Another ToyTrio, and another pretty random assortment!
MojoFun Andalusian stallion
I believe that this might be the first horse I’ve looked at on this blog. As I’ve said before, I don’t really have much to do with farm/domestic animals, and have never gone too far into horse collecting–from what I can tell, that may be the largest subset of animal collecting there is (even more so than dinosaurs). This one is from MojoFun, the Andalusian stallion (yes…it is possible to tell), their item number 387109 from their standard farm life series. It is reasonably well-crafted, although I am not familiar enough with the breed to really judge.
As it might be apparent in the photos, this horse had a bit of a flaw–there is a distinct glue line at the base of the tail. When I was running the store at full bore, Mojo was the first company to lose their Canadian distribution (and so cease being carried by me) but I was able to get a number of figures in at decent prices, including a number of horses. Out of all of the figures I brought in, I only had a few flaws and damages–including this horse with a broke-off tail (I think I had a border collie or something with a similar issue). Obviously, I couldn’t sell it so it got fixed and ended up on my daughter’s shelf (alongside a number of whales and large reptiles, if you’re curious).
Playmates Dinosaur King Mapusaurus
Next up we have a figure from the Dinosaur King series by Playmates, but unlike the few others we’ve seen this one is from the second wave of figures. It won’t be obvious in this single-figure image, but the dinos for the series were overall smaller, which makes some of the species seem way smaller than they should be compared to the earlier ones. Case in point, this Mapusaurus, which I seem to remember, upon its announcement, being touted as one of those ‘bigger than T. rex” discoveries. The diminutive size of the figure doesn’t really give it that presence, but the colour scheme makes it stand out (one reason I quite like the series).
I may have mentioned it before, but series 2 (or wave 2) of the Dinosaur King small figures is a bit of a sore spot for me. Like the First series, there were 24 figures, available variously in 2- or 4- packs (maybe others, who knows what else). Like the first series, I never saw it here, but it had been sold in parts of Europe. UNLIKE the first series…I was never able to get the whole set; I am missing 8 including some really weird ones. And it is super annoying–because as far as most people know, some may not have actually even been released. So I’m happy to have the 16 I do have…they add a nice burst of colour to the shelf…but it’s frustrating because I’ll probably never complete that set. Such is collecting.
Kabaya Dinoworld Utahraptor
Our final figure is another dinosaur from Japan, but from a company that I don’t think has come up yet, Kabaya. This Utahraptor is from a set called DinoWorld, and came to me as a complete box set (although I had a couple singles from random sources before that). The set is variable in how they look, but the claim to fame is that they are sculpts designed by Japanese artist Kazunari Araki. His work shows up with many Japanese companies and sets, including others from Kabaya and Favorite. There are also a number of larger, more elaborate models (do a Google search, it’s fun!). Having a set like this is having a tiny piece of an artist’s work; many times the artists on figures like this are unknown.
The full set was released in the early-ish 2000s, and some of that shows. The Utahraptor does not show, say, feathers or even a hint of down as we would pretty much expect now. At that time, many companies and sculptors were still reluctant to add this morphology, although there is better certainty of it now, at least for maniraptorans and related dinosaurs. Considering how Utahraptor is often played up as the real version of the Jurassic Park ‘raptors, it’s almost surprising how there aren’t a tonne of figures of them (although there is of course a number of them). This one is at least a nicely sculpted, active figure. And of course, long out of production though not impossible to find.
