Moe's Schleichworld OCTOBER Update: New Arrivals :)

75senta75 wrote:

MoeHe wrote:

The "Riesenflohmarkt" is definetly the best one in Germany, when it comes for getting old rar items.

Yes, that's right - I look forward to it all year round and always hope, that the weather plays along. Last year the weather was ideal, this year it just rained and a lot of things were flooded, so I didn't go this year. The whiteback vulture and the German Boxer are a great catch and in very good condition.  Very nice!

You're right the weather this year wasn't very good. But I hope it will be good again in 2025, I would really recommend to anyone who take a trip there.  [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Yeah the find of the boxer was very surprising find, when I found him, my heart jumped a few times from exitment

Here are some better pictures of him with my other boxers:
Variations and comparing:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
All of my schleich boxers:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

MoeHe wrote:

Yeah the find of the boxer was very surprising find, when I found him, my heart jumped a few times from exitment

It´s a nice part of collector´s life ! A very rare and nice boxer.

After thinking and giving a love lecture about the tropical fish line from schleich and thinking of why they could be big seller for schleich again. ->https://sts-forum.forumieren.de/t25648-schleich-s-list-of-forgotten-gone-species-with-possiblity-to-come-back

I thought it would be nice to show you one of my favorite sea animals.
Designed and produced in cooperation with the very cool Maia & Borges (I hope to get some of their figures in the future, I wonder why they don't put out more of their figures on there own, they would sell great, sadly here in my region you could only get them new through online stores, I wonder if they are visitable in their company, Schleich sadly stopped this very early as a young boy it was my total dream to visit them Swabian gmünd and join a factory tour)

Here he is in all of his glory:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I really enjoy this picture.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Short backstory:
I really wanted it for a long time, I even saw him in real life for the first time on the "Riesen flea market" in Munich in 2023 but I thought he was to expensive than € 30,- wanted a collector who sold it there.

This year I found him for reasonable price for € 20 inkl. shipping on the online market "Kleinanzeigen", there is one shop owner from whom I buy animals on an regular basis, he is very friendly and has good fair prices. (I am not sure if I am allowed to share his link here in the forum, don't know the guideline for second hand toys) :)

Facts:
Sea Elephant
Productnumber:16081
Made in Portugal
Availability: 1998-2002

I wonder if his prototype still exits from the 1998 catalog, it looks very different colour wise

Nice again

It's cool to see how much this hobby means to you. I totally get that there's something special about finding collectibles at local flea markets. It makes the whole experience feel more real and exciting.

Roger wrote:

It's cool to see how much this hobby means to you. I totally get that there's something special about finding collectibles at local flea markets. It makes the whole experience feel more real and exciting.

You're so kind. That's one of this aspects why I enjoy giving little reviews and backstory about them. It gives the reader more excitement and maybe even the thought of being there yourself on such journeys with me.

Other thing I try to build up a list of every schleich released animal (Farmworld/Horseland, Wildlife) categorized by Country, I will definitely need help from the Community here , with comformation if I forgot any, this I would like to this list then to be transferred and combined to the toy animal wiki in the schleich section to each figure where it belongs. (Still in the works, don't know when it is complete), where I would put this List. Maybe in this category: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Another fun project would be giving myself the task of which animals I would like to see given a release, when there are no releases of it from schleich yet.
There I think I would like this already established topic to give some love, before creating a new one, the name is already perfect. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Would be fun to make some sort of bingo game before we know about it's release. Maybe when we put the schleich 2026 prediction topic out next year.

One other question, does anyone know what the numbers mean under there bellys only schleich's early releases seem to have them.

Here is one exemple: Does this 2 under the boxer mean something special: like factory place, Wave 2 or is it some sort of return code from the time back. About return codes printed under bellys, does schleich still do that or ever had. Other companies not just animal toy companies label these, where you even can find out where for exemple the production facility is located in China.

I am very curious and if there is some topic here in this forum, would you be so kind and link it to me

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

Grüße aus dem Norden!
Greetings from the north!

You have a very extensive and impressive Schleich collection!
And congratulations to your recent finds.
I really like the sea elephant. Schleich should definitely think about making a new one for their lineup.

All of those flea markets are practically unreachable for me at the moment but I would love to visit the south at some point and maybe I could take a look then.

