Before I start this Blogpost, I must again thank @Kenc and the folks at Toymany for donating this review sample. It is very much appreciated. As with other Toymany set reviews, this is a general overview to introduce the animal toy community to the set and does not prevent others from doing more in-depth reviews of individual figures.
Angular Roughshark (Return to Isle of Jaws by Discovery Science)
4 (5 votes)
Today it’s my contribution to the Shark Week posts, and just like last year, it’s a very unusual species from the Discovery Science set “Return to Isle of Jaws”. As before, I haven’t actually see the show of the same name, but it did lead to a whole box set of shark figures.
White Stork, 2022 (Schleich Farm by Schleich)
3.8 (6 votes)
Review and images by Animal Lover; edited by bmathison1972
The White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) is an elegant, graceful bird. It is a long-distance migratory bird, migrating from as far as southern Africa, where it spends the winter. In the past, due to habitat change, far fewer storks bred in Northern Europe.
Angus Cattle, Cow (Safari Farm by Safari Ltd.)
5 (4 votes)
Angus cattle are a breed of beef cattle regarded as having some of the highest quality beef available. If you’ve ever perused the beef aisles at the supermarket you’ve no doubt noticed that when a cut of beef comes from Angus cattle, it is marketed as such. It is one of the few types of beef where the breed it comes from is acknowledged and used to advertise the product.
Stoat (Mojö Woodland by Mojö Fun)
4.8 (12 votes)
Also known as the short-tailed weasel and ermine, the stoat (Mustela erminea) has a circumpolar distribution around the northern half of the northern hemisphere in North America and Eurasia. The stoat was also introduced to New Zealand to control rabbit populations but has been wreaking havoc on New Zealand’s bird population.
Harbor Seal, 2018 (Arctic & Antarctic Wildlife by Schleich)
5 (7 votes)
In Celtic mythology there exists a creature known as a selkie, a shapeshifting being that takes on the form of a seal when in the water but can transform into a human by removing its sealskin on land. Selkie stories often involve a romantic relationship between a human male and female selkie wherein the human hides her sealskin so she cannot return to the sea, forcing her into marriage but resulting in an unhappy life for the selkie.
Insects TOOB (Safari Ltd.)
3.8 (8 votes)
I have recently reacquired the Safari Ltd. Insects TOOB and thought I would showcase it for the Blog. There have been at least three (maybe more) iterations of this TOOB over the years, with I believe the first version coming out in 2004. At some point (I don’t know what year) Safari also released a glow-in-the-dark version of the TOOB.
Polar Bear (Wild Animals by Papo)
5 (8 votes)
Paradoxically, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is both the world’s largest terrestrial carnivore and a marine mammal. They get their marine mammal designation because they live on water, albeit in the form of ice. Yes, that makes it a bit of a stretch to call it a marine mammal, but the polar bear is quite capable in liquid water as well.
Moose, calf (Baby Wildlife by Toymany)
5 (5 votes)
It’s about time that I get the other half of this baby set from Toymany up on the blog! My portion of this set covers the animals from Asia and North America and will reflect the other half of the figures from Africa that have been covered by my fellow reviewer, bmathison1972.
North African Hedgehog (Baby Animals by Yowie Group)
3.3 (6 votes)
Today we’re looking at the North African hedgehog (Atelerix algirus) by Yowie Group, part of their Baby Animals set. Although the figure is meant to be a baby (or hoglet) there’s nothing about it that indicates it’s a baby and it can be used to represent an adult hedgehog.
Common Goldeneye (Large Ducks by AAA)
4.7 (3 votes)
The genus Bucephala contains three species of small diving ducks collectively referred to as goldeneyes. I am lucky that all three species can be found in my area in the winter. The Common Goldeneye (B. clangula) occurs in the boreal Holarctic, wintering throughout North America, Southeast Asia, and Japan.
Brown Trout (3″ figure by Replica Toy Fish)
4 (5 votes)
Now that I’ve reviewed all twelve of the original 3″ Replica Toy Fish figures (here, here, here, and here) I will start taking the opportunity to go into the figures that were released later. There was no specific release schedule, or indeed, any announced waves of releases. From what I could work out based on purchasing records, there were a number of figures released in 2015, the first assortment coming out for April.