Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) is the third largest living species of penguin after the emperor and king penguins respectively. It is found on various islands around Antarctica and the southern tip of South America, but has also been found as far as New Zealand and Tasmania. Its closest relatives are the Adelie and chinstrap species, and together they are commonly known as brush-tailed penguins.
Happy Hen Toys has generously sent me the 2012 gentoo penguin by CollectA. It is a small toy, about 5.3 cm tall and 6.2 cm wide at the tips of its flippers. A real gentoo penguin can stand up to 90 cm tall and weigh up to 8.5 kg, although they are usually a bit smaller than that.
Not surprisingly, this gentoo’s main colours are black and white. The feet are a very pale and dull pink with dark brown claws and the bill is orange. The eyes are glossy dark brown and surrounded by the edges of a large white patch atop the head. This patch, along with the gentoo’s size, makes it easy to recognize.
Our gentoo is sculpted leaning forward with its bill open, its flippers swung back and outstretched, and its long tail feathers dragging behind it. Could be waddling along on the shore or about to dive into the ocean. Gentoos are the fastest swimmers of all penguins, achieving underwater speeds of up to 36 km/h.
The small, tightly packed feathers are superbly rendered and the webbed feet are textured on both sides. The beak is nice and sharp and the long tail feathers, the longest of any penguin, give this gentoo the appearance of wearing a fancy tailcoat. The only thing I don’t like about it is the printing on the insides of the flippers, but that had to go somewhere.
Overall, the CollectA gentoo penguin is a great little toy. It is currently available on Happy Hen’s website. Thanks again!
With the Safari Ltd. rockhopper penguin and Papo emperor penguin:
Disclaimer: links to Ebay and Amazon on the AnimalToyBlog are affiliate links, so we make a small commission if you use them. Thanks for supporting us!
I hope that one day a toy brand will produce a Galapagos penguin, so I can add it to my Colorata set.
(A small one, so it wouldn’t be out of scale with the others).
Bandai made one for their Galapagos Nature Zone collection. A quick search on eBay shows one available in Japan. I have it and I think it scales fine with the Colorata penguins box (which I also have)