Miniature Animal Figure Collection

ollielloyd

ollielloyd

Well-Known Member
Hey,

Just wondering if anyone else here collects minature animal figures? Like, the ones you can buy from Zoos gift shops? I collect Marine/Aquarium related Figures! I have lots of dolphin/whale/shark figures :) If anyone else is interested I can post some photos of them all! Been collecting for the past few years on and off :)

Ollie
 
I have about 750 zoo animals, with a variety of shapes and sizes. I'm almost 34 and so I bought most of them when I was much, much younger. The majority of them were Christmas presents when I was a kid.:)
 
Same here I probably don't have the spelling right but I have many Schielich animal figurines. When I was younger I made many zoos and farms out of my 500+ animals.

A member on zoochat is making his own miniature zoo. He says he has invested over 120,000 dollars in it. Hopefully he will post some pics of it soon.
 
I sold nearly all mine from my childhood a couple of years ago - hundreds of them - and now I kind of regret it. But now I collect just okapis, they are rare enough to make it interesting and to stop it taking over my apartment!
 
@ollielloyd: I have quite a few little black, plastic seals/sea lions, and a few walruses, dolphins, whales and at least 30 polar bears.
 
I have zero photos, but I have a pack of dolphins/whales that I believe includes about 12 animals. Sperm, blue, narwhal, beluga whales and then a number of dolphins and porpoises...all only a couple of inches in size.
 
i keep the schleich wildlife and forest life animals they are really highly detailed models.
when i was younger i had well still have in fact the britains wild and farm animal models all very nice to
 
zooman1 said:
i keep the schleich wildlife and forest life animals they are really highly detailed models.
when i was younger i had well still have in fact the britains wild and farm animal models all very nice to
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i have those ones, aswell as ones from the endangered species store and seaworld
 
zooman1 said:
i keep the schleich wildlife and forest life animals they are really highly detailed models.
when i was younger i had well still have in fact the britains wild and farm animal models all very nice to
Click to expand...

i have those ones, aswell as ones from the endangered species store and seaworld plus various other zoo ones
 
Hey ollielloyd, you really should use the search funtion and check out the posts, threads and photos from forumster miniaturezoo954. He is a guy in Florida that is building the world´s biggest miniature zoo - he has thousands and thousands of animal and plant miniatures, he is commissioning artists to build him detailed miniature buildings etc etc. He has it all stored in boxes but will set it all up one day and is even planning light and sound effects, if I remember correctly.

It is a hundreds of thousands of dollars project and extremely fascinating. I have never seen anything like it. Do check it out if you are not already familiar with it!
 
How many UK zoochatters collected Britains zoo animals?
aaahhh nostalgia!!!!
 
I had mostly Britains, you see them on ebay often but I think many are actually copies as they don't seem to be the same quality, but I don't think the people selling realise this.
 
kiang said:
How many UK zoochatters collected Britains zoo animals?
aaahhh nostalgia!!!!
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I was an enthusiastic collector of Britains zoo animals when I was a child (and, indeed, I still have quite a few of them).

When I was a very small child in the 1950s, the Britains model zoo animals were made of metal. About 1960, plastic models were introduced to replace the metal ones; initially, almost all the plastic models were of identical design to the original metal ones, except for the male lion which was a different design for some reason. Subsequently Britains introduced additional plastic models, such as an okapi, platypus and black rhino which never existed in metal.

I also had a few models in the early 1960s made by Timpo; these were of inferior quality to those made by Britains, However, I particularly liked the fact that the Timpo range included a black rhinoceros at a time when a Britains black rhino was not available.
 
Tim May said:
When I was a very small child in the 1950s, the Britains model zoo animals were made of metal. About 1960, plastic models were introduced to replace the metal ones; initially, almost all the plastic models were of identical design to the original metal ones, except for the male lion which was a different design for some reason. Subsequently Britains introduced additional plastic models, such as an okapi, platypus and black rhino which never existed in metal.
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The metal animals i believe were actually made from lead:eek:
The metal Indian rhino was actually modeled on an Indian rhino that lived at Regent's park at the turn of the century, whose name escapes me, but he had the longevity record for a captive Indian rhino, which i think he lost recently:confused:
The Britain's black rhino frustrated me, i always wished instead of action poses for their animals they just had it with 4 feet on the ground, i remember putting his horn into a pencil sharpener and then roughing it up a little to make it look a little more realistic. As well as painting the gaurs legs white with tippex:o
 
kiang said:
The metal animals i believe were actually made from lead:eek:
The metal Indian rhino was actually modeled on an Indian rhino that lived at Regent's park at the turn of the century, whose name escapes me, but he had the longevity record for a captive Indian rhino, which i think he lost recently:confused:
The Britain's black rhino frustrated me, i always wished instead of action poses for their animals they just had it with 4 feet on the ground, i remember putting his horn into a pencil sharpener and then roughing it up a little to make it look a little more realistic. As well as painting the gaurs legs white with tippex:o
Click to expand...

Yes, indeed, Britains Indian rhino was a model of the famous “Jim” who lived at London Zoo from 25 July 1864 until 12 December 1904.

Similarly Britains original hippo was a model of “Guy Fawkes” who was born at London Zoo 5 November 1872 and died 2 March 1908.

I suspect that many of their other models were based on London Zoo animals too although, with other species, the individual animals are not so easy to recognise.
 
I was thinking certainly the golden eagle and the giant panda, must have been modeled from "Goldie" and perhaps "Chi-Chi".
 
does any one know when britains stopped making the zoo animals you can still find on some website the farm animals but never the zoo ones
 
I just started collecting Scleich animals. They have them at a nearby store and even though I'm 33 yrs old, I couldn't resisit. I get one or two every trip. Right now I have and African elephant, a jaguar, an okapi, a hippo, a Bengal tigress and a giant tortoise.

I'm jealous of the European folks on here. A lot of the cool Scleich hoofstock is very rare here in the States. One way or another, I will get my hands on the water buffalo, oryx antelope and kudu!
 
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