To the number on the Boxer: it might be some sort of moulding number like we have it nowadays. Modern Schleich models have also little numbers on them and from what I've heard they are meant to represent the number of the moulding form that was used for the specific model. Maybe that's also what the Boxer has.

Danke Katy

Schöne Grüße zurück vom Süden

Gibts im Norden auch gute Flohmärkte oder Second Hand Shops, die du empfehlen kannst.
Ich plane im nächsten Jahr nach Nordost zu fahren, genauer gesagt nach Berlin. Dort soll es ja auch einige tolle Geschäfte geben.

Short translation for everyone:

Thank U Katy

Greetings back from the south

Are there some good flea markets and Secondhand stores you would recommend.

I plan to have a visit to the northeast, more precisely to Berlin. There are supposed to be some great shops there too.

The number 2 printed on a Schleich figure likely indicates the mold cavity from which it was produced. It's just for manufacturing reference and meaningless to the buyer.
About your ideas, they all look fine to me and feel free to revive any topics or to start your own topics.
You will find a lot of information browsing the forum. I'm afraid Schleich completists are not that many on forum these days.
I will think about a page project on TAW to give as much information as possible about a Schleich mold and if it works we can use it as a template for other figures.

Thank you Roger for explanation regarding the belly print.

For me personaly it is very interesting what such a code says about a figure. Would also be very cool if we knew more about the product designers in the early years of schleich. Sometimes it is very clearly recognizable who was the designer, we can clearly see that in the horseline, even when they had a new designer in their house like with 2013 or 2017 [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Short personal backstory: when I worked as an bookseller, a book could have many stories not just in terms of content but also behind it's production process to the store where got, which the
Behind many books there were adhesive label, which states many things:
order date
delivery note number
publishing company
ordered quantity
delivered quantiy
delivery date to the store
extradition
customer number of the bookshop
price
Where to find it in the store
....

Back to the topic an updated full list is an good opportunity keep track on their releases and also a further distinction would help the collectors to have an overview. Thank you for your feedback, Roger.

Schleich has never announced their sculptors and it's not easy to find their names. Though, there were two groups, the internal sculptors, those who work as Schleich employees and the sculptors of the companies which partnership with Schleich like it happened with Maia & Borges. Though, last years thing have changed a lot. The change in terms of design was evident but this is usually made in Germany and the specifications sent to the factories where the factory sculptors make the final job.
These very late years, Schleich is not using a single team but a few free lancers, not directly linked to Schleich, are sculpting some of the Schleich figures, namely the horses and Elbrador figures. I shared some of the names somewhere on forum and I believe that is the tendency. However, these names are not provided by the company, we find it through the sculptors social profiles or Youtube channels.

Roger wrote:

Schleich has never announced their sculptors and it's not easy to find their names. Though, there were two groups, the internal sculptors, those who work as Schleich employees  and the sculptors of the companies which partnership with Schleich like it happened with Maia & Borges. Though, last years thing have changed a lot. The change in terms of design was evident but this is usually made in Germany and the specifications sent to the factories where the factory sculptors make the final job.
These very late years, Schleich is not using a single team but a few free lancers, not directly linked to Schleich, are sculpting some of the Schleich figures, namely the horses and Elbrador figures. I shared some of the names somewhere on forum and I believe that is the tendency. However, these names are not provided by the company, we find it through the sculptors social profiles or Youtube channels.

Thank you Roger once again very interesting thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. :)

Here some insperation which [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] inspired me to show with her amazing schleich dog collection topic.

My mini but lovely Cocker Spaniel collection:

Cocker Spaniel

Productionnumber: 16321
Productioncountry: Both Made in Germany
Availability: 1998 - 2002

Short History: My first one I bought back in 2018 from a nice woman from the austrian online plattform "willhaben" who didn't have much knowledge back than for what she sold. I got it from a small lot with other great figures were also part of it Norwegian Forest Cat 16601 and the Persian Cat Lying 16602 all of them cost me only 8 € including shipping -> all are in very good condition. It was also the time when I started to gain more interest in getting old discontinued figures from the schleich line.

The second one  I got this year in summer in July on nice "Olympia flea market" in Munich for only 1 €, can you believe that.      

At home I compared both and saw both have some small differences in color, what was a nice coincidence.

