My name is Arthur but I go by Gwangi on the blogs and forums, as homage to the old dinosaur and monster movies I love so much. In addition to writing about and collecting toy animals (extinct and extant) I also share my home with a variety of living animals, mostly reptiles but a little bit of everything. I have a lifelong interest in all things pertaining to nature and natural history and most of my hobbies can be linked to those things in some way. I currently live in Maryland with my wife and daughter. In addition to writing on here I also write magazine articles, typically about local wildlife and aquarium fishes.
Shark Week might be over but there’s one more elasmobranch I wanted to review before moving away from cartilaginous fishes, the 2019 Incredible Creatures marble ray (Taeniurops meyeni) by Safari Ltd.
The marble ray goes by many names, including blotched fantail ray, round ribbontail ray, giant reef ray, and black-spotted stingray.
My next Shark Week review is another blast from the past, the 1996 Wild Safari leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata). Since the release and retirement of this toy, better leopard sharks have come along by Safari and Papo, but this oldie is still worth taking a look at.
Shark Week is back, and this year also marks the 50th anniversary of Jaws, so to kick off a week of toy shark reviews we’ll start by looking at Shark Week’s headlining shark species and the star of Jaws, a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).
Now having two pygmy hippopotamus reviews under my belt I figured it was time to check the other hippopotamus species off my review list, the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). This species has been reviewed a few times and is so widely familiar that it needs no introduction from me, so let’s dive on in.
Today, July 10th, is a very special day. It’s Moo Deng’s first birthday! Moo Deng is a pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) that was born at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Si Racha, Chonburi, Thailand and became a viral sensation in the summer of 2024. So popular was Moo Deng that she was featured in an SNL skit and in Google’s “year in review” Google Doodle video.
Pufferfishes are a family of fishes scientifically known as Tetraodontidae and although they can also inflate their bodies the porcupinefishes of the Diodontidae family are not generally regarded as pufferfishes. The two families are closely related of course, both belonging to the Tetraodontiformes order. And although any fish in the order that puffs up can colloquially be called a pufferfish it’s important to mention the distinction when reviewing today’s subject, a porcupinefish that Safari marketed as a pufferfish.
In my last review we looked at the 2017 Safari Ltd. Incredible Creatures clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) and perhaps not surprisingly, I gave it a good review. Today we’re looking at another clown anemonefish, also by Safari Ltd. and also part of their Incredible Creatures line. I think you’ll find my thoughts on this one to be a bit less positive.
The clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) is probably the world’s most recognizable marine fish and is also known as the ocellaris clownfish, false percula clownfish, and common clownfish. The false percula name comes from the fact that it closely resembles the percula or orange clownfish (Amphiprion percula).
Thanks to the species’ inclusion in the Finding Nemo and Finding Dory films, the blue tang is one of the most recognizable species of tropical marine fishes. It also has many figures to its name including ones by Papo, Schleich, and Mojo. Today we’re looking at the 2017 Safari Ltd.
Last week we looked at the Safari Ltd. queen triggerfish, so it makes sense to look at the companies’ other triggerfish that was released alongside it, the clown triggerfish (Balistoides conspicillum). Like its companion, the clown triggerfish was produced between 2008-2016. Unlike the queen triggerfish however, this species is more popular in the toy hobby, with a TOOB figure by Safari as well as figures from Play Visions, Yujin, Colorata, and K&M.
Triggerfish are a group of ray-finned fishes belonging to the Balistidae family within the Tetraodontiformes order (along with pufferfish and ocean sunfish, among others) There are 40 described species, and they all live in tropical and subtropical waters. They get their name because the second spine on their dorsal fin acts as a trigger of sorts for the first spine.
A large lizard, with spikes along its back, that dwells in the Pacific Ocean. No, I’m not talking about Godzilla, I’m talking about the marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus), the world’s only marine lizard. It’s about as close to a real Godzilla as you can get. In fact, one of its many subspecies is named A.
