Recent acquisitions

[bmathison1972]

A batch for me today, which should just about round out 2015 releases for me (unless I get the butterfly and Death Valley sets from Schleich...).

First, Opabinia regalis by Kinto Favorite (Prehistoric Life Soft Model).

Next, giant isopod (Bathynomus giganteus) by Takara TOMY ARTS (Residents of the Abyss)--remember when giant isopods were a rare treat?

Lastly, the complete set of Caterpillars 3 by Kaiyodo - Capsule Q Museum. Including:

oleander sparrow, Daphnis nerii
commercial silkworm, Bombyx mori
paper kite, Idea leucone
great orangetip, Hebomoia glaucippe formosana
common map, Cyrestis thyodamas

I am really excited for three of these in particular. First, the B. mori which can compliment the life cycle set of B. mori by Insect Lore. Next, H. glaucippe, whose adults have been made several times (I have four, including one by Safari in their Butterflies of the World Collectors Case). Lastly, I. leucone!!! This will nicely complement the pupa and adult by Yujin!!!!

[brontodocus]

Congrats, altogether, so many nice newcomers! Personally, I will probably not buy anything new before December or so (with the exception of one model that's already on the way to me) since I just bought a new computer. Phew, I hope all those new CapsuleQ, Kitan and T-Arts releases are not already rarities when I will try to get them...

[stargatedalek]

Takara Tomy Kyogre from the collectible version line rather than the Jakks Pacific line. Compared to the older version.


Hexbug Aquabot, it's actually really impressive, you can control the speed and depth it swims at.



Safari minis, new ones and then all of my turtles

[bmathison1972]

Four new ones for me, and a MAJOR MILESTONE! With these four Cadbury Yowies, I now have ALL of the arthropods from the Yowies series (Australian and UK releases!).
The last four I got today are:
1) rhinoceros beetle, Xylotrupes gideon
2) semi-looper moth, Trigonodes hyppasia (love moth figures, they are so less common than butterflies)
3) great egg-fly butterfly, Hypolimnas bolina
4) sea scorpion, Eurypterus sp.

[sauroid]

a few Kaiyodos

[sbell]

I just came back from a trip to Florida and found a few great things (and left behind a lot of terrible things).

First off, I found a ridiculous number of rays--and this doesn't even count my kids' stuffed animals...



The big one is the ray from Sun Wai. The species isn't particularly obvious, but seeing it in person, I think it is sort of representative of a Blue Stingray Dasyatis chrysonota. Most interesting is that it has not one but two barbs on the tail.

Second, I picked up some new sets of the Club Earth rays set. My original ones were more pearlescent in colour, but these would be more 'bright'. They are also stickier than the pearl ones, so I'm hoping that they dry out soon.

Finally, although we avoided Sea World, they did have 2 gift shops in the airport--and apparently Sea World has manufactured their own figures! I don't collect marine mammals, which dominated, but they did have what might be the nicest Spotted Eagle Ray I have--and an odd coloured Leopard shark.

I also found a few dinos:


Two of those are Battat re-release dinos, a Ceratosaurus and Amargasaurus. Only available at Target, and since that chain only lasted a few months here in Canada, I had to get them while there! Plus, my son found a 4D puzzle 'raptor' model, which is clearly based on the Ornitholestes from Walking with Dinosaurs.

[bmathison1972]

I had to do a much-needed and much-dreaded clothes shopping trip today. Luckily the Target near my house is also close to a Halloween Super Store at which I found these gems LOL.
The four in the package (ant, grasshopper, fly, spider) have suction cups.

By the way, the Target had a lot of Terra Figures. Some neat sets, too bad I am not more taxonomically diverse.

[brontodocus]

Congrats, stargatedalek, Blaine, sauroid, and Sean! Recently I only bought one new figure - the 3b Scientific male Edible Frog (I already had the female), but it's currently at uni because I need it as a teaching resource until Tuesday.

[Jetoar]

These are my last acquisitions  .





em

I am really happy with them  .

[bmathison1972]

Nice, did you mount those Safari pterosaurs yourself? I should try and do something similar with some of my butterflies and dragonflies

[Jetoar]

Nice, did you mount those Safari pterosaurs yourself? I should try and do something similar with some of my butterflies and dragonflies

No, they have been made for  their old owner and they looks really cool  . On the other hand, I am finishing a new invertrebrate figure that I am going to show soon  .

[bmathison1972]

Nice, did you mount those Safari pterosaurs yourself? I should try and do something similar with some of my butterflies and dragonflies

No, they have been made for  their old owner and they looks really cool  . On the other hand, I am finishing a new invertrebrate figure that I am going to show soon  .

is this the one you are giving me for the isopod?

