2012 African Elephants

They are great--the photos do not do them justice. Now I am in a dilemma do I create a new herd from the 2012 elephants or mixed them with the former elephants??? has anyone else gotten the elephants yet--very impressed! What I was not impressed with was the HUGE scale difference with the elephants and pelican! the pelican is just as big. And the stork stands above the elephants, so I am told. I know the scale of all Schleich animals have never been in line but these are major differences. But as I write this and see all the 2012 releases together...maybe it is the elephants that are way off scale??!

All Schleich figures are not really in scale and if you try to find the scale you will find it. As there's no scale we never know if the elephants are small or the storks large. Anyway people uses the zebras, that are about 1:22 scale. If you considere these figures, the elephants are really small and the birds are huge. :)
If your hobby is collecting Schleich, forget scales. :)
The new elephants are beautiful and cute, but the old elephants were already pretty, mainly Africans, as are all elephants from all brands, I guess! People was disappointed mainly because they are very small as the previous figures, they are almost the same sculptings, proportions are also almost the same. What happened was mainly an updating in terms of texture and painting. It was much better to see really different figures, more realistic and with different poses and not some more nice elephants!
Any collector has its way of collecting, I'll give my old Schleich elephants to children and replace them with more realistic versions, not necessarily from Schleich. But, if you want to make a herd, you can use from many brands because they are almost the same size. Or also use only different generations of Schleich.

I do agree is not ugly for the elephants for 2012 & what I don't like is not proportionate to scale. Apparently the legs are too short for elephant. If you are particular for scale I do have say that this might not for you.

I like the new elefants, esp the Asian female and baby are nice.

Has a brand already made elephants in scale ? If they were as big as the Schleich fight elephant, do you think they would sell well ? A complete family would be too expensive and most people don't have enough room for them !

Some Asian elephants have really short legs. Maybe the African elephants are less accurate ?

Anyway, I will definitely buy them !! They are gorgeous !!

I have not seen the new Elephants (or any of the 2012 animals) in person, but they look nice! I didn't realize they were the same animals, only modified. I assumed they were going to be bigger! But apparently not so.

I thought they were already great!
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-Kristie

That's the only reason I won't buy them, because of the scale. With other animals it doesn't look so bad in a display, but with an elephant they are huge creatures and to me would look silly in my display.
I could display them somewhere else, but I don't have room
Anyway I'm happy with my WW safari Ltd elephants
Congratulations Shawn

You are right, the Pelican and Stork do appear to be much much bigger than previous versions that put them out of scale in a very obvious way.

Yes all Schleich animals are not in scale however the previous Pelican and Storks were much better and appealing in size.

I have also noticed that the farm animals were always bigger than the wildlife models, particularly the cows and horses so if this is the case how comes the Alpaca family (placed in the farm range) is so small? They actually suit the wildlife range better.

Yes no animal is in scale but I also thought that Schleich were trying to tidy this up somewhat in the last few years given that the Zebra and antelopes are similar in scale - and particularly the Arctic fox which is very small - smaller than the rabbits. If this is the case then what happened with the giant pelican and storks? confusing.....

Numaan wrote:

I have also noticed that the farm animals were always bigger than the wildlife models, particularly the cows and horses...

Speaking of that, it's much easier for Schleich to stay in scale with farm animals when you have a size range from chicken to horse. It's much harder to do the same when you balance from meerkats to African elephants. Of course, that doesn't explain the birds...

Good point, Robert

I thought it could be fun to compare the retiret ones with the new one, so I took some quick pictures, - sorry if the quality isn`t too good

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Esp the African bull is very similar to the one he replaces. But certainly an improvement, I think . Hmmm, perhaps the African baby is an exception
What do y`all think ?

:) :)

Magnific pictures of comparison Sussane.Thanks.

What beautiful are elephants of course is my avatar.

Susanne, your photos are great and very interesting. As you know, I always show comparison between models when I share my new additions !!

I like these new elephants : new color and skin texture, more details (ears..), longer tusks (very very good point) !!

thanks for the comparison pics. They show a lot. I really like the new bull much better as it is not just in a straight slow walking postion but has its head cocked to its left. The colors are a little different as the 2004/5 are brownish and the 2012 are more grey.

I have the previous storks from Schleich which are better scaled than the new ones. I guess I have to remember it is not all about me and my diorama but the child who plays with them!

Thankyou, I am very happy that they are useful

Comparison photos are great, thank you Susanne! :)

-Kristie

Thank you,Susanne. These pictures are very useful for me as I'm still not sure if I should buy the new Elephants or not.

