Recent acquisitions

[Isidro]

3. Another PNSO figure, the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus), Noce the Red Kangaroo. This is a figure previously unknown for me that I discovered just while making the purchase in MiniZoo. I saw the promo images, and told myself, finally a male red kangaroo! I'm sick of figures of red kangaroos with a baby in the pouch. Despite I've learned that female red kangaroos can be reddish in some populations, the idea of a reddish female is still so weird for me. I wanted a reddish MALE kangaroo and this one have a nice well developed scrotum. And oh oh the measurements are sooo nice! Is not enormous as are many figures of red kangaroos by western brands! OK the paintjob is a bit lazy but I can correct it easily. So here I have... A big disappointment Totally hidden in the promo pics, this kangaroo HAVE A JOEY IN THE POUCH and a scrotum at same time!!!!




At least is a more or less nice figure, here compared with my only other kangaroo: the Schleich quokka. Unlike the overgrown quokka and most of the red kangaroos of western brands, Noce have the perfect size!


Once arrived to my collection, I went to the difficult task of turn it into a perfect kangaroo. Well, a perfect male kangaroo already exist, is the Southland Replicas one. Is as realistic as an alive kangaroo. But just one problem: it's really enormous. So I took the PNSO model and customized it. I cut the too long and bendy, pointy ears, making them shorter and rounder. I also noticed that while the left foot have five toes, the right foot have six! So I cut the most outdoor toe and shortened the fifth. Toes are too even, the outer ones are adequate but the central ones are too short. Probably, if one day I get an sculpting clay for mixing (kinda WePam) instead baking, I will add long claws to the central toes and also claws tin the fingers (the hands of the kangaroo are very flat, and small), and some more muscle in the arms.


But the most difficult part was cutting the joey, and overall, left an even surface and trying to make a fur texture in it - without tools for doing that! With a lot of patience I went cutting small stripes of surface with a cutter, until I finally got a passable texture


After that, it wen the paintjob work. Very nice and satisfying to do that. I tried to match the colours of the perfect Southlands model. Still, Noce have a very anthropomorphised expression, more likely a "general animal" than a kangaroo. Almost like an antelope. The eyes should be a bit higher and the lips a bit lower for get the perfect male red kangaroo expression that Southlands model get perfectly. Despite that, with the new paintjob the figure improved a lot.

[Isidro]

4. Another new brand for me: Science & Nature's wegde-tailed eagle (Aquila audax). There are two wegdies in the market, the other being the Southland's. But it's landing on a undetachable Australian Brown Snake, and I don't want figures with such kind of "accesories". Besides that, the open wings have toooooo wide points of feathers (for safety reasons). So I went with S&N figure.


I's overall a good figure. Colours are very realistic, and is well shaped. Maybe the worst thing are the tertial/scapular feathers forming a species of "ladder" over the tail. Too symmetric, too well arranged. Of course, the bill and claws are very thick-rounded for safety reasons.


Of course I also retouched a bit this one. I painted more accurately the feathering over the cere of the bill, corrected both eyes (the right one sligthly over the correct place, the left one slightly under the correct place), sharpened the bill and painted black on the bill. I also deleted the unaesthetical white rays that pretend to imitate the canyons of the back feathers. I left the feet untouched. Probably, once I get the correct modelling clay, I will turn the current claws into toe tips and add sharp curved claws with the paste.

Before:


After:


5. Common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus). The last of my PNSO's figures, Faraji the Warthog. There are a lot of warthog figurines from western brands, but I love especially the PNSO model. It have various features that made it better than other warthog figures in various senses:
-It's not so oversized
-It have a much more dynamic pose, trotting gently and with the tail upright as in a real warthog
-It have much thinner legs, tusks, and tail, making it much more realistic
-It have a deeply wrinkled skin

However it also have some issues, and especially noticeable is the lack of detail in the sculpt. The joints and lines are always blurred or absent, such as in the lips, the lack of hair on the tail tuft (it's just a plain paddle), and overall in the hooves (not only badly differenciated from the legs, but also undivided in the middle). However, this issue is really minor compared with the forementioned improvements.



Here compared with my other african pig. Faraji is not so overgrown as the other pigs in my collection!


Would Faraji reach the den before the cheetah can catch him?


The paintjob is not perfect. The pig is very brownish, and the eyes are just black dots painted out of place. I tried to correct both things making a bit greyer, as if it had a dirt bath, and correcting the eyes. Probably I should improve my own work with the grey. I find it a bit bad. I've also painted black the hooves and the tail tuft.

Before:


After:

[Advicot]

Oh @Isidro stop tempting me to shop at MiniZoo for some PNSO I want, like the tree kangaroo. I am also after the eagle, but Modellpferdeversand don't have it. 

[Isidro]

Sorry Advicot one more temptation for you! The fact that customs charge 26€ more should be enough for avoid temptations
I don't want the PNSO tree kangaroo, not even as a gift.

6. Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) from Southland Replicas. Southlands are easily available in other pages and I only bought this because Minizoo is the shop that owns/produces Southlands, and hence the figures are cheaper here than in other pages. However, the figures turn into more expensive thanks to Customs

Despite that, this is what I think is the most perfect figure of all these purchases. It's my second Southlands and I see that this brand put extreme care in the detail both in the sculpt and the paintjob. I think is better than Schleich, CollectA, Safari and Papo in many figures. And platypus is my most wished. It's the only of the many platypus in the trade that have a correct size for my collection. All the others are enormous. This tiny figure is extremely detailed, and includes for example the area of whitish fur that is just before the eyes. The claws of the feet are not so detailed for see the big difference between forelegs and hind legs, but in such a tiny feet would be almost impossible to sculpt that. Summarizing, I absolutely LOVE my new platypus!



