Before I start this review, I would like to thank @Kenc and our friends at Toymany for providing this review sample for the Blog! It is very much appreciated!
The common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) usually mates during the wet season. Mating typically takes place in the water, with the female almost entirely submerged, only poking her head up on occasion to draw a breath of air. The gestation period is about eight months. While hippos can live in pods of upwards of 100 individuals, females usually find a secluded place to give birth. After about 10-14 days, the cow returns to her pod with her young calf. Cows are very protective of their calves, but calves may be kept in ‘nurseries’, where they are guarded by multiple adults. As the young hippo matures, females are allowed to stay in the pod, which is typically governed by a single alpha bull. Young males may stay in the pod, as long as they defer to the alpha bull. Otherwise, they may be driven off. Interestingly, bulls only maintain territories in the water, not on the surrounding land!
Today we will be looking at a hippo calf produced by Toymany for their Baby Wildlife collection in 2024, the second in a series of six baby African animals I’ll be reviewing from the set. There is no shortage of baby hippo figures out there; looking at the Toy Animal Wiki, they have been made by Bandai, Berico, Britains (plastic and lead), Bullyland (a few), CollectA, KREA, Mojö Fun, Neo-Form, Papo, Reisler, Safari Ltd. (a few), and Toy Major. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other baby hippos to compare it to, so we will have to see how it stands on its own!
The figure is 6.0 cm long between its farthest points and stands 3.0 cm at the shoulder. It is challenging to calculate a scale without knowing its age (see below). The texture is mostly smoothish (but not glossy), with texturing mostly in the form of various wrinkles on the body. Dimples on the face where the base of the whiskers would are present, too!. It looks like there are a few teeth sculpted on the lower jaw but not upper, suggesting the figure doesn’t represent a newborn, but still a rather young individual.
The base color is a pinkish-brown, fading to a darker brown dorsally. There are some very small pale spots which appear to represent natural variation in individual animals. The inside of the ears are a darker brown. The toenails and eyes are black and the inside of the mouth is pink (the aforementioned teeth are the same color as the rest of the mouth).
Overall this is a charming little toy. Although the market seems flooded with options for baby hippos, I believe this one is sure to complement any pods on display on shelves! I only have one adult to compare it with, the 2018 bull by CollectA. It scales fairly well with this CollectA figure, which stands 6.0 at the shoulder for a scale of 1:21.7-1:27.5. Available individually or part of the set direct from Toymany’s website. Also, you can use the discount code TMAFBM10 when ordering directly from Toymany’s website and receive a 10% discount.
