Recent acquisitions

[brontodocus]

Congrats, Jetoar, sauroid, OkapiBoy, and Blaine!

Anyone else think the 'dragonfly' looks more like an adult antlion?

Well, antennae longer than the head and forewing without nodus - yes, that looks like an antlion.

Not that many newcomers for me, recently, but I got a few ones I'm really happy with... Anjian Collection cicada and an Australovenator pin, both were gifts by Helge! And the Kaiyodo CapsuleQ Museum Northern White-faced Owl, Ptilopsis leucotis, off ebay.

[sphyrna18]

I love the Kaiyodo Owls - definitely some of the nicer Capsule Q "gimmick" sets released! Per chance, do you have any plans to do walk arounds of the owls? Including the scales haha? I'm terrible at getting good measurements of bird figures, especially species like owls, which are often portrayed huddled down. Even without knowing the scales, these are some mighty great sculpts. Congrats!

[brontodocus]

I love the Kaiyodo Owls - definitely some of the nicer Capsule Q "gimmick" sets released! Per chance, do you have any plans to do walk arounds of the owls? Including the scales haha? I'm terrible at getting good measurements of bird figures, especially species like owls, which are often portrayed huddled down. Even without knowing the scales, these are some mighty great sculpts. Congrats!

Thanks, Chad! I don't have the entire set (I passed on the Barn Owl and Snowy Owl). The Ural Owl stands 40 mm high and I estimated the total length at 55 mm (difficult to say exactly, just like you mentioned we don't know exactly how long the figure would be if it could be fully stretched out), so I'd say it may be around 1:9 to 1:11. The Little Owl's length would probably be around 40 mm, so that would make it 1:5 to 1:6, and the Northern White-faced Owl is just slightly larger, around 46 mm (height is 33 mm), so it would be around 1:4 to 1:5. I already thought about making walk-arounds, too.

[postsaurischian]

Not that many newcomers for me, recently, but I got a few ones I'm really happy with... Anjian Collection cicada and an Australovenator pin, both were gifts by Helge! And the Kaiyodo CapsuleQ Museum Northern White-faced Owl, Ptilopsis leucotis, off ebay.

It's cool to see that pic. The cicada made a loooong trip half around the world with one stop at Singapore .

[brontodocus]

It's cool to see that pic. The cicada made a loooong trip half around the world with one stop at Singapore .

Many thanks, Helge! :-) was it just the cicada or did you have to make a stop in Singapore on your flight back home?

Oh, and finally I got the Skilcraft Reptile and Amphibian Kit - from a seller in Germany (which means no import tax and low shipping cost)!

[stemturtle]

Nice catch, brontodocus. There's something for everyone in that Skilcraft set.
It's irresistible.

[bmathison1972]

holy cow, the chuckwalla alone makes it worth it.

[brontodocus]

Thanks, stemturtle and Blaine! Having begun to assemble some of the models I see in many cases the fit of parts is far from perfect. It's amazing what stemturtle made out of the super tiny red eft (see penultimate photo in this post). This model is so small (approx. 40 mm including tail) that at first I thought it was missing on the sprues.

Something I just bought yesterday in a supermarket (didn't take a photo) was a small insect exploration set by Clementoni which included three insect models. Those are made out of cheap plastic but the sculpts are quite nice. There's an ant, a stag beetle (obviously Lucanus cervus) and a giant rhinoceros beetle, Chalcosoma atlas. The latter two are about average life size. They are completely black, I might paint at least the stag beetle.

[stemturtle]

Thanks, stemturtle and Blaine! Having begun to assemble some of the models I see in many cases the fit of parts is far from perfect. It's amazing what stemturtle made out of the super tiny red eft (see penultimate photo in this post). This model is so small (approx. 40 mm including tail) that at first I thought it was missing on the sprues.

Plastic putty and a magnifying glass help with the newt. I appreciate your kind words.

[stargatedalek]

Such a beautiful kit! Something to go on my lifetime bucket list!

[Jetoar]

Lovely replicas, these are my last  .







Lego is awesome  .

[sbell]

Nice catch with the Schleich Musk ox--it's easily one of their best models.

[sphyrna18]

I love the Kaiyodo Owls - definitely some of the nicer Capsule Q "gimmick" sets released! Per chance, do you have any plans to do walk arounds of the owls? Including the scales haha? I'm terrible at getting good measurements of bird figures, especially species like owls, which are often portrayed huddled down. Even without knowing the scales, these are some mighty great sculpts. Congrats!

