New Information about AAA

I found some catalogs of the German company WEICO. Many of the animal figures in them are from the company AAA.
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The figures shown here
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seem to belong to four series, all of which belong to the "Natur Historisches WEICOSEUM":
"Megastars Jurassic": 15cm-60cm
Saurians medium size: 14-23cm
Saurians in egg
Mini dinosaurs: up to 12cm
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Fun Fact:
WEICO uses the logo of AAA and gives a meaning to each A:

A ctual
A uthentic
A ttractive

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I will digitize these catalogs. Together with catalogs from Comansi/Yolanda, which also show figures from AAA. I'll put it all together in a table (including sizes), cross reference with TAI.
And while I'm at it, I'll also add the AAA figures from the Bullyland catalogs. Unfortunately, my Schleich catalogs don't start until 2003. In the 1990s, "foreign series" from AAA should be included there, too. Here in the forum I have found nothing in this regard.
If someone could send me the corresponding pages as scan/photo, I would also integrate these.
However, the project will take some time.

Very interesting, thank you so much

Thats VERY interesting about the name, I always wondered. Thank you for your catalog/info contribution!

Good to know what AAA means. Fantastic if you can show us more early catalogues with AAA figures. I am only aware of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] with AAA figures. Do you know from what year your Weico catalogue is?

Good to see a catalogue.

Dear ThomasAsA:

Hi, it's me, Aschuck! Maybe you've read my posts on the "AAA Aschuck's Finds!" topic. If you haven't, let me tell you, AAA is my field of expertise. But that's not the real reason for this post. The real reason is: could you post a list, or lists, of the different dinosaurs in these four series you mentioned, complete with measurements in inches? This would really help me out, as far as finding more information for my searchlist goes. Also, could you provide item numbers with these lists too? I know this is a small favor to ask, but it'll mean a lot to me if you do this.

Thanks so much for your support,

Aschuck

aschuck wrote:

Dear ThomasAsA: could you post a list, or lists, of the different dinosaurs in these four series you mentioned, complete with measurements in inches?

Hi Aschuck,
I read your posts when I was looking for information about AAA. I am trying to put my collection in order and have come across a lot of AAA figurines.
As I am very busy at the moment, it will take me some time to complete the lists. When I am ready, I will post them here.
I will also include the article numbers. However, I only have numbers for the german company WEICO and the spanish company Yolanda. Unfortunately, there are no similarities.
e.g.: Batfish: Your item number: 13809bat; WEICO: 90592; Yolanda: Y00783. Even the order of the deep-sea fish is different for each manufacturer.
But I will do my best to make a reasonable list and post it here.

And please excuse Anna, even if belatedly: of course also from me the warmest birthday wishes !

Dear Thomas-asa,

Okay, that sounds good, about the list I mean. I'm glad you've read my posts. I've been doing extensive research about AAA animals for months, so your list might help solve some mysteries, at least for me. At this point, I'd say, just get the list ready and post it, and I'll see if it helps. By the way, just wondering, how many AAA figures do you have in your collection? I have 324 AAA figures, just so you know. Also, I was looking around on ebay, at the AAA and ELC listings, and I found a listing that mentioned an ELC ceratosaurus, which, according to the listing, was 14 inches long. I just thought I'd let you know. Anyway, when you have the list posted, let me know.

In the meantime, I'll continue to post here, as new additions come to my collection, and hopefully, we'll solve this mystery together.

Aschuck

thomas-asa wrote:

aschuck wrote:

Dear ThomasAsA: could you post a list, or lists, of the different dinosaurs in these four series you mentioned, complete with measurements in inches?

Hi Aschuck,
I read your posts when I was looking for information about AAA. I am trying to put my collection in order and have come across a lot of AAA figurines.
As I am very busy at the moment, it will take me some time to complete the lists. When I am ready, I will post them here.
I will also include the article numbers. However, I only have numbers for the german company WEICO and the spanish company Yolanda. Unfortunately, there are no similarities.
e.g.: Batfish: Your item number: 13809bat; WEICO: 90592; Yolanda: Y00783. Even the order of the deep-sea fish is different for each manufacturer.
But I will do my best to make a reasonable list and post it here.

And please excuse Anna, even if belatedly: of course also from me the warmest birthday wishes !

