I must have been about 7-9 years old when I was first introduced to the giant squid (Architeuthis dux) via an episode of Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, which aired on the Discovery Channel during the 80’s and 90’s. The show was about unexplained phenomena and the episode in question was titled “Monsters of the Deep”.
Tropical Fish (Play Visions)
2.9 (7 votes)
With recent discussions on the STS forum on the identity of Play Visions’ Tropical Fish collection from 1996, I was inspired to review the set on the Blog! These figures are all marked with very generic common names, and the species-level identifications are all community-based. If anyone can offer up better identifications, let us know, we’d love to hear from you!
Giant Clam (Shellfish with a Lid Mascot Vol. 3 by Toys Spirits)
5 (1 votes)
Right about the time I decided the review the Cadbury Yowie giant clam a couple weeks ago, Toy Spirits (a subsidiary of SO-TA, or vice versa) decided to produce one in the third volume of their Shellfish with a Lid Mascot series. The figure was not marketed at the species level, but I bought it hoping I could confidentially identify it as something different than the Cadbury figure which was specifically marketed as Tridacna maxima.
Grey Fantail (Yowies Series 2 by Cadbury)
3.5 (2 votes)
The pygostyle is an amazing evolutionary adaptation. The fusion of several vertebrae allows for some amazing tail fans, allowing birds to perform incredible displays in mating displays. One group that exemplifies this are fantails, named for their large tail feathers, allowing the males to display elegantly to females. One such example is the Grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa), a small insectivore from Australia, along with the Solomon islands, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
Giant Moa (Yowies Lost Kingdoms Series A by Cadbury)
3 (3 votes)
The largest bird today is the Ostrich, and this is owing to it’s flightlessness. The recent past, however, provided greater flightless giants. One such came from New Zealand, in the form of the South island Giant Moa, Diornis robustus, with females able to reach up to 11ft 10″ if they stretched up, being 6ft 6″ on a horizontal plane.
Turkey, tom (Safari Farm by Safari Ltd.)
4.6 (5 votes)
Review and images by Saarlooswolfhound; edited by bmathison1972
In honor of the American holiday of Thanksgiving, here is a poultry to satisfy any bird lover’s appetite. The Safari Ltd. #242929 turkey (Melagris gallopavo), released as part of their Safari Farm line in 2007 and still in production today, is a marvelous avian figure.
Turkey (Red Rose Tea, Calendar Series VII, by Wade Ceramics)
3 (2 votes)
It’s Thanksgiving this week in the United States, and as a result I feel once again compelled to review a turkey, as I did the year prior. Since I didn’t have a plastic turkey for review last year, I went with a plush one instead. Here it is a year later, and I have failed to acquire a turkey since then and now have to resort to whatever turkey I might have lying about.
Kea (Yowies Series 3 by Cadbury)
3 (2 votes)
Parrots are an amazing group of birds. Whilst most think of them as brightly coloured tropical birds that repeat phrases, they are actually some of the most intelligent animals on the planet, ranking high among birds, along with corvids. And yes, while parrots like the macaws are brightly coloured, many are primarily green, matching their environment.
Steller’s Sea Cow (Yowies Forgotten Friends Series A by Cadbury)
2 (2 votes)
The order sirenia has long been fascinating to me, the main herbivorous marine mammals that have survived throughout the Cenozoic. The one that interests me the most (even inspiring my ATB name Sirenia) is, unfortunately, no longer living, the Steller’s Sea Cow. These giant sirenians lived around Commander Island in the Bering sea, being hunted by locals.
Flying Peacock Spider (Diversity of Life on Earth: Peacock Spiders by Bandai)
5 (2 votes)
The genus Maratus, commonly referred to as peacock spiders, consists of over 80 species, all endemic to Australia. One must wonder how a single genus of spiders could speciate to this magnitude on a single geographic land mass (although there are some on Tasmania). The answer lies in their courtship rituals.
Collared Peccary (Wild Safari North American Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)
5 (7 votes)
Although they look very much like pigs, and are sometimes called New World pigs, peccaries aka javelinas belong to their own distinct family, Tayassuidae. Pigs belong to the family Suidae and about 30 million years of evolution separates the two families that together make up the Suina clade. While all true pig species hail from the Old World, all extant peccary species come from the Americas, although the family originally evolved in Europe.
Giant Clam (Yowies Series 4 by Cadbury)
5 (3 votes)
The genus Tridacna consists of large marine bivalves commonly known as giant clams. The largest, T. gigas, can be 120 cm across, weigh over 200 kg, and live for over 100 years. Today we will be looking at T. maxima, which is known as the maxima clam (although it also goes by the oxymoron ‘small giant clam’).