Gaschers Collectors Guide to Schleich Animals

Suebeedo wrote:

I expect that in the future there will be a more accurate book available and it will be HUGE! Of course not every Schleich item that has been made is in the book. I just saw on ebay.com a toy set called "Yakari" new in box (course the box is aged) as a Buy it Now. It is out of Australia but they will ship anywhere. For you die hard collectors that are missing only a few items is this one you are missing? Also the babies aren't in the catalogue either. It is nice to have some idea as to what is out there though. Happy hunting! :)

Hello Suebeedo. I believe the Yakari horse is a cartoon-based figurine, and if memory serves, there is a Yakari eagle, as well. They are nice figures, as is the 1983 Regina Regenbocker (sp?) "Sternschnuppe" which is a beautiful fantasy horse figurine. There is also the lovely "Erika" the cartoon giraffe series done for Merck Corp. When you see the entire line, you realize that "Erika" is the closest thing to a true "renaissance (wo)man" since Leo da Vinci himself!

The babies are de kleinen Minis, I believe, so I'm surprised they weren't in the Gascher's Guide, although on second thought, maybe I'm not really surprised.....

I have seen some episodes from Yakari!I remember many animals he talked to:
eagle,bear,wolves,beavers,elks,mountain goats.

The family Strassberger from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] helped to realize the Gaschers Guide.
Maybe it would be better to consult more great Schleich collectors indeed, like Torben...
And i think, there are more big collectors on the forum here, that could give usefull information in this field.

Schleich made many comic figurines indeed, and the family Strassberger shows many of them on their site.
There is also the dog named "Wum", with his elephant friend "Wendelin", which always appeared in a saturday-night show/quiz, and talked to the showmaster Wim Thoelke in the 1970's.
He was a very funny dog with all kinds of "dry" comments.

The babies are from "Die Kleinen" (The little ones) indeed, another series, next to the big Mini series.
I had one of him too in the past

The other benefit of the Gascher guide for me is that it is in two languages. English (which of course I know :)) and German which I don't know. The benefit you ask? Now I can go to ebay.de and put in the German words for a figure and find it! But I am at a loss after that as I don't understand anything on the sellers page, be it description or if they will ship to USA a definite language barrier there... Now I need a German to English translation book to help me. Actually I think there may be a translation site online. Just got to find it! ~Ah...it is German right? Sue

Hi Sue. Look on the to of your screen on the browser and see where it says "Page". If you click on that, there is a button that says "Google Translate", or at least mine has it and it helps a lot. Mine also has a "Translate" button at the top next to my Google search box. This translates the whole page into English. Hope this helps.

Hi Sue...
Otherwise you can PM me or mail me for translations, as i speak many languages if you need any help... :)

Does anyone have this book? Is it worth getting also I noticed its not very big at all I was hoping it was as big as my Breyer Collectors guide its 8.5 in x 11 in.

Do you mean this one? Link

The Schleich Collectors Guide is a great Book and a Musthave for every true Schleich collector, I can highly recommend it.

Its now three years old and I hope, they will publish a new, updated edition next year.

Is the size only 5in x 8in?

Its 7 in x 10 inches.

It is riddled with misinformation. With all due respect, I believe it's a waste of money.

schleich61 wrote:

It is riddled with misinformation. With all due respect, I believe it's a waste of money.

I know there are good website references for pictures, years made and a few variations but is there one that has kind of what the value is on them? I know with the Breyer horses its hard to say it all depends on the demand for a certain model

dlfrogman wrote:

schleich61 wrote:

It is riddled with misinformation. With all due respect, I believe it's a waste of money.

I know there are good website references for pictures, years made and a few variations but is there one that has kind of what the value is on them? I know with the Breyer horses its hard to say it all depends on the demand for a certain model

The price quotations in the Schleich Guide are horribly inaccurate. Please ignore them. There is no reference online or in text for typical market prices for Schleich rarities. If you have a question about a specific figurine, you're welcome to PM me and I'll tell you what it's worth on eBay.de, as I follow every Schleich auction there, and have for three years.

schleich61 wrote:

It is riddled with misinformation. With all due respect, I believe it's a waste of money.

The prices are app 5 - 6 years old, so as Phil says they are worthless.
Also dates and sizes are wrong for many of the Classics ( which is not complete), and several pictures are mirrored.
Variants are lacking, and, and....

All that said, it is a wonderful book in my humble opinion
Sorry, Phil, I know you think it is ok to disagree

I have already worn one almost to shreds and filled it with notes, comments, links etc
I can recommend to get it in English/German, - I use it as a fast dictionary also.

