Crabs (Habitat Earth by Play Visions)

Today is a review of the complete set of Crabs by Play Visions, Habitat Earth series (1996). Another in the taxonomically-diverse sets of animals released by Play Visions in the mid-late 1990s. I have made some taxonomic changes to a couple figures in this set since I first presented it on the ATF back in 2016, so it seems like a good time to introduce it to the Blog!

There are eight figures in the original Play Visions set, although knock-off sets by PEC and Battat often include a hermit crab that is not included here. At the time, most if not all of these were probably unique but a couple species have since been made (esp. by the Japanese gashapon-style manufacturers). Any mention below of a figure being unique does not take the PEC or Battat figures into consideration.

Each figure is a solid piece of PVC, approximately 6.0 cm across their greatest widths. They are marked with their common English name, year (1996), and traditional PV logo. All Latin names below are of my choosing.

On to the figures (in no particular order):

Mexican spider crab, Libinia mexicana.
For years it was assumed, by me as well, that this was the giant Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi) due to it being frequently made by Japanese companies. However, further scrutiny of the species in this set seems to focus on the Eastern Pacific, especially around southern California and Mexico. Play Visions figures were inspired by popular books at the time, and I wonder if a book on North American crustaceans was the inspiration for figures in this set. As such, I am changing my opinion on this figure to being the Mexican spider crab. The legs are a bit long for L. mexicana, but the carapace is a good shape and the color looks alright.

Striped shore crab, Pachygrapsus crassipes.
To date I believe this is still a unique figure. It is related to the Sally lightfoot crab (Grapsus grapsus), which has been made a couple times (including by Play Visions for their Galapagos Islands Wildlife collection in 1998. Pachygrapsus crassipes occurs along the West Coast of North America from British Columbia and Oregon to Baja, Mexico.

Atlantic blue crab, Callinectes sapidus
This figure was simply marked ‘blue crab’ but most certainly is intended to represent C. sapidus. Unlike other figures in this set, this figure occurs on the eastern side of Mexico, in the Western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Japanese companies (Kaiyodo in particular) have made several West Indo-Pacific portunid crabs, but the only other figure of C. sapidus I am aware of is by Safari Ltd. in their Incredible Creatures Line.

Helmet crab, Telmessus cheiragonus
To my knowledge, another unique species. The helmet crab is distributed in the North Pacific, from Japan, Korea, and Russia in the east and from the Bering Sea to California in the West.

Purple globe crab, Randallia ornata
Another unique figure, this interesting crustacean occurs along the West Coast of North America from the Monterey Bay area to Baja California.

Alaskan king crab, Paralithodes camtschaticus
This species is native to the North Pacific Ocean. It has received a good deal of attention by manufacturers (at least as far as crustaceans go). It has been made several times by Japanese companies such as Kaiyodo, Nihon Auto Toy, Epoch, and Yujin. In 2019, it was also made by CollectA. There is an obvious anatomical error in this figure! Notice the extra pair of legs. King crabs have the hind pair of legs reduced in size and hidden under the gill chamber, not visible dorsally.

Mexican fiddler crab, Leptuca crenulata
My figure is specifically marked ‘Mexican fiddler crab’ although I have seen images online by other collectors whose figures are missing the ‘Mexican’, despite having the PV logo and year of production. Why some were specifically marketed as a Mexican species and others were not is anyone’s guess. The species occurs coastally from southern California to central Mexico.

Winged kelp (=pear) crab, Epialtoides hiltoni
Ah, last but not least, the most perplexing figure in the set. The figure is marked ‘pear crab’ and for years has been a diagnostic nightmare for collectors. Most of us assumed it was a member of the family Porcellanidae, but even that turned out to be incorrect. One day, I decided to break down and do Google image searches for every genus in Porcellanidae. When that failed, I went up to other families in the superfamily, and so on. Eventually I struck gold with I researched Epialtoides. Interestingly, the Mexican spider crab (above) is also in the family Epialtidae. Turns out this ‘pear crab’ is more closely related to spider crabs than porcelain crabs. The species appears to be endemic to southern California.

So, here we saw a quick overview of the complete Crabs collection by Play Visions. Unlike most PV figures, finding these can be challenging (although not as much as some of their other sets). It provides an interesting assortment of North American species. If you don’t mind copies, the sets by PEC and Battat might be easier to find (although there will be some differences in species composition).