My name's Mary and I'm a Mooseaholic! (Schleich Moose)

Member Name: marymoose

Product:	Schleich Moose
Date:	23/07/09 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A lovely model of a moose, suitable for children to play with !

Disadvantages: If people keep buying me them I could end up with lots more !

---Intro---
Lately I haven't had much inspiration for writing 'proper reviews' (food reviews don't really count!), and although a Moosemania Month has been suggested (and will come one day I'm sure) I don't think I'm quite ready for that. However, seeing that the Schleich moose was an available product on Ciao I decided to write a review - after all who better to review it than myself - since I have three of them - yes, three!
Enjoy a somewhat shorter review from myself than usual! Obviously this review can also be found on Ciao, but with gorgeous moose pics to go with it!


---My first Schleich Moose---
I found this in a toy/gift shop in Grasmere whilst out for the day in 2006 with my sister and her family who were up in the area. It was so exciting to find this amongst the other animals as moose are not the most common animal to come by in UK toy shops. Certainly a bit different from any other moose in my collection at the time, and on coming home I found that it fit perfectly on top of the mirror above the mantelpiece. I try to keep the majority of my moose in the Moosery (aka Spare room) as hubby isn't a huge fan of them, but sometimes they tend to migrate downstairs, and this moose is one of these examples!


---My second Schleich Moose---
Received as a present from my sister (clearly she didn't remember seeing me buy this and putting it on the mirror before). But not to worry, duplicates are very welcome in my moose collection, and two moose on the mirror looked even better than one!


---My third Schleich Moose---
From my best friend Amy, received on my birthday this year, and sent direct from Amazon. I will forgive Amy for not knowing that I already had two of these moose, because quite honestly three of these moose on top of my mirror look absolutely fantastic! However, although I'm always very pleased to receive moose, I don't think I actually need any more of these Schleich moose - at the end of the day moose are supposed to be solitary animals!


---So, what is this moose of which you speak?---
Basically the Schleich moose is a hand-painted replica (well, a model really) of a moose, made out of "durable synthetic material" i.e. plastic of some sort, it's pretty good quality though. Its measurements (I've taken these from a website) are 4.9"W x 3.9"H x 3.4"D, and it is approximately 1:20 scale if you get the opportunity to put one up against a real moose!

The moose is brown and has large moose antlers (unsurprisingly since it's a moose) - and as far as moose go, it looks quite like one! I like the facial expression, which you'll be able to see in my photos of the models - friendly looking. Each moose is slightly different in colouring, probably due to the hand painting. Although the moose says on the bottom (engraved into the plastic) that it is copyright of Schleich Germany in 2002, the Moose is made in China. Two of my three moose have a white paper tag on them saying Schleich, I've removed it from the other one.
The moose is part of the Wild Life Series by Schleich, and is model number 14310. There are loads of other animals in the Wild Life series - elephants (African & Indian), Tigers (all sorts), meerkats, penguins, kangaroos, cats, cows....a list of 207 animals can be found here - http://www.spmodels.co.uk/Schleich-Animals/c76_78/ index.html?page=1

Although for some other animals they have a variety for instance male, female and baby, for the moose there is just this one male moose, which is a bit of a shame really, as a collection would be nice!


---My 'Playing' Experience---
I have to say that sadly I don't really play with these moose what with being 28 and everything - although I think they might come to life when I go out to work and play on the mantelpiece along with my Playmobil moose. From what I have found on my travels across the Internet they seem to be suitable for those aged 4 and upwards, but I think a 3 year old could also be trusted with the moose. Any younger, and well, they might not really appreciate its moosiness.


--More about Schleich--
Schleich don't just make this moose model, or indeed just animals. A German company, founded in 1935 - possibly most famous for figurines of Snoopy and The Smurfs. In the 1980s they began making animals, and today in addition to the animals there's a wide range of knights and elves, scenery, dinosaurs, the American frontier figurines and Smurfs.


---Other...and concluding remarks---
This Schleich moose can be bought new from Amazon for £4.95, but can be found elsewhere for around £3.95.

Personally I feel it's an absolutely essential addition to a moose collection and a bargain for the price, but I'm not sure that I really need three of them. I also think that this is an essential purchase for a child, as every child should grow up knowing all about moose. If they don't then they are clearly deprived.

Finally just to clear up to those who don't know, the plural of moose is moose. And my name's Mary and I'm a Mooseaholic!

Expect more moose reviews in due course....

Summary: I have three of these!