Starting your wooden animal collection

If you’re interested in starting a figurine collection of wooden animals and bits of nature for toddler, you’re probably debating between two popular brands: Ostheimer & Holztiger. I did a comparison post between the two, so if you’re interested in learning more about the differences, you can read it here.

When starting your collection, it is a bit of an investment. If you think about how 1 single animal can easily cost $20 – $30, which would be a fairly decent sized plastic toy.

So today I wanted to throw out a few things you might want to think about:

1. What type of animals do I want to collect?
   • Farm?
   • Woodland?
   • Safari?
2. Which brand’s aesthetic am I more attracted two?
3. Do I want more animals for my money?

For myself, I wanted my animals to go together as they would in nature (or man-made nature lol). I think this will help J understand the different types of animals better. The main three would probably be farm animals, woodland creatures, and safari. You commonly see these animals in the books you read to them and it’s something they can see at a farm or the zoo. Well there is sea creatures too lol!

I think farm animals is a great place to start. Depending on your budget you can start to collect a few key animals like a cow, pig and a dog. But if you want to decorate and make a display out of your animals, I like the idea of buying multiples of the same animals. Kind of how you would find them at the farm!

Here are my picks:

Ostheimer

• Cow $30 x 2 ($60)
• Pig $16 x 3 ($48)
• Goose $18 x 2 (36)
• Dog $18
• Donkey $24
• Cat $15
• Total: $201 without tax

How lovely are these animals? So nice that you almost want to keep them for yourself. In our home we’re trying to collect both Ostheimer & Holztiger animals. We love how they look and feel. These animals are so well made, so much attention has been put into each one. Not to mention they are made in Germany.

Holztiger:

• Cow $19 x 2 ($38)
• Goose $11 x 2
• Pig $14 x 3
• Dog $15
• Donkey $17
• Cat $11
• Total: $145 without tax

I like that both brands offer several variations of animals that you can choose from. I find that Holztiger has a finish that appears easier to clean. My thoughts is that I would like J to play with these ones more. He’s still quite young and rough with his toys.

So based on my calculations there’s approximately a $56 difference if you’re starting with 10 basic farm animals. So if you were to go with Holztiger, that would allow you to buy 3-4 extra animals.

Note: depending on the age of your kids, I would focus on some of the larger animals first to avoid the risk of choking.

Both brands bare the CE label.

So which brand should I go with?

It all depends on you. Many parents choose to mix and match their animals. Both figurines are very well made. But if you like the idea of easy cleaning, I think the finish on Holztiger allows you to wipe it down more easily.

If you’re interesting in Holztiger animals, you can check out jsrainbows.ca for a small collection that is grouped by farm, safari, and woodland.

If you have kids older than 3, there are a few companies on etsy that offers comparable animals. Just note the different shipping costs.

The animals from Mikheev Factory are from an Etsy shop in Russia. From the photos they look very promising. I find it’s hard to tell the scale of these animals but the shapes are very cute. I placed an order for the Eskimo family so I can report back.

Another Etsy stop – but based out of Romania. I like that these animals look similar to Ostheimer’s but with their own charm.

This set comes with 10 animals and extra accessories, made from a small etsy shop based out of Spain. This looks like a great value, but the animals do appear to be smaller.

What are your thoughts on my recommendations?