Review and images by Fembrogon; edited by bmathison1972
Is there any animal more perfectly suited as the poster child of nature’s weirdness than the duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)? …Well, okay, there probably is; but the platypus is almost certainly the most ubiquitous. When it was first discovered by the Western scientific world, many did not believe this “flat-footed” mammal was real; of course, today we know clearly otherwise.
Majestic, intelligent, enigmatic, beautiful, elegant. These are all apt adjectives that describe the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), one of the most popular, wide ranging, and recognizable cetaceans in the world. Toy Animal Wiki catalogs 71 different figures of the species but there are easily many more than that.
Cuteness alert! Walk-around of the CollectA Wildlife 88722 Long-tailed Chinchilla, Chinchilla lanigera Bennett, 1829; originally produced in 2015. It’s quite a tiny figure, snout-vent length would be around 50 mm if the figure was stretched out and the tail adds another 28 mm so the scale is approx. 1:5.
I am proud to present another kindly given sample model from our friends at Happy Hen Toys. Thank you! If you decide that you would like to add this model to your herd, you can find it on their website or wherever Schleich toys are sold! Without further ado, here is the first Schleich “pony” for the blog!
I was inspired by a recent purchase to look at a newer figure from Safari, probably the second most popular species of giraffe in toy form. I am of course speaking of Okapia johnstoni (Sclater, 1901). The information about this species has been covered in fantastic detail on previous reviews of figures of this animal, so doing so again would be unnecessary (for those details see the in depth review by OkapiBoy, I seriously have no way of adding on!)
I have been fortunate to see live okapis not once, but twice, in zoos.
The prairie dog of western North America is not only an icon of the American west but a keystone species as well. Prairie dogs are burrowers, and their extensive network of tunnels, chambers, and mounds known as “prairie dog towns” serve as important habitat for a host of species, including burrowing owls and the black-footed ferret that not only lives in prairie dog burrows but also preys on them.
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Well, here it is, my review of the final sample animal toy from Happy Hen Toys—for now. Once again I must express my deepest thanks to them for such wonderful generosity. And I’ve saved the very biggest for last: CollectA’s second version of the massive and marvelous blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus).
I like moles, so much so that their tunnels and molehills in my backyard don’t even bother me, it just makes me happy knowing that they’re there. But I’ve always preferred a biodiverse yard over a manicured one. Moles can actually be beneficial to lawns and gardens too, by aerating the soil and consuming garden pests like slugs.
Before I begin the review, I would like to kindly thank our friends at Happy Hen Toys for who provided me with this review sample (my first!) for the Blog! If you end up being interested in this figure, you can certainly find it on their website or wherever Schleich toys are sold.
The moose (Alces alces), also known as elk in Europe, is the world’s largest species of deer, and the second largest animal native to North America and Europe. It lives in temperate and subarctic climates around the Northern Hemisphere. Moose are popular as toys, and this makes selecting one for a synoptic collection somewhat of a challenge.
Before I start my review I would again like to thank our friends at Happy Hen Toys who donated this review sample for the Blog! It’s a figure I have been contemplating getting for a while, ever since I started added some dog breeds to my collection, so it was a joy to have the opportunity to get it from HHT!
The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is not an animal that you would expect to find an exhibit dedicated to at the zoo, but it is a fascinating North American animal that most of us probably have some familiarity with. Interestingly, opossums do not “play dead,” as many people say, implying a conscious choice, but rather enter a catatonic state when frightened by a predator, and anal glands produce an odor resembling the stink of a decomposing dead body.
Before we begin the review, I would like to thank Happy Hen Toys for sending this figure along as a review sample. Happy Hen Toys is a U.S. distributor of animal figures, including some that are otherwise hard to come by in the United States. I highly recommend that you check out their selection.
Review and images by Kikimalou; edited by bmathison1972
The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is the largest carnivorous marsupial still alive. About the length of a Corgi, with a stocky body, a large head full of teeth, and a tail about half the length of its body. The coat is black with, most of the time, white markings on the neck and on the rump at the base of the tail.
Europe is a continent consisting of the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia. It is said to be separated from Asia by a variety of natural features including the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, Ural River, and the Caspian and Black seas, among others. Truthfully though, the boarders between Europe and Asia, geological or manmade, are arbitrary.
