Japanese Huchen (Yujin - Freshwater Fishes Series 1, second release)

[sbell]

This walk around is part of my series of the Yujin Freshwater Fish series. Part of this will be repeating this same introductory and concluding info because copy-and-paste is easy, and it keeps things consistent.  So feel free to only read this once (or never...) as well as the stuff at the end. My main motivation is that Yujin does not have many walk arounds on this site, which is a shame because they make some great models. It is also an attempt to flood (!) the site with some fishes, because there simply have not been enough lately.

One other thing--when I give the lengths of the living species, I will be using the length given on the figure's paper for consistency. Some of them seemed off, but they seem close—often better than my original usage of the Fishbase TL (unless the FB one is more interesting...). When there are more than one, I will use the higher values. And the scales will be rounded and approximate!

So now, the fish!

This figure is the Japanese Huchen, also known as Sakhalin taimen, Parahucho perryi (apparently, renamed from Hucho, number 06 from the first series. This primitive member of the trout and salmon family is found in limited areas of the northwest Pacific—Hokkaido island in Japan, the Russian Sakhelin Island, and far-eastern portions of mainland Russia. This is also one of the largest living salmonids, the Yujin model said 100cm, but they have been found at 200cm. Unfortunately this large fish is under a great deal of direct and indirect pressure and is considered critically endangered; some captive breeding is done in Japan.

This model is about 8 cm long, making the figure roughly 1:25 (if using the 100cm length, it is 1:13, on par with the previous few salmonids). The figure itself is an adult male (although they can change sex) in a fairly straight pose, with a much smaller curve than many of the other salmonid figures from Yujin. The colour is very well-done, reflecting the spotted sides with a distinct shading from green to white on the sides. This one is on the brown version of the river rock base. I am pretty certain that the only other Huchen models are likely from Kaiyodo—the only one I could find is the Aquatales Polystone series, and it almost looks too trout-ish to me. The Yujin captures the long-bodied appearance of the Hucho better (but that's just my opinion).

Like the Chum Salmon model, the Japanese huchen also comes in two separate pieces (the split is just behind the dorsal, with a pelvic fin on each piece). In the case of this one, the straight-line longest model, that makes sense for fitting into whatever the original package was.

Pictures:








This is the figure in two parts:



I refer to this one as the bowhunting tournament pose--a hole in it, tossed on its back...but it's easy to see the detail that Yujin puts into every side of the models (and can often see the numbers in the photos).


For those not familiar, the Yujin Freshwater fishes were released as two series of fish, for a total of 32 fish figures. This number includes at least 3 secret figures (whose numbers remain in sequence--all figures are marked somewhere with the number) but does not incorporate a number of re-issues and repaints; there was at least one complete reissue (from which mine all come so far). The original releases, from what I can find, had yellow papers; the second release used light blue for the Series I and black for Series II. The entire set, with all variants and secrets, is actually available as a boxed set on YAJ (for around $300!), but individual figures can be found there or even on eBay for a variety of prices (the secrets & specials are of course the most expensive). Myself, there are still two or three species I don't have, but I haven't put a lot of effort into changing that...

Another nice thing about these Yujin fish model is that, like most Yujin releases, almost all of them come with a natural base and acrylic stem to display them (the Series II has a few exceptions). There are 4 or 5 bases used, plus a few unique ones for some specials. When I received mine several years ago, the fish+acrylic stems were not directly associated with the bases, so I just went with whatever worked (so if you have one or two, and the base is different, now you know why--I couldn't find a way to be sure if the bases were specific). All of the bases are based on environment--wood stems, gravel, river rocks, silt+plants, that sort of thing. Most are monochromatic, but a few are painted differently (again, often for the specials). In fact, if I wanted to get really pedantic, the bases themselves are labelled with letters based on the style, but I won't.

