The fishes of the order Syngnathiformes (pipefishes, seahorses, and trumpetfishes) are some of the most visually bizarre and strangely adapted fishes on our planet and yet most of them look downright conventional when compared to those members of the family that look more like plants than fish. In what is certainly a textbook case of mimicry, the weedy and leafy seadragons have evolved to look like the kelp and seaweed fronds they live amongst. The camouflage is dual purpose, allowing these ambush predators to efficiently hunt various marine invertebrates and escape detection from predators. Today we’re looking at the Incredible Creatures weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) by Safari Ltd.
Aside from Safari’s toy the only other weedy seadragon toy that I’m aware of is a 1999 toy by Yowie. Why this peculiar species is not more popular might be due to its limited range. The weedy seadragon, also known as the common seadragon, is only found along the southern coast of Australia, Tasmania, and other neighboring islands. They live in coastal waters around rocky reefs, seagrass meadows, and seaweed beds.
Safari’s toy measures about 8” (20.32 cm) long while the actual fish can reach a length of 18” (45 cm). That puts the toy at about 1/2.25 in scale. The figure doesn’t come with a base and although it can rest on its snout and pelvic fins a stand of some sort would be ideal.
Starting with the head we can see the long, tubular snout which in life is toothless, with the upper and lower jaws fused together. It basically acts as a pipette, allowing the fish to suck up zooplankton. The snout is black with blue spots and the mouth is tipped with yellow. The large eyes are red with yellow spots and black pupils. Past the eyes you have the pectoral fins, complete with fin-rays, and two frond-like growths coming off the back and another pair further down the body.
The body is somewhat deep, oddly shaped, and laterally compressed with grooves running along the side and down the tail. It is dull orange in color with yellow spots, black pelvic fins, a row of black spots, blue bands along the sides, and splashes of pink between the blue.
The tail is long and pointed with several frond-like appendages. Unlike seahorses, the weedy seadragon does not have a prehensile tail with which to anchor itself, and simply drifts about among the weeds. A dorsal fin with etched in fin rays can be seen at the tail base. In life, male seadragons carry their egg masses under their tails. The tail is dull orange with yellow spots and gradually fades to black.
The only issue I can see in the accuracy department is that the snout is a bit short, but I don’t consider it a big deal and the toy is otherwise excellent. Notably, its elaborate paintjob comes about as close to capturing the complex coloration of the actual species as you could reasonably expect it to. This is not a toy I was originally going to add to my collection but seeing it in person at a museum gift shop made it irresistible. Now I just have to track down the equally impressive but retired and rare leafy seadragon, also by Safari! Thankfully, this toy is still in production and it retails for about $8.
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I don’t have this species, yet. If only one was available half this size or so :-). Still a great figure!
Great review as always!
Thanks! I figured it would be too big for you. I’m surprised there isn’t a weedy seadragon from one of the Japanese companies.
Yup. Every now and then, I can pass on size (e.g., the IC frogfish and the entire Marsh & Associates collection), but for this species, it would have to be about half that size. It’s possible Kaiyodo made one for one of their Aquarium bottlecap sets, but not sure.