After recently discussing some Takara figures from a Monster Fish set (…the Fishing Wars) I thought I’d go into some others. So I am looking at the pair of Asian arowana figures from an earlier Takara Tomy series…also called Monster Fish (!?) but not fishing themed I guess? In fact the theme is pretty loose (the other two figures are deep sea fish…) I don’t actually have those other two, but I do like bonytongue figures.
Classification: Bonytongue
Arapaima (Mini Ancient Fish Series 2 by Bandai)
5 (5 votes)
This figure is a another in the Mini Ancient Fish series 2 from Bandai, the arapaima or pirarucu Arapaima gigas. This fish is famous as one of the largest strictly-freshwater fish in the world, naturally located in much of the Amazon river basin. Or at least the genus is…recent studies indicate that many discrete populations are actually unique species; this figure is listed as A.
Silver Arowana (Mini Ancient Fish Series 2 by Bandai)
4.4 (5 votes)
The silver arowana Osteoglossum bicirrhosum is a bonytongue fish found in black and whitewater habitats in many waterway basins of South America (except most of the Rio Negro). It is one of two species in the genus, both found in South America and occasionally overlapping in range. The species name comes from the two narrow barbels or cirrhi protruding from its lower jaw.
Asian Arowana, Gold Highback variety (Freshwater Fishes Book 1, second release by Yujin)
5 (4 votes)
This figure is the Se-Kin Dragon Arowana AKA Malyasian Golden Highback Arowana, Scleropages formosus, although some researchers have split up the species into four, and the Gold Malaysian variety may belong in S. aureus if the species are valid—and most researchers are not yet convinced (edit–and continue not to be). Like the Yujin chili red arowana before, the figure is number 15 from the second release, but is stamped with model number 15.
Asian Arowana, Chili Red variety (Freshwater Fishes Series 1, first release reissue by Yujin)
5 (5 votes)
This figure is the Asian Arowana (or Asian Bonytongue, or Dragonfish), Scleropages formosus, number 15 from the first series—but it’s (one of) the Special Secret(s) (edit – when I first did these walkarounds, I thought there was only one secret figure for each series…turned out there are at least three for every release).
Saddled Bichir (Mini Ancient Fish Series 2 by Bandai) + bonus Elephant-snout fish
5 (4 votes)
More fish! And this time, another of my favorite type of fish! Yes, it’s another bichir, and another saddled bichir Polypterus endlicheri, a species that I discussed quite some time ago (the Colorata figure). Which I suppose means I won’t need to go into too many details about the species, so I’ll be able to discuss the figure more at length–and then discuss the surprise little extra with the figure (spoiled in the title I suppose).
River Monster Collection (Toy Fish Factory)
4.3 (3 votes)
Thalassophobia is defined as the fear of deep and vast bodies of water, and the unseen creatures that lurk in them. Even if you don’t suffer from this phobia, I dare any person to look out upon the surface of any large body of water and not wonder about what strange and potentially dangerous creatures lurk unseen under its surface.