Land Snails and Slugs - The Terrestrial Gastropods

[snailtime]

Thanks again @BlueKrono for the tip about the new "Crowned Critters" snail just released by Archie McPhee. Mine just came in the mail along with a certificate saying that I'm the first person to buy it and therefore am a "person of taste and distinction" Lol

It's a really nice figure. It's detailed and the rich, bright colors make it really nice to look at. Not to mention that it's adorable. This figure was likely inspired by a snail in the genus Cepaea. Either Cepaea hortensis (white-lipped snail) or Cepaea nemoralis (brown-lipped snail/grove snail). We can't give this figure a definite ID since the lip isn't developed. It looks like this is a juvenile snail and these can't be ID'd until they reach adulthood and develop either a white or brown lip. So we'll just leave the ID at Cepaea sp. and move on. The website description says "Learn the legend of the Crowned Critters! A group of overlooked forest critters got together in a support group to see why they weren't universally adored. They decided they were all amazing and deserved to wear crowns. Believe us when we say that you have never seen a snail slay this hard."







And here's some more snails that I haven't posted yet. First we have these two cute miniatures. No maker's mark. They only say "Made in Hong Kong" on the underside. I was told one of these was from the 70s. The one with the solid yellow shell is made of a slightly softer, bendier plastic than the one with the orange stripe on its shell.



This snail is apparently from the 90s and was supposedly sold with some various sea life figures. But, this is a strange figure. It appears to be a cyclops snail. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. At first I thought maybe the "eye" was where the liquid plastic was poured into the mold, a spout that was never removed or something. However, I've seen others like this and they're all cyclops snails. Then I thought, maybe this WAS intended to be an aquatic species? Perhaps the "eye" is actually a siphon? It really doesn't look like a siphon though and that would still raise questions as to what the bottom two tentacles are supposed to be. If those are primary tentacles then the placement is really odd. Finally, I think I might have figured it out. Earlier I posted a few vintage snails from the 60s. One of them (which is clearly a land snail) looks like it's the original sculpt of whatever this one is. On the original sculpt the two eyestalks were very close together. I think over time as the sculpt was copied again and again over the decades enough detail was lost that the eyestalks fused into one creating the cyclops snail. It is totally unmarked except for "CHINA" on the bottom and what looks like a maker's mark that was totally defaced on the mold. Very strange overall.




Then we have this guy. Made out of a very light, hard plastic (the kind that feels like it'll shatter if you drop it). This was also sold with some sea life, presumably as a set of miniatures. There's a fish, a crab, a lobster, a sea snail shell, and a crab/lobster trap in addition to the random land snail. The figures have a very thick and glossy paint covering that looks quite nice. The trap is made out of wood.




Lastly there's these two. I don't know anything about their origins and they have no maker's mark anywhere other than "Made in China" on their shells. These two are virtually identical except one snail has more yellowish spots on its shell. I originally assumed the spots represented places where the paint was more worn at first, so I attempted to scratch some of the brown color off of one of the snail's shell to test this. I was unable to remove any of the brown coloration. I'm not so sure the spots are places of wear. I think these just represent natural variations in the manufacturing process.




That's everything I have for now! I do have a few more things I'm waiting to receive in the mail and if everything goes well I'll post them as I receive them 

Oh, and one small edit. In my second post I posted a large assortment of (mostly green) vintage slugs. They're really basic and are practically just strips of plastic. However, I believe they can actually be ID'd to family level. They seem to be in the family Athoracophoridae - the leaf-veined slugs (although these would be a species that doesn't have the obvious leaf-veins). I went back and updated the post.

[NSD Bashe]

Now that is a curious accomplishment, congrats!

[bmathison1972]

@snailtime - I can't remember seeing this one in your thread. It's a Safari figure that was used as a riding animal in their 'Fairy' line. I got it in bycatch in an eBay lot a while back. I was exciting, thinking it was an unknown Incredible Creatures model until I learned it's origin lol. Shell diamerer is 7.0 cm
Anyway, if you don't have it, I am willing to give it to you. Just please PM me your address.

[BlueKrono]

Haha, that is so awesome! AMcP is so quirky. Love the fact that's it's made out to "snail time" rather than your legal name.

[snailtime]

Haha, that is so awesome! AMcP is so quirky. Love the fact that's it's made out to "snail time" rather than your legal name.

