Review and images by Fembrogon; edited by bmathison1972
The trouble with collectibles is you often have to act quickly – or, at least, not slowly – to get what you want. The same is true if you wish to share your find with others. A while back I visited a local reptile expo and found myself coming home with several critters – not real ones, sadly, but ones of the plastic and plush varieties, charming enough in their own way to win over me and my wallet.
Review and images by Fembrogon; edited by bmathison1972
With the onset of commercial 3D printing and a growing number of online shops and artist-friendly websites, a new world of hidden treasures and surprises has opened up for collectors and hobbyists. One such surprise I recently encountered was featured on a table at a reptile expo, where the handlers were not only selling the typical real (and rather cute) reptiles, but also a selection of equally cute articulated toys.
Review and images by stemturtle; edited by bmathison1972
Eastern tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum (K&M). Length is 10.5 inches or 27 cm.
This figure is made of soft rubber. The paint did not hold up well to my granddaughter’s play, so I touched-up the green spots.
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.
Today I am reviewing a set of five figures I bought specifically for just one of the figures it contains. However, since I have the whole set, I might as well review all five for the Blog! Also, this will be our first review of an entire Wild Republic Polybag collection!
Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972.
Not a lot time has passed since my last review of a Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus), so there is not much more to tell about the animal itself, so let us get straight away to the figure itself.
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Those are the names of the Great Lakes of North America that boarder the central/east United States and Canada. In total area they represent the largest freshwater lakes on Earth, holding roughly 20% of the world’s surface freshwater and 9/10ths of the water supply for the United States.
Review and images by Lanthanothus; edited by bmathison1972
Through their long history, the group we accept as amphibians was, and still is, very diverse. Among the many fossils a great number of species grew to sizes that are hardly imaginable for us today. The extinct Prionosuchus grew up to 9 metres, longer than any know specimens of the recent crocodiles.
Review and photos by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972
Being new to the blog I decided to go with something very European… [editor’s note: Lanthanotus may be new to the Animal Toy Blog, but he is a regular reviewer for the Dinosaur Toy Blog]
The Alpine Salamander (Salamandra atra) is a livebearing, totally terrestrial species restricted to the Middle-European Alps and parts of the Dinarides.
And now I complete the review started here of a set of reptiles and amphibians from weird toy maker COG Ltd. As seen before, it is a set of very small herptiles (I will revive that term!) composed of 9 reptiles and 7 amphibians. Part one was 1 crocodilian, 5 lizards, and 3 snakes.
For my next review I thought I would do an overview of the Cave Dwellers TOOB released by Safari Ltd. in 2014. When this set was first released, I was excited because five of the eight figures are arthropods. Unfortunately I have misplaced four of those five, so I recently bought the entire set, which is good because now that I am building a synoptic collection I really wanted the three non-arthropods.
So just going over my shelves, wondering what I could review, and my eyes fell on what might be the original Colorata set (or one of them)–their River Life set! What sets this one apart is the diversity–3 frogs, several fish, and one exclusive never-again-released salamander, a Japanese Clawed Salamander Onychodactylus japonicus (Houttuyn, 1882).