About names:  I thought one should be called "Susi" (like the one from the very lovely animated cartoon "Lady and the Tramp" from the 50s, it was even one of my moms first movies she saw as a child Lady is called Susi in the German dub) and the other one "Senna" as reference to one of my favorite cartoon showes "The Legend of Korra", which was part of my adolescence ("Senna" was the mother of the main character Korra)

Here they are:

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

Here is my Cocker Spaniel Gang
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

About the newer versions:

One is made in Bosnia and the other is made in Romania

Names: Benson and Bowie

MoeHe wrote:

Danke Katy

Schöne Grüße zurück vom Süden

Gibts im Norden auch gute Flohmärkte oder Second Hand Shops, die du empfehlen kannst.  
Ich plane im nächsten Jahr nach Nordost zu fahren, genauer gesagt nach Berlin. Dort soll es ja auch einige tolle Geschäfte geben.

Short translation for everyone:

Thank U Katy

Greetings back from the south

Are there some good flea markets and Secondhand stores you would recommend.

I plan to have a visit to the northeast, more precisely to Berlin. There are supposed to be some great shops there too.

Unfortunately I can't recommend anything because I practically never go to flea markets or Secondhand stores (there aren't any of them near me from what I know).
But I am sure that Hamburg is full of good places. One just need to search

Berlin should definitely have some nice places either! Hopefully I'll be able to visit our capital at some point as well.


Those Spaniels are very lovely! I really like the names that you gave them. They look actually quite nice next to the newer ones but I might even prefer the two older ladies.

@Poldichats brought an interesting way to show hr Scleich dog figures. It's good to see you following a similar layout. Germany has the advantage of allowing most collectors to find real bargains locally.
Back to the sculptors, maybe [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is interesting for you. You can find some names of artists who sculpted for Schleich and other brands, just check the whole topic.

Roger wrote:

@Poldichats brought an interesting way to show hr Scleich dog figures. It's good to see you following a similar layout. Germany has the advantage of allowing most collectors to find real bargains locally.
Back to the sculptors, maybe [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is interesting for you. You can find some names of artists who sculpted for Schleich and other brands, just check the whole topic.

Thank you for sharing, this is a very cool topic, it would be so cool if we add  the creator of the sculpts to the TAW, it gives them even more recognize.
Maybe the sculptors would like to add a short backstory, how an figure came to be or why they decided to make it in the first place or if they had some default in the process.

What reminds me I'm still on work on my never produced species for schleich´. So much to do
Added also some figures/ species to the officiall schleich list [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I am still working on, I try to work on it every day.   Today I was astonished how many versions the giraffes already had. But I really enjoy keeping it up to date. While doing it I wonderd when schleich offically began their productions in other countries.

1) Germany
2) Portugal
3) China
4) Tunisia
5) Bosnia
6) Romania
7) Vietnam

Spain? as I found on the offical wikipedia [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] what figures were/are produced in spain? Is it still an activ production site.

I've never seen a Schleich animal figure made in Spain, but there are many Smurfs made in Spain. With the exception of Germany, China and Portugal, Most of the other countries started the production for Schleich in very recent years, 2016 or so, I believe we will be able of finding the information.

Fantastic collection! When I see your shelves, it feels like I am in the best toy shop ever. And when I see your bed, I wonder where you sleep . I like the way you study your models, it gives an extra dimension to your collecting hobby. I don't have many Schleich myself, so I am sorry I can't contribute to the discussion much.

I agree it would be great if companies told us more about the sculptors. They deserve more credit and it would create more interest in the models. I am not sure why companies don't do this. Perhaps they don't want their sculptors to have too much fame because they might have to pay them more?

Thank you rogerpgvg, you're so kind. :)

In the past I always wanted to work in a toy shop, but I would have been the best customer [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I think the description how J.R.R. Tolkien saw his dwarfs would be the best discripton for a collector like me: [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

He described them so: "The dwarves are considered brave and strong warriors, as well as reliable allies, although they are sometimes very stubborn, pushy and greedy." The greedy part I would personaly not include for me. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Another great dicription for me as a collector would be: a Knowledge Seeker from the World of Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

"The Knowledge Seekers are the fox-like spirit assistants of the knowledge spirit Wan Shi Tong, traveling the world collecting old books and parchments to contribute to the vast archives of his library. The Knowledge Seekers also help library patrons and provide assistance in finding books, but may expect treats in return." -> I don't expect treats, I just do it for fun [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here is a short discreption how Professor Zei characterized them: ""Wan Shi Tong and his knowledge seekers collected books from all over the world, and put them on display for mankind to read, so that we might better ourselves."

