Safari Ltd - new for 2014

[brontodocus]

I've been thinking about the cave dwellers toob again...
The crayfish may indeed be Cambarus jonesi or any other troglobiont species in Cambarus or even from another cambarid genus and I don't know how to tell them apart. But C. jonesi is one of the better known it seems.
The crab is definitely not Munidopsis, it's rather a true crab. It could be Chaceus caecus due to the wide carapace and long chelae. But I know too little about troglobiontic crustaceans to be sure I haven't ignored a taxon that might fit better.
The catfish could be an ictalurid, either Toothless Blindcat Trogloglanis pattersoni, Mexican Blindcat Prietella phreatophila, or Widemouth Blindcat Satan eurystomus (yes, that taxon exists! ). But the shovelhead is very strange and doesn't match any of those exactly. Could be it was made to emphasise the wide mouth of the latter and the choice would at least be funny for the scientific name.
The spider is very robust so I think it could be made to represent the "No-eyed big-eyed wolf spider" (oh, yeah, vernacular names, who needs them) Adelocosa anops, only a bit too lightly coloured. Unfortunately the arrangement of eyes is important for identifying spider families so it's just a guess from the general body proportions that this may be a lycosid.
The eel-like creature may be Ophisternon candidum, Blind Cave Eel, a synbranchid.
There are too many scorpions to give a guess on the one in the toob, at least at the moment...
The "millipede" (if it's not actually meant to be a remipedian instead) might be a Tetracion sp., e.g. T. jonesi, they are diplopods and cave dwellers and superficially look like polydesmids.

Any further suggestions on those?

Oh, something else. The Deep-sea Creatures Toob. First, the large toothed fish in the middle is almost certainly a member of the Evermannellidae or Sabertooth fishes. But, more important: Take a look at this photo of the toob itself. There is an eighth figure visible inside the toob  and it looks a lot like Gigantocypris sp., a deep-sea giant ostracod growing to approx. 25 mm length. I wonder if it was a figure that has been pulled (please not! )...

Edit: Upon a second look the abovementioned mystery figure which is partly concealed by a glass squid may in fact represent a blobfish!

[stemturtle]

Yes, that's my problem with the figure, too... It was the eel-like slenderness of the figure and the popularity of the olm that made me think it's Proteus anguinus. And if it is only the hind feet may have the wrong number of digits, not hind and fore feet. Eurycea rathbuni, E. wallacei, and the like would also have tails that are as long as or even longer than the snout-vent length, on the figure these proportions match the olm with its long body and shorter tail. But, of course those cave-dwelling Eurycea species are quite popular (especially in the U.S.), too... Nevertheless, I'm happy such a toob will be released and of course I'll get one!

I emailed Safari Ltd. about the cave salamander:
If this figure is marked as an olm, is it too late to
change each of the hind feet from 3 toes to 2 toes?

President Alexandre Pariente replied:
We will consider the change for future production.

Time will tell.

[brontodocus]

Yes, I guess once the molds are ready there is no possibility to change the sculpt, at least for 2014, I guess. For us it will be a minor fix. But on the other hand, does this confirm now that it's indeed an olm?

[stemturtle]

Yes, I guess once the molds are ready there is no possibility to change the sculpt, at least for 2014, I guess. For us it will be a minor fix. But on the other hand, does this confirm now that it's indeed an olm?

I do not know if we can assume confirmation of an olm.  We can keep our toes crossed!   

[bmathison1972]

Yes, I guess once the molds are ready there is no possibility to change the sculpt, at least for 2014, I guess. For us it will be a minor fix. But on the other hand, does this confirm now that it's indeed an olm?

I do not know if we can assume confirmation of an olm.  We can keep our toes crossed!   

Olmly time will tell... 

[sbell]

Yes, I guess once the molds are ready there is no possibility to change the sculpt, at least for 2014, I guess. For us it will be a minor fix. But on the other hand, does this confirm now that it's indeed an olm?

Given how many figures need to be produced for a run, and how much it costs to strike molds, and how the only way to make new molds is to create a new sculpt and then re-create the mold plate (which usually has more than one figure per mold on it for plastic-conservation purposes), they are unlikely to change the figure anytime soon, if ever.

[Ana]

I like these new Safaris, especially Anhinga, raven and peccary.
BTW do you know some of Schleich 2014 are known already? (horses and smurfs)

[stemturtle]

Got hold of the 2014 Safari Ltd. catalog. 
The Cave Dwellers Toob items are identified at a general level.
No scientific names are listed.
The good news is that we have an olm and a millipede.

[widukind]

The peccary and the anhinga are must haves 

[OkapiBoy]

Here are the deep sea creatures from the toob set
[

And the bird

[sauroid]

they are cool Okapiboy.

[AnimalToyForum]

Nice deep sea creatures!

[Hercules beetle]

I used to have a safari barreleye (fish) with an orange head and fins... strange but interesting.

[AnimalToyForum]

poll added. Vote for you top three figures.

[brontodocus]

As suggested by Blaine, I've added the Safariology Life Cycles and Toob figures to the poll. I've also changed the number of votes from 3 to 4 to reflect that there are actually a lot more Safari Ltd figures to choose from now.

[AnimalToyForum]

As suggested by Blaine, I've added the Safariology Life Cycles and Toob figures to the poll. I've also changed the number of votes from 3 to 4 to reflect that there are actually a lot more Safari Ltd figures to choose from now.

Great idea. i revoved my original vote and revoted.

[brontodocus]

Great idea. i revoved my original vote and revoted.

Ah, thanks, I'm glad you agree!