Figure manufacturer identification thread

[sbell]

We actually had that one here, one of the outside animal toys. It's a generic bib-style animal figure, one of many hollow plastic figures. Unfortunately, that measn tracking another down will be pretty difficult, as there isn't really anything in particular to search for.

Good luck though.

[GrayHorse]

Thanks for your reply - can you tell me what "bib-style" means? I'm not familiar with the term.

Do you think ebay.com is basically my best bet then?

[sbell]

Thanks for your reply - can you tell me what "bib-style" means? I'm not familiar with the term.

Do you think ebay.com is basically my best bet then?

Whoops--that should say "Bin".

It may appear in ebay lots, but it is also likely to show up in dollar stores.

[bmathison1972]

Thanks for your reply - can you tell me what "bib-style" means? I'm not familiar with the term.

Do you think ebay.com is basically my best bet then?

Whoops--that should say "Bin".

It may appear in ebay lots, but it is also likely to show up in dollar stores.

yes, they are essentially your generic 'Made in China' animals that are often not attributable to a specific manufacturer.

[EmperorDinobot]

Please identify this iguana:

[stargatedalek]

Its by AAA and its actually a water dragon.

[EmperorDinobot]

Yeah. I said Iguana because that's what it says underneath, but I was like "uh...this is...not an iguana" when I saw that. Thanks!



Does anyone want it?

[stargatedalek]

Sorry for such a pic intensive post, but there's a lot of mysteries to be solved 

First off, These figures are labelled "new-ray", I've never heard of this brand before. They make the date (1995) rather obvious on them. The birds are labelled ornate hawk-eagle for the two in the back and kestrel for the other two (despite only one of them resembling a kestrel...). The insects are labelled cicada and fire-fly respectively.




Next are these little goldfish, and when I say little I mean it, about 2 cm long. The only marking is (you guessed it!) "china". They are really nicely detailed so I doubt they are simply dollar store fodder.



I'm curious if any of these molds are familiar to anyone. Most of them are simply labelled "made in china" or "china" except for the narwhal, sea snake, and sawfish which also have the common names.




This mold has shown up time and time again, dollar store bins, second hand stores, but I can't for the life of me figure out who the original maker was.



These fish are really nicely made, they have the common name on one side and "china" and a number on the other side. The second picture is of a few that have a very similar sculpting style but no such identifying marks and are of significantly lower quality, I'm wondering if they may be bootleg versions of other fish from the set I don't have the originals of.




Easy question (I think) time. Is this the full set of PV nudibranch? I know this probably isn't the right place to ask but I couldn't find a better thread.


Last question (hooray!), this mold is another one giving me troubles. The barracuda is labelled great barracuda, a number, and the usual "china", but the salmon (bootlegs) are only marked "china", so my question is if anyone knows who the original maker is?

[bmathison1972]

the cicadas and fireflies are generic but match clearly those families respectively (I actually really like the firefly on the left!).

the crabs look like PV knock-offs; the pale one on the far left is modeled after one of the 'blue' crabs in the family Portunidae.

[brontodocus]

Hmm, sorry, I can't be of any help here. And just yesterday I bought one of those tiny bullhead sharks, too. The PV nudibranchs, while I don't know the set, if I remember correctly they usually made eight figures per set. I think it would also be a good idea to post the same photo in the PV and XX thread here: http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=267.0 - I've never seen any photos of these before!

[BugFolk]

Zopherus Haldemani with what looks like 2 W's, one mirrored over the other. Like XX? I thought for sure it was a Play Vision like my other beetles, but it isn't. At the time I purchased it, was along the time I purchased the others. (Accents Crafts circa. 1998-2003)

[brontodocus]

Could you take a photo of the stamp? I'm not sure but it sounds like it could be XX, indeed. What a beautiful ironclad beetle figure, by the way!

[bmathison1972]

Could you take a photo of the stamp? I'm not sure but it sounds like it could be XX, indeed. What a beautiful ironclad beetle figure, by the way!

Interesting. I have an XX Zopherus haldemani and mine isnt nearly as detailed (in color that is). Did you repaint it, or did it always look like this? I also have a knock-off figure.

EDIT: Here are mine; XX is one left, the knock-off on the right

[BugFolk]

Could you take a photo of the stamp? I'm not sure but it sounds like it could be XX, indeed. What a beautiful ironclad beetle figure, by the way!

Interesting. I have an XX Zopherus haldemani and mine isnt nearly as detailed (in color that is). Did you repaint it, or did it always look like this? I also have a knock-off figure.

