Today I am reviewing an ingenious collection of spiders by Toy Spirits. The collection is called 3D Picture Book Spiders of the World. The verbiage ‘3D Picture Book’ (or similar) is used often in Japanese figures, most notably by Yujin, but this time it is very appropriate, as the figures come displayed in small books (more on that below).
Brand: SO-TA/Toys Spirits
Animal Collection 1/1 Dung beetles (SO-TA)
4.8 (4 votes)
SO-TA, a Japanese toy company, released this set of dung beetles in July 2022. There are actually two sets. These sets were released as a gashapon set (plastic eggs in vending machines) and as a boxed set. The sets both contained the same two species but in different colour schemes. The box set has a metallic brown coloured Kepher sp.
Animal Collection 1/1 Waxy Monkey Tree Frog & Breviceps adspersus (SO-TA)
5 (2 votes)
So-Ta, a Japanese toy company, released this set of frogs this summer (2022). There are actually two sets. These sets were released as a gashapon set (plastic eggs in vending machines) and as a boxed set. The sets both contained the same two species but in different colour schemes. The box set has the designers initial colour scheme with the mint coloured Waxy monkey tree frog and the duller painted B.
Bee Hummingbird, pair (1/1 Bee Hummingbirds by SO-TA)
5 (2 votes)
The bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) is the world’s small extant bird, possibly the smallest bird ever known (but I am not up-to-date on the full extent of the avian fossil record). It is endemic to Cuba and its surrounding islands, especially the Zapata swamp in the eastern part of the island.
Blue-ringed Octopus (3D Picture Book Poisonous Creatures by Toys Spirits)
4 (5 votes)
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
Octopuses in the genus Hapalochlaena are probably the most striking out of them all, especially with their yellowish bodies and iconic blue rings on their bodies, which become more vibrant when threatened (although one species, Hapalochlaena fasciata, has lines rather than rings on its mantle).
Giant Clam (Shellfish with a Lid Mascot Vol. 3 by Toys Spirits)
5 (1 votes)
Right about the time I decided the review the Cadbury Yowie giant clam a couple weeks ago, Toy Spirits (a subsidiary of SO-TA, or vice versa) decided to produce one in the third volume of their Shellfish with a Lid Mascot series. The figure was not marketed at the species level, but I bought it hoping I could confidentially identify it as something different than the Cadbury figure which was specifically marketed as Tridacna maxima.
Hercules Beetle (State of the Art – SO-TA)
5 (2 votes)
Review of one of three Hercules beetles (Dynastes hercules) from the (to me) new Japanese figurine company SO-TA (State of the art). The set of three include three of the same Dynastes hercules sculpts with colour variations of the wingcaps (elytra). There is a version with yellow, blueish gray and black elytra.