What is your taste in collecting?

I personally collect nice looking models, and they are mostly by Schleich & CollectA, but I do occasionally collect figures that are not their "best". Examples of the ones I get occasionally are Papo, Safari Ltd, Bullyland & Mojo. It's because of the paint job and model, it's honestly a hit & miss for me, so really I go for the ones that are eye-catching & worth spending on.

What is your most favourite brand to collect from & your least favourite, and why?

When I was younger, I only had access to whatever was sold in local shops, which for me was Schleich & Safari. I also collected Papo dinosaurs since I've always been interested in dinosaurs. As I got older I found out that Papo sold other figurines. I also discovered CollectA. After joining this forum I have learned about various Japanese companies and artists.

My primary area that I collect in is wildlife & sealife. I have some domestic species but I was always more interested in more exotic species. I am very attracted to realistic models but I still enjoy getting less accurate models. I'm really not too picky and I generally collect whatever figure interests me.

Although CollectA & Papo have put out some really amazing models and are continuing to improve (Papo at least), Safari has always been my favorite brand and it most likely will always be that way.

Safari is cheaper than Schleich where I am so my mom always bought more of those when I was younger. I also think Safari has some really great variety. They have a very large line of figures and I love their incredible creatures line so much. They have a great mixture of species and I love some of their famous series such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Tennessee Aquarium Salamanders, Arizona Fish, Baltimore Aquarium Frogs, & Wings of the World Birds. Even though some of their figures aren't as "realistic" as CollectA or other brands, they have a certain charm that really resonates with me and I find them really special. I always look forward to what they bring out each year and I have special memories of going to the toy store and jumping up and down in excitement when seeing their new models.

I can't really say that I have a "least favorite brand". I typically am less excited for Mojo than any other brand but its an unfair opinion because they are fairly new and most of their figures they release have already been made before. Although they have some absolute gems that I'm very happy to have in my collection. I think there are definately highlights for each brand.

Let me try to show that finding a favorite brand is sometimes an impossible task. There isn't anything wrong on it of course but sometimes it is just a way to narrow things as it is the size, the subject, etc.
Let's check my favorite brands at the moment to each category as we are voting on the 2022 STS figure of the year.
My favorite brands for wildlife/woodland are Papo and CollectA but Safari, Mojo or Schleich have an important role in my collection.
For Sea life I like most Safari.
For Prehistoric, PNSO for dinosaurs, Eofauna for prehistoric mammals
Farm I think I still favour Schleich although I don't collect much farm figures
Horses it is WIA, short number of models but already my favorite
Dogs it is Papo

So, I can't point a favorite brand, I really enjoy a certain figure and the brand is not in any moment a decisive factor for a choice.

I wouldn't say I have a favorite brand. It typically comes down to the individual model. There are some brands I gravitate too. For example, Safari for dinosaurs and sharks. But if I have a nice example of something and then Safari puts one out, I probably won't replace it.

Of the 'major' non-Jananese companies, I tend to collect a lot of CollectA (love the quality), Safari (love the style), and Papo (been putting out lots of nice figures of interesting small species lately, and one of the few non-Japanese companies lately to consistently make the subject of my focus, arthropods)

Of the 'major' non-Japanese companies, I would say Mojo has probably been my least favorite over the last few years. Not that their stuff is bad, it just isn't better than what I already have. Historically not a big Schleich collector either but starting to appreciate them a little more.

If you've seen aspects of my collection on the forum, you know I have an insect/arthropod focus. In the last couple years, I have become more selective in arthropods I get from Japanese companies. They have to be 1) new species, 2) very rarely made species (I have three or fewer examples), or 3) a marked improvement over what I already have. Last year I purged around 200 arthropods from my collection, mostly second-name Japanese companies.

I focus on horses, with just a few other species (not because I don't love other animals - I just do not have the space to keep a fully comprehensive collection of everything! )

Having a quick count up, I collect seven or eight different scales, so size doesn't matter, nor does material cos my collection ranges across all types - there's individually handmade models, toys in pvc, mass produced models in hard plastic, and artist resins I paint myself.

