Lord of the Pachyderms: Elephants

[AnimalToyForum]

Fancy! Quite similar.

[Jetoar]

Loveley images, I share more of my collection  .

[postsaurischian]

    Kaiyodo - Mega Sofubi Advance  African Elephant  (originally sculpted by Matsumura Shinobu)

[brontodocus]

I know, I know, many, many photos - but this one absolutely demands for it!

Kaiyodo has just released the long awaited African Elephant as part of their small but growing series "Mega Sofubi Advance" which consists of very large, preassembled and prepainted, hollow vinyl models. It is their seventh model from the series and the second one representing an extant animal - the first one was last year's gigantic 1:35 Blue Whale.

So here is the walk-around of the Kaiyodo Mega Sofubi Advance MSA-007 African Bush Elephant, Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach, 1797), sculpted by Shinobu Matsumura. Shoulder height is 263 mm, total height is 296 mm. Due to the curvature of the proboscis the length is difficult to measure but may be 590 mm snout-vent length and 722 mm total length. Based on shoulder height records for mature male individuals the scale is between approx. 1:11 and 1:15. The human figure (South American father by Miniland "Los Amigos del Mundo") is approx. 1:13 - 1:14 scale.
The detail on the Mega Sofubi Advance African Elephant is simply amazing and the huge but leightweight (1146 g) model easily dwarfs almost any elephant toy figure. The seams are very inconspicuous and the drybrushed paint job is very lifelike.

The population of this largest extant terrestrial vertebrate had been severely depleted during the 20th Century but thanks to protection they are slowly recovering. The current world population may be some 15,000 individuals with an estimated annual increase by 4% and therefore IUCN considers the species as "Vulnerable".


























Bonus photos: Size comparisons with other animal toy figures by major brands.


Kaiyodo Mega Sofubi Advance African Elephant with Safari Ltd Wildlife Wonders (Mountain) Zebra, Equus zebra.


Kaiyodo Mega Sofubi Advance African Elephant with Safari Ltd Wildlife Wonders White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum.


Kaiyodo Mega Sofubi Advance African Elephant with Papo La Vie Sauvage Leopard, Panthera pardus, Black-faced Impala, Aepyceros melampus petersi, and Marabou Stork, Leptoptilos crumenifer, CollectA Wild Life Black-backed Jackal, Canis mesomelas, Schleich Wild Life male and female Warthog, Phacochoerus africanus, and Safari Ltd WS Wildlife Spotted Hyena, Crocuta crocuta.


Kaiyodo Mega Sofubi Advance African Elephant size comparison with some African Bush Elephant toy figures by major brands: Safari Ltd Wildlife Wonders, Papo La Vie Sauvage, and Safari Ltd Vanishing Wild Collection.

The figure may be an instant holy grail for elephant figure collectors, however, it would usually have to be imported from Japan and the enormous display box (approx. 520*340*340 mm) will make shipping expensive:


Edit 2017-02-04: Fixed broken image urls - now hosted on postimage.org

[bmathison1972]

that's big enough one could make a Heliocopris to scale to go along with it 

[postsaurischian]

  Absolutely awesome!! It would be a strong candidate for model of the year if it hadn't already been released years ago.
Yes, the shipping costs are horrible and would have been the only reason not to get this Elephant figure milestone, ... but I had to anyway.
What can I say? I'm more than happy that I did and this walk around shows very well why .

Congrats Andre! At the moment I'm displaying it with the Vanishing Wild baby. Would you say it is far too small for that?
It could be a new born .... o.k., the ears for example would be too big then ... argh, I want them to be together.

[brontodocus]

Thanks, Blaine and Helge!

that's big enough one could make a Heliocopris to scale to go along with it 

Yes, that would be about the size of an average ladybird beetle. One could also use a tiny Onthophagus specimen as a Heliocopris.

Absolutely awesome!! It would be a strong candidate for model of the year if it hadn't already been released years ago.
Yes, the shipping costs are horrible and would have been the only reason not to get this Elephant figure milestone, ... but I had to anyway.
What can I say? I'm more than happy that I did and this walk around shows very well why .

