I have decided to start my ‘spooky’ October blogposts with a trio of ‘diabolical’ insects! I am talking specifically about Idolomantis diabolica, commonly known as the Devil’s flower mantis or giant Devil’s flower mantis, one of the world’s largest mantids. It is native to the rainforests of East Central Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Somalia, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Uganda.
Maned Wolf (Wildlife by CollectA)
4.8 (8 votes)
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is the largest wild dog on the South American continent and with its very fox-like head and coloration, and long, spindly limbs, easily one of the weirdest-looking members of the entire dog family.
Released in 2013, the CollectA maned wolf is sculpted in a walking stance with its head turned to look to the right, its right front paw extended forward, and its left hind paw raised very slightly off the ground.
Red-bellied Piranha (Wild Animals by Papo)
4.2 (10 votes)
“They are the most ferocious fish in the world. Even the most formidable fish, the sharks or the barracudas, usually attack things smaller than themselves. But the piranhas habitually attack things much larger than themselves. They will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water; they mutilate swimmers—in every river town in Paraguay there are men who have been thus mutilated; they will rend and devour alive any wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness.
Small Tortoiseshell (Little Wonders by CollectA)
5 (5 votes)
Having recently showcased CollectA’s small tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) in my daily ‘Museum’ posts on the ATF, I thought it would be a good opportunity to review it for the Blog! I was contemplating just migrating over my forum walk-around, but I am not happy with those images, so I took new ones for a fresh review.
Chimpanzee, 2016 (Wild Safari Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)
4.8 (8 votes)
Walk-around of the Safari Ltd. Wild Safari Wildlife (male) Common Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes (Blumenbach, 1776); item No. 224729, produced in 2016. Snout-vent length is approx. 72 mm, so the scale is somewhere between 1:9 and 1:13. The human figure (South American Father by Miniland “Los Amigos del Mundo”) is approx.
Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly (Safariology by Safari Ltd.)
5 (6 votes)
The monarch, Danaus plexippus, is probably the most commonly made species of butterfly. It’s been made by several major company, including CollectA, Safari Ltd (at least five times), Papo, and K&M International (at least twice), and is a common edition to insect and butterfly tubes, blister packs, and box sets ( couple examples on the Blog, here and here).
Blue Wildebeest (Wild Animals by Papo)
5 (7 votes)
A walk-around of Papo’s Blue or Common Wildebeest, Connochaetes taurinus (Burchell, 1823) from the Wild Animals line or “Les Animaux Sauvages”, originally produced in 2009. The shoulder height of this figure is 79 mm, so corresponding to a shoulder height of adult specimens between 1.18 and 1.45 m the scale would be approx.
White Rhinoceros, 2019 (Wildlife by CollectA)
5 (8 votes)
The white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is the 4th heaviest species of terrestrial animal, just edging out the hippopotamus. Only the three extant elephant species are heavier. Males average about 5,070 lbs. (2,300 kg) while females average 3,750 lbs. (1,700 kg) and larger specimens have been reported. Two sub-species of white rhinoceros have been described, the southern (C.
Giant River Otter (Wild Water Series by Yowie Group)
5 (5 votes)
Review and images by Sam; edited by bmathison1972
The giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) is the world’s largest otter species as well as the longest member of the Mustellidae family. It originates from South America, and is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with only 5,000 giant otters remaining in the wild.
Fish Assortment 2 (Wonder World by Kenner)
4.8 (4 votes)
Today I am reviewing a set of four animals I originally bought for just one of the figures. The set, which was being sold on eBay, was alerted to me on the ATF by forum member NSD Bashe. The set is called Fish Assortment 2 and it is one of four components of a larger collection that’s part of the Wonder World line by Kenner, a subsidiary of Hasbro at the time it was released (1995).
Platypus (Wildlife by Mojö Fun)
5 (10 votes)
Review and images by Fembrogon; edited by bmathison1972
Is there any animal more perfectly suited as the poster child of nature’s weirdness than the duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)? …Well, okay, there probably is; but the platypus is almost certainly the most ubiquitous. When it was first discovered by the Western scientific world, many did not believe this “flat-footed” mammal was real; of course, today we know clearly otherwise.
Bottlenose Dolphin (AAA)
4.1 (8 votes)
Majestic, intelligent, enigmatic, beautiful, elegant. These are all apt adjectives that describe the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), one of the most popular, wide ranging, and recognizable cetaceans in the world. Toy Animal Wiki catalogs 71 different figures of the species but there are easily many more than that.
Bumble Bee (Garden Animals by Papo)
4 (5 votes)
The genus Bombus, which includes the bumble bees, consists of over 250 species worldwide. They occur in most terrestrial habitats throughout the Americas and the Palearctic, but are absent in much of Africa, the southern Middle East, much of the Indian subcontinent, Australia, and New Zealand (although they have been introduced to the New Zealand and Tasmania).
Blue-ringed Octopus (3D Picture Book Poisonous Creatures by Toys Spirits)
4 (5 votes)
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
Octopuses in the genus Hapalochlaena are probably the most striking out of them all, especially with their yellowish bodies and iconic blue rings on their bodies, which become more vibrant when threatened (although one species, Hapalochlaena fasciata, has lines rather than rings on its mantle).
Largemouth Bass (Incredible Creatures by Safari Ltd.)
5 (8 votes)
The largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) is the U.S.A.’s premier freshwater gamefish. An estimated 30 million Americans target the species, creating a $60 billion dollar industry. I admit it, I’m one of those 30 million Americans. I’m an avid fisherman and the largemouth bass has been my favorite species to target ever since I was a small boy catching bluegills alongside a dinky little farm pond, where the comparatively elusive and gigantic largemouth bass ruled as the apex predator.