Brand doesn't influence me too much, there's some I like a lot and some I don't bother with, but I'm not a completist collector - I wouldn't buy something I didn't like much just to have one of every figure released, nor would I rule something out just cos it was a brand I didn't know or have many of.
Breyer tend to produce most of what I buy, simply because they make so much - it helps that they have so many different sizes, all getting new releases each year.
CollectA would be the runner-up cos I end up getting nearly every horse they sell every year, followed by Mojo and then Safari.
Peter Stone when they're already in this country and at the affordable end of the scale, Julip occasionally, and WIA whenever they release new ones, which isn't as often as major brands.

I do like having a wide variety of breeds and types in my collection (last count on my website I'd got pages for 131 different breeds, crosses, and related equine species ), and this definitely influences what I paint : I'll read up on a breed and see if I can find a sculpt which matches it well enough to create a custom repaint. But it doesn't affect my buying all that much - I'd never buy a model I didn't think was good and accurate, just because it was a breed I didn't have any/many of.

My main criteria for buying is always realism - good anatomy, true to breed characteristics, and an accurate realistic sculpting style. Paintwork quality matters but isn't a total deal-breaker, cos if it's really poor I'll buy the model anyway and repaint it to be better!
A few small cute additions get round my requirement for realism and are given a bit of shelf space, things like Breyer's Mini Whinnies which I've mostly won in raffles and competitions over the years, they're not especially accurate and don't have the detail of a larger model, but they're so small it's hard to hold that against them!

I hunt species, especially very unusual species and species that are rare in the toy world. I have no favourite brand but prefer smaller brands like K&M and Playvisions and japanese brands like Kaiyodo and Kitan....

I have figures that i like more than the others (different reasons) but i dont have a favourite figure.

I have some strict and some flexible criteria. Strict criteria: Plastic material, mass produced figure, flexible criteria: acceptable size, taxonomy: wildlife birds and terrestic mammals, not very interested in domestic or prehistoric taxons, reptiles, fishes and lower taxons. Brand or no name ones doesn´t matter. The figure must be realistic as possible or have subjective nice factor to be good enough (from aesthetic point of view) for my collection. My favorite brands are e.g. Kaiyodo, Jeol, some Britains and Plaho plastic wildlife models, from current ones some models from Papo or CollectA.

Some figures are very special for me - small ŽBS figures from my pre-school era (still in great condition), two celulloid ducks I got from my mom (figures from her childhood, maybe oldest ones in my collection), Plaho brown bear (figure from my first trip to Berlin in 1978 that started my collecting), Jeol lioness (my avatar) and male elephant (damaged ones, phenomenally restored by Harriet), Marx eagle (gift from James) or large "pink" K&M ocelot from Beatrice... (there are many others) :)

This is an interesting topic, because I asked about the same thing back when I joined, and now I can answer with a little better understanding of my own proclivities--as well as seeing people's answers and reflecting on what I now know about their collections.

I collect "toob" size or similar primarily, and especially completable sets are my favorite to collect. No specific species in the tube sizes--I have some of everything. I love both very realistic sculpts with nice paints jobs as well as more "charming" vintage styles or especially bizarre looking adaptations (like my small collection of "goblin" cats ). Sets I had as a child are also always appealing!  

Larger than tube size is pretty much limited to horses, dogs, and cats. I do have a small collection of dingoes, hyenas, and painted dogs in various sizes as well a few wildlife one-offs or small samplings of anything that hits that right note (like the Starlux and Clairet figures). I also retain quite a few larger figures from my childhood that I wouldn't go out and buy today, but which I keep for nostalgic reasons.

My exception to the size thing for wildlife is AAA. If I had the space, I would collect everything they have produced! I love the unique style of that brand.

I absolutely love vintage models, but rarely can actually collect them. I love anything that clearly carries a story and a history. Some of those are elegant little works of art. I really enjoy models that are not exact replicas of the animal but also are not cartoon-ish or anthropomorphized, but instead are lightly stylized.  

The brands I have the most of are Breyer, Play Visions, Funrise, Kid Kore, and Yowie I would guess, but there are many, many others I would include in an extensive "favorites" list that I simply haven't been able to get many of (like AAA as mentioned, and many Japanese and vintage European brands).

