Animals in 1:43rd scale in the past?

This scale is also known under these other titles:

'O' gauge - a railway 'scale'

7mm another title for the above

40mm - scale used by figure manufacturers

The first one that comes to my mind is Britains with their MiniSet range in 1:42nd scale. In this series were three farm related sets and three zoo related sets. All of these sets included a human figure in some way interacted with the animals.

Elastolin made an impressive range in 40mm. However, I have never found any lists of what was available in this scale that isn't war related!

Looks like Starlux made some but it is hard to found out which ones were to this scale.

Merten is another company that produced some spectacular models in this scale but again I have never found a list as to what they have made.

Corgi Toys did produce some animal figures as accessories to their toy cars and vehicles. These included circus animals for their 'Chipperfields Circus' range, animals for their 'Daktari' sets and animals for their farming equipment.

Coming up to fairly recent production is the range from Bandai. Most of these appear to be 1:43rd scale or very close to it. BTW I have a range of die-cast toy cars made by Bandai in the late 1970's to 1:43rd scale.

It is surprising how many models made in Hong Kong and China fit into this scale. Some are on a level with the best European makes and whilst most of the others are poor quality.

Any more out there?

Thanks

Chris

I have no knowledge about scales, how small is 1:43? I have one Corgi animal and this is very small and i think it is not 1:43. Because i have also knights in 1:72 and they are only a little bit smaller.

A few brands have small animals, but not all of this brand are small. So have the Colorata Ueno zoo box any small animals, also Bandai (you know) and a few animals of the Kaiyodo birdtales and Aquatales sreis are small. And from K&M (today Wild Republic) and Safari LTD the toobs have any smaller animals, also any Playvisions (example the antelopes) are small.

I have some tiny, little ones from the old, Danish brand Reisler * see here *

They are OH or HO-scale, uhhh, soory, I can`t remember which
But they are awfully cute

I really also have no knowledge about which brands worked in 40mm scale. I remember seeing these Corgi Toys Zoo sets from Willy's collection and I'm sure he has something to say about this subject.
I saw in the Internet a little fox from Phoenix43, no idea if it is a brand and also a 1:43 fox should be microscopic.
Curiously, watching the Bandai zebra that had in focus this week end in this forum, I noticed that it is some smaller than Britains zebra, so makes sense to think in it as a 1:43 figure.
Andreas, 1:43 figures are some smaller than those 1:32 from Britains and clearly larger than 1:72 figures. They are made to fit with human figures 4 cm tall from where the name 40mm comes.
So if you multiply the length of that figure for 43 and if it fits in the size of a real animal, it is a 1:43 scale figure.

Roger wrote:

I really also have no knowledge about which brands worked in 40mm scale. I remember seeing these Corgi Toys Zoo sets from Willy's collection and I'm sure he has something to say about this subject.
I saw in the Internet a little fox from Phoenix43, no idea if it is a brand and also a 1:43 fox should be microscopic.
Curiously, watching the Bandai zebra that had in focus this week end in this forum, I noticed that it is some smaller than Britains zebra, so makes sense to think in it as a 1:43 figure.
Andreas, 1:43 figures are some smaller than those 1:32 from Britains and clearly larger than 1:72 figures. They are made to fit with human figures 4 cm tall from where the name 40mm comes.
So if you multiply the length of that figure for 43 and if it fits in the size of a real animal, it is a 1:43 scale figure.

That with the humans i dont know, thanks. But i know that they are sammler than Britains and bigger as my knights. So i mean some animals like the Playvisions antelopes, or Colorata and K&M elephants......

Being a Corgi and some smaller than Britains it is surely a 1:43 scale. Playvisions and Colorata are not in scale but some of them surely fit in 1:43 scale. I do it with my Britains, those that have not a scale but fit in 1:32 are good to join to my Britains. For example, the CollectA Asian elephant is roughly a 1:32 scale although it has no scale attributed.
Another curious point is that Britains water buffalo and wolf, are closer to 1:43 scale than 1:32 but they belong to a 1:32 series!

I assume you are aware of the German makers for scale trains, Preiser and Merten being the ones with the most animals.
In the US there was Bachmann Brothers/K-Line Plasticville figures but they just did a few farm animals

Tiermann wrote:

I assume you are aware of the German makers for scale trains, Preiser and Merten being the ones with the most animals.

You are right my friend TIM

I have Preiser animals scale 1:43 and...

incredible scale 1:90....¡ Tomorrow I will post to forum.

:) :)

Are very small animals, but are held standing perfectly.

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Wonderful little animals!!! Congratulations Fernando!!

Thanks for showing, Fernando! New glasses in my wish list! :)

widukind wrote:

I have no knowledge about scales, how small is 1:43?

43 times smaller than the real thing Andreas!

Chris

landrover wrote:

:) :)

Are very small animals, but are held standing perfectly.

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Very nice Fernando I just need some twice the size!

Chris

SUSANNE wrote:

I have some tiny, little ones from the old, Danish brand Reisler

They are OH or HO-scale, uhhh, soory, I can`t remember which
But they are awfully cute

I agree Susanne these are cute. Whilst I am aware of the Reisler company I have never seen any in real life.

Chris

Thanks for the replies Roger:

Roger wrote:

I saw in the Internet a little fox from Phoenix43, no idea if it is a brand and also a 1:43 fox should be microscopic.
Curiously, watching the Bandai zebra that had in focus this week end in this forum, I noticed that it is some smaller than Britains zebra, so makes sense to think in it as a 1:43 figure.

