American Spotted Donkey (Farm World by Schleich)

Before I start this review, I would again like to thank the folks at Happy Hen Toys who donated this review sample. Domestic equids are not a focus of mine. I have a few, mostly ancient or feral, horse breeds, and one each mule (Safari Ltd.) and donkey (CollectA). I never had any intention of getting this figure, but after Happy Hen was nice enough to add it to my review package, I’ve had a chance to study the figure (and animal) and have come to better appreciate it.

When I first found out I would be receiving this figure, I assumed American Spotted was a formal breed of donkey (Equus africanus asinus). However, when researching information on the animal itself, I learned two important bits of information. First of all, there are apparently no true-breeding North American donkey breeds. In Canada and the USA, donkeys are registered by their size, as either miniature, standard (which can come in small or large), or mammoth. Secondly, the spotted form of the donkey is a merely a genetic variant caused by a heterozygous individual containing one dominant copy of a gene for spotted and one copy of a gene for non-spotted. There are no documented cases of homozygous spotted donkeys, and the offspring of spotted donkeys can therefore either be spotted or not.

Schleich didn’t specify which size of donkey this was intended to be, but next to other ‘standard-sized’ domestic equids, it looks like either a standard or a miniature. With a height of 4.5 cm at the shoulders (withers), that would put it at a scale of roughly 1:20 for the maximum height of a miniature donkey (which is what I will database it as for my collection). The figure actually looks very much like several images online of spotted miniature donkeys (really; do a Google image search of ‘miniature spotted donkey’ and you’ll see oodles of images that look just like this toy!).

The miniature donkey was first bred on the Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia over 2,000 years ago from African stock. They were initially bred as draft animals and used for such tasks as delivering fresh bread, pulling oar-filled carts from mines, for transportation, and to power grist mills to grind grain. They were first imported to the United States in 1929 where today they are very popular as show and companion animals. The miniature donkey is not a ‘bred-down’ version of a larger donkey; its smaller size is natural. As a breed standard, they are no taller than 36 inches (91 centimeters) at the withers.

I don’t have enough background knowledge on domestic equids to do a thorough review of this figure justice, but from what I can see in online images, the sculpt and proportions look pretty good. There is meticulous detail to the fur being sculpted, with thicker fur on the temple and lack of a true forelock. There appears to be a pair of teats sculpted on the underside, suggesting the figure represents a female donkey.

The paint job also looks pretty standard, with variable brown saddle markings and a large brown spot on the side of the head, around and below the eye. The ears, muzzle, and hooves are also highlighted in brown. The eyes are glossy black. Overall, the paint job again has a semi-gloss finish (I would have preferred matte myself, but no biggie).

Again, I don’t have enough experience with domestic equids to know how strongly to recommend this figure to those of you specialize in this group. I can say, however, if you collect farm animals or toy animals generally, this might be one to consider adding to your farm or ranch. A quick study of Toy Animal Wiki appears to show that most toy donkeys represent the ‘standard’ form and there are no others that appear to be spotted. As such, this Schleich donkey might just be giving us a new variety on a familiar animal. This Schleich 2023 American spotted donkey, like many figures, is available from Happy Hen Toys here.