Kikimalou's Indian rhinoceros collection updated July 5 2024

I absolutely adore this figure. Before I had the Safari figure, I knew about the Schleich one, which I didn't consider ugly, but I didn't understand it as a realistic rendition.
However, in a trade on the forum, I received the Britains model and was delighted. Almost in disbelief at my immaturity as a collector, I exclaimed: "How is it possible that this old piece is so much better than the Schleich one?
Then came the Safari figure, and I was completely sold. A masterpiece from the American brand.
I remember your interference in the painting of the figure and I was very pleased to see that some brands absorb the feedback of collectors. It was a good thing they did, and we all gained from it.

For me, this model is the benchmark for the 21st century. The Papo is excellent, the new Schleich is not bad, but the Safari Ltd remains second to none.
Fortunately there are still Mojo, CollectA and why not ToyMany to dazzle us. I'm also still hoping that Safari Ltd decides to produce an Indian rhino for its Wildlife Wonders series.

When I started this topic over a year ago, I promised to introduce you to around sixty rhinos. I didn't keep my word... This evening I'll be presenting numbers 77, 78 and 79, and our journey is still not over!

After Papo and Safari Ltd, it became essential to stage ‘’Indian Rhino toys World Champion‘’: Schleich

The German company has produced no fewer than seven Indian rhinoceros and three calves.
Not all of them are unforgettable for me, but I'm very fond of the three classically sized adults (I'll present the calves another time).


1989! The old Britains Ltd is still on sale, as is the Starlux. Funrise launched a very elegant young rhino the previous year and Miniland has just brought out its carbon copy. We can assume that the four AAAs have already been born.
For the first time, Schleich is offering a series of animals that will become the brand's first ‘classics’ and establish its reputation. In this first batch, a rhinoceros: number 14025.
It is the end of the 20th century and the vogue for African rhinoceros has not yet arrived.
So 14025 would be an Indian Rhinoceros.
It wasn't the time for realism for the German brand, but our first guest had plenty of charm and helped invent the Schleich touch.
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After 12 years of loyal service, our friend retired and was replaced in 2001 by Mr14183.
It was the turn of the millennium and Schleich opened a new series of wild animals, the beginning of a golden age for the brand.
Mr14183 was also an Indian rhino, with the first Black rhino not appearing until the following year.
The sculpture of this model was entrusted to the Portuguese company Maia & Borges, who produced a model that was certainly more realistic than its predecessor and it has an incredible charm. It will be sold by the dozen until 2009.
Apart from Toy Major, Schleich had no competitors at the time.
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What's next? Crossing the desert... it's time for the African savannah and the Asian unicorn is disappearing from shop shelves. We'll have to wait until 2018 for a new German Indian rhino... In the meantime Safari Ltd and Papo have stepped in.
The newcomer is called 14816 and it's much more realistic than its predecessors.
Proportions and colour are much better respected. The only thing that bothers me are the wart-like bumps that cover the entire body and lower legs when they should be limited to the upper legs and shoulders.
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A few family photos?
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The first Schleich Indian rhino will always be, for me, the best Indian rhino of all time. It has a perfect character between the realism and the personality of the first handful of Schleichs (along with the zebra, camel, tiger, brown bear and polar bear)... They were the first "serious" animals that I had in my childhood.

Nice way to tell part of Schleich's history. When I started collecting, the Indian rhino I could find was the Schleich M&B. I was never a fan of it. It was not comparable with the classic trio of the musk ox, mountain goat and wisent. It was somwhat frustrating because I love this animal and the fact it is armoured and massive turns it into an good candidat to work realistic when replicated with pvc material. I already told how excited I got with the Britains which I got later and naturally the Safari masterpiece is my major brand Indian rhinoceros. I have the newer Schleich too, I like it very much, especially pose and proportions but it is overtextured. The excessive warthy appearance does not ruin it but it is a negative point. It is not the first time, in this modern era, that we see overtextured figures and the goal is probably to remove a plastic appearance but it is not always a good idea.

Childhood memories are sacred Ricardo and I understand your attachment to this rhino. I was 25 at the time and interested in completely different things.

Rogério I have to admit I have a great affection for Schleich 14183. On the other hand, I've never been able to bear the German brand's African Rhinos. I can't stand their proportions, their heads as big as their bellies, their legs too thick or too short... It's not my cup of tea at all. So why do I succumb to the charms of their Indian cousin? The heart has reasons that reason ignores, I suppose.
I haven't given up hope of one day finding the model published directly by M&B.

