The caracal (Caracal caracal) is a small cat that lives over much of Africa (outside of rainforests and much of the Sahara Desert), the Arabian Peninsula, Middle East, and Central Asia to western India. It prefers scrub forest, thickets, savannas, marshy lowlands, rocky hills, and semi-deserts, generally in areas that are dry but offer sufficient vegetation for cover.
Classification: Mammals
Sperm Whale, adult and calf (Monterey Bay Aquarium Collection by Safari Ltd.)
4 (10 votes)
For author’s summary of species look here
This will be the last review of a cetacean species from the Monterey Bay Aquarium collection, the sperm whale adult and calf pair.
The adult female measures 29 cm, which corresponds to an 11.6 m whale at the marketed 1:40 scale. Above, you can see it scales well with the Safari Sea Life giant squid (24.5 cm/9.8 m) and the CollectA basking shark (22 cm/ 8.8 m).
Northern Fur Seal (Enoshima Aquarium Series 2 by Kaiyodo)
4.2 (5 votes)
The northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) is among the most widespread otariids of the North Pacific. This species, like other ”fur seals”, is more closely related to sea lions than to ”true seals”. This species is mostly pelagic, living across the North Pacific, Bering Sea, and Sea of Okhotsk.
Reindeer, Special Holiday Edition 2022 (Schleich)
3 (4 votes)
Review and images by Saarlooswolfhound; edited by bmathison1972
Happy Holidays everybody! How ever you choose to celebrate this season, I hope that you choose to include some plastic animal figures to enjoy. They always seem to brighten my holidays! This year I have selected the new 2022 Schleich special edition reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) #72189 to present here.
Muskox (Wildlife by CollectA)
4.8 (12 votes)
For author’s summary of species look here
Over this past year, I’ve made the choice to replace my Schleich Muskox with CollectA’s version. With a shoulder height of about 6.5cm, this figure roughly belongs to the 1:18-1:23 scale. This places it well within the range of most other figures of large terrestrial animals.
Great Dane (Farm Life by Schleich)
4 (4 votes)
Review and images by Bonnie; edited by bmathison1972
I went dog figure hunting yesterday and I was surprised in the best possible way to find that our local Schleich shop had lots of the 2023 models in stock! I am happy to say that most of them look just as good if not better in real life, I didn’t look that closely but I think Schleich have released some beautiful models this year which is a good thing!
Cob, Black Tobiano, rearing (Horses by Mojö Fun)
4.3 (3 votes)
Review and images by Harecraft Horses; edited by bmathison1972
My first must-buy of Mojö’s horses this year was the rearing cob, a really good addition to the range to complete the family – even though they already had a mare and youngster, the new rearing pose for the stallion means he’s plenty different to the others, and that he’s fun for photography as well as play.
Bornean Orangutan (Wild Safari Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)
4.4 (9 votes)
I had to take a photo of this figure for today’s daily ‘Museum’ post and decided to throw together a quick review of it for the Blog, especially since we don’t have have a this species on the Blog yet! The Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is, as its common name suggests, endemic to the island of Borneo.
Sow (Farm Life by CollectA)
5 (7 votes)
Today we’re looking at your classic pink pig (Sus scrofa domesticus), what must be one of the most common toy animals you can think of. But, and I hate to say it, this is some pig. And that’s the second Charlotte’s Web reference I’ve made in too short an amount of time.
Killer Whale, adult and calf (Monterey Bay Aquarium by Safari Ltd.)
3.9 (7 votes)
For the author’s overview of this species, please see this review
Despite many killer whale figures having been produced, it has been about 2 years since I’ve last covered this species. Most of them tend to fall short of my standards, but maybe things will be different for the Monterey Bay Aquarium series that rarely leaves me disappointed.
Oryol Mare, Dark Grey (Horse Country by CollectA)
5 (5 votes)
Review and images by Harecraft Horses; edited by bmathison1972
Much better known as the Orlov Trotter, named after their developer Count Alexei Orlov, this is a famous breed but not a common one outside its native homeland, and it’s fairly rare to see in model form, too. With nothing yet from Breyer, the market leader in the model horse world, we have to turn to the more toy-type brands : Mojo Fun have released their Orlov Trotter sculpt in two different shades of grey, and now CollectA bring us a brand new one.
Black Wolf (Asahiyama Capsule Zoo by Kaiyodo)
4.7 (3 votes)
Review and images by Saarlooswolfhound; edited by bmathison1972
Another trip along the holiday trail, a hell hound has arrived on the scene for presentation… Not truly, instead, I have a very precious Kaiyodo Asahiyama Exclusive black phase wolf model. Reused from the Choco Q Animatales model #239 from series 11, the mold itself is precisely the same besides a color change.