Who makes it? Part of the short-lived animal toy line Noah’s Pals, they represented the letter J, for Jackal. But specifically, Golden Jackal! More specifically, this is the male one one, Jason.
When did it come out? It was brief, but probably 2006 or 2007.
Still available? Nope, and it’s a sad, dumb story. The Noah’s Pals line was meant to be an all to-scale series of animals, two-by-two of course. Every animal had a card with a code. The goal was that if you collected all 26 animals, you entered those collector codes onto a site and were rewarded with a special chase pair, two Dodos! But they got the attention of a certain well-known European company who bought them with the promise that the line would be allowed to keep going with new releases. Instead, the line is gone.
Where can it be found in my displays? With other small, well done animal figures, Hemnes1Aβ. Same as the previous Play Visions Placodus figure
How does it fit in the collection? I’m sure I’ve mentioned that I collect carnivorans, and golden jackals are pretty unique as commercially available figures. So of course I added this one. But being to scale with everything from elephants to doves, these figures are very small so it needs to go on the different shelf!
Any story behind it? Not in particular. I picked it up from an old favorite website, TGFToys. They are no longer around, but were a great source for a while. Their closing left a definite hole in the ability of many collectors to find their figures. In truth, I have seen a number of favorite sites come and go.
Notable remarks about this figure (a review that isn’t really a review): I’ll start by reiterating–this figure is tiny. The scale is about 1:27; it’s not even 2cm at the shoulder, that tiny. So some loss of detail might be expected but overall it isn’t too bad. The paint job doesn’t really capture the usual grizzled coat, instead going for a more flattened gold, with a darker brown back. They did give it the white bib at least, and it is certainly not going to be mistaken for other jackals. The tail seems a bit fluffy, but maybe that’s artistic license.
Would I recommend it? If it was still possible to get them I would say definitely. I would still say so, but it’s not likely to be easily found. For one, it was a small, limited company that didn’t last long. For another, the really small figures like these, if they were given as toys, were probably the easiest to lose. As well, I don’t even know how well distributed they were. They were in North America for their run, but I don’t think they made much headway elsewhere. It’s too bad; whether or not the biblical overtone matters, the idea of a fully to-scale line of pairs of animals (and each was a completely different sculpt) is a great one, that should get picked up again.