Thanks for sharing all this information. I understand what Anna wants but it will be a waste of time to share the product numbers of these figures from other companies selling AAA. It will turn everything very confusing even for Anna. These customer companies sell just an assortment of AAA figures so their numbering is just for distribution, they do not have any kind of interest for collectors. The important numbers are those provided by AAA or at least Mamejo Nature which seem to be the same.
Anna will understand and you will get free from a huge task. :)

Oh, I see what you mean now. In that case, you can just list the animals and their sizes (in inches), and that's about it. If the numbers don't match the ones I have, then there's no point in making things even more confusing, even for me. I hope this post helps.

Aschuck

aschuck wrote:

Oh, I see what you mean now. In that case, you can just list the animals and their sizes (in inches), and that's about it. If the numbers don't match the ones I have, then there's no point in making things even more confusing, even for me. I hope this post helps.

Aschuck

Thanks for understanding, Anna. Trust me, those numbers won't help at all. :)

A short interim report:

I clearly underestimated the topic!

In the meantime I have at my disposal:

-WEICO catalogs: 4 catalogs + 1 online "catalog" = 631 photos of potentially different figures
-HUMTOYS: 1 booklet with 85 figures
-Comansi/Yolanda: 1 catalog with 131 different figures
-EdiloParodi: 1 catalog with >400 figures
-TAI: 590 figures
-STS: 2 catalog excerpts with more than 600 figures
-Aschuk: 351 listed figures

= 11 sources with more than 2600 photos + own collection: 436 figures  

The problem: No standardized information:
- sizes are often missing, without which it is often impossible to distinguish pictures from figures
- Item numbers rarely match between different dealers/importers
- no real categories available (marine animals, farm/pets, ...)
- the usual catalog errors: figure without item number, definitely the same figures in different catalogs (of the same dealer) with different names or even different figures with the same name (and same item number), ...
- obviously there are old and new molds of some figures
- some figures seem to have been available only as a set and not individually. Others, however, were also available individually with their own name/article number for refilling sales displays.

Since most dealers/importers also sell "cheap" animal figures that are not from AAA, many pictures do not show secured figures from AAA.

I am currently trying to summarize all this in an excel table and link it to the corresponding pictures. The database currently has 520 entries, but these need to be checked again.

Catalogs from Bullyland and Schleich have not yet been included. After a cursory review, catalogs from 1990-2003 come into question. The 1993 Schleich catalog definitely contains figures from AAA. Unfortunately, I only have Schleich catalogs from 2000 onwards. It would be very kind if someone from the forum could provide me with the relevant pages as a photo/PDF.

So I still have a lot of exciting work to do.

Dear Thomasa:

Yes, you are right, I have mentioned a whole bunch of AAA figures in my posts, but most of these are figures I've seen in passing. Currently in my collection, however, I only have 324 AAA figures, but as we all know, this number is rising. Slowly but surely. Also, keep in mind that there certain AAA figures that I don't collect, mainly domestic dogs, AAA horses, and rhinos. I used to have a few AAA horses in my collection, but then I discovered that I was confusing them with the Schleich horses that I already had. So, I got rid of them. Another thing you should also take note on is that, in my collection, doubles (such as two AAA panda bears in the exact same position), are not a thing that works well for my storytelling. Having doubles of AAA figures only works if the item numbers are different, or if the pose is the same, but the figure is a different animal altogether. You see what I'm trying to say, right? I mean, imagine if you have two panda bear cubs, both made by AAA, and you're telling a story involving the panda bear family as a whole. Well, what would you do if you couldn't see the figures you were working with, and all you could do was use your hands to tell the positions of your figures apart? You see? This is why doubles of AAA figures sometimes don't work. Anyway, I do hope you understand where I'm coming from, and keep up the work with your list. I'd like to view it some day. Just to see what figures I still need to get.

Aschuck

That's right Thomas. It is a huge job and something which requires a lot of dedication as you're doing and Anna in her own way. We don't even know if AAA figures have official numbers. Most of these we find online are provided by Mamejo Nature. So it is really the size and pose the essential elements to list these figures as accurately as possible. Some models have different colors to represent different species but, for example, those from Yolanda use to be differently colored even when there's no intention of representing a different species.
I'd be glad of reformulating the AAA section on TAW if you ever provide that list as complete as possible because I tried several times to do it myself and it is impossible when you are editing simultaneously on every single brand.
Do not forget the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in their AZA collection you can find some AAA figures mixed with some non AAA figures. Those sold by Wild Republic have the AAA logo removed.