[brontodocus]

Great walk-around, Sean! I know it can be tricky to estimate a fish figure's scale. Especially because many fish species have a very wide range of possible adult size since usually growth doesn't stop with reaching sexual maturity. The data given by fishbase is always based on measurements from publications so they should be more or less reliable as long as the data from those publications are correct. For fish figures, I usually use fishbase as a reference and I use the given minimal length at maturity (L_m) as the minimum value and max length as the maximum. So this will cover the entire length range for mature individuals of a given species, at least according to what's been compiled at fishbase. Depending on what larger taxon a fish species belongs to, you'll sometimes find TL (total length) more frequently than SL (standard length, i.e. without fins), like e.g. in salmonids (perhaps because salmonids are frequently caught with intact fins?). Standard length is sometimes preferred in other fish groups (probably because specimens may be sampled with their fins frequently damaged?). As for the maximum length of Parahucho perryi, it seems indeed a bit complicated... I've read the IGFA record is a little over 1 m long so 1 m is a proven maximum length (a photo of the specimen can be seen at fishbase, its TL is given as 101 cm). On the other hand larger specimens have been reported but I guess today they have a smaller chance to reach the approx. 2 m or more that have been reported. Regarding the figure, while it's lovely just like the other Yujin fishes I wish the vertical seam wouldn't be so obvious. The seams are seemingly (or seamingly?) less obvious in the others.

[sbell]

Great walk-around, Sean! I know it can be tricky to estimate a fish figure's scale. Especially because many fish species have a very wide range of possible adult size since usually growth doesn't stop with reaching sexual maturity. The data given by fishbase is always based on measurements from publications so they should be more or less reliable as long as the data from those publications are correct. For fish figures, I usually use fishbase as a reference and I use the given minimal length at maturity (L_m) as the minimum value and max length as the maximum. So this will cover the entire length range for mature individuals of a given species, at least according to what's been compiled at fishbase. Depending on what larger taxon a fish species belongs to, you'll sometimes find TL (total length) more frequently than SL (standard length, i.e. without fins), like e.g. in salmonids (perhaps because salmonids are frequently caught with intact fins?). Standard length is sometimes preferred in other fish groups (probably because specimens may be sampled with their fins frequently damaged?). As for the maximum length of Parahucho perryi, it seems indeed a bit complicated... I've read the IGFA record is a little over 1 m long so 1 m is a proven maximum length (a photo of the specimen can be seen at fishbase, its TL is given as 101 cm). On the other hand larger specimens have been reported but I guess today they have a smaller chance to reach the approx. 2 m or more that have been reported. Regarding the figure, while it's lovely just like the other Yujin fishes I wish the vertical seam wouldn't be so obvious. The seams are seemingly (or seamingly?) less obvious in the others.

Thanks!

It has been a bit of a challenge with the lengths--what is strange is how frequently the Yujin is appreciably smaller than the Fishbase one, so I am taking it that this is the size that they are working and scaling (pun? maybe?) from.

But for ones like this, where the max published is so much larger, it just seems like fun to include it. There are a few coming very late in Series II that are insanely different--that is when I have done more internet searching to find better consensus.

And it is too bad--and unusual--at how distinct the seam is, because the figure appears, from photos, to be more Huchen-like than even the Aquatales one (that one looks almost like a rainbow trout, to my eye, from some angles). I must say, I'm glad to be heading out of the salmonids after this one...the diversity ramps up from here!

[brontodocus]

And it is too bad--and unusual--at how distinct the seam is, because the figure appears, from photos, to be more Huchen-like than even the Aquatales one (that one looks almost like a rainbow trout, to my eye, from some angles). I must say, I'm glad to be heading out of the salmonids after this one...the diversity ramps up from here!

Yes, it looks as if the Yujin figure is more round than oval in cross section, typical for huchen species. By the way, since you posted several Japanese salmonids by Yujin, should you ever consider making paper models of fish there is a Japanese site by Yoshikazu Fujioka with many free models of Japanese and non-Japanese salmonids (including, among others, the Japanese Huchen and the only models of graylings I'm aware of): http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/amago/papercraft/papercraft2.html
They are quite easy and fun to make. I had many of them years ago but I gave most of them away as gifts.

[sbell]

I don't know if I could get into the paper models...it might never end. And also, I wouldn't know what to do with them! I have so little room as it is these days!

[Jetoar]

Wonderful Walk-around  .