Longnose Gar (3″ figure by Replica Toy Fish)

Back with the next 3″ fish from Replica Toy Fish, and based on my purchase records, this is the last one in the April 2015 releases. This is also one of the few models that got a 6″ and 3″ versions later in the series, this is the small version of the longnose gar Lepisosteus osseus. This was a much later follow up to the 6″ longnose gar that I recently reviewed. The good news is that I won’t need to go into a lot of detail about longnose gars since it was only a few weeks ago and there isn’t much to add! So I can get right into the review of the figures themselves.

Most notable about these figures is that they are very skinny, and as far as the 3″ figures go, are pretty long, at about 9.1cm , about 3.6 inches. Assuming a very large living specimen around 200cm, that would give a scale of around 1:22; a handy scale to match with many common modern animal figures of mammals and reptiles, as well as a lot of prehistoric mammal models. I’ll also point out now that I have two (three actually) but I wanted to highlight just how variable (questionable?) the paint schemes could be with RTF figures, and I have a pair that really demonstrates this.

As mentioned the figure is quite long and skinny, very tubular, with a very thin snout. Overall it is very similar to the 6 inch figure, but is not just a miniaturized version. The mouth is of course closed, but there is a distinct groove between the upper and lower jaw. The upper jaw extends beyond the lower with a slight bulge on the tip, again like the 6 inch figure. The opercula are also sculpted well, but there is no nostril. The eyes are set a little higher up on the head, as opposed to roughly central as seen on the 6 inch figure. The scales are finely detailed along the whole body–it’s not easy to tell, but they don’t appear to be diamond shaped as ganoid scales should be.

The fins are placed properly, and as with most RTF figures, most of the fins are attached along the entire margin against the body; with a close look, it appears that the pectoral fins attempted to sculpt a slight narrowing at the body, as would be more appropriate. The rest of the fins are ovoid, with the anal fin larger than the dorsal, which as a slight squaring on the posterior edge. The tail fin is large but unfortunately very symmetrical and fan shaped, with no evidence of a thicker extension along the upper lobe, or the slightly smaller lower lobe. Unlike some heterocercal-tailed fish like sturgeon or sharks this is not quite as obvious, but should be immediately clear (again, well-indicated on the 6 inch figure).

So the sculpt is overall okay–but then we get to the paint job(s). Some elements are consistent–the black markings, for example, are fairly uniform on all figures. The eyes are painted as a black dot on the sculpted eyeball. The tail features several large, somewhat radiated oblong spots. The dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins all have the same longer back stripes. The side features a pattern of small spots–a few small ones on the edge of the back, a series of small spots along the lateral line along the middle of the body; below the dorsal fin the line of spots is up higher on the body into the caudal peduncle. Below the lateral line is a more scattered assortment of tiny and small spots. Overall, in some way, a better representation of a longnose gar pattern, with lots of spots and stripes, but they don’t fully cover the body as would be expected–still better than the 6 inch version.

The colours on the figures, on the other hand…well, there’s nearly no consistency. First off, neither one really demonstrates the more typical light brown or olive with a distinct white belly, while markings can vary from almost none to most of the body, and from fairly large blotches to small dots. These figures have markings that are kind of midway, but the colours…on one figure, the majority of the back, sides (to the lateral spots) and head is turquoise or blue, while the majority of the lower half, and most of the tail, is yellowish. There is a bit of an orange highlight on the tail, and some blue highlights on the ventral fins. On the other figure, only the very back has this blue colour, while the rest of the body, along the entire sides and face, is a darker yellow or almost orangish. There is no blue highlighting on the ventral fins. It should also go without saying that these colours can vary from one side of the figure to the other.

Overall, these are nice little figures, but as with many RTF figures, the rarity of the species probably makes these more interesting than the execution. It would have been great to see what Toy Fish Factory would have come up with (there was a promised gar set) but at minimum, a more authentic paint job would be good. Still, a great figure for collectors, or those interested in diorama work, certainly not a species we’d normally expect from any company really. Definitely one I’m happy to have a few of, but it would be great to see some other company do a take on a longnose gar as well.