Thanks, Chad! I don't have the entire set (I passed on the Barn Owl and Snowy Owl). The Ural Owl stands 40 mm high and I estimated the total length at 55 mm (difficult to say exactly, just like you mentioned we don't know exactly how long the figure would be if it could be fully stretched out), so I'd say it may be around 1:9 to 1:11. The Little Owl's length would probably be around 40 mm, so that would make it 1:5 to 1:6, and the Northern White-faced Owl is just slightly larger, around 46 mm (height is 33 mm), so it would be around 1:4 to 1:5. I already thought about making walk-arounds, too.

Thanks, Andre! Sorry for taking so long to say that - I haven't had a chance to login for a while, but I always find your scales most helpful (especially since I predominately display my collections by scale).  I had measured the Ural Owl completely incorrectly (and thankfully had stopped there!), so your measurement and estimations could not have been more helpful! Thanks again!

[bmathison1972]

I just received the stag beetle and tiger beetle by Jetoar (see them here: http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=1490.msg12642#msg12642).
Will post pics once I attach and secure the legs. The paint job on the Cicindela is better than expected!

[Jetoar]

Today I bought one of the coolest figures of MBA line: Sperm Whale. I will show images of it when it will arrive  .

[bmathison1972]

Today I received four of the 6 figures in the recent Kitan Club isopods set. WOW, they are nice! Of course, I do not have the life-sized KC figure for comparison.

In addition to the four illustrated below, there were 'strap' versions of the large, flat gray and brown figures (the two, semi-curled figures were also strap figures, but I removed the chains).

It was my understanding there are three species among these, but the paperwork only identifies the large gray figure as Bathynomus giganteus. I am snooping around, but maybe Andre or someone else can know or figure out what all the species are. Morphologically they appear to be two, if not three, species, but this could also be developmental differences for all I know

EDIT:. My source has looked into it, and apparently the brown specimens are juveniles and the yellow figure is a freshly-moulted (or possibly albino) juvenile (but I am leaning towards the former).

The large gray figure is 103 mm; it appears to be made of three pieces but it comes assembled. The elongate brown figure is 60 mm and the two coiled figures are 30 mm 'in diameter'

dorsal:



ventral:



I will do a walk-around or two once I have the species figured out...

[bmathison1972]

more goodies for me this weekend. This is the Safari LTD Butterflies of the World Collectors Case. It came out in 2001 and I am baffled by how I never had this already! There are 12 species, all much better quality than their recent Butterflies TOOB (and not the same sculpts!).
I think I will do a 'review' in the Walk-arounds section and show them all in one thread. If you can read the names under the figures, they do not match. Looks like the figures were placed randomly within the case. Maybe it was intended to be a matching game ;-)

[brontodocus]

Congrats, Blaine! And sorry to be so late (I've been busy with organising this semester's final field trips with our students and PCB cleanup in my office at uni). The Kitan Club isopods are gorgeous. I'd love to get them, too, I still haven't decided if I should pass on the large B. giganteus since I have the life size one already. Not sure about the enrolled ones but the stretched out, reddish brown one looks like B. doederleini - quite slender, parallel-sided body, rear margin of pleotelson with few spines and no dorsomedian ridge on the pleotelson. The only problem I see is that the spines on the pleotelson seem to be only five, not seven, and are not uneven in length as they should be in that species. But in B. doederleini the smallest spines are those directly left and right of the central one - could it be they were just omitted in the figure?

[Jetoar]

My last acquisitions.



and one of my treasures 



MBA Sperm Whale.

[stargatedalek]

My big order from MiniZoo arrived this morning. I'm very pleased, everything arrived quickly and in great condition.

Last years Quetzalcoatlus is beautiful, but I've never been a big fan of diorama pieces so I couldn't help but free that little sauropod from its bill. A quick touch up and they should both look better than new, keep an eye on my customs thread.



Last years Mosasaurus is undeniably amongst the best ever made. The smoother features of the body contrast nicely with the many tiny details of the head, the only accuracy issue I found is the lack of a forked tongue, but its still within plausibility.



The CollectA Therizinosaurus (can you guess from what year ) is also a beautiful piece. While I disagree with the choice of leaving the underside bare and of ending the wing at the wrist its still a very beautiful sculpt and though I would say it is underfeathered I would not say it is strictly inaccurate.



The biggest surprise of the lot was the pelican by Australian Science and Nature. A beautiful and detailed little figure, I will stand by words when I say this puts the versions by Safari and Schleich to shame, and for a fraction of their cost (a little under $3 CAD!).




Last but certainly not least, this beauty has just had a review written in her honor which should be up on the DTB shortly!