Here with other monotremate and at the moment my only other Southland figure:

[Advicot]

I may get this figure for a baby for my CollectA and Papo models but I probably won't.

[bmathison1972]

3. Another PNSO figure, the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus), Noce the Red Kangaroo. This is a figure previously unknown for me that I discovered just while making the purchase in MiniZoo. I saw the promo images, and told myself, finally a male red kangaroo! I'm sick of figures of red kangaroos with a baby in the pouch. Despite I've learned that female red kangaroos can be reddish in some populations, the idea of a reddish female is still so weird for me. I wanted a reddish MALE kangaroo and this one have a nice well developed scrotum. And oh oh the measurements are sooo nice! Is not enormous as are many figures of red kangaroos by western brands! OK the paintjob is a bit lazy but I can correct it easily. So here I have... A big disappointment Totally hidden in the promo pics, this kangaroo HAVE A JOEY IN THE POUCH and a scrotum at same time!!!!

Why not just get the Southlands Replicas red kangaroo? It is a male.

[Advicot]

@Isidro finds it way too big @bmathison1972, but he would get it if it was the size of the PNSO model.

[Badger]

What I've acquired so far in the new year:

[Isidro]

That softshell turtle looks nice.

[bmathison1972]

Nice Badger; I have the duck and the other two are on my wishlist.

[Advicot]

Marvellous looking turtle, and the swallow is a little charm. 

[Ikessauro]

I am quite happy with this little haul that finally arrived from Germany. Thanks to @postsaurischian for all the help, It was due to his assistance I manage to get some figures I really wanted for a long time. The Stegosaurs are favorites of mine, but the true gems of the lot are the Carnegie Baby Apatosaurus, German variant from 1988 and the quite rare Safari Ltd. Emerald Tree Boa.

[bmathison1972]

your emerald tree boa is very vibrantly colored! I had it as a generalist years ago and I remember mine being duller; maybe they have re-released it at some point with a new paint job? Or maybe my memory is failing me lol...

[Advicot]

One gorgeous boa that is sadly too large for my collection. 

[Isidro]

What an splendid green tree boa!
And what a shame that they did a plesiosaur with a tied neck

[Isidro]

Some additions from my favourite CollectA toy shop

1. The dugong (Dugong dugon)


It's a masterpiece and the only well done dugong of western brands! Look at the amazing detail of the mouth underside!


Dugongs are often seen with a bunch of tropical reef fishes around them, many picking its skin like they do with turtles, groupers, etc. This one was cleaned exhaustively, so much that its skin is bright! The two poor butteflyfishes can't find nothing edible in the dugong...


Dugongs share the Australian and Indic Ocean water with leatherback turtles and I guess that these encounters are not rare. CollectA's dugong fits perfectly with Papo's leatherback:


What leads us to:
2) The Galapagos giant tortoise (Geochelone nigra). This and the Papo's leatherback are my only chelonians for now (other two wished are Japanese brands, more difficult to get).


It's represent the Pinta Island subspecies (Geochelone nigra abindgoni), famous because its last individual, Solitary George, died few years ago so now this subspecies is extinct. The figure is wonderful, it have the perfect proportions for a giant tortoise (unlike many other giant tortoises from other brands), and also it captures perfectly the very particular expression typical of Galapagos giant tortoises:


Now in Galapagos, these two famous endemic reptiles are enjoying a wild salad:

[Isidro]

3. The Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi):


It have a perfect sculpt, perfect size and proportions. It shous the typical more longer face and the big rounded ears, the high mane and other traits that make it different from other zebras.


But it's a bit ugly painted. Certainly machine-painted (all copies have identical markings, and in the legs are visible the division between two parts of the process), so they could have a bit of improvement over the painting. In fact, I saw this model in the early begin of my collection, just when I bought the leopard seal and African wild ass in a stationery, the 4th and 5th figures of my collection. The same stationery had then the Grevy's but I've refused to buying it because the stripes on the butt. They're vertical instead horizontal! But now that I have acrylic paints, I can have this zebra in my collection. Sadly it needs repainting not only in the butt but also in almost the rest of the body and the face. But I will do soon!

That zebra fits perfectly with my other equines. That's all that I have for now. I must be one of the few collectors without a domestic horse, but domestics are not my kind of stuff hehe


Grevy's zebra is endemic of the Horn of Africa as are these other CollectA's:


What leads me to...
4) the bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus), another tragelaphine and my second Tragelaphus with the mountain nyala seen above and below


And now released in the Congo Basin jungle. I forgot to bring some neighbours but you know I have a lot in my collection, from okapi and mandrill to duikers and Goliath beetle, pygmy hippo, red river hog and Diana monkey... I could do a nice diorama of African jungle animals, and it's only matter of time that it will enrich with great apes

[Advicot]

Great selection of new figures @Isidro! My tortoise seems to have different colour skin to yours. Mine is more grey. 

[endogenylove]

Hello! I have eleven new figures of various brands currently on the way, and my question is if anyone has ever purchased the argali figure that is for sale on aliexpress? It is the only representation I have seen of that species and I have it in shipping, but I have never seen anyone on here mention it. I am worried it may be too big or too poor in quality.

[bmathison1972]

Hello! I have eleven new figures of various brands currently on the way, and my question is if anyone has ever purchased the argali figure that is for sale on aliexpress? It is the only representation I have seen of that species and I have it in shipping, but I have never seen anyone on here mention it. I am worried it may be too big or too poor in quality.

We will know more when we see images of it. If you bought it on Aliexpress, it could be a custom or another species repurposed as an argali by a Chinese company (that happens sometimes)