What are the Rarest Animals?

[playmo1989]

 @Tiermann: From which sets are these rare animals? Are they customs? 

[Rasputin]

I would say that the glow in the dark lobster is one of the rarest and strangest animals, is it an animal ?

[PlaymoZoo]

hi,
Are there differences in the rarety of animals when you are in different places?
Because I can find some of those "super rare animals" easily in Holland, like the white baby tiger, spotted an grey colts, polarbears with black eyes and white mouse... And right now I spotted the white shark, color tiger & zebra, white baby seel and glow in the dark lobster, but when I look at ebay there are almost none? 

[Rasputin]

hi,
Are there differences in the rarety of animals when you are in different places?
Because I can find some of those "super rare animals" easily in Holland, like the white baby tiger, spotted an grey colts, polarbears with black eyes and white mouse... And right now I spotted the white shark, color tiger & zebra, white baby seel and glow in the dark lobster, but when I look at ebay there are almost none? 

I think you answered your own question

In the US you would have a hard time finding a white mouse as the machine never will or has been here. It was never, from what I remember, in a set but only a promotional give away in Europe

There is a much bigger used market in Europe and overall distribution is much larger

[bonniebeth]

I have three white mice because Gis sent them to me as a gift a while back. They're very treasured items in my collection! Super rare here.

The glow-in-the-dark lobster is strange indeed, I didn't know it existed!

@Tiermann: From which sets are these rare animals? Are they customs? 

Of course not! We're talking about rare animals, not customs.

[Tiermann]

Yes, all of these are regular release except for the three non-standard rarities I mentioned

white mouse - only available at the Speyer exhibition a few years ago as has been mentioned
Deinonychus with yellow claws - a variant, as most were released with unpainted claws
Purple and white cow - from the factory but never in a set, a factory test or production error that escaped to the wider world. Policy is that things like this are destroyed at the factory rather than sold to the public.

At the Zirndorf Funpark there is a feature of large clamshells with water flowing out of them and in the water there are small parts that you can collect. These have mostly been items released only at the Funpark and not in regular sets. They have changed over time

In 2005 they included the animals in this photo, thanks to Nick and Claire for sending them to me



That is where the glow in the dark lobster is from. Also you see a light blue and a brick red lobster, also both unique to this. A few of the other animals are unique to this grouping while others have been released in sets at some point. These are probably available in the secondary market in Europe but very rarely seen in the Americas. There were also pieces of wood and shoes I believe.

When I went in 2011 the Funpark had a different grouping, that was also sold in the shop in a bag with one of each. This photo is that group.



I have no idea if there have been any others at a time between these groups. I suspect not as I remember it being mentioned as an event when the second batch first appeared. If anyone does know of other animals we would all love to hear about them.

[Giorginetto]

This white dog from 5055 set seems to be very very rare and hard to find!

[PlaymoZoo]

This white dog from 5055 set seems to be very very rare and hard to find!

Wich one do you mean? The newfoundland mountain dogs in white?

and Tierman, are animals with mistakes (error-animals  ) immediately very rare and good for collectors?
Or are they just valueless (is that a word?) ?
 Hmm...  now it sounds like I only want to make money out of it, but I was just wondering afer I saw a few error- animals.
I also think the brown new bull is a little rare, when you think he was (as far as I know) only in one set.
PlaymoZoo

[bonniebeth]

At the Zirndorf Funpark there is a feature of large clamshells with water flowing out of them and in the water there are small parts that you can collect. These have mostly been items released only at the Funpark and not in regular sets. They have changed over time

I also have some of these thanks to Gis! They are really neat, nice to have and I have found many uses for them.

[Tiermann]

I think it will vary among collectors. Some have no interest in variations at all, or in errors. Others place a high value on unique animals.

When it's a recent release and still available from DS then I don't count it as rare. But, sometimes you can see the rare coming. For instance the ones in my Endangered Animal Species blog post back in February. I wouldn't count the all brown bull in this group yet since it's in production and may show up again. But the second style of horses will have some rarities in the future now that they have been basically eliminated from production.

The white Newfoundland dog is one of the rarest dogs probably, along with the plain brown version. I'm not surprised you are having trouble coming up with one George.