It was totally my actual name before I edited it but yeah, I love them too!

@snailtime - I can't remember seeing this one in your thread. It's a Safari figure that was used as a riding animal in their 'Fairy' line. I got it in bycatch in an eBay lot a while back. I was exciting, thinking it was an unknown Incredible Creatures model until I learned it's origin lol. Shell diamerer is 7.0 cm
Anyway, if you don't have it, I am willing to give it to you. Just please PM me your address.

I don't have that one! Thanks so much for your offer! I haven't been able to find that one yet so I really appreciate it. I'm sending a PM now 

[snailtime]

I have two new land snails/slugs to share! First off, I acquired another one of these unbranded slugs. This one is in a lovely metallic blue color (with some yellowish-orange metallic spots behind the head and on the end of the tail). I will update my original post about these slugs to include this one.




My other acquisition is something awesome I've been searching for for a while. It's one of the two snails manufactured by New-Ray, dated 1995! I can't begin to express how overjoyed I am to have found this one. It's one of my "holy grail" figures, along with the other New-Ray snails and the slugs by Bullyland. I couldn't help but take a ton of photos of this guy from every angle imaginable. One thing I was surprised about was its size. I thought it would be much smaller but it's actually quite beefy. It's also insanely detailed. The texture of the tubercles on the body is incredible. The shell is beautiful and highly realistic. Even the underside of the body is textured to look like a real snail (it looks like it's in the process of crawling over something). This genuinely might be one of the most beautiful and realistic snails I own. The only thing that's a bit fanciful is the color scheme. The colors are a bit more vibrant than most real snails, but to be honest I think I prefer the colors they chose as opposed to some more realistic, drabber colors. Additionally, the color aren't THAT fanciful. There really are many land snails that have purplish-colored flesh.

For some reason the Toy Animal Wiki lists this species as the Rotund Disc (Discus rotundatus). I'm not sure why that ID was chosen as that identification couldn't be farther than what this figure represents. D. rotundatus is an incredibly distinctively looking species that has a flat shell with many highly compacted whorls, a huge umbilicus, and a much bigger shell to body size ratio. They also tend to have a striped coloration on their shells - all traits that this figure lacks. Yet this figure is detailed enough to consider giving some kind of ID to. I would like to propose the ID as being Mesodon sp., common name the Globe Snails. My first thought was M. thyroidus, although it could also be M. andrewsae, M. normalis, or any number of other snails in this genus. All of these species have enough variation that could result in individuals with purplish-colored skin and brown shells like the figure has. Other brown-shelled New-Ray snail figures I've seen also seem to have white airbrushing around the lip of the shell (in my figure this is very, very faint). Assuming these figures were meant to have a lighter colored lip, that makes me more certain that these species are what inspired this figure. Globe snails are native snails often found in forests throughout the eastern United States. They can be fairly large and quite striking. Of course, it's possible that this could be any number of snail species since this is just a little plastic figure, but I'm relatively certain that this figure was inspired by native Eastern US forest snails. So, I'll stick with an ID of Mesodon sp.

[bmathison1972]

Nice! Since you can get a tentative, albeit confident, ID on the New-Ray snail, I might just have to hunt this one down, too.

Keep in mind, New-Ray figures are notorious for stylized and unrealistic paint jobs, and this may not be painted after the inspiration for the sculpt.

But, based on some of their insects, they do seem to favor eastern North American taxa

[snailtime]

Nice! Since you can get a tentative, albeit confident, ID on the New-Ray snail, I might just have to hunt this one down, too.

Keep in mind, New-Ray figures are notorious for stylized and unrealistic paint jobs, and this may not be painted after the inspiration for the sculpt.

But, based on some of their insects, they do seem to favor eastern North American taxa

Emphasis on tentative but yes I think it's reasonable. Theres probably a hundred species of snails with brown shells, similar shell features, and grey-purple skin in the Eastern US (especially around the Great Smokey Mountains) but I think this ID is fair. However, if any snail experts read this and want to weigh in I'd love to hear it!

At the end of the day though, to most people a snail is a snail and I kind of doubt the person who made the sculpt had scientific literature in front of them that they were referencing to base their sculpt off of a specific species.

