Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
Jellyfish, along with sponges, are among the oldest living creatures on earth. They have been traced all the way back to the Cambrian period, dating back over 500 million years ago. Jellyfish are part of the phylum Cnidaria and are closest related to corals and anemones. These creatures range in size from the small but deadly Irukandji to the huge lion’s mane jellyfish, whose tentacles surpass the length of the largest animal in the world: the blue whale. Others have the more stereotypical jellyfish appearance of a semi-circle bell and long stinging tentacles like the sea nettles and mauve stinger. The moon jelly comes close to meeting that criteria, but its tentacles are relatively short. Jellyfish are famously known for having tentacles which are lined with stinging cells used to paralyse prey, but outside of that, jellyfish are defenseless especially to animals who are immune to the stings like sea turtles. To humans, some jellyfish stings are mild but others like the irukanji mentioned above, can be dangerous.
About the figure: this figure measures about 8 cm in bell diameter and 11.3 cm from tip of the bell to the oral arms. I can’t provide a scale for this figure as I do not know the species of this jellyfish, although it looks like a sea nettle of some sort and could be in the lifesize range. The figure is painted in this pinkish color which does remind me of the jellyfish from Finding Nemo. [editor’s note: this figure is generally regarded as the mauve stinger, Pelagia noctiluca (the only jellyfish currently on Safari’s website is the Good Luck Mini version, which also uses this name); it came out in 2015 and appears to be a revamp of the original 1997 mauve stinger from the Wild Safari Sealife collection]
The figure is made of this rubbery plastic, especially fitting as jellyfish are 95% water, although it would be nice if it was transparent/translucent. There are 9 noodle thin tentacles and 3 oral arms sculpted on this figure. There are some grooves sculpted on the bell to give it a nice texture but I’m pretty sure jellyfish in real life are really smooth.
Overall this figure is a nicely done toy of a jellyfish for both kids and adult collectors alike. It doesn’t feel cheap, does a decent job at showing what a jellyfish looks like despite being a simple figure without much about it, and floats on water which provides additional play value. It is still going for a relatively cheap price on most online shopping sites. Kitan Club has made a fantastic jellyfish set in the past with many different species and here’s to Safari Ltd. making more unique species like box jellies or maybe even a lion’s manes jellyfish.
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