What new rhinos will we be presenting after the Schleich and Safari Ltd?
A little Papo perhaps? And two mysterious Italian mysteries.
Let's start with Italy. Mr80 and Mr81 are two models from the 20th century and very probably from the 60s and 70s. They are made of Britains Ltd type soft plastic. One is painted while the other is ivory with an antique wash. What also distinguishes them is that the ivory one has the inscription Italy carved on the belly.
They are both part of a series of animal toys, some of which are inspired by Clairet, Jim and Starlux.
The style of the Ivoire models is reminiscent of Fontanini, but we can't be sure yet.
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The third rhino of the day is a Papo, produced in 2015 for the Mini 33021 Wild Animal Kingdom set 2. Like the African Buffalo, our friend is not a scaled-down copy of the standard model.
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I'm presenting it today because I feel he shares a family resemblance with our two Italians.
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With Schleich
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what interesting little rhinos! and the small Papo surprised me, it looks like a long ago vintage model and not one of these recent brands. You are right Christophe - they all resemble each other.

Thank you to be here Andreas and Annette This rhino like other Papo has a vintage touch' I like a lot.

Papo minis are not exactly minis. We have their mini horses Jill presented some time ago which are not mini versions of their horses but the same as Toy Major and other brands. Maybe you will find that rhino someday being sold with a different brand name. I hope you can find more about the Italian models. Italian industry is mostly devoted to nativity models and it somewhats shadows the other non Nativity figures. It is good to see people like you and Ricardo trying to escavating the Italian soil.

The Papo minis may not be as mini as the animals in CollectA tubes, but most of them are. The tiger, brown bear, giraffe and leopard are all minis, and even this rhinoceros and buffalo are still very Papo.
When I say that this rhino may be a Fontanini, it's because this brand produced a lot of premiums in dirty ivory in the 70s.

Today is Margarine and Coffee Day! I have a horror of the former and a great affection for the latter.
Today's Rhinoceros are not toys, but they are part of the world of vintage collectors.
During the 20th century, many food brands offered series of flat plastic figurines as premiums. Zoo animals were well represented, including some Indian rhinos.
We'll start with Mr 83 and finish with Mr 93.

Brésilia! This rhino, produced in Germany, will be used by the French nod coffee brands, Brésilia, Scarpia and Montoux in the 50’s.
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From the fifties too, German coffee and margarine brand Effka is to offer two rhinoceros.
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Ei-Fein is a German margarine brand from the early 50s. It will be offering a Zoo series of 63 figures, including this rhino
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Then there's the German company Küster, which made a number of figurines for Pernot, Nadi, Scarpia and many others.
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Still in the 50s, the Erdal Waxa shoe polish company produced a series of 63 figures dedicated to the famous Hans Von Stosch-Sarrasani circus. In France, Scarpia, Sanal and Brésilia distributed part of this series.
The rhino is a singing one which reminds me the Beton Bergen one
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Titze, the Austrian coffee brand, will offer a series of flat zoo animals before later offering one in the rondbosse shape.
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Wagner, a German margarine brand, will be offering a series of 28 zoo figurines manufactured by Küster. The silhouettes of the animals in this series are inspired by Lineol IV and Hausser. This is the case for our double-horned Rhino.
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Wilken tee is an old German brand of tea and various infusions.
In the 1950s, they distributed a series of 42 figurines of zoo animals in several colours, some of which were also distributed by other European brands.
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Many other brands have proposed zoo series with Indian rhino but I don't own them.

On the other hand, I have two models that are quite close to each other, but whose identification still remains a mystery to me.
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To round off our visit to the 50s, the traditional family portrait
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I really like premium figures, but i prefer full figures. Sadly mostly they are too flat.

It would be necessary to catalog all the premium figures by brand... There are hundreds and some are very similar, I get lost...

widukind wrote:

I really like premium figures, but i prefer full figures. Sadly mostly they are too flat.

I know, I only collect the Indian rhinos in the flat world

Stripedhyena wrote:

It would be necessary to catalog all the premium figures by brand... There are hundreds and some are very similar, I get lost...

Good luck, it's a mammoth task

Kikimalou wrote:

To round off our visit to the 50s, the traditional family portrait
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I must say Christophe, your knowledge is amazing?! You are like an encyclopedia of all things toy animal

Where do you find all these bits of history? and thank goodness that you do know them because it's good that this history is recorded. It's all fascinating.

