Another set from a company I am very fond of…although this may not reflect their best work. This is the Safari Ltd Endangered Animals – Land Species toob. The Safari item number is 100109 and was released in 2017. As far as I can tell, I think it might have been discontinued recently…like this year. I know that they are still in stores (I’ve seen them) but I guess it isn’t for long. There are a few nice, or at least interesting figures…but I hope that they redo it with better, and more original, figures
I honestly didn’t notice when this toob was first released. Overall, I don’t really feel the need to collect most of these types of animals (most are not that uncommon). I did later notice the African Wild Dog and decided that it would be good to have. It’s probably the best figure in the toob, while most of them are not particularly remarkable.
One thing to note, I picked up this toob last year, a few years after it was released. Which, as I’ve learned, means that sometimes the paint quality isn’t…up to the expected quality. I can’t help but notice that many of the figures have less than stellar paint. I thought that was from getting a later release of the toob, but photos from other collectors indicate that they were always like this. But what about the actual species in the toob?
The assortment is pretty limited. Despite the name, Endangered Animals – Land Species, they are entirely mammals–and with one exception, all of them are African or Asian (with the Spider monkey being from Central & South America. Thematically they’re even less broad–Asian elephant, Black rhino (although the sculpt has the wide face of a White rhino), 3 primates (the spider monkey plus a Gorilla and Orangutan) and five carnivorans. That means three cats, a Bengal tiger, “Amur” leopard and Snow leopard, plus a Giant panda and African Wild dog. Which doesn’t really capture the broad range of ‘land species’ that are endangered (although yes, they are all endangered species).
Overall, not a set that really feels essential. Most of the species have been done many times, and done better. And the two figures that are better, the African dog and the Snow leopard, can best be described as better than okay. I will admit to finding the toob underwhelming (but I did have a coupon when I bought it so I guess that’s okay).
As I said, this toob is no longer available, I think discontinued for this year. I often lament when toob sets are discontinued, but I think this one could easily be replaced by something more interesting and better. What is especially disappointing or unsurprising, in the same year a second Endangered Animals toob was released, for Marine animals (also discontinued). Like this one, it also had mostly re-released, poorly painted models, with two very different models–except those two models are exceptionally awesome! I will probably get to them on here someday, but I did review the set on the Animal Toy Blog if you want to see them. In closing…this set had a couple of okay figures, but there will be better ones. Still, you could probably still find it if you want.
