Blue Whale (Scientific Art Sculptures by PNSO)

74 years ago from this very day, Lt. Col. Waldon C. Winston witnessed and documented what he noted as the largest whale to have ever been weighed. Winston was aboard the Kyo Maru No.6. during the 1947/48 Antarctic whaling season as an observer to ensure the Japanese whalers complied with the International Whaling Regulations and directives issued by General Douglass MacArthur. Knowing that whales larger than the heaviest-weighed blue whale have been processed many times before, Winston sought to weigh each blue whale 85 feet or longer in order to set a new record. On January 27^th, a 27.18-meter/89-foot whale had been taken aboard. Blue whales were never weighed in their entirety, rather they were weighed piecemeal. The bones, meat, and blubber were all cut into tiny 40-50 lbs. blocks and weighed on scales with 200 lbs. limits. The flensing and weighing of this whale took 3 hours and 45 minutes for 80 men to complete. Winston was able to record the weights for all the individual tissues. After calculating all the components and adjusting for the fluids lost to the flensing process, the whale’s intact weight was estimated to be 136.4 metric tons. While reliable reports of other piecemeal weighings cite the total weights for even heavier blue whales, none of them were done to the precision of the one observed by Winston. To this day, Winston’s record remains the heaviest piecemeal weighing of a blue whale that provides a full index of all the tissues.

Not a single PNSO release was reviewed on the Animal Toy Blog in 2021. Given this model’s superlative dimensions and the significance today’s date, reviewing the PNSO’s blue whale seems to be a fitting atonement. Despite ignoring PNSO, 2021 wasn’t a quiet year for the blue whale, as I’ve covered the Kaiyodo Mega Sofubi Advance series Blue whale released in 2015. At the time of release, it was the largest blue whale model from a major manufacturer. This eventually changed when PNSO’s ”Alex the Blue Whale” took that mantle in 2018. However, does PNSO’s behemoth deliver on anything else besides its size?

As far as size is concerned, this resin sculpture is as ridiculous as it gets. From its snout to the notch of its tail, the whale measures about 97.5cm. Interestingly, this figure is marketed for the 1:35 scale, but the maximum reliably recorded length for a blue whale is about 33m. This corresponds to the 1:34 scale as the maximum scale, 1:25-1:30 for most mature Antarctic individuals and as small as 1:20 for young adults of the smallest subspecies. As you can see next to the MBA manta ray, MBA great white shark, and PNSO Basilosaurus, Alex is not something you should purchase without reserving the shelf space for it.

Here’s a quick look of how the PNSO’s Alex even dwarfs Kaiyodo’s MSA blue whale. At the 1:34 scale, we can see the size difference between a record-breaking 33m blue whale and a 26.5m individual. PNSO arguably made the right choice in having their sculpture posed almost completely straight, allowing us to more directly appreciate its size. The sculpture is also quite heavy, about 5-6lbs. It does come with a stand, but it’s purely a temporary measure for photo-taking. PNSO’s instruction booklet explicitly warns consumers to place the whale off the stand once you’re done.

Alex’s sculpt is very comparable to the Kaiyodo blue whale. The sculpture looks especially remarkable from the profile view. The jaw and eyes look amazing and the throat is more fully deflated than on the Kaiyodo model. The ventral grooves are also sculpted with about 50 or so grooves. Technically less than the Kaiyodo version, but still very impressive.

From above, the snout forms a nice U-shape. It looks slightly off compared to the Kaiyodo version, but that’s mainly because of the snout lifting upwards.

The sculpt of the flukes are one area where the PNSO sculpture triumphs over the Kaiyodo blue whale. The notch is deeper and the lobes are more round and elongated.

Another bonus is that the sculpture is all one piece, which means none of the potentially distracting seams on the Kaiyodo model plagues the PNSO blue whale.

Between the two, I think Kaiyodo maintains the edge in overall realism for the sculpt. The MSA blue whale is more keen on anatomical details, such as the genital slit that’s absent on the PNSO model. However, that lead is maintained by a thin margin. The PNSO model still has the advantage in build quality. The lack of immersion-breaking seams will be a plus to some.

The differences between the two model’s paintjobs are more interesting. The sculpture’s dorsal side is a muted blue while the Kaiyodo blue whale was gray with only a slight hint of blue. Another contrast is the execution of the mottling: the spots look more diffused on Alex while the Kaiyodo blue whale forms more hard streaks. The arrangement of the mottling is more anatomically accurate on the Kaiyodo model, as it ceases at the head, flukes, and pectoral fins. However, the mottling itself looks more realistic on the PNSO figure.

The ventral side is where these two models differ most. The Kaiyodo model has a dark underside while the PNSO model is pale yellow. This apparent countershading is actually diatom growth along the underside of the whale, which is why the blue whale was once known as the ”sulphur-bottom”. The extent of this yellow pigmentation has been exaggerated in earlier illustrations of the blue whale. As depicted on the Kaiyodo model, blue whales are naturally dark-bellied. I would say the Kaiyodo paintjob is more realistic, though Alex’s paintjob is still very appealing and still reasonably accurate, unlike the Papo blue whale.

I think the model’s large size and paintjob come together to provide a very good look for Alex. This model’s marketed scaling to a 33m individual, more size-flattering pose, and the using a ”sulphur-bottom” coloration embodies the more historical image of the blue whale. Above is what a 1.8m human would look at the 1:34 scale.

I am likely among a single-digit group of people who owns both the PNSO and Kaiyodo MSA blue whales. This makes me one of the few capable using firsthand scrutiny to determine which company did a better job. Basing my judgement off the quality of the models alone proved rather difficult for me. However, when being practical, I would say the Kaiyodo Mega Sofubi Advance model is better. I am basing this mainly off the fact that Alex costs 600-700 USD while the Kaiyodo blue whale is normally in the $300-400 range. Being anatomically more accurate at half the cost is a hard advantage to beat. Unless you specifically want to boast the PNSO model or just deathly allergic to seams and gaps, there’s no good reason to should pay twice the price for PNSO’s blue whale over Kaiyodo. For those who don’t want to spend anything above $100, I would point you towards the Papo blue whale and invest the saved money into a custom paintjob. Maybe one day a company will take advantage of this price gap and release another blue whale figure of intermediate size in the $50-$200 range? If so, I look forward to doing a round 3.