Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
The bluespotted ribbontail ray (Taeniura lymma) is a small stingray inhabiting shallow seas and reefs throughout the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. These rays don’t exceed 35 cm in finspan and 71 cm from snout to the tip of the tail. It is sometimes called the bluespotted stingray due to its distinctive blue spots; however, there is another ray that shares the same common name, the unrelated Neotrygon kuhlii. Like most rays, they are benthic animals that feed on benthic inverts and small fish, and in turns is preyed on by larger fish and sharks. These rays are popular in the home aquarium but have a high mortality rate.
About the figure: the figure measures about 4.5 cm wide and 9 cm when stretched out, putting it in the 1:6 scale. The figure is sculpted with a slight undulation in the fins and the tail curved. The figure is fairly well done and the overall shape matches the species clearly, having a more oval body and pointed pectoral fins. The eye shape is correct with a dip in the middle. The spiracles are defined and the tail features 2 stingers which, along with the Papo spotted eagle ray, are the current ray figures with more than one stingers.
The paint job, while not of a typical specimen’s yellowish beige, is seen in some specimens with a green main body. There’s a hint of of yellow on the edges and, as the name suggests, there are blue spots along the animal and there’s a blue streak on either side of the tail. The eye is yellow, but the pupil is incorrect. The underside is plain white where there should be a yellow rim around the fins.
For areas of improvement, the pupil should be a squiggly ‘u-shape’ like most rays. There are only 4 gills, when most sharks and rays have 5 (same mistake as seen in the Safari Ltd. model) and they’re too long. The pelvic fins should be closer from the underside and below the tail. The mouth and nostrils are my biggest complaints as they’re really badly done here; the nostrils should be slits and the top and bottom jaw should be very close together.
Outside the flaws, this is a really nice toy of a quite striking ray. The only other figure of the species is the larger Safari Ltd. model and I appreciate Toymany giving us a species rarely made, but since I’m only after the best of the best, I won’t be retaining this one. This figure is available on Amazon and it comes in a set of mini sea animals that vary in quality from cheap China-branded toys to actually decent models on par with the likes of Safari’s TOOBs (ever since they broke out of selling bootlegs and started making original models) and if this is what we are to be given by Toymany, I cannot wait for them to give us another shark/ray set in the future. I’m also hoping that Bandai gives us a ray set too!
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I bought this set specifically for this ray! Luckily, Toymany figures are fairly inexpensive and readily available, at least in the US.
Need ToyMany to recreate this at a larger scale so we all won’t have to search for the rare/retired Bullyland figure!