COG – Fauna Figures

FigureFrenzy 286 Tree frog, Owl, Bat-eared fox, Manta ray

We're going to go through a bunch of mini-size figures this week! A good look at how many companies have actually made these tiny-size figures! With one exception, most of these figures are sized well for scenes and dioramas with more traditionally larger figures. In keeping with the theme, I'll keep it short (there's only so much to say...) Safari Ltd Good Luck Minis Red-Eye Tree Frog A tiny little Red-eye Tree Frog. Which looks pretty good, if a little…

0 Comments

February 24, 2022

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales

FigureFrenzy 276 Brachiosaurus, Spiny terrapin, Sand tiger shark, Caecillian

Let's look at another weird range of figures. One of them isn't much to look at--but how often do we see caecillian figures? Almost never to be exact. Kaiyodo Dinotales Series 2 Brachiosaurus More dinotales! This time their really nice Brachiosaurus. It's about a 1:185 scale figure, so the man there is too big for that scale. First up, another of the great Dinotales figures, specifically the Brachiosaurus from series 2, number 27. There is not a lot to still…

0 Comments

January 20, 2022

FigureFrenzy / FigureTales

Vault Tales 191 FigureFrenzy Moanasaurus, Eusthenopteron, Trilobite, Quinkana

It's another Figure Frenzy! This time with a theme of unusual animal figures, all extinct, and all figures that need to be assembled! From three different companies no less! A bunch of interesting ones. Let's go! Yowies Lost Kingdoms B New Zealand Mosasaur Not your typical mosasaur species! Moanasaurus, sold as New Zealand Mosasaur from Yowies. It's always a bit of a guess, but the scale is around 1:121 so the diver is way too small (or the mosasaur is…

1 Comment

March 8, 2021

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 179 – Clades – Euchondrocephali

Already another 'clades' post, but this time one with a few more figures at least! This one will be Euchondrocephali--a group of shark-like chondrichthyan fish that are more closely related to the holocephalans (the modern ratfish Chimaera and elephantnose fish Callorhinchus). The funny thing is that for the longest time, these fish were assumed to be part of the true shark lineage (elasmobranchs)...or somehow basal to them, or a sister group to them. Then further research and some better fossil…

1 Comment

January 25, 2021

FigureTales / ToyTrio

Vault Tales 163 ToyTrio Ornithomimus, Giganotosaurus, Anomalocaris

All prehistoric Trio today! Wide range of odd animals... GeoWorld Jurassic Hunters Ornithomimus It's a very traditional Ornithomimus figure...in so far as there are many other Ornithomimus figures. There aren't many. First up we have another Jurassic Hunters from GeoWorld. This time we are looking at a figure from Series 1 (the previous Thescelosaurus was Series 2), part of the original dinosaurs release, item number CL353K. It's an interesting figure, to say the least, and a welcome one. There aren't…

0 Comments

November 30, 2020

FigureTales / ToyTrio

Vault Tales 151 ToyTrio Two Salamanders and a Lungfish

So here's a few figures connected by being...air breathing vertebrates? Sure, let's say that. Otherwise they're very, very different. COG "Cool Reptiles" Green salamander This is all the photos that I need of this one. It's a small, and probably too big for Duke there. The species is indeterminate so who knows. First off, I'm starting with a small salamander figure from a bucket set called Cool Reptiles from COG Ltd. Even though it seems to contain more amphibians than…

0 Comments

October 19, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 149 – Clades – Salamandroidea

It's been a while, but here we are with a new Clades post. Since then, I have been reorganizing my database and how the clades are organized. So when this one came up--'Salamanders'--I realized that I could break that down a little bit. Especially because there are a fair number and this post was going to get hard to handle. So I split things up, into Cryptobranchoidea and Salamandroidea (there's a 3rd grouping, Sirenoidea, but no figures exist so far.…

2 Comments

October 12, 2020

FigureTales / ToyTrio

Vault Tales 118 ToyTrio Nimravid, Iberian Lynx, Ichthyosaur

Time for another Toy Trio, a model I use to look quickly at a few figures that were picked by the Random Number Generator, but might not warrant a full on post on their own. It's also a chance to work through the list a little faster...I'm not going to run through it anytime soon, but there's lots to get to! Mech (?) "smilodon"/Nimravid This is not a high quality figure...and despite the label, there's no way that is Smilodon…

0 Comments

June 18, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 112 – Clades – Pliosaurs

Part of the fun of doing these clades ones is learning more about the models I have! Here we some that only show up as one example in my collection--the CollectA Rhomalaeosaurus which is not quite a pliosaurid but is a pliosauroid; the CollectA Attenborosaurus, a long-necked pliosaur that I originally thought was a plesiosaur; the Feves Peloneustes recently discussed here; and the Innovative Kids Brachauchenius from their Gone Extinct book. So we are back with another Clades discussion--one that,…

0 Comments

May 28, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 109 – Clades – “Stegocephalia”

We'll work the photos from furthest back in the fossil record. This is a 3D printed Tiktaalik from Shapeways--sadly no longer available. The file didn't print quite right (there are gaps on the underside). It's about 1:23 scale with the guy there. The rear limbs were not published when the model was made, so they are too weak. But I am still glad to have it. So we're back with another 'clades' post, and this one is a very unique…

0 Comments

May 18, 2020

FigureTales

Vault tales 83 COG African(?) Mammoth

Who makes it? This is another figure in the COG Prehistoric Panorama Mammals series. Most of that will carry over here, so I get to be brief! When did it come out? Like the Arsinoitherium, 2008. But I'm pretty sure this one was definitely one of the re-released figures with the blind bags. It's a mammoth. But it really doesn't look like the standard woolly mammoth. Still available? I think so...if the blind bags are still around. Where can it…

0 Comments

February 17, 2020

FigureTales / Run the Set

Vault tales Run the Set 78 COG Fascinating Fossils

What is this? Another Run the Set already!? It really is, with another take on prehistoric figures from COG. In this instance it's a lot of fake fossils, just like the Safari Ancient Fossils toob. Does it hold up? What are these? These models are from a COG Ltd series called Ein-O-Science, small, inexpensive science-lab kits that provided small science experiments or activities on all kinds of fields of study. In our home we've had ones regarding electricity, renewable energy,…

0 Comments

January 30, 2020