticed. This is the first time I have come across them, but I also haven't been hunting very long.

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Thankyou for taking these small models to a new level

It's very entertaining trying to find and sort them!

Something else that turned up on eBay - it seems they were released not just for Play Visions, and were given breeds! Very inaccurate breeds in some cases. So this addresses what you mentioned, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], that even if they released them separately from Play Visions it is the same product.

If it's worth adding the breeds listed here to TAW instead of my guesses at colors, I can update them in the post above.

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Thanks for providing the comparison picture. It is useful at least for me. I was expecting them to be at a closer scale.
Also great find with the original Toy Major box. Are those the exact same colors of the Play Visions? Some look the same, some not. If they are the same, I will need to relist them as Toy Major and giving them the breeds even if they're not very accurate. Those are the official breeds anyway. In this case it helps that you update your topic. It will save me from extra work trying to find the right match.

Jill wrote:

SUSANNE wrote:

Jill, my hands shake when I see you have a new topic : What has she found now ?

 I wake up every morning and say, what can I find to give the TAW editors some work today?  

With two complete sets to be relisted, for sure you're being quite efficient in this regard. Though, I confess I enjoy these puzzles even if they're out of my collecting horizon.

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With two complete sets to be relisted, for sure you're being quite efficient in this regard. Though, I confess I enjoy these puzzles even if they're out of my collecting horizon.

I would hate for anyone to get bored.  [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/quote]

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With two complete sets to be relisted, for sure you're being quite efficient in this regard. Though, I confess I enjoy these puzzles even if they're out of my collecting horizon.

I would hate for anyone to get bored. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/quote]

SUSANNE wrote:

Quote :

With two complete sets to be relisted, for sure you're being quite efficient in this regard. Though, I confess I enjoy these puzzles even if they're out of my collecting horizon.

I would hate for anyone to get bored.  [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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Job is done. Thanks for updating the topic with the breed names.
Some dark brown colors here were supposed to be black. Sometimes, this kind of manufacturers use dark brown instead of black and it seems with time the color fades. The same for reddish brown that starts getting orange.
I have one more question about these horses because I don't want you to get bored either.
You don't need to take a picture, catalogue reads those are 4 inches, does it mean they are slightly larger than Breyer Stablemates?

Stablemates are 2 and a half to 3 inches tall, and these horses are closer to 3 and a half inches, so a little larger. You did not require it, but here is a picture anyway.

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I suspected you would do it.
It is useful, it is actually a very unconventional size, I guess. I also enjoy the croud.

Great to see this compariso ! Thankyou