Chum Salmon Egg & Alevin (Yujin - Freshwater Fishes Series 2)

[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 Chum Salmon egg and alevin (hatchling), Oncorhynchus keta , number 15 based on the number stamped into it—but it's another Special Secret! The difference with this one is that the numbering would appear to place it in the Series 2 set—but the papers for series 2 start at 16, so it's a little unusual for the Secret to be 'first' in the series. On top of that, the adult Oncorhynchus keta is part of Series 1, so we would expect them to be connected, but nope. The figure represents the two earliest stages of a chum salmon life cycle—an egg that is close to hatching, and the newly-hatched alevin with egg sac still attached. I just recently visited a Rainbow trout hatchery and can attest that this model really does look like the real thing (seeing as they are in the same genus). Chum salmon are of course laid and born far upstream in rivers, migrating to the open sea to grown for a few years before returning to start the cycle all over again (assuming that a dam or oil spill didn't happen). It is surprisingly difficult to find a size for the alevin, but a length of 1.3cm seems about right compared to the rainbow trout alevin I saw. Yujin doesn't give a particular size.

EDIT--as mentioned, I found out after the fact that this figure is, in fact, the Secret figure for the Series II line. It still doesn't explain the weird numbering!

This alevin in the model is 3cm long, making the figure roughly 2:1, making it one of the few models that is larger than the real thing. The model is really two separate but related models—one is an unhatched egg, with a detailed, near-hatching salmon inside—the eye and curled up body is clearly visible inside, which is quite the feat of sculpting, since the egg cannot be opened. The alevin is equally well-depicted, showing the major parts of the alevin body—undistinguished tail, bigger head with huge eye, and yolk sac. There is a lot of subtle detail involved, with a slight translucent plastic indicating the near-transparency of the alevin, and the red circulatory system being the only real colour. As well as being the only freshwater Yujin model with two individuals, this is also the only model that does not use the acrylic rods to mount the figures—each has a small peg as part of the mold, with a corresponding hole in the base where it belongs. The base itself is a small pile of brown and black rocks; being a special figure, the base gets more detail; and being a specialized base, this base can only work for the salmon baby set.

While I can't be completely certain, I don't think a salmon egg or alevin has been made before—although a life-cycle set with a fingerling, juvenile and non-breeding adult, plus the breeding-form adult, would be kind of cool!

Pictures:







This is the egg close up:


This is the alevin close up:



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.

[bmathison1972]

According to this site (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~CH2M-NITU/egge.htm) this figure is a secret in the second series, although that would make it rather oddly numbered.
See here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~CH2M-NITU/tansui2e.htm

[sbell]

According to this site (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~CH2M-NITU/egge.htm) this figure is a secret in the second series, although that would make it rather oddly numbered.
See here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~CH2M-NITU/tansui2e.htm

I just found the same information, just haven't updated. And yeah, it's a weird numbering.

Of course, I also just found out the Barramundi I pictured is the 'special' version in juvenile colours. The paper is tiny and vague, it was only when I saw both that I realized what was happening.

[Jetoar]

Awesome translucent eggs  .