Who makes it? One of the original 3″ fish from Replica Toy Fish. At one point they were divided into sets, the yellow perch was part of the Pond Fish set.
When did it come out? About 2010. The release was hard to pin down between when they were announced and when they came out.
Still available? Disappointingly, no. The whole series was discontinued about 2017. There are still a couple of the 3″ figures available (from my sales site), but that’s about it now. Fortunately, there is a yellow perch in the new Toy Fish Factory series.
Where can it be found in my displays? I have so many fish figures, in case you hadn’t already heard. It’ in one of the many displays, along with the rest of the series.
How does it fit in the collection? Again, so many fish figures…although this might have been the first large series of North American-focused fish species.
Any story behind it? I first heard about the series on the original Dinosaur Toy Forum–before the Animal Toy forum split off. I got in touch with the maker of the figures because I really needed some interesting fish models. Plus, he had listed several species that were also going to be made. I was eager to see the more primitive fish he had planned–they were going to be great for the dinosaur museum gift shop (they would be very appropriate). I got several sets from him to check them out, and was really looking forward to the future. Unfortunately production problems limited the full run from ever being realized, but there were a few other releases that did make it out (mostly salmonids, a few more bass, a sturgeon, and some gars). But now the series are ended. Hopefully the revived company, Toy Fish Factory, will successfully bring out lots and lots of species!
Notable remarks about this figure (a review that isn’t really a review): It’s hard to review a fish figure like this. They are fairly stylized–not to the level of realism and detail of a Kaiyodo or Yujin fish models, but as a mass market fish, meant to reach a wide audience at a reasonable price, they are really well done. The sculpt is pretty accurate–it does a reasonable job of presenting the very typical morphology of a perch…which is good since perch could be considered the almost ‘typical’ fish. The colour scheme is appropriate, but again, it’s very stylized, very much emphasizing the ‘yellow’ and the bars, even though the real fish tend to be more subtle. But it’s okay. The red eyes are a little disturbing though. The figure itself is about 7cm long; yellow perch can range from 19cm to records of 46cm, so the scale on the figure could range from 1:3 to 1:12, depending on what real length you use.
Would I recommend it? I would like to, obviously, because the set overall is pretty great. But getting this figure is pretty difficult now (I have seen some available from after market sellers…sometimes for way too much money, they were never expensive). Fortunately, as mentioned, Toy Fish Factory has brought out a Yellow perch again, which is fairly similar. And Safari also has one in the Great Lakes toob, just released this year…because you can never have enough perch. That said, if you do track down any figures from the set, though, make sure to add them to your collection.
