Colorado River Cutthroat Trout (3″ figure by Replica Toy Fish)

As mentioned in the last post about the greenback cutthroat trout we have one more trout from the October 2015 releases by Replica Toy Fish, and it’s another cutthroat trout variant. This one is the Colorado River Oncorhynchus virginalis pleuriticus another of the Rocky Mountain cutthroats “Uniquely Identifiable Evolutionary Units” (UIEU). And with our visit to this figure, that will bring us to the last of the trout figures released for sale…but not the very last species in the series. I did mention the last set was a Trout and Salmon series…

The helpful part is that I went over the situation with cutthroats in general in the last post, so I can skip over all of that. This particular UIEU is on average quite small, averaging 20cm in length. The Colorado River cutthroat trout had a historic range on the west side of the Rocky Mountains. They were found in the Green and Colorado River drainages in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, but even this historic range is probably still far more restricted than it was prior to the 1850s, when they were impacted by competition from introduced brown trout and habitat disruption. The Colorado River cutthroat is listed as Vulnerable by NatureServe.

To describe the figure, it is of course very similar to the greenback cutthroat figure. It is a bit more slender but still quite fusiform. The head is proportionally longer on this figure, with a slightly more pointed face and mouth just slightly open. It’s unclear if this is subspecies-specific or just happenstance based on the reference models for the sculptor. There are also some differences in the finnage–unusual for the trout figures, this model, and only this one, has the pectoral fins extended off of the body, as well as the pelvic fins. The dorsal and anal fins are large, with a smaller notch on both of these fins; the adipose fin is rounded. In fact, all of the fins are more rounded than seen on the greenback. The pelvic fins are the older style, where the rays all extend from the body instead of a fin base. The tail fin is emarginate as in most figures, but with only a very small notch in the centre.

The colouration is also similar to the greenback, which makes sense since it’s another cutthroat trout figure. The first thing that stands out is that the folds under the jaw are more properly sculpted, which gives some opportunity for the paint job to mark out the red line expected there…which in this particular figure they kind of did, especially on one side. There is still the dark orange cheek though, which still helps give it the look of a cutthroat, and extends under to the gill folds. The overall body is yellow, over most of the sides and body, other than the dorsal margin and belly (the latter is of course white).

The very back is a brighter green that extends right to the tip of the snout (on one side, sloppily applied over most of the face), and also across the caudal peduncle to the front edge of the tail. This also includes the dorsal fin and adipose. The furthest edge of the tail fin is yellow. Along the bottom of the sides are some heavier grey spots, probably meant to be parr marks, although there should be larger faint ones along the whole of the sides. The majority of the body is covered in small, dark, mostly uniform grey spots. The tail is covered in very small spots and thin dashes. There are also some small spots on the dorsal and adipose fins. The ventral fins are solid coloured; the pectoral fins are yellow, while the pelvic and anal fins are highlighted in the light orange. The eyes are black, painted onto the bulging eyes on the head.

Overall, again, we have a pretty good attempt at a cutthroat trout figure, just some details that are affected by the paint application. Which…at this point in the RTF run was kind of par (parr?) for the course. I will give credit that the two cutthroats do look different enough, although it could be tough to be sure exactly what subspecies/UIEU would be represented. It is not lost on me that the more green figure is NOT the greenback cutthroat, for example.

And, in fact, I had to hunt down the the wayback site to be sure I had the two figures correct (fun fact, I have the muskellunge and tiger muskellunge reversed…I might need to do some updating but these figures appear to almost universally be switched for people…) It turns out the pectoral fin is the easiest way to be sure. So after these two, yeah, there aren’t any other official cutthroat figures, but here’s hoping we see someone take it up someday. The next few posts will wrap up the trout and salmon releases, the last of the widely available models from RTF. Then things will start to get a little strange…