Asian Arowana, Chili Red variety (Freshwater Fishes Series 1, first release reissue by Yujin)

This figure is the Asian Arowana (or Asian Bonytongue, or Dragonfish), Scleropages formosus, number 15 from the first series—but it’s (one of) the Special Secret(s) (edit – when I first did these walkarounds, I thought there was only one secret figure for each series…turned out there are at least three for every release). The model is labelled with a ’14’ as this is the 14th unique sculpt in Book 1! This Southeast Asian bonytongue is a well-known and popular aquarium fish. Asian arowana are part of a group as the bonytongues due to the toothed bone on the floor of the mouth. They are voracious, large-bodied predators originally found in much of the Southeast Asian peninsula, although they are endangered in the wild due to habitat loss, hunting for food and collection for the aquarium trade. Fortunately they are also bred in captivity or on farms. The IUCN still lists the species as Endangered. They’re still illegal to keep as pets in some places (where I live, in Canada, they are legal as long as there is a certificate of captive breeding) but still sought after, so poaching continues to be an issue.

There are a wide range of colours influenced by their geographic ranges (which may or may not indicate separate species—again, taxonomy) and by intentional breeding (and if you look online enough, colour enhancers and well-placed lighting). This figure represents one of the red varieties which was renamed S. legendrei, but the renaming is at best controversial and overall considered a nomen dubium. Given the red colour, the model represents an individual found in the Indonesian part of its range, where red varieties are found. The Yujin Asian Arowana model gives the size of 90cm, and I have seen live aquarium specimens of this size, which is a pretty impressive fish.

This model is 7.2 cm long, making the figure roughly 1:13. As I mentioned above, the fish is one of the red varieties, and each scale is painted red on the posterior margin with a dark brown or gold to the front—this paint job is fantastic, and the figure literally shines. Given this pattern, we could probably refer to figure as a ‘Chili red’ variety, typified by red scale margins with metallic base colours. There is a great deal of attention given to the details of this fish, from the well-sculpted eyes and mouth margin, to the detailed fins and patterns on the opercula. This figure comes with one of the special bases—a mound of river bottom with sticks embedded in it; it is also painted in all of its details.

I’m not even going to try to list all of the Asian Arowana models that area available—they have been made by Toba Aquarium, Kaiyodo in a several forms, Colorata, and even other, random companies. I have 7 different models myself edit- I have since added a few more models of this species…I think I have at least 15, and I could probably list several that I don’t have (usually variants of the same models). The good news is that while these chase figures are sometimes hard to find (or justify the price thereof) it’s not hard to find a good model.

Although the figures is not as overall massive as the Chum salmon, Barramundi or Huchen, the Asian Arowana is also a 2-part figure, with the separation occurring right at the back of the gills, which is really the most natural placement. And in the next Book 1 walkaround, the other Asian arowana figure (and the last Book 1 to do!)

Starting on the 14th of January, 2024, I migrated my first Yujin Freshwater Fish Pictorial walkaround post from the Animal Toy Forum to this blog, with the intention of moving all species’/figures’ walkarounds here. The initial post contained a lengthy explanation of the series (both the original and updated) that I don’t think should be repeated each time! For those details, the post can be seen at the first post. Then we can just get to the fish. Most of the details and writing will come from the original post, although I may supplement/add where appropriate.