Collection Review: Papo and Schleich Cats and Deer

Figure Brand: Schleich and Papo

Figure Name(s): White-Tailed Buck (14818)
Snow Leopard (14838)
White Tiger (50045)

Sex: White-Tailed Buck- Male
Snow Leopard -  Female
White Tiger – Male

Name: White-Tailed Buck - Rollo
Snow Leopard – Aurora
White Tiger – Articus

Year Made: White-Tailed Buck - 2019
Snow Leopard – 2020
White Tiger – 2006

Observations/Thoughts:
I know, it’s very strange to add a deer in with two cats but as I’m wrapping things up for the end of the year review-wise, I added the deer in as he got overlooked until now.

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Rollo the White-Tailed Buck is by Schleich, though he looks way too cheap and unrealistic in my opinion. The look of him does not match in with previous deer sculpts who were realistically coloured and had way more detail.
I think leaving out detail and true realistic brown colours cheapens the look of the figure. Particularly evident on the antlers as they are creamy white-. A look that resembles paint spray showing through.
His pose is neutral too, not very interesting, it’s standing on the ground with all four feet and looking slightly to right.
His colour is russet brown, with a white cream underbelly with a gradient on the neck and belly. His antlers are also cream/white and brown with a gradient on the upper parts. I don’t think this is the best colour option, as it seems too light and creamy red brown for a real deer?
His material also feels scratchy, not as smooth as other Schleich models, so I think he is different from other models from the brand.

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Aurora is my Schleich Snow Leopard. In my opinion she isn’t as well sculpted or coloured as other models from the likes of Papo’s snow leopard. Papo’s snow leopard is coloured a dark silvery grey which is realistic, snowy white like this doesn’t seem all that realistic?
Again, she adopts the neutral standing pose with all four feet to the ground, tail down to the right. Her head is straight and slightly down pointing which does giver her a feline stalking look. She does look like she’s on some mountain ridge overlooking some prey item.
There’s nothing wrong with her pose wise, per se, I just find her colouration the most lacking. White with black speckles which seem too sparing, large, and ordered? Then the markings just stop halfway down her tail, looking at the animals online and comparing them to this model, that simply isn’t right, Schleich haven’t coloured this one correctly, they stopped hallway down her tail! The spots are also far too sparing, large, and spaced too far apart, real snow leopards have lots of spots and differing rings of them all over, doing Aurora like this just seems like an injustice to these animals. Would be nice to get an upgrade of this figure from Schleich.

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Papo do far better with their white tiger, he is modelled to look very powerful, yet in a static pose. He stands with all four feet on the ground, the front one slightly stretched out. Again, his head is downward in a typical feline pose so he could be posed in a stalking, hunting scenario. His shoulders are sharp high points which I love, great to see some muscle and joints visible as it leans towards realism.
His stripes and colouration is also well done, he’s a pure icy white with a pinkish nose and light eyes and though he does have some brown stripes, most are black. I’m not sure I’m a fan of the odd brown stripes within but, the rest of his colours are fine. Not much else to say about him as he’s simply an unusual paint of a regular orange tiger. I simply added him to the collection because I do like less ordinary colours of ordinary animals, not much else to say about him.

Rating: White-Tailed Buck – 2019
Snow Leopard – 2020
White Tiger – 2006

Some kitties! And a deer... Well that's an interesting combo for sure.
I'm not a big fan of the white tailed buck either, he looks just too orange to me. I really would love to have Papo's White Tailed deer family (even though they are relatively big).
The same goes for Schleich's Snow Leopard. I just don't really like this model. Her tail looks somewhat strange to me (maybe too stiff?). I like Papo's model more and would love to get it at some point just as Mojo's Snow Leopard. His pose and colouring convince me more than Schleich's even though he is also massive...
By the way I have also a model called Aurora in my collection it's not a cat though but Schleich's Arabian mare from 2014.

Papo's felines are amazing and this tiger is no exception. He looks quite handsome and powerful, I really like his pose. But I already have a white tiger in my collection so this one is not on my wishlist but he is still a nice model. Arcticus fits him for sure.

Thank you Katy, and I had to have one figure called Aurora as it's such a pretty name.
I also forgot to rate them initially so I'll go ahead and do so now:
White tailed Buck- 3/5
Snow Leopard - 3/5
White Tiger- 4/5

I'm not too found of these two Schleich. There are much better white-tailed deer in the market, namely the CollectA, Safari and the Papo. I have the snow leopard but it was repainted by Alain and sent as a gift so I can't judge based on it. The normal version is very uninteresting in sculpt and painting in my opinion. A pity because Schleich already showed that they are capable of releasing great feline figures like the cheetah or the current tiger.
Papo tiger is a classic, while some earlier Papo models are really bad, some are excellent and maybe Papo was the first to present us a very decent tiger, Schleich only was able of getting close with the current tiger which is very good too. I have most of the Papo adult tigers, all orange instead of having from different brands since Safari, CollectA and even Mojo also have good tiger figures.

Yes I agree Roger, both the deer and leopard figures from Schleich are so disappointing and leave a lot to be desired
Tiger is great though