“Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Hear Ye!“
“Now, this second day of February, Punxsutawney Phil, the Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators, was awakened from his burrow. In Groundhogese, Phil directed the Inner Circle to his Predictive Scroll.”
And thus begins the Groundhog Day ceremony (roughly) as it has begun each year in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania at Gobbler’s Knob since 1886. Groundhog Day is a quaint and quirky holiday celebrated throughout North America, where a groundhog (Phil is the most famous but there are others) emerges from its burrow to predict how much longer winter will persist. If the groundhog sees its shadow, it means there will be six more weeks of winter, no shadow and spring will arrive early. The holiday has its roots in Germany, where February 2nd was known as Candlemas, and a badger was the animal used to predict the onset of spring. Germans that immigrated to Pennsylvania brought the tradition with them and replaced the badger with the groundhog (Marmota monax). To celebrate the day here, we’re looking at the 2018 Safari Ltd. groundhog, part of their Incredible Creatures line.
The groundhog goes by many names, included but not limited to woodchuck, land-beaver, thickwood badger, ground pig, whistler, wood-shock, and my personal favorite, whistle pig. The name woodchuck comes from the Algonquin word for the animal, wuchak, and not the animal’s ability to chuck wood.
Groundhogs can be found throughout the eastern half of the United States, north into Canada, and westward into Alaska. It is a species of marmot, ground-squirrels of the genus Marmota. They prefer to live in open habitats and forest edges where they construct elaborate burrows that are critical for the survival of many other species that utilize them. Their preference for open spaces means they do well in human altered habitats and they often become agricultural and garden pests as a result.
The Safari groundhog is presented in an upright posture, of the kind that marmots usually adopt when they survey their surroundings. Groundhogs typically measure 16-27” (40-68 cm) in length, excluding the 7” tail, and can weigh between 4-13 lbs. (1.8-5.8 kg) depending in part on which season it is. The Safari groundhog stands 5” (12.7 cm) tall which puts it at about 1/5 in scale.
Despite regional popularity throughout North America the Safari groundhog is the only serious attempt to replicate the animal in plastic. Other figures of other marmot species exist, including Alpine marmots by Papo, Bullyland, and Schleich, but aside from this one, the only other groundhog figures that exist are smaller toys by K&M and Marx.
The Safari groundhog is a hefty toy, perhaps larger than you might want a toy rodent to be but its size does allow for a greater level of detail than it would receive at a smaller scale. The body is compact and chunky with thick fatty folds sculpted around the neck and forearms. The front paws are held pressed against its chest and the feet have meticulously sculpted pads on their undersides. The thick, short tail is sculpted gently curling towards the left. A short coat of wavy hair is sculpted over the entirety of the figure. Small holes are sculpted around the muzzle where the animal’s whiskers would be located.
The head is somewhat flattened with a gentle forward slope and pointed snout. The ears are appropriately small and rounded. The frown-like shape of the mouth in conjunction with the small bright and black eyes, and fatty neck, give the figure a very serious and astute demeanor. This groundhog is confident in its meteorological talents and takes its work very seriously.
The figure is predominantly light brown in color with darker brown on the chest and head. Light brown markings highlight the glossy black eyes, and the nose is also painted with a black, wet-like finish. The hands and feet are dark brown.
The Safari groundhog is the perfect companion to celebrate your Groundhog Day with. It’s large size, charming personality, and masterful craftsmanship do this famous rodent justice in a way that makes up for its lack of diversity in the collectible market. The large size of the figure might be a turnoff to some, but since groundhogs are large rodents anyway it might behoove you to center your collection of rodents around it, as finding rodents in a small scale can be a difficult task. The Safari groundhog is still in production and retails for about $10.00.
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Man, I really really like this figure!!! I so wish Safari would make one 2-3″ tall for the NAW line. This IC figure is just too big for me.
I do have the Himalayan marmot by Natural History and Alpine marmot from Papo, however.
I feel like being a larger rodent species means it must pair well with other, smaller rodent figures. In your review of the Safari eastern grey squirrel you said that one was 1/5 in scale, same as this one. I don’t think I would want a groundhog as large as or smaller than a grey squirrel.
yes, the grey squirrel doesn’t scale well next to my other rodents, but I am not super scale conscious. Having all my rodents roughly the same size is OK, regardless of how their sizes differ in nature, but this groundhog would be at least 2x all of them.
All well, just trying to give you an excuse to get it. Hopefully you’ll get that smaller scale groundhog someday.
hahaha trust me, I have been very tempted regardless of the size 😀
Honestly I would have also preferred it to be slightly smaller but if I wanted to review a groundhog for Groundhog Day I couldn’t be picky. Thankfully, since this is the first rodent in my collection, I’m going to try to keep future rodent figures in about the same scale if possible. I won’t be able to display it next to large mammal figures but in a rodent specific display it should make for a nice centerpiece.