Congrats Andre! At the moment I'm displaying it with the Vanishing Wild baby. Would you say it is far too small for that?
It could be a new born .... o.k., the ears for example would be too big then ... argh, I want them to be together.

Is it really an old sculpt? I've never seen it before. The Vanishing Wild calf isn't that small at 92 mm shoulder height. So at 1:11 to 1:15 scale it would represent an individual approx. 1.0 - 1.4 m tall at the withers, taller than a newborn.

[Jetoar]

This figure of African Elephant is alive  . Congrats  .

[Jetoar]

Brilliant figure again  .

[postsaurischian]

Is it really an old sculpt? I've never seen it before.

sts forum member elephas_maximus showed some pics of the older resin model from around 1998.
(BTW.: That "turtle meets snail" figure in the lower right corner of the first pic is one of my most sought after figures.)

The Vanishing Wild calf isn't that small at 92 mm shoulder height. So at 1:11 to 1:15 scale it would represent an individual approx. 1.0 - 1.4 m tall at the withers, taller than a newborn.

Cool! That's what I wanted to hear. Thanks for the info.

[Fukuiraptor]

The Kaiyodo is an awesome figure although it looks a bit too thin.

[Stuckasaurus]

Does anybody have any comparison shots between Safari's Asian and African elephants? I'm specifically trying to see how well they would pair with the African Bull figure pictured below. (As an aside, are all of Safari's African elephant models technically bulls? Or are some females? Is there really much of a difference in the live animal?)

[Jetdin]

such a beautiful and huge model! are there any 1:15 scale animals to be displayed with it?

[brontodocus]

such a beautiful and huge model! are there any 1:15 scale animals to be displayed with it?

There are quite many suitable animal figures which are approximately the same scale, many of the regular African wildlife figures, e.g. antelopes or big cats by major brands (Safari Ltd, Schleich, Papo, CollectA) actually are closer to 1:15 than 1:20 but it really depends on the individual figure. The Safari Ltd Wildlife Wonders Hippopotamus and White Rhino also fall into the 1:15 range. 

[Jetdin]

such a beautiful and huge model! are there any 1:15 scale animals to be displayed with it?

There are quite many suitable animal figures which are approximately the same scale, many of the regular African wildlife figures, e.g. antelopes or big cats by major brands (Safari Ltd, Schleich, Papo, CollectA) actually are closer to 1:15 than 1:20 but it really depends on the individual figure. The Safari Ltd Wildlife Wonders Hippopotamus and White Rhino also fall into the 1:15 range. 

so for animal figures, is the common scale 1:15-1:20?

[brontodocus]

so for animal figures, is the common scale 1:15-1:20?

Yes, many are around that scale range. However, often enough a given scale (if one is provided at all) is not correct and comanies tend to make their smaller species too large and their larger species too small to be really in the same scale but in general, a scale around 1:20 is something they often try to achieve (e.g. human figures by Schleich are also around 1:20).

[sauroid]

just a thought: the major brands should start making their elephant figures 3x bigger on the oncoming years. the template for excellent elephant figures are the Kaiyodo megasofubi and the PNSO ones.
just wondering, are the PNSO and the Kaiyodo the same scale? what other large elephant figures are there? the Vanishing Wild, Wildlife Wonder, the 2016 Papo large ver. and Bullyland (although not as good as the others)?

[brontodocus]

just a thought: the major brands should start making their elephant figures 3x bigger on the oncoming years. the template for excellent elephant figures are the Kaiyodo megasofubi and the PNSO ones.
just wondering, are the PNSO and the Kaiyodo the same scale? what other large elephant figures are there? the Vanishing Wild, Wildlife Wonder, the 2016 Papo large ver. and Bullyland (although not as good as the others)?

Schleich made the gorgeous "Mighty Fighter Elephant" but unfortunately, its armour isn't removable. From the specifics I've seen for the PNSO elephant it seems it's a bit smaller than the Mega Sofubi (PNSO stated on their FB page that it's 35*21*11 cm). But, well, you never know. I tend to trust only those measurements I've faked myself...

[sauroid]

thanks for that bit of info Dr. Andre

[Jetoar]

Thanks for sharing the images of Kaiyodo and Safari figures  .