Chinhai Spiny Newt (Animals with Superpowers by Yowie Group)

As of this writing, amphibians are the most neglected vertebrate group on the ATB, with roughly a dozen reviews representing them. There’s little that can be done about this however, as aside from a few popular species the group as a whole is rarely reproduced in plastic. Frogs are obviously the most popular amphibians and dominate the toy amphibian market, although most are generic and not assigned to any particular species. The rest, salamanders and caecilians, are exceptionally rare. This sad fact makes virtually all serious toy amphibians something to be appreciated. Indeed, upon cracking open this recent Yowie egg, I felt like celebrating.

The Yowie Chinhai spiny newt (Echinotriton chinhaiensis) is an unlikely species for any company to produce, and yet here it is, thanks to Yowie Group and their predilection for producing such creatures. The spiny newt is part of Yowie Group’s Animals with Superpowers series, and we’ll get into what that superpower is more in a bit.

The Chinhai spiny newt is a critically endangered member of the Salamandridae (true salamanders and newt) family that lives in a small portion of the Zhejiang province in eastern China. Its habitat includes freshwater marshes, ponds, and forests, and the species is threatened due to habitat loss. The Chinhai spiny newt also takes 10 years to mature and can live for 20.

The Yowie spiny newt measures about 3” (7.6 cm) while the actual spiny newt reaches 5.5” (13.9 cm) with males averaging about an inch smaller than females. This puts the Yowie figure at about 1/8 in scale.

The Yowie figure is a faithful reproduction of the species, possessing a flatted body, broad and flat triangular head, granular skin, a ridge down the back, poison glands evident under the skin, four fingers, and five toes. The entire figure is painted brown while the actual newt can be black or brown with some orange coloration under the tail, around the cloaca, and on the bottom of the feet.

The “superpower” of this animal is quite remarkable, but a feature also shared with other newt species, including the Iberian ribbed newt and the Mandarin newt. When grasped or attacked the spiny newt’s pointed ribs penetrate its poison glands and project through the skin, stinging and injecting its poison into whatever is harassing it. A superpower indeed!

The Yowie Chinhai spiny newt is a well-executed little figure of an animal you’re not likely to see produced by any other company, and the kind of figure that motivates me to buy Yowies in the first place. According to Yowie’s rarity chart the spiny newt is listed as popular, which means it should be fairly easy to find verses figures in the legendary or epic categories. Happy hunting!