Monarch (Wild Animals by Papo)

Today I will be continuing the reviews of Papo’s 2020 arthropods with the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. This is one of 5 insects (6 arthropods total) produced by Papo in 2020. Interestingly, it is the only arthropod in their entire collection to-date that is not naturally European, given that Papo is a French company (more on that later). The monarch is probably the most common butterfly made that is manufactured and recognizable at the species level. The species has a wide distribution, including North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, the Azores, Canary Islands, North Africa, Australia, the Philippines, South Pacific islands, and rare stray to the United Kingdom (hence another common name, the wanderer). Larvae feed on milkweeds, which are toxic. The larvae and adult butterflies retain the toxins from the milkweed and are distasteful to birds and other would-be predators. As such, they are brightly colored with contrasting black and orange, a term referred to as aposematic coloration.

On to the figure. From the moment I saw it in-hand, something bothered me about the shape. I kept thinking the outer margin of the forewings are just not the right shape. They seem too scalloped, albeit subtle. To me, the shape of the wings is more in-line with something like the purple emperor (Apatura iria) or lesser purple emperor (A. ilia). What is interesting, is that these two Apatura species are naturally European (which would be in line with Papo’s other insects), which makes me wonder if the figure was originally sculpted as one of them but then later painted like a monarch because of its greater familiarity on a world basis. Who knows, I could just be overthinking this. The wingspan is 7.5 cm, which puts it under 1:1 for a small specimen (scale 1:1.2-1:1.4, on average).

The figure also suffers from something most figures of nymphalid butterflies suffer from, and that is too many legs. You have heard me mention this in the past, and I will continue to do so, since it is a mistake almost every company has made at least once! Remember, members of Nymphalidae have four functional legs; the front pair of legs are reduced to sensory organs.

The paint job on this figure is spectacular, as is the texture. Technically, there should be a couple orange spots up near the tip of the forewings, but that is a minor issue. Both the upper and under sides of the figure, and the body, have a detailed paint job.

So, there we have the second review of a 2020 Papo insect. This is not a bad figure, especially for its size. The CollectA one is slightly larger but is the only one with the correct number of legs. If you wanted this species for your collection, I would suggest this one or CollectA (unless you wanted to hunt down the one from Club Earth). Safari’s figures are much larger (Hidden Kingdom or Smithsonian Insects) or stylized (Authentics Butterflies). In terms of anatomic accuracy, the CollectA figure is the best.