Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
Phoca largha, most commonly known as the spotted or largha seal, is a species of earless seal inhabiting the waters of the Northern Pacific from Alaska to the Yellow Sea. It is sometimes mistaken for the closely-related harbor seal (P. vetulina) due to having similar patterns and overlapping in habitats in some places. A medium-sized seal, they measure anywhere from 150-210 cm for adults, with little variations across male and female individuals. They have a head similar to a dog and have a diet consisting of fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. Predators include sleeper and great white sharks, brown and polar bears, orcas, sea lions and walruses, and pups may be preyed on by Artic foxes, eagles, and gulls. Despite global warming causing ice sheets to melt, a survey has been done on their population and it has been shown that they’re population is, and will be stable, for the forseeable future, barring any human-related activities, making them being listed as ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN.
About the figure: from the snout to the tip of the tail, this seal measures 13.5 cm, putting it in the 1:11-1:15 scale range for a mature specimen for both sexes, since they don’t have any major differences. The figure is posed with its head slightly raised and mouth opened, resting on its side with it’s flippers folded with the rear flippers being raised. This is what we call a ‘banana pose’, which seals perform to keep their head and flippers high and dry and also for happy seals. Not only is the figure’s pose unique, it also adds an additional cute factor to the figure, but it does limit playability.
The figure features plenty of detail: the ear holes are sculpted just behind the eye, the nose and teeth are sculpted, all 4 flippers are sculpted with nails present, and, throughout the figure, fine fur adorns it except for the flat area on which the seal rests.
The colour scheme is as expected for the species: an off-white main body with a grey dorsal area. The namesake spots are painted in both darker and lighter grey. It is worth noting that for both spotted and harbors, there seems to be an infinite amount of possible spot patterns, so this may work as either species, considering they’re both in the same genus. The round eyes, nose, and snout outlines are painted black, the teeth are painted white, and mouth is painted pink.
The only issues I have with this figure is the snout could have been longer, as spotted seals are known to have narrow dog-like snouts, although not as long as the gray seals. Additionally, the flat area could’ve been done better by having the gray on the flippers continue, rather than coming to an abrupt stop. But other than those small issues, I feel this is a really nice seal figure.
Overall, I feel this is an adorable and well done figure that fans of marine mammals should add to their collection. This seal was released back in 2017 and is still in production, and since I have noticed a rise of seal videos on social media sites, I feel this figure would be a big seller considering the cheap price tag and the adorable pose. Spotted seals have been made by CollectA, with both an adult and an adorable little pup, Papo (made a year prior), Eikoh, Kaiyodo, Takara Tomy, and many other Japanese brands. They seem to be the go-to seal species to make and I’m hoping that other brands would make figures of the other really popular seal species like the ringed and Baikal seal or more unusual ones like the hooded seal.