The PlayVisions animals in my zoo

congrats Andreas. I think I know where this treasure came from.

Always so exiting to see what new PVs you got, Andreas

And such a little gem, - CONGRATULATIONS

Many thanks friends :)

my new cape buffalo

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congrats my friend! I'm glad he found a nice new home.

my new strange cogwheel turtle

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the long wished lemurs

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Very nice, Andreas! Congrats again!

Oh my god!!!! I'd kill for that potto

big big congrats

Many many thanks Laura and Beatrice :)

Fantastic Andreas! Keep your lemurs next to you once I'll need some info about them.

beautiful set. congrats andreas

very hard to get its.

Many thanks Roger and Fernando, qnd no problem Roger :)

How did you acquire the lemurs Andreas? Good job!

jhudstone wrote:

How did you acquire the lemurs Andreas? Good job!

Thank you, Julie from the Netherlands found these figurines in a shop :)

You have much more Playvisions than I do! All I have is four pieces!

Bowhead Whale wrote:

You have much more Playvisions than I do! All I have is four pieces!

Thanks, a brand with so very unusual species is very very interesting for me. And so i searched and searched and now i have the most figurines that i wanted :)

widukind wrote:

My Newcomer:

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I see you have the Bowhead Whale: that is the most important piece Playvisions ever made. It is absolutely necessary to own in any Playvisions collection.

Bowhead Whale wrote:

widukind wrote:

My Newcomer:

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I see you have the Bowhead Whale: that is the most important piece Playvisions ever made. It is absolutely necessary to own in any Playvisions collection.  

Thank you. It was my most wanted whale figurine in this time because it was the only bowhead :)

widukind wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

I see you have the Bowhead Whale: that is the most important piece Playvisions ever made. It is absolutely necessary to own in any Playvisions collection.  

Thank you. It was my most wanted whale figurine in this time because it was the only bowhead :)

An interesting phenomenon in toy industry is the way balleen whales were negleted by vintage manufacturers. For old toy industry,talking about whales was synonym of sperm whale, maybe Moby Dick or Pinnochio whale (Moby Dick inspired) influenced it, interestingly sperm whales are not baleen whales.
In a quick exercise, I tried to check which brands made the first whales, obviously it is not a perfect approach but give us a good idea how recent are baleens in toy culture:
1973 blue whale by Invicta
1992 Humpback whale by Safari Ltd
1992 Grey whale by Safari Ltd
1996 Bowhead whale by Play Visions
1998 Right whale by Maia & Borges
1998 Common minke whale by Maia & Borges
2012 Finback whale by Bullyland

Surely there are older representatives of these species but those are the ones I've found pictured on TAI. Unfortunately AAA figures chronology is not known. Concluding, bowhead whale from Play Visions seems to be the earliest release of this species.

Roger wrote:

widukind wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

I see you have the Bowhead Whale: that is the most important piece Playvisions ever made. It is absolutely necessary to own in any Playvisions collection.  

Thank you. It was my most wanted whale figurine in this time because it was the only bowhead :)

An interesting phenomenon in toy industry is the way balleen whales were negleted by vintage manufacturers. For old toy industry,talking about whales was synonym of sperm whale, maybe Moby Dick or Pinnochio whale (Moby Dick inspired) influenced it, interestingly sperm whales are not baleen whales.
In a quick exercise, I tried to check which brands made the first whales, obviously it is not a perfect approach but give us a good idea how recent are baleens in toy culture:
1973 blue whale by Invicta
1992 Humpback whale by Safari Ltd
1992 Grey whale by Safari Ltd
1996 Bowhead whale by Play Visions
1998 Right whale by Maia & Borges
1998 Common minke whale by Maia & Borges
2012 Finback whale by Bullyland

Surely there are older representatives of these species but those are the ones I've found pictured on TAI. Unfortunately AAA figures chronology is not known. Concluding, bowhead whale from Play Visions seems to be the earliest release of this species.

I bought my AAA Right Whale (which is actually a hybrid between Black Right Whale and Bowhead Whale) back in 1993. So, it gives us the clue that AAA made their whales before that year.

