Recent acquisitions

[Beetle guy]

I would reclamate it. The shop must see the quite big difference in the model.

There is so much difference it looks almost another articlenumber (perhaps older/newer version). I have seen in Google a huge variety in paint job qaulity. There is, I think (like in older CapsuleQ Museum figurines) also a big quality gap between the promotional picture and the real thing..

If that is the case, repaint is a good option.

[bmathison1972]

I would reclamate it. The shop must see the quite big difference in the model.

There is so much difference it looks almost another articlenumber (perhaps older/newer version). I have seen in Google a huge variety in paint job qaulity. There is, I think (like in older CapsuleQ Museum figurines) also a big quality gap between the promotional picture and the real thing..

If that is the case, repaint is a good option.

Reclamation may not help. Often shops use prototype promotional figures from the manufacturer and they may not have figures that look like what you wanted.

Beetle Guy was right about another thing also. Figures are painted in different factories and with major manufacturers (Safari, CollectA) you can get varying degrees of quality. And yes, for some reason, you tend to get better paint applications if you get the figure in the first release when it first comes out.

For what it's worth, STS forum members had similar experiences with this same figure!!!!

[Isidro]

Thanks for your replies! Yes, for sure the perfectly pained snow leopard of the link is the promotional picture. Then they probably painted first items good, but after years of production they lowered the quality. Look like repainting is the most reasonable option.

[Isidro]

Finally I decided to repaint it, tough I only have some aquarel pencils and the result is not fully satisfactory, however is better than what I had.

This is my complete collection now, with the figurines added this year :-)

[Beetle guy]

Nice collection!!

I use acryllic model paint with synthetic brushes, if you have the patience to work in very thin layers, results are really good!
Your keen eye for detail comes in handy too

[Beetle guy]

These came in last weeks. Thus expanding my amphibians. 

The Kitan Club Nature of Japan tree frog (Hyla japonica) and the Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus).
Also the two colour morphs of Anderson's crocodile newt (Echinotriton andersoni).



I am very pleased with the two newts, it looks really like the Yujin sculpter KOW sculpted them. They fit greatly with the Ikimon Newt and salamander set.
I sanded down the connection pin and the attachment part very carefully, so that the line of the connecting parts is brought to a minimun.



and more details on the tree frog, a great addition.

[bmathison1972]

Nice, I may be getting these at some point too 

[Beetle guy]

Nice, I may be getting these at some point too 

Wish Ikimon would make some more insects  .
speaking off...They had a crab in the "leaked" workshop photo of the recently released shallow sea set. I quess there is (like with the deep sea sets) another complementairy set coming containing some crustaceans.

[bmathison1972]

Nice, I may be getting these at some point too 

Wish Ikimon would make some more insects  .
speaking off...They had a crab in the "leaked" workshop photo of the recently released shallow sea set. I quess there is (like with the deep sea sets) another complementairy set coming containing some crustaceans.

Yes the crab was Calappa lophos, made three times previously by Kaiyodo (but not by anyone else yet).

[Isidro]

Yesterday I bought at a local store the Papo's black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis). I has been watching it for some months, and what finally pushed me to buy it is seeing a comparison thread between various brands black rhinos, resulting in Papo being the best one for my taste.



Until now my only rhino whas the Safari's sumatran. Here is a good comparison size between the African giant and the smallest of all the rhino species:


Here with some other African savannah pals:

[Beetle guy]

Nice addition impressive sculpt!

[Isidro]

Here my newest acquisitions!

First, I went to a stationery and found here the CollectA's striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), a model that was in my wishlist. So I bought it! But oh, once out of the store I realized how ugly has been painted. It was GREY!!! and with some bold stripes, all of them stopping suddenly about 1 cm to dorsal line, and the legs were striped in a zebra-style. So when I arrived to home the first thing that I did is repaint it. I should have been think first, and take a photo for the "after" and "before" here in the forum, but I just was in urgent need to correct the failures, so I added a tan coat instead the ugly pure grey one, continued the existent black stripes a bit more for make them tapered and unequal, added more intermediate stripes in the belly region, and added a black dotting on the legs for make they more mottled than ringed. So now here is the result, very similar to the promo image of this figure, but very different to the real thing that they are selling




Second, I received the next day (last friday) a mail with my first Japanese brands!!! I bought them via eBay, as no online stores sell them to Europe. They was expensive but I'm very happy

First one is the Kaiyodo serval (Leptailurus serval). Perfectly painted and very well done, tough I didn't knew that it had junctures (in the photo of the eBay page is shown one without them). I was fooled by the size. It's indicated 6 cm, so I took a rule and imagined a serval of about 6 cm of body lenght. But I forgot the tail... Well, the result is that I have a miniature serval. It's really 6 cm in total lenght, but I expected bigger. It's much smaller that the new Safari LTD serval. And a bit of painful seeing it side by side with my overgrown fennec or quokka But actually the serval is good in size compared with my bigger figures... just odd when compared with the smaller ones.



