AAA's Reptiles and More

[Jetoar]

Clown Fish.



Octopus.



Sea Horse.



Red Panda.



Toco Toucan.



Ring-tailed Lemur.

[dinocat62]

Here are my AAA insects:

Rhino Beetle (my bad - misc. China company)
Cicada
Two horn Beetle
Hercules Beetle
"Dung Beetle" think it's a weevil

[brontodocus]

Here are my AAA insects:

Rhino Beetle (my bad - misc. China company)
Cicada
Two horn Beetle
Hercules Beetle
"Dung Beetle" think it's a weevil

Congrats, dinocat62!
Ah, the "Hercules Beetle" is a Caucasus Beetle, Chalcosoma caucasus, and it's the same figure as the one in this post (photo No. 30 from above): http://www.animaltoyforum.com/index.php/topic,32.msg160.html#msg160. The two horn beetle is apparently a Xylotrupes sp. And it's always nice to see a new weevil figure!

[Jetoar]

More images of AAA animals  .



Lions cub.



Giant Panda.



Bottlenose Dolphin.

[AnimalToyForum]

I'd like to compile a list (with photos) of all known figures and variants made by this somewhat mysterious company.

Mysterious indeed, and the AAA line seems vast. Is there a topic on the ATF yet dedicated to the history and origin of this company? If not, I'd like to create one to dig a little deeper.

[Avian]

Hey everyone!

After a little work on the TAI and with STS members, we discovered that AAA is a subsidiary of Nayab. After corresponding with a Nayab representative through email, I have been able to clear up a little bit about this company.

Supposedly, AAA is out of business and does not currently produce any figures, while Nayab is still up and running. The Nayab representative was also able to procure a fairly recent AAA catalogue, which Ive attached here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lrXcsirH-iDPyCJHEZgTp6h30-DHBNhu

I am still in contact with Nayab and will let you know of any more developments about either company.

[Gwangi]

That's really cool, thanks for sharing that. Growing up I had an extensive collection of AAA toy animals. A lot of these are familiar to me and it was nice seeing them again, plus the other stuff that I wasn't aware of. I would love to track down that 40" iguana!

[Avian]

No problem, hopefully I can get a few more earlier catalogues as well.

[bmathison1972]

Holy cow!! I have the GIANT spider and scorpion. I always suspected they were AAA (or possibly Toy Major) but they don't have the AAA logo, but they are in this catalogue.

@Avian - do you think the lack of the usual AAA logo means they are Nayab but not AAA, or still AAA? Bought mine sometime between 1999-2001

[Avian]

@bmathison1972 , thats an intriguing example. I couldn't say for certain, both companies were active in that time frame, and the two are closely related. Is it possible that they are knockoffs?

[bmathison1972]

@bmathison1972 , thats an intriguing example. I couldn't say for certain, both companies were active in that time frame, and the two are closely related. Is it possible that they are knockoffs?

if so, they are pretty good. I didn't think knockoffs were that prominent then, and they were bought at a reputable retailer at the time.

I'll database them as Nayab; perhaps Nayab made them for another distributor (much as Wing Mau made things for Play Visions and others...)

thanks; that link was a tremendous help

P.S. I also have the smaller of the scorpion and it is marked AAA

[Avian]

@bmathison1972 , thats an intriguing example. I couldn't say for certain, both companies were active in that time frame, and the two are closely related. Is it possible that they are knockoffs?

if so, they are pretty good. I didn't think knockoffs were that prominent then, and they were bought at a reputable retailer at the time.

I'll database them as Nayab; perhaps Nayab made them for another distributor (much as Wing Mau made things for Play Visions and others...)

thanks; that link was a tremendous help

P.S. I also have the smaller of the scorpion and it is marked AAA

If the smaller scorpion is marked AAA, the large one is likely AAA as well. The majority of their figures consisted of a large accompanied by a smaller scale "child", which for things such as insects was often just a scaled down version. Id bet that at least the large scorpion is AAA because of that, and that also makes it more likely the spider is too. I haven't identified any figures from the catalogue that were distinctly Nayab, so I would make a fairly safe assumption that your figures are AAA.

[bmathison1972]

cool, thanks

[stargatedalek]

Holy cow!! I have the GIANT spider and scorpion. I always suspected they were AAA (or possibly Toy Major) but they don't have the AAA logo, but they are in this catalogue.

@Avian - do you think the lack of the usual AAA logo means they are Nayab but not AAA, or still AAA? Bought mine sometime between 1999-2001

Toy Major did a number of bootlegs of AAA figures. I have a few and they are definitely bootlegs, lower quality, parts of them "resculpted" where the branding was and where their recasts lost detail, etc.

[bmathison1972]

Holy cow!! I have the GIANT spider and scorpion. I always suspected they were AAA (or possibly Toy Major) but they don't have the AAA logo, but they are in this catalogue.

@Avian - do you think the lack of the usual AAA logo means they are Nayab but not AAA, or still AAA? Bought mine sometime between 1999-2001

Toy Major did a number of bootlegs of AAA figures. I have a few and they are definitely bootlegs, lower quality, parts of them "resculpted" where the branding was and where their recasts lost detail, etc.

Don't always assume they are bootlegs, which usually implies nefarious intent. Many times, the manufacturer will produce the same sculpt for different distributors. Much like NyQuil produces cold medicine for 'store brand' marketing. Or in the case of animal toys, Wing Mau makes figures for Play Visions, Club Earth, and others. Nayab may have used the same sculpt for TM as they did for AAA. This practice was quite common in the 1990s (even Schleich and Safari shared sculpts back then)

[callmejoe3]

Don't always assume they are bootlegs, which usually implies nefarious intent. Many times, the manufacturer will produce the same sculpt for different distributors. Much like NyQuil produces cold medicine for 'store brand' marketing. Or in the case of animal toys, Wing Mau makes figures for Play Visions, Club Earth, and others. Nayab may have used the same sculpt for TM as they did for AAA. This practice was quite common in the 1990s (even Schleich and Safari shared sculpts back then)

Another example would be Schleich's 1:32 Seetiere line. It's (to my knowledge) entirely composed of sculpts outsourced from Maia and Borges. The humpback, sperm whale, gray whale, and orca would be re-used for Mojo Fun's line. The sperm whale was also picked up again briefly by Papo.

[stargatedalek]

Holy cow!! I have the GIANT spider and scorpion. I always suspected they were AAA (or possibly Toy Major) but they don't have the AAA logo, but they are in this catalogue.

@Avian - do you think the lack of the usual AAA logo means they are Nayab but not AAA, or still AAA? Bought mine sometime between 1999-2001

Toy Major did a number of bootlegs of AAA figures. I have a few and they are definitely bootlegs, lower quality, parts of them "resculpted" where the branding was and where their recasts lost detail, etc.

Don't always assume they are bootlegs, which usually implies nefarious intent. Many times, the manufacturer will produce the same sculpt for different distributors. Much like NyQuil produces cold medicine for 'store brand' marketing. Or in the case of animal toys, Wing Mau makes figures for Play Visions, Club Earth, and others. Nayab may have used the same sculpt for TM as they did for AAA. This practice was quite common in the 1990s (even Schleich and Safari shared sculpts back then)

I'm well aware, which is why I pointed out that they didn't just reuse them, they altered them in visibly inferior ways. You can see the lost detail and where they sculpted over some areas of them for seemingly no reason (unless they were compensating for the worst of that lost detail). If they had permission to do this they wouldn't have been recasts.