Killer Bee (Insect Predators by Trendmasters)

Today is my second contribution to the ongoing October theme of presenting ‘creepy and scary’ critters on the Blog. Today I will be reviewing the ‘killer bee’ (Apis mellifera) by Trendmasters. It was released in 1993 as part of their Insect Predators collection. The collection also included a scorpion (unidentified, but presumably the emperor scorpion, Pandinus imperator), the giant stag beetle (Lucanus elaphas), a wasp (Bembix americana), a mosquito (Aedes taeniorhynchus), and the Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina). I am not going to go into too much information on the honey bee itself, since I’ve already covered this species twice here and here. But we should look into this concept of the ‘killer bee’. Most of you have probably picked up on that I do not like this term nor think there is any real validity to it, just as much as I think the term ‘murder hornet’ is a media-derived sensation to stoke fear when referring to the Asian giant hornet Vespa mandarinia (interestingly, the term ‘murder hornet’ doesn’t refer to its habit of killing people, but rather domestic honey bee colonies; the bees have devised a fascinating counter measure, but that’s a subject for another review).

So, where did the ‘killer bee’ come from? In the 1950s, an African subspecies of honey bee (A. m. scutellata) was crossbred with European subspecies, in an attempt to make a breed that would produce more honey in tropical climates. In 1957, 26 swarms of the Africa subspecies escaped quarantine in Brazil and started crossbreeding with European subspecies in the area. These hybrids were more defensive than other strains and are more likely to respond to disturbances, giving the impression they are naturally more aggressive towards humans and more likely to attack. These Africanized bees moved northward, reaching Mexico in 1985 and the United States in the early 1990s (interestingly this figure was produced in 1993, at the height of killer bee mania in the US). The term ‘killer bee’ was used by the media to sell sensationalism and by film producers to sell horror movies. It created widespread fear and people would call local extension offices and pest control companies every time they saw a honey bee, fearing it was a ‘killer bee’. In reality, any honey bee will aggressively protect its colony when provoked, not just the African hybrids, and it is impossible to recognize an African strain from gross morphology alone anyway.

On to the figure. It comes with purple bases with ‘killer bee’ and its Latin name. The base makes a sound, but I never figured out how to make it work, nor do I care honestly. It also comes with a clear plastic cover with five ‘air holes’ at the top and a front pane that functions as a magnifying glass; I think it is to make it appear as if the critter is in a cage.

The figure has a body length of about 5.5 cm if stretched out, putting it in a scale of 4.5:1-3:1. The body is fairly stiff, but the legs and wings are soft. Over time, it probably displays better with the clear plastic support under the body. It appears to have only one pair of wings, missing the hind pair. It is painted fairly generically, but the thin body makes it look more like a honey bee than a bumblebee. And of course it has its stinger sticking out a little, otherwise it wouldn’t be very threatening as a killer bee. Unlike figures by Insect Lore and Tarlin, it lacks pollen baskets.

Honestly unless you are an arthropod completist (anyone else here other than me?), I can’t really recommend this figure. If you want a good honey bee figure for your collection, the 2020 model by Papo is by far the best currently available, unless you want to invest in a life cycle set such as those by Tarlin or Insect Lore (Safari Ltd. has a life cycle set too, but I think Insect Lore’s has a better adult). Or, you can try to hunt down the old Bullyland figures. Either way, if you want a representative of A. mellifera in your collection, this is probably not it.