Second is the Kaiyodo Iriomote cat (Prionailurus iriomotensis). It's a figure to be assembled, I didn't knew before buying amd it's my first figure of this kind. However, junctures are reasonably inconspicuous (except those in the base of the tail). The figure have a stand of fake logs, stones and mosses, one can detach the figure from it but it's not possible to put it in a natural position (with the four legs touching the soil) if you remove the base, so I kept it with the base. It's a similar size than the serval but a bit more corpulent.



All my cats including the two new ones:


Third is the Takara Tomy's Japanese crested ibis, Nipponia nippon. This is the first bird in my collection, and a species that I dreamed about since child. There are various figures of this species amongst Japanese brands, and the best done is the Kitan Club one, but it's too big (like most birds of western brands are), while mine have the perfect size when compared with most of my mammals. It comes with a nest with three eggs and the figure is molded for be put into the nest, even it have holes in the belly that matches with the eggs.




And the fourth is, in my opinion, the best of all these acquisition. It's a wonderful and perfectly done FRILLED SHARK (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) very detailed, from Kitan Club (Nature Techni Colour). It's supposed to be a keychain, but I removed the ball string attached to its chin. I'm just in love with this wonderful shark!




Size compared with other small sharks:

[bmathison1972]

Nice, Isidro. I like that frilled shark, it's a good size so when I decide to do the cartilaginous fish, I will consider this one.

I also have the striped hyena. It should be noted that they can be grey in color (albeit maybe not quite as pale as the figure).

Our cat collections look very similar 

[Beetle guy]

Nice additions  Isido! Also nice repaint!

[Beetle guy]

Today these three came in the mail. I bought them on Yahoo Auctions.

The two versions of Cynops ensicauda (Sword-tailed Newt) from the ChocoQ animatales.
And Dendrobates auratus from 'My Favorite Animal'. These series contain truly stunning figurines, although not cheap.

I posted a walk-around on the frog here http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=2443.new#new.

[Isidro]

Here my latest addition: Colorata cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) bought from eBay 




Predator and prey...


But who's the predator and who's the prey?

[sbell]

Here my latest addition: Colorata cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) bought from eBay 
But who's the predator and who's the prey?

In almost every instance...the whale is the prey. Cookie cutters are too small to be worth the effort! 

[Isidro]

Yes - probably the disproportion between both figures is too much, even assuming that the sperm whale is a calf.

[sbell]

Yes - probably the disproportion between both figures is too much, even assuming that the sperm whale is a calf.

Of course, a cookie cutter to scale with the whale would be almost invisible! They're like, 1/25 the size of the whale!

[Isidro]

My latest acquisitions! They arrived yesterday and I was literally jumping of happiness after unpackage them


They are figurines from Ikimon - Kitan Club - Nature Techni Colour (which of the three is the true name of the brand??), from Deep Sea sets 1 and 2. All of them are keychains and I just removed the stringball. Here you can see all of them together for size comparison. These are the first bony fishes and the first invertebrate of my figurine collection , so it slowly increases in taxonomic diversity!

First one is the Opah (Lampris guttatus), a species that I like very much. It measures 5,2 centimeters lenght - it's a bit too small, but no matter, it's just perfect. Fins are slightly flexible but the plastic is hard. The spots in the body are highly metallic and reflective making it super beautiful.



Second is the Comores coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae). It's a species that I like a lot. Several brands (mainly Japanese ones) did coelacanths, but this one fits much better in scale with most of my sealife figurines. Total lenght is 8,6 cm.  It belongs to the Deep Sea Set 1, while the Deep Sea Set 2 have the other species, Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) - just the same figure, but painted brown instead blue. Probably this figure is the only one of the Indonesian species, while all other coelacanths from any brand are the Comores one. But I'm happy just with this one



Third is the Colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). This is the most massive of all the invertebrates (shorter than the giant squid but heavier) and lives in Antarctica deep waters only. The figure measures 15 cm in total lenght and 6,5 cm in mantle lenght. It's a bit too small, but is absolutely perfect. It comes in two pieces (the head+tentacles and the mantle+fins) that must be assembled, but given the anatomy of squids, the joint is of course not visible and it fits perfectly. The eyes are absolutely accurate as are the suckers, siphon, etc.




And by last, the fourth is the Oarfish (Regalecus glesne). Contrary to the others, it's made of a much more soft plastic and the body is quite flexible while the head rays and pelvic fins are soft as spaghetti. Total lenght is 24,5 cm, so it have the same lenght than CollectA sperm whale or Papo whale shark. The only disadvantage of this figure is that it cannot stand upright (unlike the others), but I solved puting it against the vertical panel of my collection. The figure is so absolutely perfect as the others, and I'm in love with it