Red-bellied Piranha (Wild Animals by Papo)

“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. They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces; and bite off the tails of big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

This was one paragraph of Theodore Roosevelt’s written description of the piranha from his Through the Brazilian Wilderness, a book documenting the former president’s travels through Brazil in 1913. During his time in Brazil, Roosevelt was led by locals to a river where he observed a feeding frenzy of piranhas devour an entire cow. As it turns out, the piranha he saw were stocked fish that were caught and trapped in a netted off section of river and deliberately starved. They were basically manipulated into a state of ferocity that is not common for the species, to impress the spectators. But the damage was done, and the piranha’s public image was forever sealed. Pulpy adventure stories and low budget movies would continue to build on the piranha mythos up to the present day.

The actual piranha is a far cry from what pop culture would have you believe, but such is the case with most maligned animals. Still, it means that the piranha is a fitting addition to our assortment of scary animals to be featured through October and leading up to Halloween. Spooky season is here on the Animal Toy Blog.

Today we’re looking at the Papo piranha, released in 2019. The Papo piranha specifically represents the red-bellied piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri) which is the most popular and well-known species of piranha and the one featured in media most often. It is displayed around the world in public aquariums and can even be kept by private fish keepers in places where it’s legal. This is also the species for which sensational stories are often attributed. To the best of my knowledge every piranha figure represents the red-bellied.

Papo’s piranha measures about 2.6” (6.6 cm) in length, a rather small figure. It is much smaller than I originally anticipated but I also didn’t read the fine print when I ordered it online. I assumed it was closer to 6” like most of the Safari Ltd. fishes that I own. I also thought that it maybe had an articulated jaw due to an obvious seam around the lower jaw, but it does not. Apparently, I’m not the only one fooled by its size because a lot of reviews for the figure on Amazon express disappointment over it. I would have preferred it to be a little bigger but I’m still happy with it, and in fact impressed by the level of detail afforded to something so small.

The actual red-bellied piranha can reach 20” (50 cm) in standard length but rarely reaches more than 14” (35 cm). This puts the figure at 1/8 in scale if scaled down from the maximum 20” length. This should at least appease some of the more scale-conscious collectors among us. 

The Papo piranha gets the overall shape of the fish correct, being deep and laterally compressed. As Roosevelt put it, “…the piranha is a short, deep-bodied fish, with a blunt face and a heavily undershot or projecting lower jaw which gapes widely.” This is an apt description of the figure too. I will say that the figure appears a bit stylized. The dorsal and anal fin have jagged edges and missing chunks and while this is not unusual in nature it does make the toy fish appear a bit more menacing. The head also appears a bit too large. Although it looks like the pelvic fins are missing, they are there, just held pressed against the body.

Fine details include a covering of scales over the entire body, a smooth head and operculum, and rays etched into the fins. These rays are also present on the adipose fin and while this is a feature of the San Francisco piranha (P. piraya) there should be no rays on the adipose fin of a red-bellied piranha. The adipose fin is the small fleshy fin between the dorsal and caudal fin. It is a feature of several fish families including the characiformes (tetras) to which piranhas belong. All six piranha figures on Toy Animal Wiki show rays in the adipose fin but it’s safe to assume that this is a mistake on the manufacturer’s part and not a deliberate attempt to sculpt the generally unheard-of San Francisco piranha. But if you want to use one as a San Francisco piranha you certainly could. They are similar to the red-bellied.

Particularly well done is the mouth, which is partially open and nicely displays the piranha’s formidable dentition. A row of individually sculpted teeth is present on the lower jaw and even on the inside of the mouth on the upper jaw. The diet of the red-bellied piranha usually consists of carrion, other fish, invertebrates, and even seeds, fruits, and plants, but their sinister reputation is not completely unfounded. They will take larger prey on occasion, especially during the dry season when water levels are low, and food is scarce. Most piranha attacks on humans are not fatal however and consist of a bite from a single fish on the foot or hand. In these cases, it is likely that the piranha mistook the extremity for another fish. 

The Papo piranha is mostly painted silvery grey with its namesake red belly, which extends from the lower jaw to the anal fin. Flecks of dark and pale grey are painted across the flanks and although the red-belly piranha have these flecks in life they’re smaller and more numerous. Still, a nice attempt from Papo on this small figure. The bulging eyes are red with black pupils and the red eyes indicate that this is a mature fish. Missing is the vertical dark line that runs through the eye. The overall paint application is fantastic, especially on smaller details like the teeth.

Only a couple of red-bellied piranha figures are currently in production. This one and the Toy Fish Factory figure which I previously reviewed for the blog’s spooky season. There’s no contest between the two when it comes to overall sculpt and fine details and Papo’s is the superior figure. Safari made an excellent piranha for their Incredible Creatures line, but it was retired in 2018. It’s worth tracking down if you can. It’s also larger than this one. The Papo piranha is currently in production and retails for about $8-13. Even on the lower end of that price bracket the figure is a bit overpriced but still worth it for the overall quality you’re getting.