Thanks for your pictures, Susanne! They are useful indeed! :)
A little, very little improovment for a figure that is updated arround 7 years before. We all have different ways of collecting, for someone like Susanne that collect variations they look surely very different, for someone like me that make a little selection of what is available in the market these differences are only little updates in texture and painting. Almost the same legs, heads, proportions, the same toyish but beautiful elephants!
Even some China elephants are beautiful, I think we are not discussing the beautiness but the realism. Of course any collects what gives more joy. :)
The pictures are nice enough to see that in terms of realism there's nothing new in these figures. People loves them? Of course, most part of us loved the previous even they are brown and shiny. Beautiness is an abstract thing. But scale is a measurable question, I'll say again, there's no scale in Schleich figures, when someone asks if a figure is in scale with Schleich is saying a wrong thing. About a large elephant in 1:22 scale, if it would sell? Surely not as much as these mini elephants but Schleich mad a huge fantazy elephant with a warrior, why not in wild series? What's the difference? :)

Thankyou Roger

Roger wrote:

.... why not in wild series? What's the difference? :)

The easy ansver is : Price
Little John or Mary ask Grandmother for an elefant.
I am sure she is more easy to persuade if the elefant costs 6 Euros than if it costs 20

Personally I am over-joyed that they are not in scale. I just didn`t have room for them if they were
And..I am sorry to say that I don`t care at all about scale

SUSANNE wrote:

Thankyou Roger

Roger wrote:

.... why not in wild series? What's the difference? :)

The easy ansver is : Price
Little John or Mary ask Grandmother for an elefant.
I am sure she is more easy to persuade if the elefant costs 6 Euros than if it costs 20

Personally I am over-joyed that they are not in scale. I just didn`t have room for them if they were
And..I am sorry to say that I don`t care at all about scale

That's the reason why I'm saying I have 2 collection, one in scale, mainly Britains and 54mm scale friends. And another with figures not in scale like Schleich, CollectA, Mojo, etc. :)
I also don't need huge elephants, I don't have the beautiful WWW from Safari and surely will not buy the white warrior from Schleich, but the price of a wild life series would not be higher than the white warrior.
They also can offer both versions as it happens with Safari.
The problem is that Schleich is loosing even the ilusive sensation of scale, before many people thought than a hedgehog is larger than an elephant paw, but now nobody believes that a stork is taller than an elephant. :)
I only wanted that people knew that there's no Schleich scale and that's all. It is always better to live with the things as they are than believe that they are what we want when they are not. :)
Except Santa Claus!

Thank you for starting this thread Sean.

Thank you Susanne for the photo comparison. They do look wonderful. I love the baby elephants, and think they have done extremely well with the added detail in all the figures.

Susanne, would you mind showing a comparison of the Schleich 2012 Asian family and the Papo?

That is one thing I was disappointed in when I received the Papo Asian elephants...I thought they were much smaller than the Schleich, but I didn't have any Schleich to compare them with anymore. I sold mine and I am sure alot of you know that the cost to ship those solid figures really adds up!

Though the size is wrong with the rest of the wild animal figures ,I am in full agreement with others on the forum wishing the companies could make them larger for us but understand why they can't. Maybe they could make them Hollow inside so it would cost less and weigh less. But for now I have decided for a diorama I would just place the elephants at the back of the scene and take a photo from the front so it just looks like they are far away... and so bigger...

~ Sue

I am sorry, Sur, I don`t have the Indian elefants from Papo.
Perhaps somebody else can make a picture with comparison ?

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Here is the African female next to the one from Papo and her family.
Perhaps it can give you an idea untill somebody may have a better picture ?

Doesn`t it look like tha Papo lady says : Hey, you! Stay away from my man ! You have got fat legs and a big head!!!

I love your picture, Susanne! :)
Thanks for showing! Poor Schleich, we must accept the differences!

Thank you for the comparison photos Susanne I think I like the african adult elephants the best out of the new ones.
The Papo elephant (the one in the middle) is lovely! I wish it were a bigger scale

I don't really care about the scale. Each animal is unique. I don't make dioramas or things like that. I don't mind if they are not at the right scale. And, as said before, it would be too difficult (and expensive) to make everything in scale when you go from a tiny meerkat to a giant whale...

On the photo, my favourite is the Schleich one. I agree that his legs and head might not have the good dimensions, but the realism of a figurine does not ONLY consists in its scale/dimensions. The texture, the details of the skin, the color of the skin and tusks are also very important to me. Everyone has his own idea of realism. For example, we could also discuss the realism when people keep huge tags on their figurines.

I agree it is quite strange to change the scale for the same model, the stork and pelican if I understand correctly.