The book was - as the author says in the intro - made by people who collect Smurfs. I think they made a wonderful job.
In the intro they invite comments and ideas for improvements, which I respect a lot, and I know they were FLOODED with mails.
So I am sure the next edition will be much better, - if somebody else doesn`t beat them and make a completely other one with the really old models as well

PS, I have seen they have begun to sell retired Bullyland-figures now. Perhaps they will make a collector`s guide for Bullyland

I dislike greatly the tendency to put actual prices figures in collectors' guides. Prices are always in flux, depending on the economy and popularity, and who's on ebay at the moment, and who forgot to bid, or who has sudden vet bills at the moment, or who decided to sell their entire collection at once and flooded the market. I've seen Breyer models on ebay sell for $500 one week and the same thing a few weeks later $200. The only thing the prices in guidebooks do is give the uneducated inflated ideas of value.
i believe it would be less misleading if guides instead gave relative ratings, such as:
current or recently retired [to allow for a model's being retired before the next edition comes out] = current retail prices
retired but common or not in demand = cheap, often below retail for current models
rare but not in demand [for example a special variation of a not popular model] = can vary from far below retail to retail
rare = above retail
highly desirable = far above retail
highest desirable = you will pay very high prices, if you can even find one for sale

This system would work for model horse brands i know the best (Breyers, HR, Hartland). i don't know how it would work for Schleich etc, but it makes more sense to me than model ABC is worth X$.

And of course, in a couple years, any ratings can be made obsolete by retirements, changes in taste, and the economy, but at least relative value is less likely to change than actual prices.

From my experience with Model horses once you get familiar with the hobby you pretty much know how much something will go for and yes it is kind of pointless to put value in a book that is going to be outdated in a year or so unless you plan on putting one out every year.

I agree with Phil, that this so called collectors guide, is worthless in the first place, specially for experienced collectors, which do have more knowledge on Schleich then this catalogue shows...
But for a collector who is just starting it is ok, but forget about the prices!
I hope they bring out a better version soon, with the prices as "about"...
A Bullyland guide would be wishfull to, same for other bigger brands!

dlfrogman wrote:

From my experience with Model horses once you get familiar with the hobby you pretty much know how much something will go for and yes it is kind of pointless to put value in a book that is going to be outdated in a year or so unless you plan on putting one out every year.

Absolutely. When you're in an antique store and you see a $100 price tag on a scratched up crummy Breyer, you know someone who doesn't know doodly about Breyers got a peek at one of those books! It seems whenever i pick up a model out of sheer curiosity at the price, someone starts telling me about how rare and valuable it is b/c it's a Breyer; even when you tell them exactly which model it is, and when it was released and for how long, they're still sure it must be valuable because they saw in a book that Breyers are worth $$$$$$$.

Yeah, those books can do ugly things for your wallet, and specially the people who don't have a clue fall into this trap...
Although the retired and rare Schleichs are far more expensive then the guide tells us...

I know one thing that makes me crazy is when there is a very limited release of an item and some "so called collectors" buy alot of them and then turn around and sell them on Ebay......and then the rest of us that actually Enjoy the hobby can't get one at a decent price.....

When you stay on this forum, you will have the news of special releases in time, and will be able to buy them for a normal price....
We do have all kinds of people here, and some of them do this to, and they have to live with it...

dlfrogman wrote:

I know one thing that makes me crazy is when there is a very limited release of an item and some "so called collectors" buy alot of them and then turn around and sell them on Ebay......and then the rest of us that actually Enjoy the hobby can't get one at a decent price.....

Danger, Will Robinson...

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I also hope , the variations of so many figures will be in the next edition of the Collectors guide, but I can't agree it is bad guidebook., only by missing the variations, "bad" pictures or the prices.

I'm collector of many other things for many years and I always have ignored the prices in this catalogues, they can guide give the collectores a little imagination of the worth of a figure, but don't forget, all the prices in the Schleich guide are only for figures in brand new condition with tag !

The critics here on that book are a little bit unfair, its the first guide for Schleich Animals, so give the publishers a chance, to wipe out the mistakes in the nexte dition !

Bongo wrote:

I also hope , the variations of so many figures will be in the next edition of the Collectors guide, but I can't agree it is bad guidebook., only by missing the variations, "bad" pictures or the prices.

I'm collector of many other things for many years and I always have ignored the prices in this catalogues, they can guide give the collectores a little imagination of the worth of a figure, but don't forget, all the prices in the Schleich guide are only for figures in brand new condition with tag !

The critics here on that book are a little bit unfair, its the first guide for Schleich Animals, so give the publishers a chance, to wipe out the mistakes in the nexte dition !

Hi, Bongo

I agree with you
Also as I said, I use it for making notes, and that way it becomes more and more valuable for me .... I may not be the most experienced Schleich-collector, but also not quite "new". And I couldn`t live without that book, even if I know it almost by heart
As somebody said..people wo do something, make mistakes. If you do nothing you don`t make mistakes ...or something to that effect