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Amazings sturgeons and prehistoric fish. My favorites are Arapaima and Gar .
Quote from: Jetoar on December 12, 2012, 09:23:31 AMAmazings sturgeons and prehistoric fish. My favorites are Arapaima and Gar .We'll get to the Arapaima. They are a very popular one for Japanese companies (along with the Asian arowana).
Well, at least there is a sort of goofy looking bathtub toy (which can squirt water) that's been distributed by Tchibo (a coffee store company that offers many other goods, too):Since you mentioned American Paddlefish, well, the "rostrum" is completely cylindrical and quite narrow. But I still think it's not meant to be Psephurus gladius. It comes from a set of five animal toys which also included an Opah (Lampris guttatus).
So the real question--can you get me one?!
And doing a quick look...it appears that a Psephurus figure may belong in the extinct figures column now (if there were any made). None have been located since 2003.
Impressive ancient fish collection Sbell!
Now the pictures--and I know for a fact that, even discounting the paper models that I don't have the patience for, there are several of the Scleropgaes and probably the Arapaima that I don't have. They are certainly among the more popular of the 'ancient fish' in Japanese figures (nobody else makes them...again, that I know of, and again with the one exception).First, Asian Arowana (there are a lot of colour forms/breeds, but I don't always know them, feel free to point them out):
Quote from: sbell on December 13, 2012, 09:10:31 PMNow the pictures--and I know for a fact that, even discounting the paper models that I don't have the patience for, there are several of the Scleropgaes and probably the Arapaima that I don't have. They are certainly among the more popular of the 'ancient fish' in Japanese figures (nobody else makes them...again, that I know of, and again with the one exception).First, Asian Arowana (there are a lot of colour forms/breeds, but I don't always know them, feel free to point them out):It's no wonder it had to be Scleropages to be probably the best represented among them since it's very popular in China and considered a luck bringing animal.Pouyaud et al. (2003) splitted the different morphotypes of S. formosus into distinct species, but I'm not sure about the general acceptance of this, at least fishbase treats them as separate species. They are identified by colour but also by body and head proportions (maxillary length, head width and height versus length, distances between pelvic and anal fins and length of anal fin and the like). The KeiCraft paper model shown above, as well as the Yujin and the newer Colorata may or may not be identified as S. legendrei, the version 1 Colorata as S. aureus, the Marmit may be S. macrocephalus. Although this is just regarding their colour, I have not checked head/body proportions of the ones I have.Oh, while we were talking about paddlefish and paper models, there is a free (and obviously very simple) kit of Polyodon spathula, too. Haven't made one, yet, but should not take longer than half han hour or so.I'm also a little puzzled why there's (probably) no knifefish figure, yet, at least Notopterus chitala is so distinctive and popular, but mainly because it's used as food, I've seen them in Asian food markets, too... in the fridge! BTW, some 20 years ago I've also seen frozen Australian lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri in an Asian market in Paris and was wondering how this could be legal, an appendix II species from Australia? Don't know if there are commercial farms that succesfully breed them.
And thinking of species that are used as food, isn't it a bit unfair? I mean, gashapon companies make tons of sets like noodle soups, sweets, candy, sushi and what not as figures... I never understood that, but I guess there is a market for that.