Caribou (Wild Safari North American Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)

A few years ago, I reviewed the CollectA woodland caribou for the holiday season and since I’m a one-figure-per-species collector I thought I would be done with caribou aka reindeer after that. But here I am again with another figure of the same species, again for the holiday season. Why? Well, I got this idea in my head that for Rangifer tarandus I might want to collect some of its many subspecies. Last winter Safari had a blowout sale, and their 2017 caribou was among the figures being cleared out, it looked decent, and different enough from my CollectA figured that I bought it.

Since Safari’s figure is part of the North American wildlife series, I knew it was a North American subspecies, so that narrowed things down quite a bit in trying to identify it. With its slate gray color, I initially thought it might be a Peary caribou, the smallest subspecies in North America, but that idea was quickly dashed when researching the subspecies further. The antlers don’t match up and the Peary caribou has white legs, not gray like on the toy. After spending way too much time researching caribou subspecies, it became increasingly clear that the toy probably represents the woodland caribou, like CollectA’s. And although it’s not on Safari’s website anymore, copy and paste text on eBay listings designate it as R. t. caribou as well. So much for collecting different subspecies!

The Safari caribou stands 2.5” (6.35 cm) tall at the shoulder and measures 3.75” (9.52 cm) long. The actual woodland caribou stands 3.6’ to 4.6’ (1-1.4 meters) tall at the shoulder, it is the largest caribou subspecies in North America. Using shoulder height, this puts Safari’s figure at about 1/18-1/20 in scale. The figure is presented in a static pose with its right hind leg stretched out behind it, as if the caribou has stopped mid-stride to observe its surroundings. The head is looking slightly leftward. Although caribou cows can also grow antlers this figure clearly represents a bull, as indicated by additional bits of anatomy as well as the size of the antlers themselves.

The gray and white coloration indicate that this bull is sporting his winter pelt, as they tend to be brown in the summer. This would explain the stark difference between this and CollectA’s caribou, which has a brown coat. The muzzle is tipped in white that runs down along the throat and dewlap, arches up over the forelimbs, and connects to a white belly. The tips of the legs and ears are also white. The antlers are brown, and the eyes, nostrils, and hooves are black. A thin gray stripe is painted on each ear but the attempt to paint the inside of the ear is so lazy that Safari shouldn’t have bothered.

The sculpt is quite good, with an appropriately wide and square shaped muzzle on a long and rectangular snout. The antlers are impressive in size but smaller and probably more realistic than the excessive rack sported by CollectA’s. A coat of fine hair is etched into the body. The hair on the dewlap is represented by nothing more than some vertical grooves etched into it, the dewlap on CollectA’s is far more realistic and the details are better on that figure overall. The legs are long and somewhat lanky looking with broad flattened hooves, including enlarged dewclaws that help caribou navigate difficult terrain. Nice muscle definition is sculpted within the neck, shoulders, and hindlimbs. Grooves appear to be etched into the antlers, but the paint is so thick that it mostly obscures them.

Although I still prefer CollectA’s caribou this one from Safari must rank among the best and I like it more than those by Schleich or Mojo. Although the fine details could have been executed better it has an excellent overall form and a clean and crisp paintjob, ears aside. Although I recommend CollectA’s above this one, it’s worth seeking out if you like having multiple examples of the same species (or subspecies) in your collection. I plan on keeping mine in addition to CollectA’s. The Safari caribou is now retired but can still be found for retail price in places that still have them in stock, better get one quick though!