Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
While deep sea life figures are seen as a rare treat amongst the western market, Japan has been mass-producing them for many years since the early 2000s, where they have been made into both high quality figures for collectors and sometimes also cheap novelty toys. Today, we will be taking at look at the latter. This deep sea bath bomb set has an unknown release date, but I presume it’s from the 2000s and is sold in Daiso stores, which is a Japanese dollar store. They are sold packaged in blind bags and the figures are encased in a soluble bath bomb which is orange-scented and meant for bath use. The figures themselves are tiny and made from a material similar to Schleich sea life figures: a rubbery plastic that floats on water. There are 4 figures to collect, with one being a secret. All the figures are in the monotone glow-in-the-dark white, with the main gimmick of these figures being that they glow in the dark, fitting as many deep sea animals are bioluminescent.
Footballfish (Himantolophus sp.)
size of figure: 2.7 cm
scale: 1:11-1:22
The anglerfish is arguably the most iconic deep sea animal and many companies seem to have a preference to make anglers in the genus Himantolophus, with the Atlantic football fish being the most popular it seems. The details on this figure are satisfactory: 2 large eyes, wrinkles around the body, fin rays being defined but unlikely being the accurate number for being something this tiny, tiny teeth in the mouth, and the lure (while looking like a typical anglerfish lure, isn’t the best representation of the genus as they have filaments adorning the lure). The footballfish has been made multiple times by Colorata, Kaiyodo, Takara Tomy A.R.T.S., and recently, CollectA, and those figures are all a better representation of the species. The Colorata and CollectA figures are still in production. I have to say this is my least favourite out of the four figures in the set.
Giant Deep Sea Isopod (Bathynomus sp.)
size of figure: 2.5 cm (excluding antennae)
scale: 1:3-1:20
Not to be confused with a pillbug, and perhaps the most detailed figure of the set. The correct number of legs are present and there are many nice details on such a tiny piece: each segment is defined well, the compound eyes are nice and large, albeit the head looks a bit squashed, and I can see a remnant of the 4 jaws on where the mouth is supposed to be. For what it is, the anatomy and all of the major features of the genus seem to be present. Many companies have tried making figures of the genus, with Safari Ltd., Takara Tomy A.R.T.S., Kitan Club/Ikimon, Colorata, and Kaiyodo being notable examples. While this figure isn’t as detailed, it fits well if you’re scale-conscious for one of the smaller species.
Dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis sp.)
size of figure: 2.2 cm (without fins, 2.5 cm with fins)
scale: ~1:8
It’s no secret that the flapjack and dumbo octopuses are some of the most beloved deep sea animals due to how adorable they look. This figure seems to be more of a dumbo as opposed to the flapjack octopus due to the siphon being more visible. Perhaps the largest figure in the set, this figure has a lot of detail, though not as much as the isopod. It has a pair of large eyes which plays a part in the cute aesthetic, wrinkles around the body, and all 8 arms with tiny suckers. The dumbo and flapjack octopus have been made quite a lot of times by various companies, from stylised figures like toys of Pearl the flapjack octopus from the Finding Nemo films to accurate attempts by Kaiyodo, Colorata, Ikimon, and Takara Tomy A.R.T.S., so there’s no shortage of these adorable cephalopods for anyone’s collection!
Sea Angel (Clione sp.)
size of figure: 2.8 cm
scale: within 1:1
The secret of the set, this figure was not advertised on the package except for a silhouette. Cliones (sea angels) are not necessarily deep sea creatures, and are more cold water animals as their depths range from the surface all the way to 350 metres deep. While there’s hardly any details on this particular figure, I feel it works well as they are smooth in life and it’s hard to believe that these creatures are related to snails! The anatomy looks right, although some details are missing and I wish the head was a bit deeper when viewed at a bird’s-eye view. This is easily my favourite of the set, but I’m not sure how rare are they as I got 2 of them out of 5 bags from the same store. I feel this is the only one worth chasing as this is the smallest clione figure available on the market to my knowledge, with Takara Tomy A.R.T.S. and Kaiyodo having slightly larger and more detail figures.
Overall, I think this set is one of the weaker deep sea life toy sets, especially when compared to Takara Tomy A.R.T.S., Colorata, and Kaiyodo, which already set the bar high for deep sea life collectibles. Personally I feel this set would fade into obscurity due to a limited distribution, being a Daiso Japan exclusive and the fact that they chose to do species that have already been done many times by other companies. But for the low price point, it’s already serving its purpose. I’m not sure if the set is still in production as the Daiso outlets around me seem to be out of stock of these, so it’s best to spend your money on better figures by other companies.
With other deep sea all stars: Safari Ltd. giant squid, Papo sperm whale, Colorata coelacanth, and Bandai frilled shark:
I would love that footballfish and the giant isopod!
The company name is Moritoku. I can’t find their website, much less a catalogue, but some Google Image hits are possible with モリトク バスボム (Moritoku bath bomb).
Thanks. That is probably the maker of the soap and not the actual plastic toys. These ‘bath bomb’ figures are something difficult to determine who actually made the toy. But still, it’s enough to edit the company above.