1/32 scale animals

Thank you for your explanations Rogério!

Roger wrote:

The American alligator standing on its hind legs looks quite impressive. It's the same pose as the CollectA model, which is typical for alligators, as true crocodiles tend to crawl or walk with their legs wide open.

An interesting difference between the CollectA regular models and the mini models is that they are mirror images of each other.

Roger wrote:

The caimans seem to have a similar quality, but the colors of the Play Visions are a bit exaggerated!

The Safari has a wider head, which seems more accurate to me.

Roger wrote:

Gharials are easy to identify with their pinocchio-like snout!

Thanks for letting me know! I guess you are saying that I need to watch out that they don't cheat themselves into the 1/32 reserve.

Caracal wrote:

Thank you for your explanations Rogério!

You're welcome, Alain!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Roger wrote:

The American alligator standing on its hind legs looks quite impressive. It's the same pose as the CollectA model, which is typical for alligators, as true crocodiles tend to crawl or walk with their legs wide open.

An interesting difference between the CollectA regular models and the mini models is that they are mirror images of each other.

Roger wrote:

The caimans seem to have a similar quality, but the colors of the Play Visions are a bit exaggerated!

The Safari has a wider head, which seems more accurate to me.

Roger wrote:

Gharials are easy to identify with their pinocchio-like snout!

Thanks for letting me know! I guess you are saying that I need to watch out that they don't cheat themselves into the 1/32 reserve.

Your figures love to cheat.
It was my bad, when I commented about the CollectA mini alligator, I was convinced it was a Colorata instead. I have no idea why since it is identified.

You did say CollectA. Or perhaps I am confused .

rogerpgvg wrote:

You did say CollectA. Or perhaps I am confused .

I am the only confused person here. When I compared the CollectA mini alligator to the standard CollectA alligator, I did it convinced the mini model was a Colorata. Thus, I was suggesting that Colorata and CollectA had used a similar pose. Since the mini is also a CollectA figure, it is not surprising the pose is the same.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Finally, a comparison of the smallest (CollectA American alligator, left) with the largest (Safari black caiman, right) and an example of a Nile crocodile with a fairly typical size (Ania).
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I think your Nile crocodile is a Saltwater crocodile

Roger wrote:

I am the only confused person here. When I compared the CollectA mini alligator to the standard CollectA alligator, I did it convinced the mini model was a Colorata. Thus, I was suggesting that Colorata and CollectA had used a similar pose. Since the mini is also a CollectA figure, it is not surprising the pose is the same.

Ah, yes, I see. I wish I could say I am never confused, but:

Kikimalou wrote:

I think your Nile crocodile is a Saltwater crocodile

You are right, it's definitely a saltwater crocodile!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Another American alligator comes from the recent CollectA Reptiles and Amphibians box:
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It's a nicely sculpted alligator. I like the fact that it stands on its legs rather than crawls or lies down like most crocodilian models.

Finally, a comparison of the smallest (CollectA American alligator, left) with the largest (Safari black caiman, right) and an example of a Nile crocodile with a fairly typical size (Ania).
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the Ania croc is impressive, and a little scary
I really like the walking alligator, that's a good pose for it! and something you don't see often in models.
I think there is some other brand that does a dinosaur croc in a similar walking pose, but it's a big model. Can't remember the name of it.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Thanks, the Open Toys looks quite nice and may work as a very large Orinoco crocodile. I'd be interested in its exact size (measured over the spine following the curves). Was it specifically marketed as an Orinoco croc?

At least I was able to measure the Open Toys Orinoco crocodile. I can't get the same precision as you do but following the curves, it is about 155 mm. Apparently it works for a very large specimen as you suggested.
Let me know if you want a comparison picture.

Thanks for checking the size. The largest Orinoco crocodile for which I could find reasonable evidence was 420 cm, measured by the Roberto Franco Tropical Biological Station. The maximum size is often mentioned as 510 or 520 cm. I haven't found the original sources for this, but according to Seijas (1998), they are anecdotal.

Based on growth measurements, Seijas (2016) estimated that on average, the maximum total length that Orinoco crocs can reach is 443 or 484 cm, depending on the estimation method. So it may not be impossible that a more than average Orinoco croc may reach 15.5/496 cm if it doesn't die prematurely. Orinoco crocodiles are a very threatened species (only 250-1500 remaining in the wild), so probably very few, if any, reach their maximum age and therefore such large crocodiles may currently not exist at all.

In 1800, Alexander von Humboldt's assistant Bonpland apparently measured a 678 cm long Orinoco crocodile. Some current scientists consider this information reliable (I am sceptical) and believe that Orinoco crocodiles were larger in the past.

