Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) is one of Europe’s largest salamanders, reaching a length of 15-25 cm long. It usually resides in the deciduous forests of southern and central Europe, where it prefers to spend most of its time concealed under fallen leaf litter and logs.
This will be a discussion of the fourth and last figure from this Takara Tomy set featuring some unique fish species that are visually or culturally striking. Based on my best attempt to translate the papers it appears to be called World Fishing Monster Fish, but take that with a grain of salt.
If you’ve ever seen a cow that you initially mistook for a deer it was probably a Jersey cow. With their large doe-like black eyes, small size and delicate build, and light brown coloration, Jersey cattle are one of the loveliest breeds of cattle around. The breed comes from the island of Jersey, one of the British Channel Islands and is an ancient breed, having been on the island for 1,000 years and a pure breed since 1763.
This figure is a another in the Mini Ancient Fish series 2 from Bandai, the arapaima or pirarucu Arapaima gigas. This fish is famous as one of the largest strictly-freshwater fish in the world, naturally located in much of the Amazon river basin. Or at least the genus is…recent studies indicate that many discrete populations are actually unique species; this figure is listed as A.
Pocket Explorers is a line of books by put out by Phidal Publishing. They designed for children and are educationally driven. Looking at their website, the themes are Reptiles, Wild Cats, Dinosaurs, Sharks, Polar Animals, Birds of Prey, Bears, and Crawlers, the last of which we will be looking at today.
This figure is the Starry Flounder (or in Japanese, Kawagarei, among other names), Platichthys stellatus , model 31 and number 161 from the second series—and, sadly, THE LAST FIGURE IN THE SERIES! Which means that until/unless I get my hands on a representative of the ones I’m missing, or a few rare variants, this is the end of the line2 for the Yujin Freshwater Fishes Books 1 and 2.
This figure is the grass puffer (AKA Sunafugu, meaning sand puffer in Japanese), Takifugu niphobles, model 30 and number 15 from the second series. This is the only pufferfish in the whole series, a family of immediately recognizable fish well-known for taking in air or water to make themselves much larger, as a defense mechanism.
Last week we looked at a macropod that makes its home in the trees, this week we’re looking at one that prefers to dwell among the rocks. The black-flanked rock wallaby (Petrogale lateralis) is a species of rock-wallaby found among rocky outcrops and cliffs in small, scattered populations throughout western Australia.
The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) are not closely related, at least not within the context of the family Accipitridae. The latter is considered a ‘true’ eagle whereas the former is a buteonine hawk. Yet, the two birds have similar breeding and nesting habits.
This figure is the Barred Mudskipper, Periophthalmus argentilineatus (also called the silver-lined mudskipper, which is literally the species name), model 29 and number 14 from the second series. Once again, I eventually got my hands on both versions, with the second release first. This is the second Yujin goby, this time as the representative of the mudskipper subfamily (Oxudercinae, family Gobiidae) in the series.
This figure is the Amur Goby, Rhinogobius brunneus, model number 28 and number 13 from the second series. This is the only Yujin true goby (Gobiinae, family Gobiidae) in the series. They are quite small fish, generally living on the bottoms of freshwater streams and brackish estuaries, hunting small invertebrates.
Tree-kangaroos of the genus Dendrolagus are unique and fascinating animals in that they’re the only macropods adapted for an arboreal lifestyle. Indeed, while they move about awkwardly on land, they are quite agile in the trees. They possess a number of adaptations for living this lifestyle including broad hindfeet, long claws, dexterous hands, patches of rough skin on the hands and feet for gripping, and tails that are proportionally longer than those of their terrestrial counterparts, which allows for greater balance.
This figure is the Roughskin Sculpin (for reasons that are unclear, the Japanese name Yamanokami apparently translates to “God of the Mountain!”), Trachidermus fasciatus, sculpt number 27 and number 12 from the second series. This is the first and only sculpin (Cottidae) in the Yujin series.
In late 2023, Eikoh released another collection in their Miniatureplanet line. Typically, these releases are marked by ‘volumes’, which would make the set Volume 23 if I am doing the math right, although there is no indication on the accompanying paperwork that this is the case. There is a number ’13’ on the paperwork after ‘Miniatureplanet’, but there have clearly been more than 13 sets, and there are more than 13 animals in this particular set (16 to be precise).
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
The emperor angelfish (Pomacanthus imperator) is one of the many species of marine angelfish inhabiting reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. While not the largest, they aren’t the smallest angelfish by any means, reaching up to 40 cm in the largest specimens.
