Review and photos by Ikessauro; edited by bmathison1972
Editor’s comment: it gives me great pleasure to present the first Blog entry by forum member Ikessauro! Let’s hope this is the first of more to come!
I have been a prehistoric animal collector for the past 17 years now, and although I was always fascinated by toys of modern reptiles, I didn’t consider buying those, focusing my attention on prehistoric stuff.
Walk-around of the Safari Ltd. Incredible Creatures Townsend’s big-eared bat, Corynorhinus (Plecotus) townsendii Cooper, 1837, originally released in 2013. Really, I could not think of a better bat replica! Snout-vent length is approx. 90 mm plus 45 mm tail, wingspan measures approx. 275 mm in direct line but would stretch out to approx.
Although they look like lizards the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) of New Zealand is in fact the last living member of the order Rhynchocephalia and not a lizard at all. This order of reptiles, closely related to squamata (lizards, including snakes), had their heyday during the Mesozoic, getting their start in the mid-Triassic and achieving worldwide distribution during the Jurassic.
Review and images by Saarlooswolfhound; edited by bmathison1972
In honor of the American holiday of Thanksgiving, here is a poultry to satisfy any bird lover’s appetite. The Safari Ltd. #242929 turkey (Melagris gallopavo), released as part of their Safari Farm line in 2007 and still in production today, is a marvelous avian figure.
Review and photographs by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The word “sloth” means slowness, laziness, indolence, or a habitual disinclination to exertion, and looking at the arboreal South American mammals called sloths, one might think that they fit their name to a tee. But while sloths are indeed slow-moving, they are not at all lazy.
The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) has the distinction of being the smallest and most endangered cetacean in the world. In the last 22 years the population of vaquita has dropped from 567 to roughly 10 individuals. The vaquita, like so many marine species, is not targeted specifically but ends up as bycatch in gill nets set for other species, in this case the similarly sized totoaba fish (Totoaba macdonaldi) which is itself also critically endangered.
The Safari Ltd. wallaby was released in 2016 and sculpted by Doug Watson. Although currently available on Safari’s website it has been perpetually on sale for some time, which likely means it has been retired and is being cleared out. Let’s take a closer look at it and see if it’s worth grabbing before it’s gone.
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Thanks to its wonderful whiskers and tusks, the walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) is the most unique and recognizable out of all the 33 extant pinnipeds. Many toys of this massive beast have been made over the decades; here we shall be examining the Wild Safari Sealife version from 2005.
The common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) is a species of pig (family Suidae) that occurs in sub-Saharan Africa. Aside from the wild boar it is the most familiar of the wild pig species. It is also common, with a large range that covers grasslands, savannas, and forests. Warthogs are the only pigs adapted to live as grazers in open habitats and the bulk of their diet is made up of grasses.
Today we’re looking at the Safari 2020 weasel, part of their North American Wildlife Collection. Safari’s website doesn’t specify the species, just that it belongs to the Mustela genus. The Mustela genus contains about 18 species, including the domestic ferret, European mink, stoats, and the least weasel…the smallest member of Carnivora.
The fishes of the order Syngnathiformes (pipefishes, seahorses, and trumpetfishes) are some of the most visually bizarre and strangely adapted fishes on our planet and yet most of them look downright conventional when compared to those members of the family that look more like plants than fish. In what is certainly a textbook case of mimicry, the weedy and leafy seadragons have evolved to look like the kelp and seaweed fronds they live amongst.