A while ago, I found two lots of animal figures produced for “Busch Gardens”, an animal theme park in Florida. I found them in the UK, presumably souvenirs from people who went on holiday in Florida. Here are the animals I got:
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I don’t know how many other figures were made. There is at least one more, an elephant calf with its trunk down. They seem to have been sold in a small suitcase:
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A label on one suitcase (which I didn’t buy) showed the year 2010, so it is possible that the figures were first made in that year. Strangely, the two lots I bought and others I have seen on US Ebay didn’t contain one of each figure, but several duplicates, while other figures are missing. It is as if a suitcase contained a random selection of figures.

The models are marked “Busch Gardens CHINA” or just “CHINA”. I am not aware that they were made for any other brands; they may have been exclusively produced for Busch Gardens.

Let’s have a better look at the 1/32 scale models. I bought them mainly for the beautiful tigers. Three different tiger sculpts, both in orange:
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and in white:
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The painting is nicely done and precise. The standing tigers have a 2.8/90 cm shoulder height and 5.3/170 head+body length so they are quite small in 1/32 scale.
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The lying tigers are my favourites:
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The cubs have a unique pose:
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Let’s do some comparisons. I haven’t shown you my Phidal tiger yet, which I got thanks to Fallon. It is a much larger tiger with a 3.5/112 cm shoulder height and 5.9/189 cm head+body length. Still, they look fine when I put them together:
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A comparison with a random “Made in China” tiger. Not one I’d spend a lot of money on, but it came in a lot and I kept it. Does anyone know the brand?
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And with the Papo from their Mini Set:
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My Bandaï white tiger cub is very pleased because it was a 1/32 scale orphan until now.
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It has finally found parents in a matching colour:
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The gorilla is too large for a female with a rump length of 2.8/90 cm, but possible for a 1/32 scale large male. I have already told you about the total gender equality in the 1/32 reserve so he is quite happy to carry his baby.
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Here a comparison with the Britains gorillas:
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And with two Cup Edge Putittos with funny antics:
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There is also a lion cub:
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Here we have it with his dad, which is a bit too small. I wish they had given him a longer body.
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Because we were talking about Phidal, let’s show the cub with the Phidal lion (3.4/109 cm hip height), also from Fallon:
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I like bright colours, but perhaps it’s a bit too much. It doesn’t work well with the Busch Gardens cub. I find that the cub goes best with the Marolin lions. Suddenly, it has three siblings:
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Finally, two zookeepers:
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They are 6.1/195 cm tall (without hat). They wear a Busch Gardens shirt:
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Wikipedia says that humans can be between 55 and 272 cm, so they are fine. Here with a Britains zookeeper:
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By the way, I haven’t forgotten about the polar bear comparison, but my camera is broken (again). I took the photos for today’s post a while ago.

Congrats,they look like really really nice models!

rogerpgvg wrote:

And with the Papo from their Mini Set:
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I like bright colours, but perhaps it’s a bit too much. It doesn’t work well with the Busch Gardens cub. I find that the cub goes best with the Marolin lions. Suddenly, it has three siblings:
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Congratulations on your new Reserve members Roger! I like the varied poses, especially with the cubs.
It's always good to see variety in the cub models.

That Papo mini tiger is truly gorgeous though. It's very elegant! I really like the head angle and shoulders and the ruff. Plus the pointy ears and the curly angled tail! Should be on a runway
Did you buy the whole set?

And the lion cub does indeed look completely at home with the Marolin family. Same exact size as the other cubs too! I wonder if they used the Marolins as inspiration?

Interesting set with so many new members to your reserve. The size of your humans is fine for sure, the only problem is that most brands make huge heads for human figures.
If I understand, the Orinoco crocodile size is acceptable although not ideal, right? It is weird these figures are not easy to find, I think Ricardo has a few for trade.

Thank you, Taylor, Annette and Roger

sunny wrote:

That Papo mini tiger is truly gorgeous though. It's very elegant! I really like the head angle and shoulders and the ruff. Plus the pointy ears and the curly angled tail! Should be on a runway
Did you buy the whole set?

Yes, I bought the whole set for the brown bear and was lucky that the tiger is also 1:32 scale, see [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

sunny wrote:

And the lion cub does indeed look completely at home with the Marolin family. Same exact size as the other cubs too! I wonder if they used the Marolins as inspiration?

It's probably just a coincidence. Except for the lion cub, none of the other animals look similar. The VEB Plaho/Marolin style is very different from that of the Busch Gardens figures and I was quite surprised that the lion cub goes so well with the Marolin lions.

Roger wrote:

Interesting set with so many new members to your reserve. The size of your humans is fine for sure, the only problem is that most brands make huge heads for human figures.

