Humble beginnings

[JimoAi]

Feel free to share your experiences in the animal toy collecting community. For me, I started when I was 5 when the Yujin Saltwater fish set first came out and my very first high quality figure was the Yujin blue tang. Prior to that, all I have were safari toob sea animals, mostly repeats. When I was about 7 or 8, I got my first prehistoric animal figure: the collectA hydrotherosaurus

[sirenia]

Mine started with AAA models back when I was very young, as they were readily available for my parents to get me. Think my first higher end ones were the Walking with Dinosaurs models.

[bmathison1972]

My systematic entomology profession in college (Arizona) collected toy insects, so that's probably where the idea was planted.

In 1998/1999 I started collecting model/toy scarabaeoid beetles (my taxonomic focus at the time), and then shortly thereafter extended it to all arthropods.

In 2003-2005 or so (can't remember) I started collecting animal figures generally.

When I moved to Atlanta in 2007, I only brought the arthropods with me, and focused on arthropods exclusively until 2018 (the non-arthropods were left in Arizona and donated to charity).

In 2016 I moved to Salt Lake City and brought all the arthropods with me.

In 2018, I started my non-arthropod 'Synoptic Collection' and also cleaned out my arthropod collection to only those figures identifiable to at least the genus level. Some exceptions for family or order level for rarely-made taxa.

[Arctinus]

I have always been an animal/dinosaur enthusiasts, but never had many animal figures (I did have lots of animal books as a kid, though). I only had a few animal figures and those were of the more popular ones like lions, tigers, zebras etc. I don't remember any brands, they were probably some random ones and ones from China, I guess. I also had the Disney Dinosaur collection from McDonald's. But then I gave all those figures (more like toys) away as I grew older. I then focused on animal encyclopedias and other animal books until about April/May last year (2020) when I considered buying a few cetacean figures. Well, those few cetacean figures turned into an all-animal collection. I more or less bought all the Schleich figures that were available in a local shop and a few Papo ones that were also available (spent a few hundred euros xD). And then I started ordering on Amazon and EBay to get the ones that weren't available in shops. Now I'm still missing a lot of figures since I started collecting in mid 2020 and went on a hiatus from about November to this month when I ordered the Papo cormorant, horned frog, mole, dragonfly, alligator, running cheetah and the standing polar bear (the latter are replacements for my Schleich figures and the bear specifically because it'll be retired this year).

[Isidro]

I explained how my collection started in my introduction post: http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=2260.msg18837#msg18837

[Gwangi]

I had a lot of toy animals growing up, a byproduct of my obsession with animals in general. Some time in the late 80's "Santa" came to our home and brought a box of toy animals with him. They were all AAA animals, in their various family groups or pairs. Lions, tigers, polar bears, giraffes, elephants etc.

I was also big into dinosaurs and although I got rid of most of my childhood collection (of dinosaurs and extant animals, both) I decided to start collecting them as an adult. I joined the Dinosaur Toy Forum around 2010-11 and that's when I started collecting prehistoric animals.

2013- I decided I would casually collect sharks as well, but my collection grew very slowly, only getting a figure when one that I liked crossed my path.

2015- My daughter was born, so I started acquiring toy animals for her to play with.

2019- The Animal Toy Blog was started. I had already been writing for the Dinosaur Toy Blog since 2011 and wanted to write for the ATB too. I had enough toys between me and my daughter to give me some writing material for a short while.

2020- Since I had a large collection of prehistoric animals already established I decided to get a few extant animals here and there. I still didn't consider myself a collector but I enjoy writing for the ATB so needed figures to write about.

2021- I guess I might as well officially collect toy animals. I might even do a synoptic collection, largely inspired by bmathison's. It was inevitable.

[bmathison1972]

I also had a lot of animal toys as a kid, also a byproduct of obsession with animals, that are long gone. Usually mom would buy a bin/bag of animals or dinosaurs at the grocery or drug store.

The serious collecting didn't start until after college

P.S. happy to be an influence, Gwangi

[Advicot]

As my family and I are farmers I started getting the farm animals first, as well as wooden farms, combine harvesters, tractors etc Then my mother and father started getting me wild animals so I could make zoos and safari parks. This was around age 2 or 3 I began getting my first animals.

I have nearly every single figure that I had 12 - 13 years ago, and I love my collection. I seriously started collecting at maybe age 9 or 10 where the bulk of my Christmas and Birthday presents would be animals (still are now) I don't think I'll ever stop collecting but it may pause when I leave home for university to follow my dream of becoming either a zoologist or ornithologist, fingers crossed.

[Newt]

My most prized toys as a child were a big AAA monitor lizard and a double handful of poison dart frog figures. I wish I still had those guys...