Kikimalou's Indian rhinoceros collection updated July 5 2024

Today we'll be travelling between Bavaria and Italy in the company of two Rhinos in composition.

The n°46 is a Friedel, a Bavarian brand known to produce hand-painted porcelain subjects, and cot figures.
The brand has also manufactured a few composition animal toys, but unfortunately I don't know much about them.

In 2021, I found an Indian rhinoceros and it was love at first sight. At the time I did a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to celebrate my discovery.
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For our second rhino of the evening, we'll be crossing the Alps to Lucchesia in Tuscany, where SALPA was founded in 1940.
For thirty years, this toy company produced compo toy soldiers and also a few animals.
Among these was a rhinoceros with colours and a mirror pose that reminded me of Friedel.
Not as well-behaved as his Bavarian cousin, he sports a proud yellow horn, candy-pink lipstick and unforgettably green toenails - he's my punk rhino!
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All together!
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Very artistic ones and the Italian is completely unknown, I guess. Besides a very beautiful collection, you're unearthing many hidden treasures.

The first one makes me think to our dear Yvette ! (not by its looking of course! )

 I like a lot the second one too, in spite of its strange green nails!

 I would never had thought there were so many compo brands, it's a new world fore me!

A Beauty

It is a pity that not much more is known about the Friedel brand. The figures that I know of have a very precious character. For example, the only zebra compo in grazing came from this brand.

Alain, vintage collectors in the UK and France have a skewed view of composition toys. In many countries this material was the norm until well into the 1970s, in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy and Czechoslovakia or example. Even in France, manufacturers such as JRD and Domage produced series in composition.

Yes Ricardo, I hope someday we will know more about these kind of brands

Your rhino collection is a great tour of unknown brands for me. The Friedel is magnificent!

Thanks to Yvette I was able to learn a little about the Friedel company.  

The Friedel story began in Hönbach, Thuringia, at the end of the 19th century, when the company produced carved wooden toys and cardboard figurines. In 1920, the range of toys was expanded to include papier-mâché figures, cot figures, and figures of people and animals of various sizes.
After WW2, the company moved from the Russian occupation zone to Neustadt, in the American occupation zone. In 1948, Friedel moved into part of the Hausser buildings, which it vacated in 1951.
Today, the company only produces palstic nativity figurines.
Little is known about the animals series.

Is there a link between Yvette's husband and this company?..

What a question
I don’t think, no

because of the name! .. but I checked, there is a little difference of one letter! :)

Caracal wrote:

because of the name! .. but I checked, there is a little difference of one letter! :)

Ok I understand now

Actually more than just the name. There are a few other coincidences with our friend Yvette but it is not my job to share her personal life here. We almost could call it the Yvette's brand.

Tonight I've invited three rhinos to appear on STS. The first is American, the second is Spanish and the third is Belgian.  While the first two look very similar, the third shares at least the same head posture.

Let's start with Funrise, a company founded in 1987 at a time when the great brands of the 20th century were disappearing. Funrise is Californian but the manufacturing is Chinese.  Funrise is Californian but the manufacturing is Chinese. In 1988, a series of wild animals was produced, including an animal with a haughty stance but a little thin for an Indian rhinoceros.
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A year later, in 1988, the Funrise lookalike was born in Spain. It was a Miniland, a Spanish company founded in 1962. It wasn't until 1986 that the brand began selling promotional items and plastic figurines.
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The mould is the same as that used for the Funrise, but the Miniland plastic is softer and the figurine does not hold up as well.
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We're leaving Spain and the late 80s for Belgium in the 40s and post-war years. It was in Brussels that the Solido(Bel) company, founded by Mr Floss, produced little soldiers in composition and hollow lead. This mysterious brand also produced a mysterious series of animals in hollow lead featuring an Indian rhinoceros. I know very little about this brand and this rhino is the only one I know of.
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With the last Schleich as usual  
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That Miniland rhino does not belong to the regular Miniland series and it is a little mistery to me as it is the fact that it looks like the Funrise. I wouldn't be surprised if Toy Major or a similar company was the one behind it. They all look very proud of being part of your collection.

I think these 3 look wonderful with their heads up like that.
How fascinating that the Solido rhino is the only one you've ever seen. I hope you manage to find out some more about it.

This vintage stuff could be also modern japanese figures. Very good

Yay, I like that Funrise and Miniland rhinos!! Happy and dancing, no-worries-rhinos. Funny to see the Funrise brand is exactly my age, I guess that makes me vintage too

Roger wrote:

That Miniland rhino does not belong to the regular Miniland series and it is a little mistery to me as it is the fact that it looks like the Funrise. I wouldn't be surprised if Toy Major or a similar company was the one behind it. They all look very proud of being part of your collection.

Who knows ? I'm waiting for a third one maybe painted, will see. It doesn't appear in the catalogue but since Miniland also made items like premiums, it is possible this rhino is one of them. They are all very proud because I told them they were my fabs... I know it is a lie but I prefer to see them happy.

sunny wrote:

I think these 3 look wonderful with their heads up like that.
How fascinating that the Solido rhino is the only one you've ever seen. I hope you manage to find out some more about it.

I would love to learn and find more Solido(Bel) stuff. There are regular collectors' fairs in Brussels and I tell myself that it's only just over an hour from where I live, so why not?

widukind wrote:

This vintage stuff could be also modern japanese figures. Very good

Yes it could

Ana wrote:

Yay, I like that Funrise and Miniland rhinos!! Happy and dancing, no-worries-rhinos. Funny to see the Funrise brand is exactly my age, I guess that makes me vintage too

You are a very lovely young vintage model Anna

That's one of the more realistic Funrise models I have seen, he's very cool, and so is his Spanish twin! The face on the lead rhino is less relaxed, perhaps he isn't sure if he is doing the right dance move, but I love him.

Dans la famille tête en l air, je demande le Funrise!

I am waiting for a painted one

Yeess!

This week we're not going to follow the alphabetical order that I more or less try to respect. I wasn't completely satisfied with the photos of the models who followed the Funrise. Fortunately, a plan B made in Hong Kong has enabled me to honour my Tuesday review.

Today we're going to talk about time paradoxes with the Toy Major Trading Company Ltd.

This company would have been founded in Hong Kong in 1996. Since then it sales PVC toys including dinosaurs, wildlife, insects, pets, farm, sea life, army force, figurine, etc.
Among all the toys, the brand offered at least two Indian rhinoceroses... in 1994! The first mystery to solve is how a company that was supposed to appear in 1996 was able to market figures dated 1994.  

The n°51 of this topic is part of the Jumbo Wild Animals series. It's a fairly large and massive model.  Like the AAA, Miniland and Funrise, it's one of those in-between eras models. Britains, Starlux and Hausser are disappearing and Schleich, Safari ltd and Bullyland haven't really taken off yet.
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The second is smaller, also marked 1994, and would be produced twice, first for the Medium Wild Animals series, then for the "Save Wildlife" series promoted for Fina in 1995.
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This model was also sold by Miniland, but I don't know which of the two brands was the first to produce it.

Here, at last, is a photo of the pair, and the resemblance is obvious - no need for a DNA test, they're related.  
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Wonderful pictures of 2 very close models!