I really like the Titze rhino most of all, and the shining one that is clear on the edges in front of it in the family portrait.
What a wonderful portrait it is!

And by the way, I have good news (fingers crossed) about one of your highly desired wish list rhinos!

sunny wrote:

I must say Christophe, your knowledge is amazing?! You are like an encyclopedia of all things toy animal

Where do you find all these bits of history? and thank goodness that you do know them because it's good that this history is recorded. It's all fascinating.

Thank you very much for the compliment, Annette. The only merit I think I have is curiosity. The little I've learnt I owe to other enthusiasts, no-one learns anything on their own.
I've been interested in exotic brands since I started out, particularly vintage brands. It's not out of nostalgia, but because I don't want all this to disappear into the dustbin of oblivion.
What's really amazing isn't the knowledge I've been able to glean over the last 20 years, it's everything I still don't know.

sunny wrote:

I really like the Titze rhino most of all, and the shining one that is clear on the edges in front of it in the family portrait.
What a wonderful portrait it is!

The translucent unknown has an elusive charm and the Titze is nice too. My fabs are the Küster and the Wilken tee... But I like them all  

sunny wrote:

And by the way, I have good news (fingers crossed) about one of your highly desired wish list rhinos!

Please tell me more            

A great collection of premium figures! Even in just cream colour there are many. And 63 figures made by a shoe polish company; you need a lot of dirty shoes to collect them all.

Going back to the Schleichs: I like the second version best. A bit more realistic than the first version and as you say, the latest version has too many warts.

The Erdal Waxa shoe polish 63 figurines series is indeed very surprising, it means something about shoes in the 50's I guess.
I have the same feeling about the Schleich.

Tonight's three figures have just two things in common: they're Indian rhinoceroses and their pose is fairly static. We visit France, Japan and Germany.

CBG Mignot is the world's oldest manufacturer of toy soldiers, and the brand is still in business.
Founded in 1825 in the "quartier du Temple" in Paris, the company offered "flat tin" soldiers until 1865, when the first "ronde-bosse" soldiers appeared, hand-cast in a solid lead alloy. In the 1920s hollow lead figurines were marketed with simplified paint for economic reasons linked to the end of the First World War, but this was not a success and the experiment came to an end in the late 1930s. Between 1936 and 1939, CBG offered "Mignalu" aluminium figures, and between 1955 and 1960, "Mignalux" plastic figures. These experiments fizzled out too.
CBG Mignot went on to produce solid lead figurines for adult collectors, which continue to sell worldwide. Next year, collectors will be celebrating the brand's bicentenary.
His creations include zoo animals and an Indian rhinoceros. Our friend is still made today in a beautiful dark grey colour. The one I'm showing you is an old mastic-coloured model.
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A little trip to Japan? I don't know when Colorata started, but the first known box is the Ueno Zoo set from 2004. In this box was a Rhino that I already presented a few months ago.
Today's Indian rhino is from the Zoogeography Box Oriental Region published in 2018. To be honest, I had no intention of buying the box of 12 figures just to enjoy this little rhino.
So I jumped at the chance when a retail sale was held on eBay. I saved a bit of money but the model I received wasn't brand new. It's less obvious in real life but my lens is merciless.
I like the way it is sturdy, especially from the front.
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Back to Germany and the 20th century In 1946, in Berlin, Walter Merten founded the company that would bear his name. After lead, it was in the early 50s that the first plastic figurines were put on the market.
These were railway figures in HO scale and animals in 4cm and 6cm scales.
While the 6cm figures are closer to the famous 1/32 scale, the 4cm figures are compatible with 1/43 small car toys.
In the 1990s, Merten was bought out by Preiser, as Hausser had been in previous years.

Among a range of animals that were rare at the time, such as several Wisents and Gaur-Bantengs, is of course an Indian rhino.
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Our three friends
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what an informative visit again to learn about more rhinos! Thank you Christophe.

The last rhino has a lot of ribs showing, and very un-rhino kind of legs. It is rather cute in it's un-rhino body, even the forehead is unusual. To me it makes it rather appealing
I like the other as well, nice shape and expressions and beautiful soft colours.
They look good together!

Thank you Annette, I like very much long legs Merten too

It's fascinating to see all these collectible figures displayed together. Many of these food brands are completely unknown to me, and it once again proves
your proactive approach to collecting. Researching, informing yourself, and acquiring pieces that have been lost to time.