Personaly I would love to see Schleich making characters and animals like appa and Momo [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] in their lineup. They would be so cool and even sell very well world wide.

That would be such a cool line:

If Schleich included them in their merchandise

Next year Avatar the last airbender celebrates it's 20th. anniversary. and with the live action tv series, they brought out on Netflix it is still very popular.

Here is how I would like them to release these cool figures.

First wave:

1x Avatar Aang (Single figure)
1x Appa, Aangs flyingbision (with removable saddle)
1x Momo (single figure)
1x Katara (single figure)
1x Sokka (single figure)
1x Suki, in Warrior outfit (single figure)
1x Zuko and Uncle Iroh (two pack)

1x Avatar Korra (single figure)
1x Naga, Korra's polarbeardog (with removable saddle)
1x Bolin (single figure)
1x Mako (single figure)
(Maybe a two pack with Bolin and Mako)
1x Pabu, the fire feret (Single figure)
1x Asami Sato (single figure)
1x Amon and Lieutenant (two pack)

Specialpack The Avatars before Aang:  (Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk and Yangchen) -> other version with glowing eyes.

I know their are many other great characters they should make but that's why we have a wave 2,...  
There are so many ways they could go with them.
The fact they are cartoon doesn't matter anyway because it's the way schleich wants to look their animal figures anyway nowadays.

Back to my schleich collection topic:

I added the Cape Buffalos to the main Schleich list topic, this why I decided to show the latest figure form this years releases.

Cape Buffalo/ African buffalo
Product number: 14872
Productioncountry: Both made in Portugal
Availability:New release from 2024

Names: Karsten and Konrad

Backstory: I got both of them in one of my favorite stores in Munich, I wanted them as soon as possible.
There I saw them at the same time and thought both looked very wonderful for comparison. They are my favorite release of the year 2024 of the wildlife line.

Here they are:

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

Family group picture will follow eventually. don't have all of them here with me right now.

I don't intend to buy more Cape buffalos because I already have the two previous Schleich generations, the Mojö Fun and the Papo. Though, I don't know if I will resist i I find one of those in a local store. Cape buffalo figures are always well done, I have no idea why it happens. Nice to know they are one more model made in Portugal. Likely they are just painted here.
By the way, I found that the firrst Schleich figures painted in Portugal were also Smurfs, it is said it started in 1979 although officially it only shows in 1982 models. Surprisingly, also Tunisia started painting Smurfs in 1982 but that was a plant built for Schleich production while the Portuguese factory was already the Maia & Borges one which was founded in 1976. I don't know if I already told it to you, in 1987, when Schleich got bankrupt, te production continued in the Maia & Borges factory and it was decisive to keep Schleich alive. So, your collecting hobby will always be connected to Portugal because I'm sure you'd not become a Schleich collector if Schleich had got defunct in 1987.

[quote="Roger"]I don't intend to buy more Cape buffalos because I already have the two previous Schleich generations, the Mojö Fun and the Papo. Though, I don't know if I will resist i I find one of those in a local store. Cape buffalo figures are always well done, I have no idea why it happens. Nice to know they are one more model made in Portugal. Likely they are just painted here.
By the way, I found that the firrst Schleich figures painted in Portugal were also Smurfs, it is said it started in 1979 although officially it only shows in 1982 models. Surprisingly, also Tunisia started painting Smurfs in 1982 but that was a plant built for Schleich production while the Portuguese factory was already the Maia & Borges one which was founded in 1976. I don't know if I already told it to you, in 1987, when Schleich got bankrupt, te production continued in the Maia & Borges factory and it was decisive to keep Schleich alive. So, your collecting hobby will always be connected to Portugal because I'm sure you'd not become a Schleich collector if Schleich had got defunct in 1987.[/quote


Thank you Roger for sharing so much history backup about schleich and the production site history in Portugal.

Now, I really wonder where schleich has it's production places in China.

The fact they already had painted their figures in Tunisia in the early 80s is very interesting. I think in the early 2010s they started production in Tunisia for their animal toy line. :)


I really like all off there cape buffalos, the more the bettere:) , in wild life they also live in herds. Maybe you should get them.

So now I have to go back to my daily project there are so many figures to add to the list.