Review and photographs by stargatedalek; edited by bmathison1972
While often regarded as the underdog of the two, especially by adult collectors, I have found consistently that Playmobil boasts a quality and variety of sculpts that LEGO simply can’t match, at least when it comes to the zoological variety! Where Playmobil has at least a half dozen molds of sportfish alone, LEGO will use the same mold for a bass and a flounder.
Review and photographs by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The African lion (Panthera leo) is the modern day equivalent of Tyrannosaurus rex: a huge land carnivore whose raw power and undeniable charisma has led it to be dubbed “king of the beasts.” And from the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet to the biblical tale of Daniel to Richard the Lionheart to Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia to the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz to Leo the MGM Studios mascot and to The Lion King franchise, its status as a cultural icon is absolutely incontrovertible.
Noah’s Pals was a line of toy animals that featured male and female pairs of select species. The line was produced by Caboodle! Toys LLC starting in 2006 but was taken over by Schleich a couple years before production ceased. The line was divided into four subsets: Endangered Pals, Vulnerable Pals, Common Pals, and Exclusive Pals.
The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) is a species of swimming crab of the family Portunidae that ranges along the Atlantic coast of North and South America, from Cape Cod to Argentina. It has also been introduced to European and Japanese waters but nowhere is the blue crab better known and beloved than in the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland and Virginia.
Review and photos by OkapiBoy
This review will the be the start of my African themed series that I plan to write in the coming months.
When one thinks of wild places and animals, it is almost certain that vision of Africa and its vast herds of animals comes to mind first.
Review and photographs by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
While the Nile crocodile may be the biggest and deadliest predator in Africa’s waterways, it is still no match one on one for an even bigger and arguably more dangerous resident. A creature that rivals a rhinoceros in weight, can outrun a human on land, and boasts an immense mouth full of savage teeth.
Today I again decided to explore my entomological roots and again used a random number generator to decide which figure to review. It landed on number 241, which in my Excel file is the current location of the Miyama stag beetle (Lucanus maculifemoratus) that was produced by F-toys for the 2011 release of their Insect Hunter line.
Review and images by stargatedalek; edited by bmathison1972
Not long ago I received an eBay coupon as a consolation prize in one of their contests. Unsure what to spend it on, I remembered seeing some surprisingly impressive birds made using a plastic base with real feathers attached and decided to see if they were in fact any higher in quality than the equivalents I once had from many a local dollar store.
Review and photographs by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
With their super-long necks and equally long limbs, giraffes are among evolution’s most wondrous marvels. It was long thought that there was only one species and nine subspecies, but a 2007 study proposed that there may be six species (at the very least genetic populations), including the reticulated giraffe, Giraffa reticulata.
This post will be discussing an unusual figure from an unusual line–the line is the figures made by Bandai in conjunction with the game Animal Kaiser, and the animal is a Velez’ ray or Velez skate, Rostroraja velezi (Chirichigno, 1973). First off, ray or skate? Well, even Fishbase refers to it as a ‘ray’, but the genus Raja refers to the skates, which are a type of ray.
Budgerigars aka parakeets (Melopsittacus undulatus) are easily the most popular pet bird in the world. We enjoy their playful antics, cheerful chatter, ability to mimic humans, and the plethora of selectively bred color variations they come in. But like all domesticated animals they have their roots in the wild where they live far different lives from those in our cages.
After rodents, bats, which make up about 20% of all mammal species, form the second largest mammalian order, Chiroptera. Consequently, many bat figures (although not quite as many as the size of the group would suggest) have been made over the years, with one of the more recent attempts being Papo’s first, and so far only, bat figure, released in 2018, which is also the subject of this review.
Review of the 2019 Primates TOOB by Safari Ltd. I had bought this set early on when I started my Synoptic Collection, mainly for the marmoset and tamarins. I have since retained the bonobo and sifaka too, pending eventual release of standard-sized figures of these species. This TOOB is another example of Safari Ltd recently upping the game in their TOOB sets, with others being Whales (2018), Dolphins (2019), Great Lakes (2020), African Savannah (2020), and Pelagic Fishes (2019).
It’s a bit of a chunky boi
Today I’m looking at a figure of a very familiar animal–from a rather obscure line! It’s the famous (infamous?) wolverine, Gulo gulo (Linnaeus, 1758). If we want to be really sub-specific, it’s meant to be Gulo gulo gulo, the Eurasian wolverine, if the differences between Eurasian and North American populations are different enough.
An unusual commercial toy of an unusual fish
Welcome to a new year, and I’m starting with a bit of a memorial piece. Today I will discuss the American Paddlefish–in honour of the recently-declared-extinct Chinese Paddlefish Psephurus. Unfortunately…there are no figures of that particular animal at all–and not that many images out there either (most of the news reports featured pictures of the American paddlefish).
