Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
It’s Shark Week on the Blog once again and for today’s subject, we’ll be looking at the magnificent and feared great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), a species that needs no introduction, being prominently featured in many games, movies, books and toys. We’ll be looking at one of the first serious attempts to portray the animal as an animal rather than a mindless killing machine: the 2016 Safari Ltd. Wild Safari Sealife figure.
This figure measures about 16.6 cm, putting it at around 1:27-1:38 for a mature female specimen. It is out of scale with the majority of Safari’s other sharks, but they don’t really take scaling into considerations too much. Its smaller size also makes it hard to scale with most other western branded figures, especially since white sharks are the biggest predatory fish, and it’s definitely odd to have a non-filter feeding shark being bigger than a white.
The figure is posed in a neutral position with it’s mouth slightly open to resemble it’s normal breathing. The lack of claspers indicates this figure is a female.
The anatomy of the figure is correct: 5 tall gill slits, relatively large eyes, and correct fin proportions with every fin being present. There’s 1 glaring mistake: the lateral keel should be more pronounced. It does look like it has a lateral keel, but it’s not as pronounced to give the idea that the shark is a big powerful hunter that can move at large bursts of speed. It’s not as bad as the total omission of the keep on their mako that came out the year after this figure was released, but there are improvements to the lateral keel on the 2023 salmon shark. The other sculptural issue is the teeth: they’re too blunt and resemble pebbles. There aren’t any upper teeth sculpted, but they really wouldn’t be that visible unless the shark had its jaws really wide open. Still, the sculpt does scream accurate white shark rather than the shark from Jaws.
The paint scheme seems to be the strong point: a dark bluish grey top with a white underbelly with black tips. The gums are a reddish pink color and the white does extend to the tail, something not a lot of figures of the species have.
For comparison, we’ll compare this figure to the 2018 Schleich figure. The Schleich has a better sculpt and more imposing size, but the Safari Ltd. wins in plastic quality and color scheme. But if I have to pick one to be in my collection, I’d choose the Schleich one.
This figure is a really well done representation of the most iconic fish in the sea, depicting it as an animal over a blood-thirsty monster. Its size may be a drawback to general collectors, but it goes well with 1:35 to 1:40 collections. This figure is still in production and readily available in places that stock Safari Ltd. figures. I’ve liked so much that I’ve decided to get 2 of them: one which I’ve added claspers to soothe the scaling issue I have with this figure, allowing it to fit better with other sharks and cetaceans in my collection. I do hope someone does make a white shark closer to the 1:30 scale. Despite the oversaturation of the species, it’s my favorite species so could you blame me? I could see Safari just upscaling this figure and adding a better caudal keel and call it a new figure, but for now other good figures of the species include those by Papo, the 2013 and 2018 Schleich figures, as well as the upcoming Otodus megalodon which works as a white, alongside the Favorite Co. O. megalodon and the upcoming 1:18 scale figure from W-Dragon.
Before and after altering for claspers:
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Finally! The representative of the GWS I have in my collection 🙂
I still prefer both of the recent Schleich figures but this one isn’t bad at all. I like the darker coloration on this one better than the lighter gray on Schleich’s.