Before I start this review, I must again thank our friends at Happy Hen Toys who kindly donated this review sample for the Blog.
When today’s figure was first announced, it was referred to as a ‘common spider’. That left the door open for several ideas on what it might be (especially since the promo pic wasn’t taken at the most diagnostically-helpful angle).
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.
Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972
The bird life of Middle Europe generally does not flaunt too much color, although if one looks closely there are a few corlorful species, as the gold finch or the green woodpecker. A fairly common species in middle European fields and meadows nowadays is the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus).
The common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, is familiar lacertid that occurs in Central and Southern Europe, from northwestern Spain to the Black Sea of Turkey. They can be found in a wide variety of habitats, from coastal plains to high-altitude mountains, with a preference for rocky microhabitats. Because of this, they have become well adapted to urban and suburban settings, where they live among rocky structures, rubble, and debris.
My recent review of the Safari blue-footed booby motivated me to review another Suliforme bird that I featured in a comparison photo in that review, the 2020 Papo cormorant, which is also my most recent acquisition.
Cormorants, along with shags, make up the Phalacrocoracidae family, made up of about 40 species.
The genus Acherontia, whose members are commonly referred to as death’s-head hawkmoths, contains three species broadly distributed in Eurasia and Africa. The greater death’s-head hawkmoth (A. lachesis), which is the largest of the three, occurs in Central and East Asia to Japan and the Philippines; it has also recently become established in Hawaii.
The Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) is a species of duck endemic to the American tropics, from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Mexico south to Argentina and Uruguay. The Muscovy duck was first domesticated in Brazil, prior to European discovery in the late 1490s. It was bred primarily for meat and today it is often referred to as a Barbary duck in a culinary context.
Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972
If there’s an iconic animal of the desert, then it sure would be the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), sometimes also called ‘ship of the desert’ for its rocking moves when used for human transportation.
The dromedary has a long history with humans; it was first domesticated around 4000 years ago in either North Africa or the Arabian Peninsula.
Today we are looking at the edible crab (Cancer pagurus) released just this year by Papo. This is an exciting figure. It is Papo’s first crustacean, and only the second crustacean in a Western company’s ‘Sealife/Marine life’ line following CollectA’s 2019 king crab (I am not counting figures in the Incredible Creatures line by Safari Ltd.).
The elephant seals (Mirounga spp.) are easily among the most visually striking pinnipeds. Two species respectively inhabitat the coasts of the North Pacific (M. angustirostris) and Southern Hemisphere (M. leoninae). Elephant seals exhibit the most extreme sexual dimorphism amongst pinnipeds and most mammals.
Today I am continuing the 2020 Papo arthropods with the emperor dragonfly, Anax imperator, a species distributed throughout much of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and west-central Asia. Anax imperator belongs to the family Aeshnidae, which includes the green darner (A. junius), which is common here in North America and is the more-commonly made species of the two.
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Well, it turns out that my previous review was in fact my 100th for the Animal Toy Blog and I completely overlooked that fact! So I guess I’ll celebrate with #101 instead. My subject is the Papo emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) with chick, yet another generous sample from Happy Hen Toys, bless them.
Some of my favorite birds are the spoonbills of the genus Platalea within the Threskiornithidae family. Spoonbills are wading birds found on every continent except Antarctica and characterized by the broad, flatted tip on their bills. Sweeping their bill back and forth underwater, spoonbills use their bill tip to gather up small invertebrates, amphibians, and fishes.
Happy spooky season to everyone! I hope this article finds you in good spirits to enjoy a spooky old bed time story. The topic is on the Papo wolf pair (Canis lupus) introduced in 2022, #50283 and #50284 respectively, but our story begins in Europe… La Beté du Gèvaudan is a longstanding horror story from Southern France.
