Maine Lobster, large and small (Sea World by AAA)

AAA is well-known for casting figures from actual specimens. They have done it with snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, mollusks, insects, and, the topic of today, crustaceans. Most of these were probably cast from specimens readily available through biological supply companies or possibly wet markets in Asia and other parts of the world. They are often misidentified (e.g., snapping turtle that is really a big-headed turtle; a Chinese water dragon marketed as an iguana; a mantis shrimp marked Oratosquilla that was most-likely cast from Squilla). Today we will be looking at a pair of Maine lobsters (Homarus americanus), a full-grown adult and a young adult, the latter of which is often marketed as a crayfish (even though mine is correctly stamped ‘lobster’). Suspsy gave a brief, yet nice, overview of the species when he reviewed the Safari Ltd. Incredible Creatures model, so for today I will just go straight to the figures!

The larger specimen measures approximately 22.0 cm, excluding appendages. While not a maximum-sized specimen, we can infer that it is within scale 1:1 since it was cast from an actual specimen. The smaller figure, which probably represents a young adult, measures approximately 15.5 cm, excluding appendages. Since the figures were cast from actual specimens, there is not much to critique with regards to sculpt!

Large specimen:

Both figures appear to have been cast in a cream-yellow plastic with green then painted green over it. AAA has used this paint job for several crustaceans, including their giant mud and large Dungeness crabs. While their crustaceans are often produced in multiple sizes, we know the smaller lobster here is a younger adult (it’s too well-developed for a stage IV juvenile) because the claws have not reached their full size.

Small specimen:

I don’t have a lot of AAA figures, and most of them that I do have are mollusks and crustaceans, and I believe all if not most are cast from actual specimens. I am not sure when these were first produced, possibly as early as the 1980s, but they are long retired by now. They do pop up on eBay periodically. One thing I want to point out, is that AAA figures are often prone to becoming ‘sticky’ over time. While this hasn’t happened yet with my smaller lobster, the larger one is exhibiting this characteristic. Luckily it doesn’t appear to be happening to my mantis shrimp, large Dungeness crab, large giant mud crab, or large tiger prawn. Since the phenomenon appears to be random, I suspect it has something to do with PVC quality in one or more specific factories.