The Phoenix model is indeed 1:43rd scale and is made in white metal. I have seen the Bandai zebra set on Willy's site with a Britains Zoo Keeper along side the models. Looking at the proportions between the Britains keeper and Bandai zebras I would come to the conclusion that they are both 1:32nd scale.

Roger wrote:

Being a Corgi and some smaller than Britains it is surely a 1:43 scale. Playvisions and Colorata are not in scale but some of them surely fit in 1:43 scale. I do it with my Britains, those that have not a scale but fit in 1:32 are good to join to my Britains. For example, the CollectA Asian elephant is roughly a 1:32 scale although it has no scale attributed.
Another curious point is that Britains water buffalo and wolf, are closer to 1:43 scale than 1:32 but they belong to a 1:32 series!

I bet there are lots of animal figures out there that are roughly 1:43rd scale but the manufacturer never gives them a scale. I reckon that the Britains wolf is 1:32nd scale comparing it with their keeper.

Chris

Tiermann wrote:

I assume you are aware of the German makers for scale trains, Preiser and Merten being the ones with the most animals.
In the US there was Bachmann Brothers/K-Line Plasticville figures but they just did a few farm animals

Hi Tim

I am aware of Merten producing 40mm animals. However, I thought Preiser in the past only produced HO scale figures only venturing into other scales after they acquired the Elastolin moulds in the early 1980's.

Thanks

Chris

Here are a few (i have more) singapore and china animals and one from Corgi in a small size:

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Let me know if you are interested.

Hi,

I am new here and I am struggling to find 1/43rd scale zoo animals
This is 7mm to the foot

I know woodland scenics mades deer but I was wanting something a bit more exicting like a giraffe or a rhino...

I have tried to post a photo but I arent allowed to post for 7 days

The cafe to top of the roof is approx 95mm (approx 13' 6")
Male Figure is approx 43mm (approx 6' 1")
The corgi Giraffe is approx 80mm (approx 11' 5")
The schleich giraffe calf stands apporx 90mm but is not at full stretch, approx 130 at full stretch (approx 18' 6")

Actual Giraffe = 18' to 20' and 6' long legs or approx 130

I am tempted by using the calf but it looks a bit too calf like for my zoo

I want an adult male and a female giraffe or a couple of rhinos

Cheers

Andy

Welcome Andy !!!

Welcome Andy, Yes, a modern giraffe calf will really result very toyish in a 1:43 diorama. Some vintage brands made them in 1:32 but, as some of them are small even for that scale maybe you can find one in to fit in 1:43. The advantage is that old brands have usually a less toyish style, unfortunately the painting is not always good. But, a good vintage sculpting nicely repainted would be a good idea! :)

monstermunch1982 wrote:

Hi,

I am new here and I am struggling to find 1/43rd scale zoo animals
This is 7mm to the foot

Cheers

Andy

Hi Andy

Firstly, welcome to this forum.

I am sure the most extensive range was the hard plastic Elastolin 40mm animals from the late 1960's to the early 1980's. Unfortunately, I don't know what they produced. The next manufacturer worth looking out for is another one from Germany - Merten.

Hopefully, one of our friends here can supply lists or links to lists for the above two manufacturers.

Preiser have released a range of 1:43rd scale farm animals formally from Elastolin moulds.

Chris

Welcome to our big family Andy, ihope you enjoy your stays here!

Well, it is very hard to tell if a model is made in the 1:43 scale sometimes...
A lot of brands have different sized models in their ranges, even Britains.
Because when i look at the Bandai zebra that Chris mentioned, it fits more to the Britains zoo-keeper, than the original Britains zebra's, they are slightly big.
Corgy Toys made mainly cars in the 1:43 scale, the most populair scale in modelcars, which i collected heavingly much as animal models, but only have some left.
Dinky made about this scale, but mostly smaller, as they had to fit in their boxes of the same size.
I think i had about every Corgi Toys car, which included animals when i was a young boy, and i played them to waste almost, the rest what was left went to fleamarkets thanks to my parents...
Famous are the Circus Chipperfield Cars, which were mad ein the late seies to, only more modern.
Then the Daktari sets, the Longleat Lionparc set, zoo-carriers with giraffes and some other animals, the Safari VW Beetle with black rhino, the Kennelclub Chevrolet Impala with nice doggies(same model in the Circus range with different dogs and colours of course), the horse-carrier Bedford truck which was the same as the Bedford truck with Circus horses from the Chipperfields Circus, and beast-carrier with 4 calfs, and so on...
The main scale for animals in the 1950-1980 was 1:32, besides the Hong Kong and Singapore copies, which were smaller sometimes.
For cars this sis still 1:43, although bigger scales are populair now to, like 1:18Ii really can't think of another brand that used the 1:43 scale right now for animals...

Chris Sweetman wrote:

I am sure the most extensive range was the hard plastic Elastolin 40mm animals from the late 1960's to the early 1980's. Unfortunately, I don't know what they produced. The next manufacturer worth looking out for is another one from Germany - Merten.
Chris

I guess the MERTENS range was a bit wider than ELASTOLIN

Kikimalou wrote:

Chris Sweetman wrote:

I am sure the most extensive range was the hard plastic Elastolin 40mm animals from the late 1960's to the early 1980's. Unfortunately, I don't know what they produced. The next manufacturer worth looking out for is another one from Germany - Merten.
Chris

I guess the MERTENS range was a bit wider than ELASTOLIN

It may be Christophe.

Do you know were I can get a list of what Merten made in 40mm?

Thanks

Chris

It happens that some "things" are more wide or even bigger in some "models"...