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Roger wrote:

widukind wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

I see you have the Bowhead Whale: that is the most important piece Playvisions ever made. It is absolutely necessary to own in any Playvisions collection.  

Thank you. It was my most wanted whale figurine in this time because it was the only bowhead :)

An interesting phenomenon in toy industry is the way balleen whales were negleted by vintage manufacturers. For old toy industry,talking about whales was synonym of sperm whale, maybe Moby Dick or Pinnochio whale (Moby Dick inspired) influenced it, interestingly sperm whales are not baleen whales.
In a quick exercise, I tried to check which brands made the first whales, obviously it is not a perfect approach but give us a good idea how recent are baleens in toy culture:
1973 blue whale by Invicta
1992 Humpback whale by Safari Ltd
1992 Grey whale by Safari Ltd
1996 Bowhead whale by Play Visions
1998 Right whale by Maia & Borges
1998 Common minke whale by Maia & Borges
2012 Finback whale by Bullyland

Surely there are older representatives of these species but those are the ones I've found pictured on TAI. Unfortunately AAA figures chronology is not known. Concluding, bowhead whale from Play Visions seems to be the earliest release of this species.

I bought my AAA Right Whale (which is actually a hybrid between Black Right Whale and Bowhead Whale) back in 1993. So, it gives us the clue that AAA made their whales before that year.

That is very interesting! still Lot to know about AA.

And as you already know, I bought my Larami whales back in winter 1997. This set included a few baleen whales, like Blue Whale, Fin Whale, Bowhead Whale, Black Right Whale, Humpback Whale and Grey Whale. This puts them between the 1996 Playvisions whales and the 1998 Maia and Borges whales.

Bowhead Whale wrote:

And as you already know, I bought my Larami whales back in winter 1997. This set included a few baleen whales, like Blue Whale, Fin Whale, Bowhead Whale, Black Right Whale, Humpback Whale and Grey Whale. This puts them between the 1996 Playvisions whales and the 1998 Maia and Borges whales.

Yes, that's correct, my list was not an intensive study, I just checked species pages on Toy Animal Wiki and listed the older figures of each species I could find
pictured. Though, it confirms the last years of XX century as a period where a boom of species occurred in this hobby.
We already have Larami sharks pictured on TAI thanks to Andreas but not yet whales. I listed them through reading your interesting posts. If you could provide pictures onf them it could be fantastic.You can do it either sending them to me or just opening a topic on forum. You can also contribute directly on TAI if you wish.
You can see Larami page just clicking in this link.
Another idea you're givingn me is about Right whale page. As brands don't use to identify them to species level, we created a single page to all 3 species. As it seems you can identify them to the species level, I can create, with your identification help, a page to each species. I know your Internet access is limited so there's no hurries.

Roger wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

And as you already know, I bought my Larami whales back in winter 1997. This set included a few baleen whales, like Blue Whale, Fin Whale, Bowhead Whale, Black Right Whale, Humpback Whale and Grey Whale. This puts them between the 1996 Playvisions whales and the 1998 Maia and Borges whales.

Yes, that's correct, my list was not an intensive study, I just checked species pages on Toy Animal Wiki and listed the older figures of each species I could find
pictured. Though, it confirms the last years of XX century as a period where a boom of species occurred in this hobby.
We already have Larami sharks pictured on TAI thanks to Andreas but not yet whales. I listed them through reading your interesting posts. If you could provide pictures onf them it could be fantastic.You can do it either sending them to me or just opening a topic on forum. You can also contribute directly on TAI if you wish.
You can see Larami page just clicking in this link.
Another idea you're givingn me is about Right whale page. As brands don't use to identify them to species level, we created a single page to all 3 species. As it seems you can identify them to the level, I can create, with your identification help, a page to each species. I know your Internet access is limited so there's no hurries.

OK. I will photograph them individually and in group.
As for saying that the Bowhead Whale was the most important piece Playvisions ever made, I was surprised everyone here took me seriously, while I was just joking, only speaking for my favorite animal. Everyone has his/her own favorites and they differ from a person to another.