Another tiny horse hunt

I joined STS in 2021 trying to find the identity to some tiny horses, dogs, and cats I had rediscovered in my packed up boxes. That led to a long hunt for several series, most relevant here being the Play Visions Minis Horses, the Papo Mini Horses, the Club Earth Horses to Go, and the K&M Horse Tube. Once I had all four sets complete, I thought I had all the releases of these molds. I hadn't seen any others that couldn't be considered color variations of one of these sets, but I kept an eye out.

Then I spotted this guy! A distinctly different Lipizzaner. I have seen some "knock offs" of these molds in various sizes that only say "China" on the stomach, and I have mostly ignored those. But this one was special because it said "1 Lipizzaner China" just like all the other sets. Now, there is a darker Lipizzaner included on the Club Earth Lipizzaner page, but to me, it does not look like this one. That one seems to be a little dark photo of the rose gray variation, which is something I have seen in this series. If it actually IS a bay, and doesn't match this one, that is interesting all by itself! This one is a solid glossy brown with brown hooves, a much less nice paint job. Anyway. This one at least is definitely not a color variation on the Horses to Go Lippizaner.    
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I immediately started doing searches for all the other breeds in the series to see if anything weird popped up. That's the only real way to find these guys specifically, except for combing through lots, since each of them has the breed on their stomach. No good results until "Shire"--and there was a little group of horses that included the bay Lipizzaner AND also a Shire I had never seen before! The others were all confirmed from the Play Visions Mini set, but these two don't match that set in the slightest, so I feel they are from something else.
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I don't know if they originally were sold together, who sold them, if they are in fact a series at all, and if there are any more, but I hope to find out eventually. I had always sort of hoped there were more of these guys out there. The fact that they kept the numbers and breeds just like on the other four sets makes me think it's possible there are 10 more out there and it is also a set of 12. Time, hopefully, will tell. They are not really well painted, I'd say they fall between the K&M set which isn't painted at all and the Play Visions Minis, definitely not as nice as either Papo or Club Earth. Here is a comparison of the new shire and three of his brothers (not including the K&M because my Shire from that set still needs an upgrade from the one I painted on as a kid).
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I had a moment also where I thought one of the Fjords I already owned might be a secret member of this group because his paint job has always seemed a little "off" to me compared to the rest, but looking again, I think he's just a variation of the Play Visions Mini and not something different, boo. He's just yellower with blacker legs, and there's plenty of room for that kind of variation in what I have seen.
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If anyone has any little horses like this that you don't think fit into the other groups, I'd love to see them. I know keeping track of tiny little horses in this hobby is not everyone's cup of tea, given how there are billions of them, but just in case . . .  

I for one, appreciate your work on these less popular series. Going through and relinking my searchlist, you have filled out (and extended my wishlist) several series that may not have otherwise gotten any attention! When I moved I got rid of lots of smaller figures like these in order to downsize my trade boxes, but I will keep my eye out for more to try and help the sleuthing!

Just like Paige, I truly enjoy your collecting phylosophy.
It's like picking up loose pieces that are forever destined to live outside their family group, and with glorious effort, trying to bring joy back to every family, every home, by gathering all the members together even if it seems impossible to identify them.
The fact is that instead of narrowing your fun to the most famous ones, you continue this adventure through unknown and misterious ways.
We learn a lot with it, we understand better how the business works and how extensively used are those global figures.
Toysmith and similar companies probably owned their own sets, with your dedication and grouping the numbers and comparing paintings, I believe you'll be able of gathering a fifth series.

Thank you all! Glad my little mystery figures and the hunt for their origins is interesting to others. It gives me something to do on evenings when my brain is too fried to do anything else. Which has been this entire weekend!

Roger wrote:

Just like Paige, I truly enjoy your collecting phylosophy.
It's like picking up loose pieces that are forever destined to live outside their family group, and with glorious effort, trying to bring joy back to every family, every home, by gathering all the members together even if it seems impossible to identify them.

That's a lovely way to think about it. Lots of little lost critters out there no one is specifically looking for!

I don't think I have ever seen these horses! What a wonderful collection!

Okay, I found a third member of the weird off shoot set. Unfortunately it's in a $30 lot so I won't be getting one just yet, but at least I know it exists. It's the Arabian done in the same flat brown and black as the Lippizaner, so still definitely the least well painted versions out there. The Lipizzaner was also in the group, as were several that match the Play Visions versions. Those Play Visions ones are far and away the most common, and were also available through other companies at different times. No idea if that means they were also sold together at some point or not.

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Sometimes the original packaging shows some information about the manufacturing location or even some codes which help us to locate them. It won't help you finding more horses anyway but it is really interesting to find these same figures being sold for many different companies.

What a tribe Congratulation Jill