Fauna Figures – Page 11

Vault Tales 216 Run the Set Wild Republic Bouncy Ball Sharks

So weird set today--and proof that amazing figures and sets can come from very, very dumb places. I am sure that most people are familiar with Wild Republic--their merch is ubiquitous in shops at zoos, aquariums, museums and science centres...and has also infiltrated regular toy shops and 'impulse' toy sections in other stores. These days, they are probably most notable for their wide range of plush animals in different forms ("Wild Republic" used to refer specifically to a line of…

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June 3, 2021

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 215 – Clades – Anura

We're already doing another clade post? Yes! And it's another one where there are a whole lot of figures, but I have just a small sampling. Really, it's almost hard to not have at least a few figures from this clade. I am speaking about the Anura, better known as Frogs! The figures that I have that represent an intermediate clade, the Mesobatrachia. This is the only one where I have any fossil representation, the Eopelobates from the Safari fossils…

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May 31, 2021

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 214 – Clades – Ruminantia

Time to visit another clade, this time a true crown-group clade, the Ruminantia (or Ruminantiomorpha...if we include some of the anthracotherids that are a stem-group to the ruminantia). As a group, this is a fairly familiar one both as animals and as figures. The living groups include the bovids (cows, antelopes, goats, sheep, etc); the moschids (musk deer); the cervids (deer); the giraffids (giraffes and okapi); the antilocaprids (pronghorn) and the basal group the tragulina (chevrotains). Of course, there is…

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May 27, 2021

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales

Vault Tales 213 FigureFrenzy Lionfish, Bamboo shark, Wobbegong, Axelrodichthys

We're going all fish today! Cool fish! Extinct lobefins! Weird sharks! Oddly...all sharks are carpet sharks. Short introduction. It's a great bunch of figures so let's go! FameMaster 4D Puzzle Lionfish Starting with a very fancy puzzle, a FameMaster Red Lionfish. It's about 1:4 scale, so I don't really have much to scale with it. It would go very well as a near life-size aquarium diorama fixture (but I don't think it would do well in water. I have spoken…

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May 24, 2021

FigureFocus / FigureTales

Vault Tales 212 Kaiyodo Aqualand Silver Arowana

Every collector has species and figures that they consider holy grails. Species or figures that they know exist (or should exist) that they honestly don't know if they'll actually find. Sometimes we never do, because the figure is that rare (WwD Ornithocheirus anyone?) or the species is not actually made commercially (sigh. Bowfin.). This figure is one of mine. Sort of. But it was very much a find I was never sure I'd get my hands on. A Kaiyodo Aqualand…

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May 20, 2021

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales

Vault Tales 211 FigureFrenzy Greek Chimaera, Olenoides, Trilobite, Iguana

So today is going to be...brief. Not a whole lot to say about most of these so it's going to be brief. Not everything in the collection is gold...Two different trilobites so that's unexpected! Safari Ltd Mythical Realms Chimaera A very distinct take on the Greek Chimaera. With extra dragon head and wings. Scale is of course meaningless, so let's just put an adventurer from DnD with it. It's probably oversized but again, it's also made up. First up, one…

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May 17, 2021

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales

Vault Tales 210 FigureFrenzy Anaconda, Salamander, Eryops, Stagonolepis

We've got four figures today, which can best be regarded as...united by being 'herpetiles', a broad informal word usually meant to refer to 'reptiles' and 'amphibians'. Which are themselves kind of informal but anyway...there's a whole bunch of animals that really aren't connected by much. Other than they're all really nice figures in different ways. CollectA Green Anaconda Easily one of the most active and dynamic Green Anaconda figures. It's tricky to know the scale due to the many curls…

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May 13, 2021

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales

Vault Tales 209 FigureFrenzy Deinotherium, Neanderthal, Andrewsarchus, Chasmaporthetes

Oooh! Prehistoric mammal FigureFrenzy today! And quite the range of figures and companies while we're at it! Let's see! Starlux Deinotherium A classic model of a probiscidean that has been interpreted in many ways, the Starlux Deinotherium is heavily based on Asian elephants with a weird lower jaw. The figure is close to 1:100, so mom & child are not far off. Our first figure is the elephant-like Deinotherium Starlux, released in 1973 with the item number FS40044. It was…

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May 10, 2021

FigureTales

Vault Tales 208 Run the Set Yowies Lost Kingdom B

So I am doing another set, and this time it is the figures that I have from the Yowies Lost Kingdom B series. Released in the early 2000s, there were 30 models in total, I believe all based on fossil material subfossil material from Australia or New Zealand (just like series A). Unlike some of the Yowies series that I looked at before, I have a better representation of this one, with 15 out of the 30 figures. Most were…

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May 6, 2021

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales

Vault Tales 207 FigureFrenzy Hyena, Dodo, Cynognathus, African wild dog, Arsinoitherium

So here's a random assortment of mostly mammals (and adjacent) figures. And one extinct bird, just to mix it up. Most of them are pretty good too! Schleich Spotted hyena (2015 release) The most recent of Schleich's several versions of a Spotted hyena. And probably their best version, although still heavily stylized. The figure is roughly 1:18 depending on it's gender (which is indeterminate) Let's start with a figure that represents one of my favorite animals (mammal edition), a Spotted…

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May 3, 2021

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales / Run the Set

Vault Tales 206 Run the Set OUMCRAFT ‘Life’ Game figures part 2

Only a couple days ago, I wrote about the first Oumcraft models I received in conjunction with my Life game from Kickstarter. Those ones focused on the Silurian and Devonian figures, including a number of acanthodians, conodonts, agnathans and early vertebrates. This time around, I will show the figures from the Devonian stage of the game (although there are a number of Carboniferous taxa as well--that particular age does not have a round in the game). There are quite a…

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April 29, 2021

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales / Run the Set

Vault Tales 205 Run the Set OUMCRAFT ‘Life’ Game figures part 1

So last week (April 20, 2021, for posterity's sake) I received a package in the mail from Thailand. Yes, I receive parcels all the time...but this is the first time I've ever received one from Thailand, which was cool. Even more cool is what was in that parcel. It was a game that I had backed on Kickstarter, called LIFE: The Evolution of Life. In case that name doesn't make it clear, it is a boardgame predicated upon using some…

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April 26, 2021