Animal figures to get

[Sim]

Thanks Sean!  I had the Colorata prior to getting the Kaiyodo and I wasn't satisfied with it.  The Maia & Borges version is interesting, but I can't find it for sale anywhere.  I've noticed Mojo has reproduced the M&B, but they've made it grey for some reason.  I would have preferred they repainted that one to have more correct colouration instead of the not very worthwhile repaints Mojo has done for this year.

[Sim]

After doing further research on the sand tiger shark, I've come to the conclusion that the Mojo version is within reason, so I've ordered it.  I look forward to receiving it!

[Sim]

I've been looking for a good figure of Grapsus grapsus and I've found only three figures of it.

1. The Safari incredible creatures one, which is too big for me but looks very good!

2. The Play visions one which is pleasant but too crude for me and probably impossible to find now.

3. The Safari toob crab that's been in a couple of toobs.  I actually have this one although not with me currently but I left it in its toob as it didn't interest me initially.  I've been considering getting it repainted to look more like its species, but while looking at it on Toy Animal Wiki I noticed from the front it doesn't look like any individual of its species that I've seen.  Am I overlooking a reason for this difference?  A comparison is below.

  (Image from Toy Animal Wiki)

  (Image from Wikipedia)

[bmathison1972]

Overlooking a reason for this difference? Perhaps because it is essentially a now-vintage sculpt of a small tube-style figure from Safari's earlier days. If you expect accurate sclerite representation in an older TOOB figure, you will be sorely disappointed.

[Sim]

That makes sense, I wasn't sure if the difference was based on something that occurred in nature.  Are there any other figures of this species besides the three I listed in my previous post?

[MudpupWaterdog]

I know there are mixed feelings on the forum towards the many copies and rip-offs that populate the depths of AliExpress, but I did find one company making a scaled-down version of the Safari figure. It's almost half the size of the Safari figure and much simpler in terms of paint.

[JimoAi]

Any echidna figures that's available outside the hard to find southland replicas one?

[bmathison1972]

some of the crabs in that link are knockoffs, but some are just influenced by other figures as indicated by being different sizes and slightly different sculpts! Nice. I would have gotten some of these back when I was an arthropod completist LOL

[sbell]

some of the crabs in that link are knockoffs, but some are just influenced by other figures as indicated by being different sizes and slightly different sculpts! Nice. I would have gotten some of these back when I was an arthropod completist LOL

I've picked up a couple here and there, usually because they're a different size, or a different colour/species.
For example, they usually scale Colorata figures up, but IC figures down.

[bmathison1972]

Looking at these crabs I see influence from Safari Ltd, Wing Mau, Epoch, Yujin, Bandai, and AAA to name a few.

You're right, the gashapon figures are larger and some Safari influenced are smaller!

[Sim]

Thanks for that @MudpupWaterdog!  I see its pincers are a little different to the IC version too.  I will consider it, even though I normally wouldn't be interested in a knock-off.  I wonder if it would be useful to have a thread on this forum for figures that are derived from another that could be of interest?  So figures that differ in a beneficial way from the figure they are derived from.

Any echidna figures that's available outside the hard to find southland replicas one?

I have the small one by Science and Nature and I'm very happy with it!  It can be seen in the following link, which also shows the large version by the same company too: https://toyanimalwiki.mywikis.wiki/wiki/Short-beaked_echidna

[MudpupWaterdog]

To echo @bmathison1972 and @sbell's comments, I'd say that although many of these figures are knock-offs, many others (including this one) are "remixes," inspired by Safari and Japanese figures, rather than just copying them outright. Or at least, that's how I justify buying some of them - especially if the figure it's based on is retired or otherwise prohibitively hard to get. They're also rather easy to customize, being so pliable with hot water.

I may get this one myself just to customize it into another type of Grapsid crab.

[Sim]

I've been considering my options for a Grapsus grapsus, and I've concluded (again) the Safari IC one is too big for me.  I love it though.  I also looked at the Safari IC blue crab, which is also too big for me.  I saw one or more "reproductions" of the figure on Aliexpress, in different sizes.  I also recently discovered the Safari IC spiny lobster which is beautiful but SO big!  Too big for me again.  Out of curiosity I searched for lobster figures on Aliexpress but didn't find any significantly smaller versions of the spiny lobster figure.  I'm hesitant to purchase the knock-offs, I'm concered they might be toxic.


Leaving that for now, I would like to know which Japanese spiny lobster figure is most accurate?  I'm considering the ones by Kitan Club, Kaiyodo and Epoch, the last one coming in more than one colouration.  Is any better than the others?

[JimoAi]

Ikimon has one that recently rereleased

[bmathison1972]

Can't really go wrong with any of those, the recently reissued Ikimon/Kitan Club one from the Nature of Japan Series that JimoAi eluded to is very nice!

[Sim]

Thanks guys, I've just purchased an Epoch spiny lobster!  I'll see how I find that one!