SCHLEICH PHOTOS @ The London 2012 Toy Fair

So I had the opportunity to visit the Schleich Stand at the London Toy Fair 2012 which I visited straight after visiting Papo. There were many people about so I tried to be as quick as possible when taking the photos. For some reason my flash stopped working so I apologies for the quality of the photos, I did try my best I promise. There were so many people around including a much bigger team of Schleich representatives which made me quite nervous whilst photographing. They were all looking at me but of course asked permission from the same woman I spoke to last year. She also recognised me and offered my a large format catalogue and a small baby chimp Schleich key ring for which I am very grateful.

The Schleich Stand at the event is always very professional, smart and contemporary looking. Whilst taking photos of everything I noticed that for 2012 Schleich has redesigned their packaging for all Bayala/Arelan/Hero figures, trees, planes and anything else that comes in a package or box. I really like the new contemporary designs, they are very smart - do I know buy everything again just for the new packaging? (it’s a joke!). Anyway I spoke to the woman and asked if I could mention 3 little issues with the Schleich animals which I hoped she would pass on:

1. The first issue was regarding the Ostrich adults and why Schleich couldn’t just convert the standing ostrich with closed wings to a female. She looked at the catalogue and totally agreed and couldn’t understand either and said she would pass this on. It would make much more sense to repaint this model to a lighter, duller, greyer colour and turn it into a female. It simply doesn’t make sense!

2. Second point was about not having a Male gazelle when we are all hoping for one! Again she agreed and would pass this on. We would certainly like to see a Male gazelle to help complete this little family. The male does after all have a glorious set of horns....

3. Lastly I asked her about Hero's and Bayala animals with this moulded on accessories such as collars and armour as seen on the Hyena, mighty fighter elephant and the new fighter Rhino. If Schleich were to create all of these with removable accessories then it would encourage adult animal collectors to buy the sets even more. she also agreed but also pointed out that creating removable accessories would create a safety risk for little children. Many of these parts, if they were made to be removable would be very tiny (such as the Hyena's collar) and present a hazard. they could get round this by attaching little safety labels to the models like they do for the Key ring and some other items but this would present another issue and extra work so it would be easier just to create the models with moulded armour and tools. However the idea that it would encourage us to buy the models was also an interesting one and one which she would certainly pass on. I suggested that if Schleich were not prepared to create removable accessories then at least consider creating a limited number of sets of these with removable accessories just for us collectors - I would definitely buy them then! This discussion led on to the topic of the Black panther, Liassa Cheetah and Schleich animal book/model set with the baby black panther - why not just add these models to the current wildlife range for us. She did state that her UK team were baffled by this as it has been raised before but there is only so much they can do from the UK as they pass this feedback to Germany where all such decisions are made. Who knows, lets see what happens.


Overall I enjoyed my time visiting the fair and I was glad to speak to the same representative as last year - I then feel less embarrassed running around trying to take so many photos. I buy many of my models from Amazon.co.uk but for some reason they don’t have the new for toed hedgehog, skunk and bearded dragon for sale yet so I managed to look at them in closer detail at the fair. I must say the hedgehog is quite cute and made well along with the dragon but I still don’t like the funny plant attached to it. Also I expected all of the models on display to be from Germany but actually most including all the new 2012 models were made in China this year! That was strange. The new Forest Unicorns are extremely cute and I really like them although I would not buy them as they just don’t fit in to my collection. The new little people are lovely but I still find the Asian Magical being to be such a strange creature. This was the only model where only one (a prototype which you can touch) was on display. It is so strange that I couldn’t stop looking at it. The mane and tail is made of a transparent type plastic and it just seemed odd, mystical, intriguing and odd all at the same time.

One great surprise was the new Warrior/Fighter Rhino. It was incredible because it is not the same size at the other bayala animals, it is HUGE, big like the Warrior Fighter Elephant. This rhino is not in scale with the general wildlife at all but it was an absolute beauty to look at. They only had the one on display which was the very details prototype in the glass bubble so I couldn't pick it up or touch it. The armour is all moulded on, only one part is removable but the detail, posture, everything about it is beautiful. It is big and probably in scale with the fighter elephant.

