Shark Week might be over but there’s one more elasmobranch I wanted to review before moving away from cartilaginous fishes, the 2019 Incredible Creatures marble ray (Taeniurops meyeni) by Safari Ltd.
The marble ray goes by many names, including blotched fantail ray, round ribbontail ray, giant reef ray, and black-spotted stingray. The species is found widely in the Indo-Pacific, along the coasts of east Africa, India, and South-east Asia, to southern Japan, down to Australia and along its north, west, and east coasts, and around islands in the east Pacific such as the Galapagos and Cocos. It is occasionally seen along the coast of Central America as well. They live among coral reefs and over sandy bottoms in shallow lagoons and over outer reef slopes. They feed on bottom dwelling fishes and invertebrates.
The Safari marble ray measures 8.75” (22.23 cm) long and has a disc width of 5.25” (13.34 cm). The actual marble ray is one of the largest ray species, reaching a maximum length of 10.8’ (3.3m) in total length with a maximum disc width of 5.9’ (1.8m). They average closer to 3.5’ (106 cm) though. Scaled down from the maximum length the figure comes out at 1/14 in scale (1/13 if using disc width), which means that it scales well with some standard size figures of some small/medium sized elasmobranch species. It still looks absurdly large when displayed amongst my other Chondrichthyes.
The pectoral fin disc shape on the figure is accurately wider than it is long, circular and flattened, and presented in an undulating motion. The pelvic fins are narrow, with rounded edges, and the tail is long but shorter than the width of the disc. A pair of claspers attached to the pelvic fins indicate that this figure represents a male ray. The figure is entirely smooth, with no thorns, which is accurate. Marble rays usually have a single spine (sometimes two) on the tail but there is no indication of it on the toy. The tail flap that gives it the “fantail” common name is included.
On the dorsal surface we get bulging gold eyes with U-shaped black and white pupils. A spiracle is sculpted directly behind each eye. On the underside are the nostrils, mouth, and five gill slits on each side, and these are all outlined in black.
Predictably, the marble ray is marbled in pattern. It has a black base color and is covered in overlapping white and gray flecks. The underside is gray with black mottled edges around the fins. Descriptions and pictures suggest that the belly should be creamy white instead of gray and the tail past the spine should be solid black or dark gray. The coloration on the dorsal surface looks good though. In life, marble rays can be this color, light or dark gray, brown-gray, or purplish, and the marbled patterns can vary greatly.
Because of its size this is not a figure I intended to get, I got it in a lot, but it does scale well with some other shark and ray figures so I decided to keep it on display instead of handing it off to my kids. Aside from some small color mistakes and a missing spine (it’s easy to pretend it’s held against the tail) it largely appears accurate to the real animal, although I’m not as knowledgeable about rays as I am with sharks. This is only my second ray review! I highly recommend this figure to marine animal enthusiasts and shark and ray collectors in particular. The Safari Ltd. marble ray is currently in production and retails for about $15.00.
Disclaimer: links to Ebay and Amazon on the AnimalToyBlog are affiliate links, so we make a small commission if you use them. Thanks for supporting us!