Since I have recently decided this accidental focus will be an actual focus in my collection, I think a little thread for them is appropriate.
Why I decided to specifically collect dingo figures of all kinds:
1) Arbitrarily one of my favorite large carnivores. An unusual wild canid with a still debated evolutionary history, I think they are both fascinating and beautiful - and often under appreciated.
2) There are not very many figures out there yet.
Many of my favorite large mammals (e.g. okapi, hyena) are so well represented that collecting them feels a little overwhelming just now, and other collectors have such excellent representative collections that I can enjoy looking at those! And my other favorite mammals (e.g. opossums) are so UNDER-represented that there's virtually nothing TO collect. And horses, dogs, and cats are their own separate portion of the collection, so well represented as to be impossible to complete. As for things other than mammals, I cannot choose species, I would simply want to have all the reptile and amphibians there are.
I have no connection to Australia, so maybe it is an unusual choice! I have never been there, and I may never be able to afford to go. But I do really hope to go someday, especially to the desert center where I once upon a time set a novel I had started to write. That novel led me to several years of research into Australia and especially its aboriginal cultures, ultimately confirming for me that I wasn't the right person to be telling a story about a place that I admired but did not intimately know. So I set the novel aside but retained my appreciation for the wildlife, ecology, and native cultures. The dingo remains my representative of that learning phase. It was a symbolic piece of the novel, and so became even more special to me.
I have yet to ever even see a dingo in person! Several US zoos have them, but none close to me. It's on the list.
One thing I hope to someday see in a dingo figure is more coat color variety. Dingoes come in (at least) three colors - ginger (most common), black and tan, and white (or cream). These are considered the truest dingo colorations, but pure dingoes have also been found in sable, brindle, and "patchy" or bi-color. Historically, those animals have been considered dingo/dog crossbreeds and culled, but a recent study found that all of those colors were found in pure animals. So I would love to see at least one or two others represented!
If you have any dingo figures for sale that I don't have, in any medium, I would be interested in knowing. :)
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Safari Ltd - Wild Safari WildlifeEasily the most legitimate representative in my current tiny collection. This was a gift from Mitsukuni! I am not nearly as good as many collectors here at talking about the better qualities of realism in a model and how it represents a species, but this one I think does a very nice job. Dingos are lean and rangy creatures, perhaps not as furry as this model appears, but certainly shaped much like this with a high tuck waist and long legs. His face almost has a grin to it, but remains realistic enough to not be cartoonish, and I love the expression. He is the truest and most common coat color - yellow without markings - and they have created the gradual fade here where other models tend to make it a harsh line between the lighter and darker areas.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Safari Ltd - The Land Down Under ToobThis little guy was from Paige! There are many color variations of it, I think, and this one is not the flashiest. His round ears are not extremely dingo-y, and his tail seems very wolf or fox to me, but his body shape and legs are good! As tube sizes are my favorite, I am definitely delighted to have him in my dingo family. I hope I can add some of his color variation brothers someday, too.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]K&M International - Wild Republic Australia PolybagOne of the first dingo figures I secured. I think this one is great. I love the action of him and the swing of his tail. His coloration is a little less common, as the high white is not usually spread on the face and chest like that, though it is often on the feet and tail tip. The face is often lighter around the muzzle and chest, but not usually crisp edged bright white, only paler cream. His markings are more like the shape of the black and tan markings, and it would be have been neat to see him represent those. His ears are also a little round for dingo, but not unbelievably so.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]K&M International - Australian Animal Down Under Nature TubeTo me, this one is shaped the least like a dingo, but I do love him! A long neck and short back on this guy. However, I really love the K&M style of figure and this one is no exception. He looks a little like a fox, but I know in my heart he is a dingo, and so that is enough.
I like that he is distinct in the world of tiny tube sized figures, which can be hard to sift through visually. I think I would have really liked this one in particular as a child and given it a lot of personality, so that's a great deal of appeal as well.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Yowies US - Animals with SuperpowersI am pleased that the dingo was recognized in this category of animal. Their flexibility was the focus of the "superpower" category, and the card mentions their jaws and neck specifically. But not only do their necks rotate 180 degrees, they can also rotate their wrists and subluxate their hips (unlike domestic dogs). I really like the yowie dingo sculpt. The color is not very exciting, just solid gold, but the thin muscular body and ear and tail shape are really good. He seems to be smirking a little, too.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Yowies UK - Series 1 (I'm not sure how UK yowies were packaged, if there was a theme for each series)
While this is the least realistic dingo I have so far, it is also one of the most charming in my opinion. He looks a bit like a clay model or something handmade, and they remained true to the type and did not make him look simply like a dog. I think he is a nice version of stylized, not "cartoon" but simplified. His color is nice, too. The correct ginger coat is not really a very easy color to create, at least not when I have painted similar colored animals, and so I think it often comes out very gold or brown.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Albert Heijn - Australian Desert SeriesI love this little guy so much! His gait with the low head and long lope combined with the rangy, visible ribs really to me makes it feel like a reproduction of a wild creature. The sculpt is really good for how small it is, and though the color is a very bright yellow, it has some good gradient to it despite the size. And the fact that it is very tiny is all the more appealing to me. This was from a trade with Roy-Swetsie, and I did not even know this figure existed until then. Probably partly what inspired me to look specifically for dingo figures, in the end.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Safari Ltd. - Good Luck MiniIt is hard to critique this little one's accuracy on such an itty bitty scale but I really like him! Mine has legs that came a bit warped, but otherwise he's a really pleasant little guy. It's a really good natural yellow color with a nice soft gradient. Not a particularly interesting pose but I'm sure the size and media limits that. He's actually got better ear shape than a lot of the larger figures and while I don't think he is thin enough with enough tuck to the waist, I mean, again. He is smaller than a thumb tack, honestly he's perfect.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Nayab - dogNot sold as a dingo but close enough that I am going to adopt him into the family. Since it wasn't meant to be a dingo, I can't judge it harshly, but I do wonder where the idea that any canine with upright ears has rounded ears (except the painted dog) is coming from. In any case, the color and the fact that he is lanky and has a pointed nose, upright ears, and a long not tightly curled tail makes him a dingo for me!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Unknown - wild dogThis guy was another gift from Mitsukuni, and I don't think it's meant to be any specific canid. It could as easily be a coyote or jackal or even a fox, or as Paige has pointed out a dhole, but here we'll assign him the title dingo especially since he is yellow. One that has perhaps have a very messy meal with all that red!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Wild Republic - Eco Expedition Australian WalkaboutMany thanks to Kelly for adding this guy to the pack! I didn't realize until I had him in hand for some reason that he is a large, jointed version of the little tube figure, essentially. They are very similar, and so my critique of them is pretty much the same. Very charming, and I love his face, even if his short stocky body is more dog than dingo shaped. Jointed figures are not my favorite as an adult, but I did enjoy them as a kid, even though I tended to force them into motion beyond their capabilities. I would have enjoyed this guy as a kid as much as I do an adult, which richens his appeal.
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This collection is a work in progress!
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Ostrich are somewhat common farm animals in the US at least, though the emu is more common, and certainly not familiar enough to include in the standard Barnyard Play Sets, ha! 
