The giant Zebra

A new addition to my herd of zebras this week - from the Wildlife Wonders range by Safari.

I liked the detailed WW sculpt a lot more than the standard Safari Zebra, so I decided it didn't matter that she was going to be a bit bigger than my others, by Collecta, Mojo, and Schleich - I don't make shelf displays or photograph dioramas where everything needs to match together, and I already collect about six different scales of model horse, so having zebras at different sizes too didn't bother me in the slightest.

Toy Animal Wiki has 1:12 scale for this zebra, which is a scale I know well, and I've met tame UK-bred zebras up close, so I know how tall they stand in real life too (I even know what size coats they wear when it's cold and wet ) So I had a good mental image of how big a 1:12 scale zebra would be - about the same size as a pony breed like a Dartmoor or Exmoor, from one of the brands I'm familiar with, right?

And....she's not - she's MASSIVE

I actually couldn't stop laughing when I got her out of the box, she's just the most enormous adorable chunk of zebra there could possibly be! She's as big as my 1:12 shire horses, and then I had visions of actual zebras being that huge in real life, and laughed again.

I've held her next to a few of Breyer's 1:9 scale horse breeds I happened to have in the room at the time (a tb, an akhal-teke, and a friesian), and to be honest she's much more to-scale with that range than the 1:12s.

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The model itself is really great, there's something about the face which really captures the look of the animal, both anatomically and in personality. I like the little hint of brown blending on the nose, and the stripes are well designed - it's a slight shame there's sculpted lines which outline them, but they don't really show unless you look for them. And it makes sure each one's got the same good design, rather than the realism of the stripe placement being left to vary with each painter's skill/effort, and how much time they're allowed to put in per model on the factory floor - lines to follow mean the paintjobs can be quick but consistent.

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I really need to sort out some more suitable scenery for my zebras! A more dirt/sand based ground board would come in handy for some horse breeds too - there's a potential project to work on over the winter, if I can figure out how to make one which doesn't shed sand everywhere forever afterwards

So does anyone know what scale the Wildlife Wonders zebra actually is? The Safari website doesn't say, I just checked.

How would I work that out by measuring? I'm not mathematically minded but I do have a zebra, a tape measure, and a calculator, so I reckon I could do it if anyone explained the process!

Congratulations

Good-looking model. What is the shoulder height? I haven't found actual measurements of Grant's zebras, but Wikipedia says they are 120-140 cm at the shoulder. "Out of African Park" says 122-137 cm and Furstenburg (2009) says 130 cm. If we take 130 cm as the average height, you divide 130 by the shoulder height of your model (in cm) to calculate its scale.

Does 130 cm correspond to what you know about zebra sizes?

Thanks for that! She's 12cm at the shoulder - 130cm divided by 12 makes a rather awkward 1:10.8333333 scale
I fed a few different attempts through the calculator to see if I could make it settle on a nicer round number, using a height of 120cm in real life gets 1:10 scale, or using 132cm makes it come out as 1:11

I know it's not very scientific, but my feeling of zebras being about the same as a Dartmoor pony to be around would agree more with a 120cm measurement - I just checked their breed standard and the preferred measurement in cm is 114-127.

Not quite 1:12 scale then, but not too far off (it would be 144 cm in 1:12 scale). The size of zebras depends a bit on the subspecies. Some reports I found say the Grant's zebra is the smallest of the plains zebras.

If your Shire horses are the same size, then they are too small for 1:12 scale. They would be more like 1:14-15 scale.

The height at shoulder I find more typical for a Grant's zebra is 130 cm. You can really use decimals on scales, for example, scale 1/22,5 is quite popular among railway collectors.
Though, animals allow us to play with a range of scales so it is more effective to find a rational number.
In my opinion you are calculating it correctly and 1/11 seems to be the best option. It puts the height at 132 cm which is an acceptable size for a Grant's zebra and scales use to be caculated considering large and not small specimens.
Safari is marketing it as 1/12 scale which is a clever choice even if it is not exactly correct.
This zebra model is really good but not the most delicate sculpt, at least it is not as delicate as a Breyer model, it maight help you to give an impression it is much larger than it should be. Notice also the legs are not straight, so the real height at the shoulder might be a little more, a few milimeters what puts the figure in the midway between a classic and a traditional scale.
Also, if your classic scale Shires stand 12 cm at the shoulder, they're small for Shires.

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I've just taken some pictures which might show the scale issue I'm feeling a bit better than my description...

