Rubber Ducky is a common name given to a species of Cubaris that was discovered in limestone caves in Thailand in 2017. To my knowledge, the species is still undescribed (I propose C. erniei). Despite this, it is becoming very popular in the hobby of rearing isopods (honestly, until I investigated this figure before buying it, I had no idea isopods were so popular in terraria). The isopod gets its common name from its yellow head that possesses dark black eyes and a frontal ridge, hence resembling the head of a rubber ducky toy. Apparently they can be rather tricky to rear in captivity, as they require very humid conditions and a deeper substrate (at least 6 inches, or 15 cm) than most, as they prefer to spend most of their time buried in soil and humus. Rubber Ducky is similar to other unnamed Asian Cubaris, such as ‘Panda King’ and ‘Jupiter’, which are also popular in terraria.
Today we are looking at Bandai’s rendition of this species, which was released in the eighth installment of the Dango Mushi line earlier this year (actually, last month). Isopods in the Dango Mushi line are known for their ingenious design, being able to be rolled up and unrolled, as the collector chooses. They have applied this same concept to hybosorid beetles, armadillo girdled lizard, and, in the same release as today’s isopod, an armadillo. The figures require minimal packaging, since they serve as their own ‘gashapon’ capsules! The accompanying paper is nestled within the rolled animal!
These next couple pics will show the ‘unraveling’ of the figure:
The final product measures 14 cm, which gives it a scale of 7:1 (Rubber Duckies grow upwards of 2.0 cm in length). The color of the anterior and posterior ends is right for the Rubber Ducky, but I feel the mid-body should be more blue-grey rather than brown. Bandai is known for frequently updating their colors, so maybe we’ll soon get updated versions of the paint job. The sculpt appears to be the same used for the Dango Mushi Cubaris murina, and as such the frontal margin on this Rubber Ducky figure is not as pronounced as it should be.
Here is a pick of the Rubbery Ducky alongside the original Bandai Cubaris murina (all brown) and the repainted C. murina (rolled up):
There we have a review of the recent Rubber Ducky isopod by Bandai. The ability to paint the same sculpt multiple times allows for more diversity. Maybe we’ll see some of the other interesting isopods popular in terraria in the Dango Mushi line; their Armadillidium vulgare sculpt has already resulted in at at least three species!
A fantastic toy, although I’m a bit disappointed that it’s a repaint that ignores the pronounced frontal margin.
yeah me too. Bandai is known to clean-up and update sculpts. Maybe this was a proof-of-concept to see how it does and we’ll get a better version later.