Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
“Are you ready kids?”
“I can’t hear you!”
“Ooooooooooooo“
“Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?”
Not the Yellow tube sponge (Aplysina fistularis)! Sponges, despite resembling plants, are among the simplest animals, going all the way back to the Ediacaran 650 million years ago. They are stationary and feed by filter feeding, which makes them rather boring to look at. However, that didn’t stop a man, the late Stephen Hillenburg, who with his passion in animation, to develop a cartoon series revolving around the most simplest animal as it’s main character: SpongeBob SquarePants, alongside other intertidal animals which would become a cultural icon, the polar opposite of its real life counterpart. Although he resembles a kitchen sponge, the real SpongeBob has been confirmed to be A. fistularis which inhabits the waters around the Caribbean in reefs around open water. Like all sponges, it is sessile and feeds on microorganisms in the water column. They are primarily preyed on by the hawksbill turtle.
About the figure: this sponge is sculpted as a colony of 7 individual sponges with the tallest being around 3.6 cm which puts them at 1:8-1:13 for the largest individuals.
Since this is a cheap aquarium decor, there’s not much to go through. The plus is that it’s sculpted in a colony with multiple individuals of different sizes and being yellow, which is about it. The flaws I have this figure is how crude the paint is; it looks like the manufacturer just dabs a thin amount of yellow on this figure and there are areas where it looks like there’s no paint. There’s a lack of details of the pores of this figure, but at the same time because it’s a cheap aquarium decor so that could be forgiven. Additionally, it could have benefited with a base to display the sessile nature.
Final thoughts: there isn’t going much with this figure but I’ve gotten it as I wanted a representation of a sea sponge in my collection to represent SpongeBob himself. At the same time, beggars can’t be choosers as this is the only proper modern sponge figure in a sea of SpongeBob merchandise, not to mention the now retired Safari Ltd. Vauxia from the Cambrian Life TOOB. This figure’s origin is unknown but it can be found on Taobao or AliExpress usually with an image search since this figure is a mystery in of itself. This review also commemorates the 25th anniversary of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise and here’s to encouraging companies to try and put out actual sponge figures and more obscure marine invertebrates.
Comparing with it’s fictional counterpart to show the difference between the real animal and the iconic character:
With the cast of the show: Patrick, pink sea star (Schleich sea star), Squidward, giant Pacific octopus (Favorite Co. Aqua Fish Mini Model), Mr. Krabs, genus Cancer(?) (Kaiyodo Shinagawa Aquarium Tasmanian giant crab), Gary, Northern moon snail(?) (Kaiyodo Night Museum Festive Season slug), Sandy, Squirrel (Yell Squirrel), Pearl, sperm whale (Safari Ltd. MBA sperm whale), Mrs. Puff, pufferfish (Kaiyodo Enoshima Aquarium porcupinefish), Larry, American lobster (Kaiyodo Enoshima Aquarium American lobster), Karen (officially licensed figure). Plankton is there, too, just that he’s microscopic.
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