African Civet (Wildlife by CollectA)

‘Civet’ is a term used to refer to various small-to-medium sized, generally omnivorous feliform carnivorans, most of which are members the family Viverridae. One of the larger species encompassed by this grouping is the sub-Saharan African Civettictis civetta, otherwise known as the African civet. This is perhaps the most well-known species of civet amongst the general public, as civet musk is collected for perfume from this species more often than other species. In spite of this, only CollectA (in 2018) has ever made a figure of it, which is the subject of this review.

This figure measures about 9.2cm from the snout to the tip of the tail and about 3.1cm at the shoulder, making it just shy of 1:13 scale for an animal with a shoulder height of 40cm and a total length of 119.6cm.

The pose this figure is depicted in makes it seem the civet is searching for food, which could be either fruit, eggs, carrion or small invertebrates and vertebrates (there are even occasional records of this species eating venomous snakes!). While this pose is relatively simplistic, it does manage to make the figure dynamic enough to be interesting to look at, making this an excellent choice of pose on CollectA’s part.

Just like all of CollectA’s more recent figures, the sculpting detail is good, with a pretty clear distinction between the texture of the hair on most of the body and that of the tuft on the animal’s back, as well as a clear distinction between the five digits of each paw. These details are very well-brought out by the paintjob on the figure. Almost completely accurate to the animal, the only inaccurate parts of the paintjob (and of the whole figure) that I can’t calk up to individual variation seem to be the black throat stripe; which is a tad too thick, and the white areas around the cheeks; which need to be more subdued.

Overall, I would recommend this figure to anyone wanting an affordable yet detailed and faithful depiction of a civet, whether they be a taxonomic completist, someone whose specific focus includes/is civets, or just a regular animal toy collector. Being a single, sturdy piece of PVC, this figure is also suitable as a toy for young children to play with.