Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) is one of Europe’s largest salamanders, reaching a length of 15-25 cm long. It usually resides in the deciduous forests of southern and central Europe, where it prefers to spend most of its time concealed under fallen leaf litter and logs. At night, it emerges from its hiding place to feed on invertebrates like insects, spiders, worms, and slugs.
New for 2024, the Schleich fire salamander measures just about 10 cm long. It is sculpted in a standing pose with its head, body, and tail all raised off the ground. The head is slightly looking to the left and the tail is curling to the right.
The toy is coloured entirely glossy black with large, bright yellow markings all over, exactly like the real animal, although sometimes the markings can be red or orange, or nearly absent entirely. These distinctive colours serve as a warning sign, for the fire salamander’s skin contains toxins that can sicken or even kill predators that touch or attempt to eat it. It can also squirt poisonous liquid from glands behind its eyes.
The skin on this toy is nicely detailed, with a row of tiny bumps running down the spine and very thick wrinkles on the flanks. Smaller and more numerous wrinkles cover the underside. The front feet have four toes while the hind feet have five, all without claws, naturally. The head is wide and broad with large eyes and the body and tail are appropriately thick as well.
Amphibians are not as well represented in the animal figure world as mammals, birds, and reptiles, so this fire salamander is quite a welcome addition to the Schleich menagerie. Well-sculpted, accurate, realistic in appearance, it is a must-have in my opinion.
With the Schleich blue poison dart frog and Papo common wall lizard:
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This is a nice figure! I would have considered it if I didn’t already have a smaller version by Kaiyodo!