Collection Review: Papo Unicorns

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Figure Brand: Papo
Figure Name(s): Unicorn 39018 + Papo Unicorn ???
Sex: Female & Male
Name: Glittoris & Spikelangelo
Year Made: 2018-2017???
Observations/Thoughts: I have a decent few fantasy horses in my collection, though most are from Schleich as I think they have a better range of stuff like unicorns etc. These two might be the only Papo unicorns I have.

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First up is Glittoris, I like her sculpt but I still think she’s only ok. A somewhat decent sculpt, apart from the little glittery flower in her mane, she’d be just a generic unicorn sculpt etc. I can find very little about her online, but she does look strikingly similar to a 2003 model, so maybe she’s a repaint?

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Second unicorn, and my favoured one from Papo is Spikelangelo. He’s a nicer pose/sculpt and actually has an unusual long tufted tail, like what a lion has. You rarely see that in unicorns. I also love his tufted legs? Gives him that extra medieval tapestry style look that more unicorn models should adopt. He’s even got a goatish, elongated face and beard which is great to see, after all, lots of medieval unicorns were depicted, not like horses at all but deers, and goats with long tufted tails. This moving away from the horse with horn type of unicorn model is very refreshing to see. Again, his model is tricky to find and date too, so I have no idea what year he was released…
Adding more unicorns/fantasy horses might be an idea for the Animal figurine Wiki in the future, possibly.

Rating: First Papo Unicorn- 3/5
           Second Papo Unicorn- 4/5

They are so bizarre looking... Especially the second one. But I do quite like the first one. She looks so enchanted. I love her playful pose, the silver colouring of her mane and tail and the butterfly on her. But I think that none of them will be a future part of my collection. There are a few other "magical equines" that I like more.
But they are lovely and charming figurines in their own way.

Hi Katy, I agree, they are strange looking, kinda old, clunky and medieval in style? Maybe it's because we're so used to pretty, flouncy Unicorns, when something different comes along we don't know what to think?!

Yeah, I am also quite used to the "horse with a horn" style even though I know that unicorns are historically "designed" differently. But I like the modern style and am thinking of it like a different "species" of this magical creature. I also use the modern style for my own stories.
But it's true that when we are used to something it's difficult to accept anything that looks vastly different from the one we are familiar with.

Yes, that being said I have plenty of the horsey type Unicorns too, generally by Schleich, but these girls are still interesting enough too because they look so strange

Sometimes the bizarre things attract us more than the usual ones because they look so different and that makes them special for us. I think one of the strangest models in my collection is the 2006(?) Bullyland Friesian stallion and I love him! And partially because of his slightly bizarre appearance.

Cool, don't know if I've seen him before- you should post him sometime! ^^

I'm definitely planning to do so. Just waiting for July to order some more members for my collection. Hopefully after that I will start with showing it.

The silver unicorn, which is a repaint of the earlier version is number 39038. It is Papo's first mould, you can see it is quite toyish looking with weird proportions and actually it has a style very reminescent of early Papo horses. For a unicorn enthusiast, it is a piece of story and it is charming, not a boring figure. 3 points is fair, I think there's no reasons to give a higher rating.
The 2nd unicorn is not bizarre, actually as you point, the horse with a horn is not a historically correct interpretation of the creature, it is just something that turned to be very popular and convenient to the companies because they just need to add a horn to a horse sculpt and give attractive colors to it. Sculpting a medieval looking unicorn as we see them described in some sources, requires something less horse like as you correctly mentioned. I like the Papo non bizarre creature, it is an interesting interpretation of the creature even if it is not exactly a masterpiece. 4... I agree.

Yeah, Roger, I do like the goaty, bearded look of the second one. They're definitely far from the elegant ones schleich do but....I still like the strangeness of them.