Everyone knows that Santa’s sleigh is pulled by reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) but with 14 extant sub-species currently described has anyone ever wondered what kind of reindeer are pulling it? Probably not. But according to the 1823 poem (which also gave the reindeer their names) A Visit from St.
Brand: CollectA
South African Penguin (Sealife by CollectA)
5 (4 votes)
It’s July in the South Africa and mating season for its penguins, the males begin calling out with their harsh braying. A local bystander hears this and decides the perfect name to call this bird…
Alas, the South African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), is unfortunately dubbed the ”Jackass Penguin” for its donkey-like sounds.
Alas, the South African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), is unfortunately dubbed the ”Jackass Penguin” for its donkey-like sounds.
Nilgai (Wildlife by CollectA)
5 (8 votes)
Review and images by EpicRaptorMan; edited by bmathison1972
Behold, the nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), the largest Asian antelope native to much of India. This antelope is a bit of an oddity once described by Elizabeth Cary Mungall in her book “Exotic Animal Field Guide” as a “[…] combination of a horse and a cow with the beard of a turkey and short devil horns.” Which is a fairly accurate description.
Przewalski’s Horse (Horse Country by CollectA)
4.9 (7 votes)
Since its release in 2013 I’ve been eyeballing the CollectA Przewalski’s horse (pronounced shuh-VAL-skee and also known as the takhi) for my collection, even though I didn’t really collect extant animals at the time. What I was collecting were dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, and recently extinct animals too. So why the interest in this horse?
Red Kangaroo, male 2021 (Wildlife by CollectA)
5 (4 votes)
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
For a male red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus), the journey from adorable joey to towering boomer centres mainly around one thing: the ritualized fighting known as boxing. Only the victors win the privilege of mating rights, and as such, battles between boomers can be extremely violent and ugly.
Common Otter (Wildlife by CollectA)
4 (10 votes)
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Otters belong to the mustelid family, which also includes weasels and their kin, badgers, skunks, and wolverines. There are currently 13 extant species of otter that all range from semiaquatic to marine in their lifestyles. The Eurasian or common otter (Lutra lutra) is probably the most familiar member of the lot, with a range throughout Europe, much of Asia, and parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Basking Shark (Sealife by CollectA)
4.5 (14 votes)
Jaws author Peter Benchley once stated in an interview that “every young man in the world is fascinated with either sharks or dinosaurs”. In my case it was both, and really the natural world in general, but sharks and dinosaurs took special interest. So, it made sense that a few years after launching my dinosaur collecting career, I would dip my toes into extant animals and start collecting sharks.
Leopard Seal (Sealife by CollectA)
4.4 (14 votes)
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
We usually picture seals as these cute bumbling blobs that are clumsy and slow on land and behave like puppy dogs. Make no mistake: once they get into the water, they transform into fast moving predators preying on fish and invertebrates like cephalopods and crustaceans.
European Mouflon (Wildlife by CollectA)
4.8 (9 votes)
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Mouflons are wild sheep native to Europe and Western Asia, and are surmised to be the ancestors of all the domestic sheep breeds which have been so valuable to us for millennia. Five subspecies are currently recognized, including the European variety (Ovis gemlini musimon) that will be the subject of this review.
Praying Mantis (Little Wonders by CollectA)
3.7 (3 votes)
Review and images by Animal Lover; edited by bmathison1972
Hello fellow readers and collectors! I am “Animal Lover”. On the Dinosaur Toy Blog, I write reviews by the name “Prehistory Resurrection” (my old name was “Resurrection of the Dinosaurs”). I wrote about more than 10 reviews for the Dinosaur Toy Blog.
Shortfin Mako Shark (Sealife by CollectA)
4.2 (9 votes)
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
In the world of lamniforms, the megalodon (Otodus megalodon) and the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) are the ones people are the most familiar with, due to their large size and the public’s view on sharks as being ferocious predators.
Pacific White-Sided Dolphin (Sealife by CollectA)
3.5 (6 votes)
The overrepresentation of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) undermines the real diversity within the Delphinidae family, thus warranting a look at a species like the Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens). This species is endemic to the North Pacific, spanning across Baja California, Southern China, and the Bering Sea.