Let’s take a quick look at an early ammonite toy, the Imperial Ammonite from Yowies Lost Kingdom Series B (I did a Run-The-Set that earlier). Don’t need to say much about it, but it is a neat little figure.
The first thing that can be noted is that the figure might be labelled as Tropaeum imperator, a ridiculously large ammonite with a shell around 1 metre across. But the figure is of course impossible to judge in scale–as with all Yowies, it is a small figure in multiple pieces. The size is great for fitting alongside many appropriate Cretaceous marine animal figures, as many are in or around 1:25 – 1:45. There are some other issues with the structure of the figure, probably also affected by the requirements–in many Tropaeum fossils the whorl is not tight, but instead has a tendency to uncoil a bit. But for a small plastic puzzle toy, there are limits. Also annoying (to me)–the figure cannot stand without help, which isn’t great for display or even play. Not sure why many companies do this with aquatic figures…
As has been mentioned before several times, all of these older Yowies were available in the late 90s to early 2000s (depending on the series), and always for limited runs. On top of that, they were only available in Australia (it’s interesting that Australian Yowies and the Various Kaiyodo/Furuta candy figures were at their peak at the same time…not sure what international corporate synergy happened there…) So trying to get these figures if you were anywhere else was pretty tricky even when they first came out–but if you were willing to pay the postage from Australia the individual pricing wasn’t so bad. WASN’T. These days, it can really depend on what one you want; the ammonite is kind of middle of the road. It would make a great addition for Mesozoic marine scenes, but to be fair, CollectA and other recent companies have also produced more accessible ammonites (in a number of sizes) so that might be a better use of time!
