This figure recently came up for my daily ‘Museum’ post on the Animal Toy Forum. Because of the dynamic nature of the sculpt I had to take multiple pics before I decided on the one I liked the most for that post. As such, I thought I would put those images to use and highlight the figure on the Blog!
The common tiger, also known as the striped tiger, Danaus genutia, can best be described as the Southeast Asian cousin to the American monarch (D. plexippus). The butterfly has a wide distribution in Central and Southeast Asia, from India and Sri Lanka east to Japan (Okinawa) and northeastern Australia. It occurs in dry and moist broadleaf forests, secondary growth forests, scrub jungles, degraded hillslopes, grasslands, and urban and suburban parks and gardens. Like other ‘milkweed’ butterflies in the group Danainae, larvae feed on plants in the family Apocynaceae.
Figures in Yujin’s Insects of Japan Series, or at least their bodies, are believed to have been cast from actual specimens and are generally in the 1:1 scale range. If spread like a specimen, this butterfly would have a wingspan of about 8.0 cm, which fits with that theory.
Like other figures in this set, assembly is required. The antennae are simple threads of plastic that fit in holes in the head; over time one of them in my figure has fallen out and gotten lost. The final product shows a butterfly flying over some composite flower in the family Asteraceae. The dynamic nature of the figure is what made photographing it, and choosing an image, so challenging!
The color is spot-on for the species, both dorsally and ventrally. There is not enough natural sexual dimorphism to determine the sex of the figure, from what I can tell.
All of the figures in Yujin’s Insects of Japan series are stunning examples of their respective taxa. They were all produced in the early 2000s (today’s butterfly came out in 2007) and are long retired and may be difficult to find outside of online second-hand sellers. For what it’s worth, one could get away with calling this common tiger a ‘unique’ figure. Ikimon made one for their acrylic mascot series, but it’s simply a photograph of a butterfly embedded in flat acrylic, and not a dynamic three-dimensional figure seen here today!
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