Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972
A few weeks ago, forum member Sirenia introduced Papo’s gharial to this blog, a magnificent model of an unusual and fairly unpopular crocodile. The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) enjoys a much greater popularity, though if the species really “enjoys” its popularity may be a point to discuss, as with other crocodilians it suffers from hunting and habitat loss.
Dragons! Huge, powerful reptiles, with mighty claws and a flaming breath! They are known throughout the world….. as fictional creatures. Nonetheless, the repute of these mythical monsters have been passed to a few giant reptiles of the real world, those whose power, size and ferocity earn it the reputation. The most famous, of course, is the Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis), a relictual species of monitor from a time when the world had many bigger monitors prowling around.
I have a keen love of crocodilians. They are fascinating, from their looks to their anatomy, and look very prehistoric. While many seem fairly similar, their are some interesting variants with this, such as this one: the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), a fish eating crocodilian from India and China.
So, today is my birthday. I was thinking of doing something special for my B-day, but I could not could not come up with anything creative. I started looking at the numerical date (4-2-1972) and applying it to my collection database (for example, the fourth tab, second clade, line 1972), but I could not find a logistical way to do it.
After rodents, bats, which make up about 20% of all mammal species, form the second largest mammalian order, Chiroptera. Consequently, many bat figures (although not quite as many as the size of the group would suggest) have been made over the years, with one of the more recent attempts being Papo’s first, and so far only, bat figure, released in 2018, which is also the subject of this review.
On Thanksgiving I presented a turkey for the Blog, so it makes sense on Christmas I would present a goose, a bird traditionally served on this holiday. Depending on the location or culture, three are several traditional Christmas ‘meats’. In my household growing up we ate beef, and when I lived in the Czech Republic for grad school, carp was the traditional Christmas meal.
Review of the Texas horned lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum, by Papo, new for 2019 (just got it in the mail just today!). The figure is not marketed at the species level but is a good representation of P. cornutum (more on the morphology below). I was hesitant to buy this figure, mainly because I thought it would be too big compared to other small lizards in my Synoptic Collection.
Time for the next walkaround by brontodocus, this time the 2014 octopus by Papo. I picked this figure for two reasons. First, to have our first mollusk on the Animal Toy Blog. And second, because there is an obvious anatomical error with it (you will see below, brontodocus explains it well).
Today I am reviewing the great white pelican, Pelecanus onocrotalus Linnaeus, 1758 by Papo, which was released in 2011 as part of their Wild Animals line. The figure was simply marketed as ‘pelican’ but it most-likely was inteded to represent P. onocrotalus. I decided to review this figure now because I recently replaced it in my Synoptic Collection with the 2016 figure by Schleich.
Mantids are iconic insects. Anyone who has grown up looking at or collecting insects is familiar with them. They have interesting morphologies and biologies, especially with their predaceous and often cannibalistic habits. Mantids are not uncommon in toy form; most ‘bin-style’ sets of insects have one. Many of the more-familiar major companies make them too.
The Dodo used to walk around,
And take the sun and air.
The sun yet warms his native ground –
The Dodo is not there!
The voice which used to squawk and squeak
Is now for ever dumb –
Yet may you see his bones and beak
All in the Mu-se-um.