[Side note - I looked into the company and see they are based out of China. For some reason I thought they were out of the US which is why I assumed this would be a snail from the US. I suppose Mesodon sp. is still possible if the sculptor was inspired by North American animals like you mention ]

[Roger]

You're the king of snails so obviously you deserve to be the number one finding the snail with a crown. I don't know how many number ones exist.
Congratulations for the New-Ray snail, it is a very nice model but as it was pointed before, color on New-Ray figures is often not a good reference, they're usually too bright and you might find a few variations.
Now New-Ray is basically a US brand but at the time of those earlier series, there is no known connection to the USA. It doesn't mean it wasn't.
I will use your identification to the New-Ray snail or just put it under land snail. I don't know the identification as round snail has any sense, I have to try to find some source because I'm convinced I worked myself most of these sections on TAW. Though, I doubt I tried to identify it, a snail is something I wouldn't risk.
By the way, the author of the STS topic you asked about a SP snail figure already replied to you, please be sure you check it since it might be of your interest.

[bmathison1972]

You're the king of snails so obviously you deserve to be the number one finding the snail with a crown. I don't know how many number ones exist.
Congratulations for the New-Ray snail, it is a very nice model but as it was pointed before, color on New-Ray figures is often not a good reference, they're usually too bright and you might find a few variations.
Now New-Ray is basically a US brand but at the time of those earlier series, there is no known connection to the USA. It doesn't mean it wasn't.
I will use your identification to the New-Ray snail or just put it under land snail. I don't know the identification as round snail has any sense, I have to try to find some source because I'm convinced I worked myself most of these sections on TAW. Though, I doubt I tried to identify it, a snail is something I wouldn't risk.
By the way, the author of the STS topic you asked about a SP snail figure already replied to you, please be sure you check it since it might be of your interest.

@Roger - I would NOT put a species ID on the New-Ray snail on TAI. This is exactly the point I have tried to make many times. Something generic should be left as such. There are people who use the site that aren't privy to all of the internal discussions on STS (and ATF). Unless the ID is obvious, leave it at a more generic level.

[snailtime]

You're the king of snails so obviously you deserve to be the number one finding the snail with a crown. I don't know how many number ones exist.
Congratulations for the New-Ray snail, it is a very nice model but as it was pointed before, color on New-Ray figures is often not a good reference, they're usually too bright and you might find a few variations.
Now New-Ray is basically a US brand but at the time of those earlier series, there is no known connection to the USA. It doesn't mean it wasn't.
I will use your identification to the New-Ray snail or just put it under land snail. I don't know the identification as round snail has any sense, I have to try to find some source because I'm convinced I worked myself most of these sections on TAW. Though, I doubt I tried to identify it, a snail is something I wouldn't risk.
By the way, the author of the STS topic you asked about a SP snail figure already replied to you, please be sure you check it since it might be of your interest.

@Roger - I would NOT put a species ID on the New-Ray snail on TAI. This is exactly the point I have tried to make many times. Something generic should be left as such. There are people who use the site that aren't privy to all of the internal discussions on STS (and ATF). Unless the ID is obvious, leave it at a more generic level.

I have to agree with this sentiment. Would it be possible to create an ID page for order Stylommatophora on TAW? Nearly ever snail figure would go under this ID and this way things are ID'd but in an accurate fashion. Known IDs could also go under this tag, but upon clicking on the Stylommatophora page there could be more specific IDs listed such as there currently is on TAW.

Unfortunately with snails and slugs there is no guaranteed way of knowing an ID unless the manufacturer officially puts out an ID (like with Papo, Bullyland, and Safari). And concerning the companies producing those figures... I don't think we would even be able to confidentially ID them in most cases without knowing what the manufacturer intended to be. The two Papo snails out are supposed to be different species but are repaints of the same sculpt for example. The Safari "white-lipped snail" is missing the white lip we would need to ID the figure with.

When IDing snails I would want specific location info as to where the snail was found, photos of the shell from multiple angles (the shell would have to be empty of the snail retracted), and then dissection might still be needed. None of this can really be done with any snail figures 

[snailtime]

Back again with more snails and slugs! To start off, I want to give a big thanks to @bmathison1972! bmathison sent me a new snail in the mail. It's the fairy mount for the figure titled "Ollie and the Snail" made by Safari Ltd. in 2010 for their "Fairy Fantasies" line. The snail itself is highly stylized and clearly not meant to represent any real species. It does have a rather cute smile though which can only be seen when looking underneath the snail. It is a welcome addition to the rest of my slimy crew and I'm very grateful to have it. Thanks again bmathison! Here's some pictures of Ollie's snail:




