It’s that time of year again, when the United States celebrates Thanksgiving and everything relating to the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) and its domesticated counterparts. Last year I missed the opportunity to review a specimen of this highly symbolic bird but I’ve come prepared this year. This turkey is part of the Wild Republic Audubon Birds line of plush birds that emit authentic vocalizations provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Ducks (Decoy Rubber Duckies by Funrise Express)
4 (2 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.
Banana Slug (Club Earth by Play Visions)
4.5 (4 votes)
The Pacific coast of North America is well known for its unique ecology; temperate rainforests, redwood and sequoia trees, sea otters, gray whales and other marine mammals, and the various Pacific salmon of the Oncorhynchus genus. But there are more humble creatures that call that region home. Many of which are unknown to the world at large but quite famous to the local humans that live alongside them.
Bonnethead Shark (Wild Safari Sealife by Safari Ltd.)
5 (3 votes)
In my last review I touched on the diversity of the hammerhead family Sphyrnidae while covering a toy representative of the family’s largest member, the great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran). Today we’re covering another member of that family, but one that is quite different from the great hammerhead and from what we think of when we think of hammerheads in general.
Great Hammerhead Shark (Kid Galaxy)
2.8 (4 votes)
Although there are a plethora of toy hammerhead sharks out there very few of them identify the toy as anything more specific than a hammerhead. Most people probably don’t even realize that hammerhead is not a specific species of shark but rather an entire family of sharks (Sphyrnidae) that includes 9 distinct species.
Spotted Turtle (Wild Republic by K&M International)
5 (4 votes)
Today it is my great pleasure to introduce you to one of my all time favorite turtle species, the spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata). Since no one has produced this species in plastic I am forced to review a plush specimen instead [EDIT: Apparently there is a spotted turtle by Play Visions that was also re-released by Yujin].
Leopard Shark, 2007 (Wild Safari Sealife by Safari Ltd.)
5 (4 votes)
The first species of shark that I ever saw in person was a leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata). It was at The Nature Store in the Pougkeepsie Galleria in New York. This was in the early-mid 90’s and the place is probably shut down by now. The Nature Store was as much a museum as it was a conventional store, it was fun to explore but you could also potentially buy what you were looking at.
Blue Rock Rattlesnake (Wild Republic by K&M International)
4.3 (4 votes)
Where plastic toys often fail in species diversity plush toys seem to shockingly excel. The Wild Republic line of plush animals is a major player in the plush animal game and responsible for much of this diversity. Although I don’t collect plush animals I do have a young daughter, as well as an eye for quality toys, so our house has a lot of these plush animals sitting around, including the 54” (137 cm) blue rock rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus) we’ll be looking at today.
Great Lakes TOOB (Safari Ltd.)
5 (5 votes)
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Those are the names of the Great Lakes of North America that boarder the central/east United States and Canada. In total area they represent the largest freshwater lakes on Earth, holding roughly 20% of the world’s surface freshwater and 9/10ths of the water supply for the United States.
Cool Reptiles Bucket, Part 2 (COG Ltd)
5 (3 votes)
And now I complete the review started here of a set of reptiles and amphibians from weird toy maker COG Ltd. As seen before, it is a set of very small herptiles (I will revive that term!) composed of 9 reptiles and 7 amphibians. Part one was 1 crocodilian, 5 lizards, and 3 snakes.
Cool Reptiles Bucket, Part 1 (COG Ltd)
4.3 (3 votes)
I’m back! Again! And this time I decided to approach a unique set, one that I have had for some time. It’s a bucket set produced by COG Ltd called Cool Reptiles–as will be seen in part 2, this name is a major misnomer (this is when the term “herptile” would be so handy)…Today, I am going to look over the reptiles.
Blue Crab (Incredible Creatures by Safari Ltd.)
5 (3 votes)
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.
Velez Skate (Animal Kaiser by Bandai)
5 (4 votes)
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.
Wolverine (NWF Dairy Queen promo by Toy Major)
3.8 (4 votes)
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.
American Paddlefish (Tchibo)
3.5 (2 votes)
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).