Grass Puffer (Freshwater Fishes Book 2, first AND second release by Yujin)

This figure is the grass puffer (AKA Sunafugu, meaning sand puffer in Japanese), Takifugu niphobles, model 30 and number 15 from the second series. This is the only pufferfish in the whole series, a family of immediately recognizable fish well-known for taking in air or water to make themselves much larger, as a defense mechanism. They are also well-known as a delicacy that might feed someone for the rest of their life. Because the tetrodotoxin in some of their organs is extremely dangerous and potentially lethal if the meal is improperly prepared!

These are smaller puffers, found from Japan through the Koreas and China to Vietnam. They are primarily marine, but appear to come in to brackish or even far upstream freshwater environments, possibly as a means to remove or weaken parasites. They are predatory fish, using their strong beaks to consume invertebrates including shelled molluscs. The IUCN lists them as Least Concern. The Yujin model gives a length of 12cm, but apparently can reach up to 25cm.

This model measures 5.5cm long, giving a scale of roughly 1:2 (1:5 with the longest possible length). The Grass Puffer is in a normal swimming pose, uninflated at moving forward. It has a basic crème colour body, with a light brown dorsal colouring that breaks into light brown dots along the sides. Over the head, from the eyes to the beak, the dorsal surface is a light olive green. There are two dark brown bands across the dorsal surface, one behind the eye and one roughly midway between the first band and the dorsal fin. There is a tiny dark brown blotch at the base of the dorsal fin and a small blotch at the base of the tail. The fins are translucent orange or yellow.

On the face the beak is well defined on the all-white mouth (mine appears to have a paint chip!) with the mouth slightly open. The eyes are big and bulbous, with green pupils on dark backgrounds. This is the last Yujin freshwater fish with a base, in this case a brown gravel one with a plant. There are definitely other Grass Puffer models out there, as always made by Japanese companies—at least, for sure by Kaiyodo (I have one). For puffers and their relatives overall, puffers are sort of popular due to their familiar appearance and cartoony look (despite being nasty predators!) and get made as all sorts of toys, from bath toys to models and figures.

After some time, I did eventually get a Release 1 version of the grass puffer. There was not a lot more to say about the figure, but as can be seen in any of these 1 & 2 comparisons, the Release 1 figures tend to have a simpler paint job, with far less nuance to them. In many instances the patterns and details are simplified, in particular markings and the face region. The fins are also often left with less colour or pattern. In the grass puffer, the most obvious difference is the distinct white spots in the Release 1, which become subtler dark brown spots in Release 2, and the mouth area is also painted more distinctly in the latter. Apparently I never took individual pictures of the release 1 figure, only comparisons. In the photos, R2 is on the left, R1 on the right.

Starting on the 14th of January, 2024, I migrated my first Yujin Freshwater Fish Pictorial walkaround post from the Animal Toy Forum to this blog, with the intention of moving all species’/figures’ walkarounds here. The initial post contained a lengthy explanation of the series (both the original and updated) that I don’t think should be repeated each time! For those details, the post can be seen at the first post. Then we can just get to the fish. Most of the details and writing will come from the original post, although I may supplement/add where appropriate.

From the Forum:

• Jetoar: Really cool figure of Tetraodon family. The seaweed is a good point.
• brontodocus: This one is so much better than its Furuta Choco Egg Wild Animal Series 4 counterpart! 
• sbell: It really is, smaller than the Kaiyodo though.