It’s July in the South Africa and mating season for its penguins, the males begin calling out with their harsh braying. A local bystander hears this and decides the perfect name to call this bird…
Alas, the South African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), is unfortunately dubbed the ”Jackass Penguin” for its donkey-like sounds. African penguins are the only species that breed in Africa, living exclusively along the southwestern coast of the continent. They are part of the genus known as ”Banded penguins”, with similar species living in South America and the Galapagos. African Penguins grow to about 60-70cm in height and weigh between 2.2-3.5 kilograms. This species’ notable vocal patterns were recently discovered to follow basic laws of language found across humans and nonhuman primates. African penguins can live between 10-25 years in the wild and up to 30 in captivity. African Penguins historically numbered to 4 million, but have experienced a rapid decline to a mere 50,000 in 2019 due to generations of exploitation and environmental damage. Conservation efforts, including captive breeding and reintroduction programs, are currently utilized. Prey includes sardines, anchovies, krill, and shrimp. Primary predators across land and sea include domestic cats, dogs, mongooses, genets, sea gulls, fur seals, killer whales, and sharks.
It’s been nearly a year since a penguin has been covered on this blog, so CollectA’s South African penguin is here to break this trend. As a collector of marine life, I’ve recently developed a fascination in penguins and sought out this figure, thinking an emperor penguin would be a bit too familiar.
The penguin stands about 5.3cm tall, which would place it within the 1:11-1:13 scale for a typical adult. It may not be ideal for those who own 1:20 scale figures of pinnipeds and sharks. However, it would work fine for collectors of smaller animals produced around this scale.
I strongly admire the sculpt of this figure. The penguin’s anatomy and proportions look very accurate and there’s an impressive amount of detail. The folds within the eyelids, scratches along the feet, and the texturing of the feathers running along the whole body is quite wonderful.
The paintjob is just as refined and aids in accentuating the realism. All the appropriate details seem to be in place with the black base color and all the white accents and patches where they should be. The pink around the eyes is very well-applied.
The feet also sport a good attention to detail. A black base color with hints of pink added to achieve the splotchy mix of the two colors present on the real animal. Overall both the paintjob and sculpt appear to be relatively faultless.
I’ve chosen wisely in settling on CollectA to start me off on my penguin collection. A good deal of effort had been placed into this African penguin and it ultimately paid off. The only issue I could find with this figure is its size. Otherwise, I’m very content with effectively every detail about it. If you’re someone who’s either not particularly scale-conscious or does collect animal figures at this size range, I see no reason why not to choose CollectA if you’re seeking an African penguin.