Microcosmos (Kaiyodo - Capsule Q Museum)

[bmathison1972]

Review of the complete set, Microcosmos by Kaiyodo - Capsule Q Museum (2014). This is Kaiyodo's first (and to date, only) set of planktonic organisms, just one year after Takara Tomy A.R.T.S. released 'The Minimum Coexistence: Microbe' set in 2013, both of which follow Epoch's 'Ecology of Plankton' nearly a decade earlier in 2004.

There are five figures, each can be displayed on a base with clear backing that shows other planktonic debris. I cannot remember, they might glow under ultraviolet light or something, but they do not have have a light source like the Aqua Night Aquarium set did. I originally bought this for the arthropods only, but since acquiring other protozoa/plankton sets I went back to complete it (see under the squid, below). They are all typical gashapon-sized and assembly was minimal in only a couple of the figures.

On to the figures, in their numerical order on the corresponding paperwork:

1. Water flea, Daphnia pulex.
This microcrustacean has become a hallmark of plankton sets. I have additional figures by the aforementioned sets by Epoch and T-TARTS, as well as Kaiyodo's own Night Aqua Museum set.



2. Euglena gracilis.
There are a few other Euglena figures; I have an EISCO Labs model and the Epoch and T-TARTs sets had them also (although the latter two are E. acus, which is now in the genus Lepocinclis).



3. Fairy shrimp, Branchinella kugenumaensis.
This was the highlight of the set for me as it's the only (known to me) figure of a fairy shrimp, Anostraca.



4. Japanese blue crab, Portunus trituberculatus.
This is the zoea stage larva of this species of crab; Yujin also made an adult for their Shrimps and Crabs Collection.



5. Spear squid, Heterololigo bleekeri.
This is the paralarva stage of this species. Because I do not normally collect mollusks, I am not sure if this species has been made before, but given the diversity of squid species by Japanese manufacturers, I am sure it has. Funny story on this figure. Before I became a completist with the planktonic sets, I had traded mine to stargatedalek for a couple figures (the New Ray firefly and cicada, I believe?). So I had to hunt this one down individually on eBay recently. While it was a roundabout way, it was still easier than trying to find the figures I got from Stars...

[brontodocus]

Ah, the CapsuleQ Microcosmos set! You know, the zoea larva is so good that I use it as a three-dimensional reference every year in our invertebrate morphology courses. One of the slides the students have to examine and draw is the zoea of Carcinus maenas (which is quite similar) but most of the students are not accustomed to seeing a three dimensional object on a microscopic slide mostly they would not focus through the object and would not find the lateral spines which are present in the model, too.

[Beetle guy]

One of my favorites as well!