Post #429752 by Bay Park Buzzy on Tue, Jan 20, 2009 5:06 PM

On 2009-01-20 16:06, TabooDan wrote:

Hey Buzzy, Are you sure that this is not a Schirman?? Mahalo, TabooDan

I'll present the evidence that I used to determine it was lava ray instead of a Schirman and see if you concur with my findings:

Known Schirman on the left and a Lava Ray on the right

Schirman on the left is signed, as well as having the blue sticker on the back. The one on the right has no signature or mark anywhere on it.The sculpts look super duper close to each other, almost identical in every detail. The easiest way to spot difference is in the shape of the two bases, which you can see differ in shape just slightly:

The one on the right had this maker's tag:

I based my conclusions on the following factors:
#1 The base on the one I found was shaped identical to the Lava Ray one I already had
#2 No mark was on the bottom like the Lava ray I had, unlike the schirman
#3 A couple other minute differences between the two sculpts align with the Lava Ray one I had

I couldn't find any evidence that it was a Schirman other than it looks very very close to a Schirman that is marked that I already had.

Therefore, I went out on a limb, and at great risk to my personal reputation, declared it a "Lava Ray."

To further confuse matters:

There are also those pesky Polyart guys(far right) who seem to bear a strange resemblance to pieces from both companies:

I've also seen a couple more Lava ray/Schirman "crossover" pieces, including this really small tiki:

I also have a few Schirman/Polyart pieces that are pretty much the same as each other.

Buzzy Out!