Yes, that's true, the proportions aren't quite right. The Britains humans are much better in that respect. It's not just humans that often have big heads. We know about the Schleich elephants of course, but they aren't the only ones. Although I like the Busch Gardens tigers, when we compare their head with that of the Papo, we see that the Busch Gardens tigers have a larger head. The lions and the gorilla have a large head too (compare with the Britains Gorilla). And recently, we saw that the Safari TOOB alligators have large heads too. There are many examples like that.

Roger wrote:

If I understand, the Orinoco crocodile size is acceptable although not ideal, right? It is weird these figures are not easy to find, I think Ricardo has a few for trade.

I think it's one of those cases where we don't have enough information to be able to tell for sure what size a species can reach. My hunch is that theoretically, exceptionally large Orinoco crocodiles can reach 496 cm, but because so few individuals exist and there are even fewer that reach their maximum life span (and therefore their maximum size), in practice no such large individuals currently exist.

Yes, and .

The brown bear (Kitan Nature of Japan), one of the larges terrestial carnivores, compared with Tyrannosaurus. Both in 1:32. And it's not even the largest Tyrannosaurus specimen
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I am sorry to see that you lost your beautiful Kitan bear to a cruel dinosaur

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The Kaiyodo Ornithomimus edmontonicus is within the 1:32 scale range
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Safari Stegosaurus. This figure was sculpted after the 'Sophie' specimen; it measures 23 cm and comes to 1:24 for that specimen, but Sophie was a subadult, and it's possible this figure could scale up to 1:35 for an adult specimen.

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I don't say this so often of dinosaurs, but this is one that I really like. The colouring, face and pose make me feel that this is an animal I'd like to meet in real life. Unlikely to happen though.

The Orthacanthss from Safari's Prehistoric Sharks TOOB. The figure length is approx. 9.5 cm which comes to a scale of 1:31.6 for a 3.0 meter long mature specimen.

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Finally, polar bears! They are one of the most common animals in 1/32 scale, so I have quite a few. I like polar bears, so I am happy to have so many. Let’s start with a few vintage polar bears today.

First, the obligatory size information. The size of polar bears is usually measured using total length (including tail) rather than shoulder height. The largest polar bear that I could find reasonable evidence for is mentioned by Amstrup (2003), who says that “Total lengths of males in the Beaufort Sea of Alaska ranged up to 285 cm.” He doesn’t show actual measurements in his article, but this roughly corresponds to male polar bears in the Canadian Foxe Basin, where the mean asymptotic total length (i.e. estimated maximum size that the bears reach on average) was 237 cm ± 26 SD (Derocher & Stirling, 1998). If we assume that length is normally distributed, then about 95% of male polar bears in this region are between 185 and 289 cm. The largest real measurement I found was 275 cm for a male polar bear reported in Rode et al. (2020). There is a lot of size variation in polar bears, and we have discussed before that most polar bears are much smaller. Females are generally considerably smaller than males and there are large regional differences too. For example, Derocher and Wiig (2002) found that adult female polar bears in Svalbard (a particularly small subpopulation) had a 175-210 cm total length. I am therefore going to take a total length between 175 and 285 cm as the possible range.

The Britains models are usually the reference point for me, so let’s start with them. They made five different polar bears in plastic:
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The early version adult polar bears were made between 1960 and 1975, while the later versions were released in 1976 and lasted until 1998. The standing bear cub mould was first used for a brown bear in 1964. It is usually assumed that it was turned into a polar bear cub in the next year. However, the polar bear cub isn’t much more common than the brown bear cub, so it is possible that the brown bear lasted longer and/or that the polar bear cub was introduced later. The polar bear cub was taken out of production at the end of 1976.

The early and later walking polar bears look quite similar, so here is a comparison:
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They are also very similar in size: both are 6.6/211 cm in head+body (HB) length. I normally measure head+body length because how large an animal appears to the eye isn’t much affected by its tail. Polar bear tails are 7-13 cm, so we need to add that to calculate total length.

The sitting bears look more different. In contrast to the early walking polar bear, the early sitting bear was previously made in metal, from 1929 until 1959, when it was replaced by the plastic version.
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The Danish company Reisler made three polar bears, all introduced in 1955. The same moulds were also used for their brown bears. I’d say that the walking bear looks more like a polar bear, whereas the standing bear looks more like a brown bear.
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The Reislers are larger than the Britains. The walking bear has a HB length of 8.7/278 cm, which is about the maximum for a polar bear, though it isn’t so large in terms of shoulder height (4.2/131 cm). The size of the standing bear is hard to determine. First, its nose isn’t in a straight line with its spine, so measuring over the head would overestimate its length, but it is hard to say how much less the measurement should be. And another problem, where does the tail start or even end?
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Anyhow, I’d say that its HB length is about 8/256 cm (standing height 8.2/262 cm). Here is a comparison with the Britains:
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More vintage polar bears next time.