Let’s do a quick one this week, a visit to another Safari Life Cycle. This time it’s a quick look at the Green Sea Turtle Life Cycle, released in 2012 under item number 662316. As with the previously-seen Monarch butterfly set, there are a few figures, and their scales are all over the place.
Being a life cycle, there are of course a number of figures. We of course start with a nest in a hole in the ground. It’s kind of odd because it’s exposed…I suppose it could be paired with the adult. Or a racoon figure if you’re more macabre…Then we have a hatchling figure. It’s obviously far too large compared to the nest of eggs, but when placed over the eggs, it looks good, like a hatchling on the beach.
The two ‘standalone’ models are okay. The juvenile is nice, although I can’t help but notice that the individual scutes of the carapace don’t match the other models…which is kind of annoying. The adult figure is perfectly decent, and I’m pretty sure it has been released as a separate model as well. Honestly, I don’t follow sea turtle figures closely but it looks familiar.
The figures are released on a really nice card, standard for the Life Cycles from Safari. Also for the overarching ‘SAFARIOLOGY’ line, featuring a variety of toys and models that are meant to act as educational and exploration tools. The life cycles are probably the most prominent, and feature a number of different animals–most of the ones we have are because my kids liked them; as they’ve grown older they are less interested…but maybe if one featured a really cool, different animal?
The lack of being to-scale with these sets is par for the course with these sets. But it’s still kind of difficult to deal with for some people–depends on how picky you might be. They are definitely better as an educational tool. And one great thing about Safari Life Cycles is that they do branch out a bit from the most familiar ones (everyone does butterflies and frogs!) It would be nice to see more vertebrates (there’s a salmon one as well, it’s great that a fish one exists). The set is still available of course, and is generally fairly inexpensive.
