On Thanksgiving I presented a turkey for the Blog, so it makes sense on Christmas I would present a goose, a bird traditionally served on this holiday. Depending on the location or culture, three are several traditional Christmas ‘meats’. In my household growing up we ate beef, and when I lived in the Czech Republic for grad school, carp was the traditional Christmas meal.
Reindeer, adult and calf (Wildlife by Mojö Fun)
4.4 (8 votes)
Review and photos by Saarlooswolfhound; edited by bmathison1972
The Mojo Fun reindeer adult and calf, numbers #387186 and #387188 respectively, were released as new products in 2019. They are included in Mojo Fun’s Wildlife range of models. The adult measures at about L-13 W-7 H-13 cm and the calf is L-9 W-2 H-6 cm.
Northern Angler Collection (Toy Fish Factory)
4.3 (4 votes)
Recently I discussed the new Gulf Coast Collection from the Toy Fish Factory released. Now I’m taking the opportunity to discuss the other new set, the Northern Angler Collection.
The good news is that you can click that link and get all of the background you need on Toy Fish Factory.
Black Wolf (Wild Safari North American Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)
4.3 (6 votes)
Review and photos by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Melanism is a condition that causes an increased presence of dark pigmentation, such as when leopards and jaguars are born black or nearly black in colour. At some undetermined point in time after humans had bred the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) into existence, some of those dogs ended up breeding with their ancestors, grey wolves (wild-type C.
Common Cuckoo (Birdtales Series 2 by Kaiyodo)
5 (2 votes)
I’ve been intending to write a review of this figure for quite a bit now, but until now, schoolwork and other real life issues have gotten in the way of that. Anyway, let the review commence:
Brood parasitism, the act of relying on other individual animals to raise young, is easily one of the most interesting strategies that has evolved in animals, with it appearing in insects, fish and birds.
Griffon Vulture (Wild Life by Schleich)
4.2 (5 votes)
The griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) is one of the most widely distributed of the old world vultures, ranging throughout Asia, Europe, and small portions of Africa. As such they also represent the archetypal vulture; the kind you might see perched on a tombstone in an old western movie, despite being visually dissimilar to the new world vultures of the American west.
Cave Dwellers TOOB (Safari Ltd.)
4.6 (5 votes)
For my next review I thought I would do an overview of the Cave Dwellers TOOB released by Safari Ltd. in 2014. When this set was first released, I was excited because five of the eight figures are arthropods. Unfortunately I have misplaced four of those five, so I recently bought the entire set, which is good because now that I am building a synoptic collection I really wanted the three non-arthropods.
Praying Mantis (Wild Animals by Papo)
4.6 (8 votes)
Mantids are iconic insects. Anyone who has grown up looking at or collecting insects is familiar with them. They have interesting morphologies and biologies, especially with their predaceous and often cannibalistic habits. Mantids are not uncommon in toy form; most ‘bin-style’ sets of insects have one. Many of the more-familiar major companies make them too.
Tawny Owl (Wild Life by Schleich)
4 (5 votes)
Welcome to the Animal Toy Blog. Since I have the honor of posting the first review, I thought I would pick a figure that just arrived in the mail today, the tawny owl, Strix aluco Linnaeus, 1758, which was released by Schleich in 1999.
For those of you that know me, you know I am a professional parasitologist and entomologist, and historically my collection has focused on arthropods.