Butterflies are unquestionably the most popular and universally loved insects. You would be hard pressed to find someone that fears or loathes butterflies in the same way a lot of folk’s fear and loathe moths, for example. Even if butterflies are basically glorified, diurnal moths themselves. Butterflies and moths both belong to the order Lepidoptera and although moths first appear in the early Jurassic, 200 million years ago, butterflies don’t show up until the Paleocene, 56 million years ago, having evolved directly from moths.
Serval (Wild Rush 01 by Kaiyodo)
4.8 (5 votes)
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
When it comes to cats on the African savanna, those that comes to mind to most people are the lions, leopards, and cheetahs. There are other cats that people don’t think off, like the caracal or the subject of this review, the serval (Leptailurus serval).
Endangered Species Reptiles Box (Colorata)
4 (5 votes)
Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972
Colorata is a Japanese company that has been around for several decades. The internet and global market made their models available to the world outside Asia and the quality of their products made them desirable collector items. A lot of Colorata’s figures have been released as parts of a box, set, of which there are quite a lot to choose from, “fossil fish”, birds of prey, sharks, dinosaurs, cats and a lot more.
Mountain Gorilla, baby (Wildlife by CollectA)
4.4 (8 votes)
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Like human babies, gorilla babies are born helpless and entirely dependent on their parents for care and protection. They do, however, develop much faster than human babies and will begin spending time on their own at less than two years of age. Their juvenile stage lasts from age three to six, after which they sleep apart from their mothers.
Hippopotamus, male 1996 (Wild Life by Schleich)
4.7 (3 votes)
Today will offer another look at this iconic member of the African safari, the hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius). Hippos were historically proposed to be relatives of pigs due to molar patterns; however molecular evidence reveals that cetaceans are the closest extant relatives of hippos. These two groups form a clade that diverged from ruminants 60 million years ago and shared a common ancestor over 54 million years ago, with anthracotheres being the stem lineage that hippos evolved from.
Wild Boar (Wild Safari Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)
3.8 (8 votes)
An adaptable, intelligent animal, the wild boar (Sus scrofa) was already a successful species long before it was domesticated and transplanted around the world by humans in the form of the domestic pig (S. scrofa domesticus). Naturally, they range across Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa, where they thrive in a variety of habitats.
ANIA Blind Box Series 3 (Takara Tomy A.R.T.S.)
4.7 (3 votes)
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
ANIA is a line of animal figures released under Takara Tomy A.R.T.S. catered towards educating children about wildlife. These figures are highly detailed, inexpensive, and often accurate to the animals they are made to portray. The line has gained popularity in Japan, with them branching out to releasing bath bombs with little animals, gashapons, and blind boxes.
White Rhinoceros, baby (Wild Safari Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)
4 (4 votes)
I recently bought a lot on eBay, mainly for some Play Visions prosimians and bats. Within this lot was this baby white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simium) by Safari Ltd. Normally I do not collect baby animals to compliment adults, but this a rather nice figure, especially given it was produced back in 1996.
Gorilla, baby sitting with banana (AAA)
3.6 (7 votes)
Primates. The order of which humans and our closest related species belong to. One of the groups that we are also included in are the great apes, the largest being the gorilla (Gorilla gorilla). These magnificent African apes are critical endangered and need protecting. It has many, many figures of the species made.
Centipede (Hyde and Eek! Boutique by Target Brands)
3 (1 votes)
OK, this is a rather fun and goofy review to celebrate Halloween! I often like to do reviews of obscure or unusual figures, or neat figures of odd or unfamiliar brands. Today I bring you the review of a centipede, gen. sp. by Target Brands, as part of their Hyde and Eek!
Ducks (Decoy Rubber Duckies by Funrise Express)
4.3 (3 votes)
With the possible exception of the Teddy bear the classic rubber duck is without question the most popular animal toy in the world. And although the collecting of rubber duckies does not really tie into our own hobby you can bet that they have their own loyal following of collectors. And the selection of different ducks is astounding; they come in every conceivable color, size, and style.
Pangolin (Incredible Creatures by Safari Ltd.)
5 (4 votes)
Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972
In recent years, an uncommon and elusive animal reached quite a reputation, especially due to an increase of advertisement as “the most trafficked animal you didn`t know existed”. Although pangolins have existed in the form of toy animals at least since the early 80’s, and have quite impressive appearances in children’s animal books as by famous Rinaldo D.