Scarlet Macaw (Wild Life America by Schleich)

When Papo announced their 2024 line-up, I decided I would get the capuchin to replace my National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA) version, since the latter is an articulated accessory to an Ace Ventura action figure. It got me thinking, I should probably go ahead then and replace the NECA scarlet macaw as well, as I would much rather have representatives of these animals from ‘traditional’ toy animal manufacturers rather than action figure accessories (besides, while the NECA figure morphologically looks like a scarlet macaw, the animal in the film the toy was based on is actually a green-winged macaw). I started snooping around and as it turns out, there are not a lot of ‘standard-sized’ scarlet macaw figures in production at the moment. I decided to give the 2015 model by Schleich a try. Looking at online pics, it didn’t seem great, but looked like it could serve my needs just fine. I was luckily to find one on eBay in the United States. When the figure arrived I was surprised by how good it was! Promotional pics online, as well as ‘in-hand’ pics on Toy Animal Wiki, do not do the figure justice!

The scarlet macaw (Ara macao) is a large, showy parrot distributed throughout much of the American tropics, from southern Mexico, through Central America, to South America as far south as northeastern Argentina, as well as on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and the Pacific Island of Coiba. It is most common throughout the Amazon Basin. The scarlet macaw has been introduced to Puerto Rico and Florida, although there do not seem to be any breeding populations in the latter. The bird typically lives in subtropical and tropical rainforests, open woodlands, riparian areas, and subtropical and tropical savanna, usually high in the canopy. The scarlet macaw is currently listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, although it has disappeared in several parts of its original native range because of habitat destruction and poaching for the pet trade.

The figure is sculpted with its wings partially spread, roughly 9.2 cm across. The body length (including tail) is approximately 9.0 cm for a scale of 1:9-1:10.

The sculpt is really well done, with a lot of detail and texture. Most feathers are individually sculpted and have discernible barbs present. As previously mentioned, the wings are sculpted partially open, with some separation between the primaries and secondaries. The head is cocked slightly to the animal’s right, with a smooth beak. The feet are accurately zygodactyl.

The paint is well done and fairly carefully applied. Most of the main body, including the lesser coverts, are red with a darker red wash, with white around the face and a bicolored beak (white dorsally, black ventrally). The upper wing coverts are yellow. The primaries and secondaries are blue dorsally and golden-yellow ventrally. It looks as though the blue part may have a pale blue base with dark blue wash while the golden-yellow part has red wash. The effect shows pale blue and red highlights, respectively, to accentuate the individual feather barbs. The tail coverts are pale blue with the tail feathers red and blue. The feet are grey with black claws and the eyes are a simple black.

I must say this is a really nice example of the scarlet macaw, and comes highly recommended to those who would like to add this species to their collection. To be honest, I had a hard time finding it for sale on US-based Schleich websites, nor could I find it on Amazon. There were a couple on eBay but otherwise I wonder if the figure wasn’t made readily available in the US? It’s possible it’s been retired, but I haven’t found any evidence yet to support that. Collectors in Europe may have easier access to it. Anyway, it’s well worth pursuing no matter where you may live!