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New zeb with a 1:12 scale zebra I had already, the company painted it on a pony sized mould (the new forest) - this is about the size I was expecting the new one to be

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With a clydesdale also by Safari, from their 1:12 'Blue Ribbon' range

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With a Breyer 1:12 scale shire (I know that's not a shire horse colour, but the mould was sculpted as one - I just couldn't reach the others without fetching a chair to stand on )

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Here she is sandwiched between two models of the same breed, for easier comparison - 1:12 on the left, 1:9 on the right

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Now there she is with the 1:9 scale horse. To me, that looks the right proportions for an average riding horse breed versus a zebra.
Here's a photo of a riding horse and a zebra sharing a paddock, and another here (lots of the pictures comparing the species have photoshopped a zebra in, but these two are real)
And here's a video which shows the sizes even better - horse and zebra playing and as they move around you can really see how much smaller the zebra should be. Someone in the comments queries the sizes cos they didn't realise zebras were small, the owner confirms he is a full grown adult in this video.

So yeah, I know the measurements come out saying the 1:12 is supposed to be the nearest scale from what I've got already, but honestly with the models in hand and the real animals in mind, the zebra feels much much closer to fitting with the 1:9 horse

Yes, with your comparisons it is clear your zebra is a giant.
I was not expecting to see such a huge difference between common zebras and horses. I know some horses are huge and common zebras are not as large as Grevy's zebras butt the difference in size is too obvious.
As I told once to Roger, even when the measurements do not match, if it looks nice together, it is at the same scale.
I also think it is a good news for you, while it is defintely large for 1:12, it works nicely as a 1:9 scale.
By the way, the zebra of the video is said to be two years old so, even if it is not fully grown up, it is surely at its maximum height or very close to it.

I thought the pictures would help

It doesn't even matter for me in the long run, cos my shelves are so crowded anyway : I have medium models tucked between the legs of larger ones, and Stablemates in between those, so the scales get all jumbled up once they make it as far as the bedroom my collection lives in

Yeah, further down in the comment replies they clarify "Stan is a fully grown adult in this video" (said recently, on what's now a 7-year-old video) so we know he didn't carry on growing after it was filmed. I bet the owner never thought the clip they recorded would end up being discussed on a forum post about toy zebras

George wrote:

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This looks about right to me too, it's the way things look in the 1:32 scale reserve . What is the shoulder height of the 1:9 horse? It seems to me that it is very small for 1:9 scale.

It's a very nice zebra! Congrats! I agree it looks better with Traditional sized horses

George wrote:

Yeah, further down in the comment replies they clarify "Stan is a fully grown adult in this video" (said recently, on what's now a 7-year-old video) so we know he didn't carry on growing after it was filmed. I bet the owner never thought the clip they recorded would end up being discussed on a forum post about toy zebras

What's even more funny is that the protagonists of the video can play without toys while the protagonists of this topic have toys and do not play.

the yt clip certainly shows the size difference! thanks for sharing it. The zebra is called Stan and has his own instagram page - lots more comparative pics on there and fun Stan pics!

I agree with you George, 1/9 looks right.

- what horse is that by the way ? it is very beautiful :)

rogerpgvg wrote:

What is the shoulder height of the 1:9 horse? It seems to me that it is very small for 1:9 scale.

sunny wrote:

- what horse is that by the way ? it is very beautiful :)

He's 17cm to the shoulder, I fed that through the calculator to see if he's true 1:9 scale and it comes out at 153cm for the lifesize measurement - I checked the breed standard for the real horses and they vary from 145 to 163cm, so he falls roughly in the middle of the size range they should be.

He's the Peter Stone 'Ideal Stock Horse' mould, this one's official name was Jake and he was a special run. But from quite a few years ago, when they were much cheaper models than they are now!

A very good model to shoot in your backyard!

George wrote:

He's 17cm to the shoulder, I fed that through the calculator to see if he's true 1:9 scale and it comes out at 153cm for the lifesize measurement - I checked the breed standard for the real horses and they vary from 145 to 163cm, so he falls roughly in the middle of the size range they should be.

Thanks, good to know that it is to scale. I didn't realise it's quite a small breed.

Very Interresting, I would be happy to know the Head + body lenght (without tail)

Wonderful addition,congrats!!

This zebra is such a wonderful model, definitely an amazing addition for your herd! I enjoyed reading your thorough observations and thoughts on it too!