Larvae Moei (Shine-G)

[bmathison1972]

Review of the complete set of Larvae Moei by Shine-G. First a little background. I had three figures from this set, bought randomly on YAJ courtesy of Brett. When a couple others showed up, we decided to see if his contact could hunt down the entire set, plus translate the paperwork to get the name of the company and the identity of a couple of the species (no English or Latin names anywhere on accompanying paperwork). Much to my pleasant surprise, Emiko found two versions of the set: one with straps and one with magnets. I went with the strap set since they straps can be easily removed by unscrewing, leaving a small unobtrusive hole.

There are seven figures in a set, representing five species. They are solid piece of PVC, roughly 30-40 mm long. They are more stylized than most Japanese figures, but still real enough to be good and not appear cartoony or anime-like.

Most species have been made with relative infrequency, at least as larvae, so it's a welcome set.

1. Old World swallowtail, Papilio machaon.
Out side of specialty figures, such as feves or magnets, this species has not been commonly made. Bullyland produced and adult and Kaiyodo a larva for one of their Capsule Q Museum caterpillar sets. Shineg gives us two raised larvae, one with and one without an osmeterium (defensive gland-like structures).



2. Asian swallowtail, Papilio xuthus.
Unlike P. machaon above, this species is more commonly made in toy/figure form. It has been made by Bandai (twice), Kabaya, Rement, and Kaiyodo (twice). The two Kaiyodo figures are larvae, one for the Capsule Q Museum set and the large nice one for the Sofubi Toy Box series.



3. The chestnut tiger, Parantica sita.
This is only the second figure of this species I am aware of, the other also being a larva by Kaiyodo (Capsule Q Museum). Time for someone to make an adult!



4. commercial silkworm moth, Bombyx morii.
Two figures of this species, a larva and a pupa (sans cocoon). Kaiyodo has also recently done an adult and larva, and with these four figures forms a nice 'life cycle' set. Interestingly, before any of these were made, Insect Lore did a complete silkworm life cycle!



5. Asian hornet, Vespa mandarina.
This was the biggest surprise (and had not been for Emiko's translation I would have had it misidentified as a silkworm pre-pupa!). The figure represents and early instar and must be the first figure of a wasp larva.  The ant and bee life cycles out there have larvae but otherwise hymenopteran larvae are ignored!