Anyway I have lots of photos to show and they can be seen here so enjoy! I have tried putting the photos in order but everytime I load them up on this website in order they seem to get rearranged. I am not sure if there is a better website for displaying the photo album so apologies for the incoherent listing of the photos.

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Also here: thank you very much!!!

Great work at the photos. I LOVE the warrior hyena...they should take off the collar and make it also part of the African series...he is one of the best I have seen. The warrior rhino is cool too. Thanks, and great suggestions, esp how easy to make a female ostrich. I made my males into females with a paint job but it would be nice to have a already-made female, maybe have her neck down at the babies. I cannot wait for the Mojo tommy gazelles because they have horns, and will give Schleich a run for its money.

Again,thank you very much for this big lot of great pictures,Numaan.

Thank you for the photos

Thankyou again for the great and huge job that you have done for us

It is a good idea that they have made new boxes for Bayala and the trees, - now collectors will have to buy new sets
No, sorry
The old ones were really old fashioned, those brown colours are from the 80s aren`t they ?

Funny that the models shey show are from China.
And also the ones I got are from China, from a seller who untill now only had German or Portuguese models
I wonder if they are going to shut down the manufacturing part in Germany

Very good suggestions that you made

Huuge thanks for the pics

Thank you very much !!!

thank you Numaan for the pictures! but tell me, please ,the new gorilas family is bigger than the old one?

alexmotoc wrote:

thank you Numaan for the pictures! but tell me, please ,the new gorilas family is bigger than the old one?

Hi alex

The Gorilla family is similar if not the same as the previous Schleich gorilla's. Hope that helps.

it seems than the male is tall like zebra ...the older one is smaller...

SUSANNE wrote:

I wonder if they are going to shut down the manufacturing part in Germany

No, the german manufacturing part will stay.

Beautiful pictures. Thank you!

Darn, I like those warriors... Next on my list???

Thanks for all the great photos Numaan, I really like the hyena, just a shame about the collar. But maybe with a little customising, like Miguel is doing with the elephant, I could remove it.

Thanks again Numaan! :)
The ostrich suggestion is really good, about the gazelle... well, we already have a male gazelle in Mojo and there are many figures in Schleich range with only one of the parents. So there were many other to choose. :)
About the removable parts? Why not in wild life range as suggested here. If the hyena is good isn't it a shame a fantasy series has better figures than the animal series? In my opinion the hedgehog is ridiculous and the stork is an aberration. I'm using these words only to be kind. :)
The work they did with the Balalaika hyena would perfectly be used in the regular range.
Of course, seeing in real life, most of them are good enough. I've bought some maybe because they were the first arriving. The best for me are the owl and eaglets but only good figures, not exciting figures! :)

thanks for the great report and pohtos Numann! the toy fair must be a blast!

the big rhino looks wonderful. too bad you can't see him for all the stuff on him.
I understand why they can't make the Bayala animals with removable stuff, but i don't understand why they don't just make two molds. Cast the scuplture before the accessories are added to it, then have the artist add the accessories and cast it again.
that would be infinitely easier, and probably cheaper, than making all the accessories individually.

Thank you for all the wonderful photos Numaan!

Thanks so much for the photos Numaan. They were Great!
Great questions and recommendations too! We can only hope that they will listen.

Lucky duck to have been able to go!

Sue

Terrific photos, Numaan...thanks so much for making these available! :)

Thanks Numaan!

You are so kind & lucky to go to the toy fair!

Thank you really for the pics! They are great!

Thanks for taking the time to post pics. The hyena is probably on of Schleich;s nicest figures. Too bad it has a chain that will have to be taken off...
Too bad they didn't make the re-done elephants larger(Size of Fighter Elephant)! Luckily I have my Safari LTD WW elephants...

Thanks heaps Numaan for taking the photos, you are so lucky to have been able to go.

THANK YOU NUUMAN!! This is amazing :) Did you asked them if they know about our forum?

Great photos Thanks so much for representing us