My least favorite is Schleich. Mostly they produce models in a size I don't care for, and something about the style has never really appealed to me (even when I was a child)--blunt and soft, I don't really know how to explain it visually. I have a few that I do enjoy, but I just rarely end up in that particular field.

Thank you everyone for your replies, it's amazing to see the amount of differences we all have when it comes to collecting animal figures! Cheers!

Thank you so much for opening this topic, I love it! And I have loved reading about everyone's different collecting tastes, it's really interesting to see and I think that's what makes this community so special, no two collections will be the same!
My criteria is fairly simple: dogs I don't mind about brand or material or style, so long as it is a dog figure, it fits my collecting taste

In terms of favourite brands, that's hard to say because I have favourite figures across all the brands, and they vary as well over time so much, so it changes quite a lot. I love Schleich, especially their older dogs and also because it makes up the largest part of my collection and was a big part of my childhood. I love CollectA simply because of the stunning dogs they have released lately that are mong my favourites. I also love Papo dogs and of course lots of the dogs from the other major brands but I'd say those are the main three. Then I adore all the Japanese brands (Especially Kaiyodo, Kitan Club, Eikoh and Kabaya) and the dog figures they have produced, they really appeal to my taste! Breyer dogs are stunning too, and then there are plenty of other figures that are among my favourites from other brands but then there would be too many list, but in general most of my favourites are from the brands I mentioned!

With style, I think I'd be quite similar to most collectors in that it is the most realistic models that generally I love most, although I love the Japanese style that combines natural cuteness with realism and the charm of some of the MEG figures for example. I love all scales but probably the scale of major brand dogs is my favourite! And I love all breeds, although my favourites would probably be golden retrievers, rough collies and border collies.

And material, I guess I have the most plastic models and I love the collectability of this material and also how it was my favourite when I was younger but there are so, so many stunning dogs in other materials such as resin too, they're just generally more expensive so not as easy to collect as often!

I mostly collect horses. When it comes to the brands that I tend to buy from, Collecta and WIA are definitely at the top of the list. I will sometimes buy a model from Mojo or Safari, but those can be a hit or miss for me. I really like Collecta due to the variety of models that they offer, but nothing can beat WIA's realism and the unique poses of their models. Schleich is on longer in my radar, due to the poor quality of their equestrian models in recent years. I tend to be very picky about the models that I buy anyways, so even within the brands that I prefer, there are models that I don't like and have never bought.

When I was growing up there wasn't much in the way of animal models in Ireland-mainly Hong Kong copies of other models and a limited amount of Britains.My relatives lived in the UK,near London ,so when I visited them I saw the larger range of Britains and that started the collecting bug in me!! AAA models started to appear in the 80s/90s so I began collecting those.Schleich and Bullyland didn't enter my world until I began travelling in Europe in the mid 90s and I remember buying my first few in Vienna.I also discovered Breyer around the same time and as I also began to visit the USA I started to acquire some more along with my first Safari models.Also I discovered the PV series of models and started collecting those.I collect mostly models that I like and so I have lots of models by various companies.

I collect just present animals, which means no dinosaurs oder prehistoric species. Among what I collect, I try to concentrate on species on land (mamals, birds, reptiles) and ignore fishes.

I also collect just one piece for one animal art and avoid mistakenly double buying them, even from different brands and editions.

The criteria for choosing what to buy or not base mostly on the size of the animal: small, compatible with others in my collection (e.g. a rabbit can not be bigger than a lion) which means I stilll have no insect in my collection because all the insect (ant, butterfly, bee,...) I have seen are bigger than my .... rabbits (I know this sounds ridiculous and I may have not had them but everyone has their taste, hasn't it? ).

Besides, the animals should look (like) real, too (not one color animal).

Dear Sts Friends:

Well, to answer the question of this topic, I would say that my tastes in collecting are the following:

Schleich: horses, Dinosaurs and animals with no movable parts, and various fansasy figures, also with no movable parts.