A list of the AAA figures I have found will still take some time due to the quantity.
So here is an overview of the responses I received to my request for information on AAA.
Unfortunately, the number of replies is small. Mostly I have not received any answers. Some of the people I wrote to were initially interested and enquired about my background. At the latest when I wrote something about "collectors", there was no reply.

I asked the following four questions:
1. do you still have these figures?
2. are these figures still produced / from when, until when were they produced?
3. are there still old catalogues / lists containing these animals (paper or PDF)?
4. can you tell me more about this company: does it still exist, contact address, etc. ?


NAYAB:

"Hello Thomas, AAA company still producing toys, you can check amazon UK store to buy the figurine if you like to buy."


AAA Plastics:

"Dear Thomas,
Thank you for your email.

You have reached AAA Plastic Manufacturing Company Limited, the company that designed, developed and manufactured the animal figures you are talking about. All our products are marked with the "Triple A" logo however, we have also designed and developed many other figures under commission from our customers that does not carry our logo. Answer your questions is as follows:

1 & 2. We no longer produce these figures as the site of the factory in China was acquired by a real-estate development company back in 2017.

3. Probably not.

4. The company still exist but no longer trading or manufacturing any items.

Best regards,
AAA Plastic"


A source that does not wish to be named confirmed this. The factories were probably located in China and there was a "land reform" with reallocation of utilisation possibilities.
This source also wanted to send me a 160-page AAA catalogue. Unfortunately, nothing has arrived yet.


Ravensden:

"Hello Thomas,
...We do still sell this range of realistic museum quality figures but they are no longer produced by the AAA factory. It closed in 2017 and all of the moulds that they used were sold to another manufacturer of this kind of product that we still work with.

AAA had a wide range of products ranging from wildlife to knights and apart from under its own brand with the AAA stamp also produced quite a number of products under licence (for example for the Early Learning Centre here in the UK)...."


I then asked again (the answers I received follow directly after the question):

1. would it be possible to get a contact address from this "other"
manufacturer? - sorry we cannot share this - they have removed all reference to AAA from the moulds though

2. are the figures produced after 2017 still marked with AAA? - No

And a 3rd general question about the catalogue and the pictures:
Are the item numbers numbers from AAA or are they own numbers (from Ravensden)? - these are our own reference numbers


Other companies have also confirmed the latter. The combination of numbers and letters is apparently unpopular with many accountants.


Edilio Parodi:

I bought some more figures there and got a catalogue, which has already been published here in the forum: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Some of the figures did not correspond to the illustrations in terms of colour and pose. The answer was:
"... now is available only green, the pic is of old production."
"... the items are same, for some subjects are made modifications when certain details are not reproducible."


WEICO:
This German import company for toys no longer exists


Unfortunately, this is all the information we have.

Finally, an overview of the variants of the AAA logo that I was able to find on my figures. Unfortunately, I cannot find a connection with the production time.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]All A touch each other
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]confusing
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]regular with distance in a circle
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]raised
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]without circle
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Difficult to recognize: embossed
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Circle as a raised disk
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Same figure with engraved CE
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Same figure with large CE
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Same figure with different color and font (CE)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]3 identical figures with different markings and additional Registered Trademark symbol
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]AAA figure in packaging from Bullyland
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]AAA figure with sticker from Bullyland

That's a formidable effort and research about AAA even if most is not conclusive yet. Thanks for all your dedication and for sharing all this interesting information with us.

Thanks for finding out about this! I hope your anonymous source will send you the catalogue. Is it worth asking them again? Interesting that AAA say that they still exist but don't trade or manufacture any items. I wonder what they still do then.

AAA sea turtles[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Jimmy Chen wrote:

AAA sea turtles

  Really beautiful figures! Also your other jumbos here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Do you have a list of your AAA figures with sizes? Or catalogues?
This would help me a lot to build up a complete list of all AAA figures. Do you know more about the company?
I will send you my private email via PM.

Here are my turtles, unfortunately only the smaller versions:

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Nice turtles Thomas :)

how amazing that they did such huge sizes along with the tiny ones

thomas-asa wrote:

Jimmy Chen wrote:

AAA sea turtles

  Really beautiful figures! Also your other jumbos here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Do you have a list of your AAA figures with sizes? Or catalogues?
This would help me a lot to build up a complete list of all AAA figures. Do you know more about the company?
I will send you my private email via PM.

Here are my turtles, unfortunately only the smaller versions:

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The biggest sea turtle is 55cm long, the second one is 45cm long. They are very huge and heavy.