The next thing I'd like to share is the Giant Pink Slug sticky toy sold by the Explore Narrabri Region Visitor Center in Australia. This toy is meant to be the Kaputar Giant Pink Slug (Triboniophorus sp. nov. "Kaputar"). The toy shares the same sculpt as the slugs from the "Box of Slugs" made by Rex London shared in a previous post. While the sculpt may not be scientifically accurate to a real Kaputar Giant Pink Slug, the thought really does count here. I'm really glad that the visitor center is advocating for these rare and threatened slugs. Selling toys that appeal to children is a wonderful way to engage and teach the next generation of slug-advocates.

The visitor center is also staffed by extremely kind people who were willing to ship a couple of slugs to me in the United States. They even sent me a postcard and a pamphlet about the slugs (which I will also share). I took one of the slugs out of the packaging and will leave the other unopened. The packaging is attractive and contains lots of slug facts on the back. I really hope I'm able to visit Mount Kaputar myself one day and see the slugs with my own eyes.

[bmathison1972]

I am glad you could use the snail. It was bycatch in an eBay lot. At first I was excited, thinking it was an Incredible Creatures figure I was unaware of. I was disappointed to learn it was in the Fairies line lol. Glad you could use it.

[snailtime]

I also want to share some recent acquisitions from Spain. @Roger told me about the snails made by Pech Hermanos earlier in this thread and I ended up buying them. From what I have gathered, the original snails were produced in the 1950s and then there were others produced later in the 1970s and 1980s. The ones made in the 50s are more colorful and made of a slightly softer plastic. The later productions are made of a stiffer plastic and cast in solid colors (no paint added). I'm not sure if the snails made later were official Pech Hermanos items or knock-offs. None of the snails have any kind of branding on them. If anyone knows more information or has corrections please feel free to share!

The snails from the 50s were pricey, but I negotiated with the seller into drastically lowering the price if I bought all three. The solid-colored snails were extremely cheap, which makes me wonder if they were actually made by Pech Hermanos. There are a total of three poses. Enjoy the pictures below!

The original snails from the 1950s:






The original snails alongside their solid-colored counterparts from the 70s and 80s:





Also from Spain is this nice rubbery snail made in Hong Kong:



And these glorious snail pop-up toys (popper toys?)! I really love these. I had purchased another pop-up snail (the one with the conical shell) in red but that one was sadly lost in the mail    Oh well, hopefully I stumble across another some day. Presumably each design was produced in red, yellow, green, and blue. The seller of these stated that they were from the 1970s. They all say Hong Kong on them.




But wait, we've seen these sculpts before! (The shells of the two-piece 60s toys match, but the bodies are different).

[snailtime]

I am glad you could use the snail. It was bycatch in an eBay lot. At first I was excited, thinking it was an Incredible Creatures figure I was unaware of. I was disappointed to learn it was in the Fairies line lol. Glad you could use it.

Thanks again! I love it!

[snailtime]

I wasn't originally planning on posting plush toys here but I figured, why not? I don't really collect plush toys, but I do have some exceptions. First, we have this plush snail by Hansa. It's really nicely detailed for a plush.




Then there's the snail and banana slug finger puppets produced by Folkmanis. The garden snail was presumably intended to be Cornu aspersum or Helix pomatia and the banana slug is Ariolimax sp. Neither were assigned official names from the manufacturer to my knowledge. I really love the detail on these guys. My only complaint is that the banana slug has two pneumostomes (breathing holes) but the slug is so spectacular in every other way that it doesn't bother me too much. These are still in production and readily available.





The last gastropod for today isn't a plush toy but is instead another small plastic figure from a sculpt we've already seen several times before. Here's the "Bag of Snails" produced by Fun World. These were sold as Halloween props/toys. I'm not sure how many people find snails spooky/scary so these are kind of funny to me. I hardly ever see snails sold with Halloween stuff. These are cast in black plastic with reddish paint splashed all over them making it look like they're spooky zombie snails covered in blood I guess. These are just weird and funny and since they're old Halloween stock the company sent me a free extra bag of snails (...what am I going to do with this many zombie snails?!)

The zombie snails join their clones. The solid black snail in the last picture is a zombie snail I swiped with acetone because I thought a solid black snail would look cool haha.