Author: Guest Reviews

Reviews submitted by Animal Toy Blog readers are published under the author 'Guest Reviews'. If you would like to submit a review please follow the directions on our 'Submit a review' page.

All reviews by this author


Potto (Lemurs and Prosimians by Play Visions)

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4.3 (3 votes)

Review and images by stemturtle; edited by bmathison1972

The potto, Perodicticus potto, may look like a little bear, but it is a strepsirrhine primate, commonly called a prosimian. The potto is nocturnal and arboreal, moving slowly through the canopy. Its distribution is the tropical rainforests of equatorial Africa, including the Congo region.

Alpaca (Premier Series by Yowie Group)

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4 (2 votes)

Images by Takama; additional text by bmathison1972

The alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is classified as a thoroughly domesticated animal. Even though it has its own species-level epithet, it is merely the domestic form of the vicuña (V. vicugna). The alpaca, along with its vicuña predecessor and the related llama and guanaco, is a South American camel species.

American Bison, 2014 (Wild Life by Schleich)

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4.8 (17 votes)

Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

An inevitable fact of life is that there are very few toys that can withstand rough play, especially from very small children. It was not long after the ATB posted my review of the Wild Safari American bison figure that my little boy dropped (or possibly threw) it against a bare wooden floor, causing one of the front legs to break right off.

Leatherback Sea Turtle, 2017 (Wild Safari Sealife by Safari Ltd.)

4.6 (5 votes)

Review and images by suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is by far the biggest of all living turtles and one of the world’s biggest reptiles, exceeded only by a few crocodilians. The largest scientifically verified specimen weighed in at 650 kg (1433 lbs), although it’s quite possible that even larger individuals exist somewhere out there in the deep blue sea.

African Elephant, calf (Living Animal Models by PNSO)

5 (5 votes)

Review and images by postsaurischian; edited by bmathison1972

Today we not only get the Blog’s first African elephant, specifically the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), but also the first figure by PNSO. This figure No. 04 in the Living Animal Models line, which figures large-scale models. Like other PNSO models, the figure comes with a name, and this figure is sold as ”Manman the African Elephant”.

Green Sea Turtle, 2017 (Wild Safari Sealife by Safari Ltd.)

4.8 (5 votes)

Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) is perhaps the most typical of the seven species of sea turtle. Its seemingly incongruous name derives from the colour of the fat beneath its shell.

The 2017 Safari Ltd green sea turtle is sculpted with its head turned to the left, its powerful front flippers spread wide apart, and its hind flippers swept back, which makes it 10.5 cm wide by 10.5 cm long.

Whale Shark (Wild Safari Sealife by Safari Ltd.)

3.8 (4 votes)

Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

The appropriately named whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the biggest shark and the biggest fish alive today. The largest recorded specimen was a female with a length of 18.8 metres (62 feet), which is greater than that of many actual whales.

Shoebill (Wildlife by CollectA)

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4.3 (6 votes)

Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972

After the cassowary, I again want to introduce you to another bird figure, representing a most impressive animal, but nevertheless being mostly ignored by major toy brands. Toy Animal Wiki lists six different figures, five of them are made by Japanese brands and are probably produced from some brittle plastic and not designed to withstand a time as a toy.

Common Kingfisher (Wild Animals by Papo)

4.3 (3 votes)

Images by postsaurischian; additional text by bmathison1972

The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is a small bird endemic to much of the Palearctic, from Europe to North Africa, east to Japan, and south to the Malaysian Archipelago. Today we are looking at the 2019 rendition by Papo.

The figure measures 4.3 cm tall, including the stump base.

Basking Shark (Wild Safari Sealife by Safari Ltd.)

3.4 (8 votes)

Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

In 1977, the Japanese fishing trawler Zuiyō Maru hauled in a large, reeking, and badly decomposed carcass of what appeared to a plesiosaur, complete with flippers and a long neck. Concerned about spoiling their stock of fish, the crew dumped the remains back into the water after taking photographs and collecting tissue samples.

Southern Cassowary (Wildlife by CollectA)

4.7 (6 votes)

Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972

Only few species of the once varied and numerous group of ratites remain in our modern world. Amonge these, the cassowaries are a very impressive occurrence, they are the most colorful and the second heaviest. Three species are known, but the one shown here is basically the only known to people other than the most dedicated ornithologists, the southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius.

Pompano (Unknown Company)

5 (3 votes)

Review and images by stargatedalek; edited by bmathison1972

Some time ago, I purchased this rather strange fish marketed as replica food. There was a risk the material would not lend itself well to the alternative role as a figurine, but pompano depictions are hard to come by so I decided to give it a shot.

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