Today I am reviewing the very first echinoderm on the Blog, the common starfish (Asterias rubens). It was released earlier this year by Papo in their Marine Life line. The common starfish occurs along rocky temperate shores in the North Atlantic, ranging from Florida and the Gulf of Mexico north to Labrador in the West, and from Scandinavia and the North Sea south to Senegal in the East. It occurs at depths up to about 365 meters.
Asterias rubens is a predator on benthic invertebrates, including mollusks, polychaete worms, barnacles, other echinoderms, and carrion. It in turn is preyed upon by other echinoderms, such as the common sunstar, Crossaster papposus (see last image).
The Papo starfish has a diameter of 7.0 cm across its widest point, making it 1:1.4-1:4.3 in scale on average, or 1:7.4 in scale for a maximum-sized specimen. The figure is painted a somewhat glossy orange, armored with many small pale tubercles. One arm is slightly raised, as is common behavior for this species. The underside has significant texturing to simulate the animal’s tube feet. The mouth is also sculpted.
According to ToyAnimalWiki, there are currently nearly 20 species of starfish made into toy form, but very few figures appear to be specifically modeled after the common starfish. The most familiar are probably the Wild Safari Sealife figures by Safari Ltd. that were released in 1999 (orange) and 2000 (purple). The Safari figures are larger (see the next two images), with a legspan of 11.0 cm (within scale 1:1). One of the reasons I replaced the Safari figure with the Papo figure is because the latter is a better size compared to other starfish in my synoptic collection.
If you want a common starfish in your collection, I highly recommend this offering by Papo. It is realistic, is at a good size as to not take up too much space, and having recently been released (at the time of this writing), is readily available.
Evading predation by Play Visions’ common sunstar:
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