Animals that are underrepresented relative to their non-toy popularity?

[BlueKrono]

Crowned cranes, lovebirds, and chicken breeds.

With how many brands do farm series (and put out new versions of their default chickens at least every 5-8 years) you'd think there would be more than the Papo Silkie, even Kaiyodo, the only ones I know of who've ever done any non-traditional breeds beyond that, did so as part of their pet series and some time ago.

That would would be fantastic. I see so many breeds of toy cattle and horses, and there’s at least as many breeds of chicken. In addition, chickens are the most numerous domesticated animal on earth and are far more likely to be a part of someone's life due to the reduced space/effort requirements of raising them compared to large animals. Why don’t we have more chicken breeds in toy form??

[Advicot]

Well most people just see a chicken as something that lays eggs and gives us meat. There are a couple of exceptions like the Papo silkie chicken and the Kaiyodo yokohama

[stargatedalek]

Well most people just see a chicken as something that lays eggs and gives us meat.

If I was comparing them to dogs or horses I could see that argument, but I'm not. There are plenty of diverse figures available for various breeds of cows and sheep, which are thought of just as milk/wool and meat as much as chickens are thought of as meat and eggs.

Forget unusual chicken breeds being an exception, figures based on any actual breed and not on a generic expectation of what a chicken is are the exceptions.

[bmathison1972]

More chicken breeds would be delightful! That being said, many chicken figures can probably be attributed to a certain breed (although white chickens might be hard to discern). For example, my Papo hen is probably an ISA Brown and my Schleich rooster is probably a German Bantam (http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=2432.msg20904;topicseen#msg20904). Safari recently released an Ameraucana hen I'll probably pick up at some time.

[Badger]

One thing that was really highlighted to me while making the review of the Papo bat; there aren't that many bat toys (at least not many good ones).

[sirenia]

One thing that was really highlighted to me while making the review of the Papo bat; there aren't that many bat toys (at least not many good ones).

Very true. Get a lot of cheap looking ones, but not the good quality ones.

[Newt]

Are there any Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana), Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina), Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), or Cottonmouth (A. piscivorus) figures? These are common-to-abundant, familiar to the lay public, folklore-invested animals of North America that I've never seen represented in toy form. In the same vein, I only know of one Groundhog (Marmota monax) toy, from Safari's Incredible Creatures.

[bmathison1972]

Are there any Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana), Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina), Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), or Cottonmouth (A. piscivorus) figures? These are common-to-abundant, familiar to the lay public, folklore-invested animals of North America that I've never seen represented in toy form. In the same vein, I only know of one Groundhog (Marmota monax) toy, from Safari's Incredible Creatures.

Hi Newt! These are all great ideas for the Safari NAW line. They had a great Virginia opossum, but it is retired. The only common snapper I know that is (somewhat) available is a Kaiyodo Capsule Q figure. There is a Wing Mau/Club Earth copperhead (but the sculpt isn't great - the head shape is not in line with the Viperidae). I don't know any small/standard sized cottonmouths. The only small/standard marmots that I am aware of represent Old World species.

[stargatedalek]

Safari has a toob figure cottonmouth.

[suspsy]

I agree with all the messages except for the first one (those cetaceans are all very unknown by the general public, but still widely represented in toy form (except for the false killer whale), so is the contrary to the topic subject) and the elephant seal (because I pretend that all figurines made by any brand are the Southern one - and there are certainly more than these two).

Passing off a northern elephant sea as a southern one is like passing off an Asian elephant as an African one. The northern species is not only much smaller, but also features a larger and more defined trunk.

http://www.eleseal.org/bio/north.html

[bmathison1972]

I agree with all the messages except for the first one (those cetaceans are all very unknown by the general public, but still widely represented in toy form (except for the false killer whale), so is the contrary to the topic subject) and the elephant seal (because I pretend that all figurines made by any brand are the Southern one - and there are certainly more than these two).

Passing off a northern elephant sea as a southern one is like passing off an Asian elephant as an African one. The northern species is not only much smaller, but also features a larger and more defined trunk.

http://www.eleseal.org/bio/north.html

Although figures are not to scale, so size isn't necessarily helpful, I believe the Papo elephant seal is a northern too, based on trunk morphology.

[Newt]

Thanks for the info, bmathison1972 and stargatedalek! Good to know these animals are not entirely unrepresented.

[BlueKrono]

Are there any Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana), Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina), Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), or Cottonmouth (A. piscivorus) figures? These are common-to-abundant, familiar to the lay public, folklore-invested animals of North America that I've never seen represented in toy form. In the same vein, I only know of one Groundhog (Marmota monax) toy, from Safari's Incredible Creatures.

Kaiyodo et. al. make common snappers, but they are small scale.

[sirenia]

Guess mussels and clams like that are fairly rare, aside from Kaiyodo and Takara.

[Lanthanotus]

Hornbills.... okay, not the most popular birds, but I guess everyone`s impressed seeing those in zoos and the lack of toy figures is outrageous.

That being said, a damn lot of bird species are underrepresented given that birds are - next to insects or invertebrae in general - the most obvious wild animals any human is aware of and more or less constantly exposed to when you go into a wodd, meadow, garden or park.

[Newt]

I wonder if the plastic figure manufacturers avoid birds because they are so well-represented in other media? Bird figurines made of glass, ceramic, plaster, wood, or even papier mache (?) with glued-on feathers used to be extremely popular (I'm sure most of us have seen them in the homes of older relatives) and are still pretty easy to find, and certain bird groups - eagles and waterfowl particularly - have their own niche figure markets.


Also, those scrawny little bird legs pose a technical challenge.

[bmathison1972]

I wonder if the plastic figure manufacturers avoid birds because they are so well-represented in other media? Bird figurines made of glass, ceramic, plaster, wood, or even papier mache (?) with glued-on feathers used to be extremely popular (I'm sure most of us have seen them in the homes of older relatives) and are still pretty easy to find, and certain bird groups - eagles and waterfowl particularly - have their own niche figure markets.


Also, those scrawny little bird legs pose a technical challenge.

I think it is because of size. Most birds made with regularity (eagles, flamingoes, pelicans, ostrich) are larger, so they scale better with other standard-sized figures (even if not to perfect scale). There are A LOT of birds among Japanese companies (just look at the Chocoegg/Choco Q lines), where all figures are made roughly the same size regardless of scale.

[JimoAi]

Batoids outside Manta Ray and Sawfish are underrepresented

[JimoAi]

All rays except Manta Rays and Sawfish are very underepresented as well as Surgeonfish that isn't the Blue hippo or yellow tangs and wrasses that are not Napoleon wrasse

[sirenia]

Feel like the pronghorn is not well represented, given it's well known across America.