Here's the backside. Blue stuff is leftover rubber stuff that was used to hold this (and my other PV beetles) on my window frame at one time. When my sister took over my old bedroom, the bugs got put away, but I was fortunate enough to find them and bring them home with me.

As far as color, I bought it that way. It was in the same bin as the P.V. Beetles I have (South African longhorn, Goliath Beetle, Macrodontia beetle and wood boring beetle. There were other beetles (and butterflies, and caterpillars, lizards and stuff) available but my budget was extremely limited at the time, and they were about $2.50 or $3 each.  Since the store was a bit of a distance for me at the time and I was young enough to require my parents involvement in transportation, most of my trips were for art supplies I really needed. The beetles, etc were just sort of an impulse. I would limit myself to 1 or 2 per trip.

I picked out the ones I felt had the best/detailed/most unique shape and paint job. The little bit of green on the claws is a nice touch I didn't notice until I snapped the photo on the leaf.

  I am looking into customizing, or touching up some of my figures if I can ever find an acrylic that does not peel or flake off the PVC.

[bmathison1972]

well, you lucked out with the better paint job, even though both of our figures are clearly by XX 

[BugFolk]

It's been a while since I purchased them, so I don't remember clearly but I believe there were a few offered like yours as well as a few like mine. I remember for sure the Anthaxia nitidula was also in the bin, but I didn't pick it. I selected the one I have because I was impressed with the paint job and how accurately they portrayed the species.

I didn't snap as many pictures of my other PV beetles because they look very much like the post. Not a lot of variation with the paint jobs there, but still amazing insects compared to what is usually offered in the United States in art supply stores and gift shops.

I am not a fan of the Safari tube bugs, sorry. I feel they need an update. Yet that is all I see insect related most of the time.

[bmathison1972]

It's been a while since I purchased them, so I don't remember clearly but I believe there were a few offered like yours as well as a few like mine. I remember for sure the Anthaxia nitidula was also in the bin, but I didn't pick it. I selected the one I have because I was impressed with the paint job and how accurately they portrayed the species.

I didn't snap as many pictures of my other PV beetles because they look very much like the post. Not a lot of variation with the paint jobs there, but still amazing insects compared to what is usually offered in the United States in art supply stores and gift shops.

I am not a fan of the Safari tube bugs, sorry. I feel they need an update. Yet that is all I see insect related most of the time.

yes, interestingly the tube figures for both Safari LTD and K&M Wild Republic come from similar/same sculpts based on common 'chinabug' style figures. They were probably commissioned cheaply. A revamp would be nice, although with Safari's lack of creativity lately I wonder if they'd simply take arthropods from recent TOOBs and Life Cycles and throw them together (Venomous Creatures, Cave Dwellers, etc., life cycle parts). A revamped TOOB, even if only 8 or so figures, would be welcome from Safari.

[BugFolk]

I have a whole bunch of the wild republic china bugs. Most of them were given to me as gifts from either my parents, various teachers, or friends.  The Safari version is seriously lacking. The butterfly is nice and the inclusion of a honeybee/bumblebee is pretty good (though the detail leaves more to be desired.  Otherwise they picked pretty much the most generic out of them to sell.
The wild republic or unbranded at least came with some unique generic crickets and stonefly nymphs or something from Embioptera or grylloblattodea. ( I couldn't really figure out what they were based off, but they are/ were sort of unique. Not rove beetles or earwigs.) One version had longer antennae than the other. One version even had a slug.

I'll see if I can get some pics up, but it won't be tonight. I'm too tired from work. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to round up some of the more interesting knock offs I collected to see what they might have been based from.

[MaastrichianGuy]

i know you guys think that the eels from pec that i found from that snake playset that i bought from the palm beach zoo are ripoffs of the original playvision eels that im about to show you and theyre very horrible and terrible but since you think the original ones are made by the company back then i have to know what year made these i have to know how old theyre are

[sbell]

i know you guys think that the eels from pec that i found from that snake playset that i bought from the palm beach zoo are ripoffs of the original playvision eels that im about to show you and theyre very horrible and terrible but since you think the original ones are made by the company back then i have to know what year made these i have to know how old theyre are

1) Thanks for grabbing my pictures. 2) I got them in 1998, but they are stamped 1996. 3) If you (or anyone else) happen to have picked up an extra spiny eel (the brown one) or could get me one I would gladly reimburse the cost of the figure and letter postage (it should fit nice and thin in an envelope) because hey, spiny eel.