Reason 1. Okay, just saying, the whole movable parts idea works well for the schleich people, and also the papo people, but when it comes to animals, dinosaurs, and fantasy, the movable parts idea just makes the overall nice figures more fragile. Has anyone else noticed this?

Safari: Basically, it all depends on what they come out with next. I really do like Safari, and I do think their quality is neck and neck with schleich, or at least pulling ahead.

Papo: Once again, a brand which I really like, not only because of their animals, but because their fantasy figures have really worked out well for my storytelling purposes.

CollectA: This is the brand, that, although they have many horses, I don't collect the horses of this company. I only collect Schleich horses. As for the collectA dinosaurs, they're really great, except for the ones with movable parts.

AAA: Now here's a brand which is sort of my specialty. Right now, I have about 307 AAA figures, and I love the quality.

As far as other brands go, I don't collect anything else, so no wild republic and stuff like that. A while back, I sold a bunch of figures from my collection, but that was because I no longer needed them. Nevertheless, my collection is still growing, even though I don't collect wild republic or bullyland.

Oh yeah, and then there's ELC, which I almost forgot about. Now here's a brand that I'm considering collecting, because of the quality of the figures. You see, when it comes to figures that end up in my collection, the things that matter most are: company, sculpt, pose, animal species, and quality. the paint job doesn't matter that much, since I can't see the painting anyway. This is why my collection is so huge, because I see figures that I really like. I hope this all makes sense to you, but you know, I'm just explaining as best I know how.

Well if anyone reads this, and has comments, please reply, and let me know what you think about my collection tastes.

Aschuck

Dear Sts Friends:

Hey guys, I just wanted to clarify something: when I said I collected animals, what I meant was that I don't collect Rhinos, white or otherwise, or domestic dogs. As a general rule, I'm not a dog person, and to be honest, dogs in general kind of scare me. So it makes sense why I don't collect these. Also, strangely enough, ostriches have always had a special place in my heart, because, when I was a kid, I had this Schleich ostrich, which I named Sebastian. Sadly, I lost that one, but even though he's lost, his great grandson, (Schleich 14610 ostrich male), has quite a famly going, with five daughters, a wife, and several relatives. All in all, things are looking pretty good for this future generation of ostriches. Also, did I tell you this? Sebastian is the chief, when it comes to the animal part of my collection. Right now, he and his family share an apartment building with a bunch of other birds. Perhaps someday, I'll make a video, in which Sebastian talks about his family. At this point, I have no idea how I'm going to do this, but when the video is made, if anyone wants me to post it on this forum, I can, sometime. That is, if you all want to see it, of course. Anyway, what animals in your collections hold a special spot inside your hearts? Mine is, as you already know, the ostrich. So what's yours? What's the story behind why that animal has a special place? I'd love to read your replies to these questions, so if you read this post and feel inspired, please reply, by all means. Also, when deciding what animal is special to you, prehistoric animals, and mythical animals do count. Just so you know.

Aschuck

Anna, haven't you found yet a Sebastian like yours? It was probably the ostrich 14091 or the next model in case you got it when you were more than 10 years old already.Do you remember if it was a figure with open beak?I know it was a long time ago but since it was your childhood favorite maybe you can remember it and we could help you locating one.
I wonder which figure do you use as a female since ostrich females are really rare in this hobby. However, it is wonderful to know your favorite is an ostrich.
Despite being essentially a collector of foxes, my favorite animal is the giant anteater but we have a topic about it in this link.

Daer roger,

Okay, this is a really easy question to answer: the ostrich in question is indeed 14091. I guess I'll have to put this one on my searchlist, in order to complete my ostrich family. Anyway, now you know for sure. Also, the current model representing Sebastian's wife Louise, is the schleich ostrich 14325. I raally don't know about the relatives, but I can tell you that the following ostrich chicks are in the family:

AAA ostrich chick

AAA ostrich chick hatching.

Collecta ostrich chick sitting

Collecta ostrich chick walking.

Schleich 14398 ostrich chick.

I also have an adult AAA ostrich, but I have no idea at this point where that one fits in.

As for the ostriches I'm looking for, there's one by collecta (88459), one by papo (50073), and one by Safari that I'm on the hunt for.

I guess I'll add 14091 to my list.

Anyway, if you read this, and have any questions, please reply.

Aschuck

Nice to know which ostriches you are looking for.
14325 is a male ostrich introduced in 2004 by Schleich but without refering the gender.
In 2009 it received a chick #14398.
In 2010 an ostrich #14610 specifically marketed as a male was added to the family.
So, the #14325 acted as a female although it is a male.
As the most obvious difference is the color and Schleich gave male colors to it, I think it is the best model to use as a female while a real female is not released. It is not your mistake, it was Schleich mistake.
If I find the #14091 I will let you know. I think your favorite childhood toy should be part of your collection. The rest of the family will be happy of seeing the grandpha back, especially all those cute great grandsons.

I guess my taste in collecting changed over the years and will probably change a bit in the future again
As a kid, I collected any animal figures I could get at that time. Whatever was available in Poland in the 90ies—mostly no brand, or New Ray farm, sometimes AAA, or occasionally some Bullyland.
When I got my first Schleich in 2004 (giraffe), I got hooked again I bought Schleich and thought it was the best brand for wild animals and some farm animals. Loved their little catalog with animals from different sides of the world. I wasn't really convinced by their horses, though.
Sometime later, I found an internet forum (not this one, it was called Laughing Giraffe) and learned about different brands (papo, safari ltd). And I liked many of them, probably just as much as Schleich.
Then I started loving Japanese brands like Kaiyodo or Kitan Club. And less and less of Schleich and similar.  
Later I moved to handmade and resin models, but I still like Japanese brands and occasionally something from the "major brands." I'm currently also a big fan of Eofauna and PNSO prehistoric models. I don't actively collect anything in particular. I just buy the things I like.
This would be the timeline of my changing collecting taste:
any animal figures -> Schleich - > any major brands - > Kitan Club and Kaiyodo -> resin, handmade, Eofauna and PNSO

I prefer to collect 1/32nd scale, such as Britains, and the European makes like zz Reisen, Cofalu, Preiser, Beton Bergen, Starlux and Omo. I like figures that are beautiful to look at, whether that makes them anatomically correct or not, such as the thin legs on the Dulcop zebra, or the Starlux models with their glaring white rimmed eyes.
The Britains models are good to look at and have great detailing on them, and their thin legs appeal to me. I also like some of the Breyer models.
And I like the large size Barbie doll horses and old Breyers, especially the more dated models.
Figures that look strange, unusual and cute, and ugly at the same time appeal to me, in this small scale. Especially all the made in China models, and Hong Kong models. And I like the yesteryear, old style of models, including some of the Britains and older metal ones, and Clairet. There is an elegance in them. The early century composition figures are also very beautiful and elegant and I have some of them. These may have been made as toys, but the children would have been supervised playing with them, or they would have been played with lightly. I like that preciousness about them.
I also really like plastic flock figures, though not too many are the small 1/32nd. I love the Toy Concepts that are just a bit bigger than that. They are very beautiful and elegant, especially the ungulates.
I really like the detailing and poses of the Japanese models, like Choco Q and Kitan Nature Technicolour and Colorata and Takara Tomys. They have beautiful, finely detailed fish and sea creatures and very detailed painting.
And I like some of the Playmobil, they have beautiful soft faces and nice curving bodies that makes them very appealing. They fit in nicely with my 1/32nd pieces. And the Disney African elephants, impala, zebras and giraffes from the Lion King African set. Just a bit on the larger side than Britains. They are cute, fun and yet a little realistic at the same time.
Mainly brand is not important. I prefer animals that are elegant, beautiful, unusual and can fit in with my 1/32nd size. I also turn many smaller scale figures into babies for my 1/32nd adults, and larger scale babies can occasionally fit in as 1/32nd adults.
Perhaps the only modern brand figure I really like is the collectA chiru, and the Schliech giraffes that fit in with my Britains ones.

i like animals that look stylised. I don't like too realistic or too cartoony animals so i like nayab, toymajor and fastchamp and other toys that have the same feeling