[stargatedalek]

Yesterday I was buying pet supplies and decided I'd treat myself, I've been eyeing these for years and never had an excuse to get one, in the end I decided I didn't need an excuse! The Eshopps lionfish ornament is fairly detailed for what it is, but I have no idea if it could possibly be attributed to a species level. It's decent size, if not 1:1 than very close to it for one of the smaller lionfish species. It's made of a firm rubber, slightly softer than a Colorata (but just barely), and the fins are made of the same material cut paper thin. It comes with a suction cup and a fishing line to tie it with, the idea being you attach it to the side/bottom of your tank and it floats in mid water. They are a lot more impressive in the water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KYX1CAJ7x0






Today I got something I've been considering for a while, I used to collect glass and ceramic birds, but after deciding to let go of them I needed something new for my shelf. I have plenty of figures, but I wanted a centerpiece. I considered a few different things, and eventually decided on a 1:1 scale Canada goose. The Flambeau Outdoors Storm Front Decoys model fit my purposes perfectly. A lot larger and a lot more subtly detailed than it's lawn ornament equivalents, it's easily the largest (plastic) figure in my collection. I removed the counterbalance weight to help it lie flat. The heads are poseable and interchangeable but it only comes with one, the choice was an erect or a reaching posture, I thought the reaching was the more impressive of the two.








And to top it all off, I got home tonight to find a package waiting. I'm very fond of the TEDCO pterosaurs, shout out to Halichoeres  for the positive trade!

[Jetoar]

Wonderful acquisitions, jellyfish is really beautiful  .

[sbell]

So I just received my first commissioned fish models, sculpted by DTF member brandem--casts of which will be available in my store as soon as some adjustments are made!



They are a West African Lungfish, an African Freshwater Butterflyfish, and a Cuvier's Bichir

(Or, Protopterus, Pantodon, Polypterus), all from Africa...! It just kind of worked out as 3 Ps from Africa...

I also just received some new CollectA animals:

Black tip Reef Shark & Open-jaw Great White Shark


Leaping Nile Crocodile and Deluxe Spinosaurus!


Those are all available in the store.

[bmathison1972]

Yesterday at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, I bought an interesting book/box set for insects, called Animal Adventures: Insects and Spiders by Silver Dolphin Books. No images here, I'll show the elements of the set in a 'Review'.

[sauroid]

new(ish) ones
Mojo brown bear cub

Yujin Toba Aquarium Spotted Green Kidako Moray Eel


various Kaiyodo

[stargatedalek]

Two packages arrived today, the 4D animals are a tad bit late arriving but I don't really mind. I haven't been feeling well so I'm glad they arrived today of all days.

This package however arrived right on time:



Very pleased with the ROM Olenoides. I prefer to collect as close to 1:1 as possible and it's exciting to have a trilobite in that range (it's ever so slightly smaller than the largest specimen, so about spot on 1:1).


Halichoeres even threw in a Dinosaur King Futabasaurus. It's damaged but I don't mind a bit of a repair job. Also a tad nostalgic having grown up with the tv show.

Halichoeres was also awesome enough to help me grab this great eBay lot of Smithsonian insects. Credit of course also goes to
bmathison1972 on the ATF for posting the auction link. Thanks a ton both of you, pleasure to own these great models!



My third Lubber Grasshopper. One of its legs arrived in a separate envelope along with the mantis foot, the other felt very loose so I gave it a gentle wiggle until it slid out of its socket. Won't take much to glue them back in, it seems the glue "decaying"(?) is a common thing among lubbers. What I didn't expect was to realize there are colour variants (ironically I already had one of each!). The one in the middle is notably more orange than the other two and the patterns on the thorax are solid instead of dotted.



Was not expecting the mantis to be as impressive as it is. At first glance very similar to the Hidden Kingdom mantis (slightly customized), but very definitely not in the same league!



I knew it was gonna be big but I guess I never really got it through my head just how big it was going to be.



I wish I'd remembered to grab the AAA for a comparison, would have driven home just how truly massive it is.



The stag beetle has a really beautiful sheen, wish I knew what the species was. Compared to its Bug Blast counterpart, I really wish Bug Blast had copied more Smithsonian Insects instead of mixing them with chinabugs.



Rather taken by the scarab, it's the smallest (I think it is anyway, assuming of course that the flea is not in the same scale ) but it has a certain charm to it. I love the iridescence in particular. I'm curious about its eyes though (Don't do drugs nymphs...), does it really have four?



Probably (on paper anyway) the most unique of the line, the leaf insect.


And here's the whole lot together (plus the Bug Blast minis and Hidden kingdoms mantis).

And here's the other package:


I missed out on the Safari leafy seadragon to go with their weedy, so I had to snap this up when I saw it alongside the others. It's pretty dainty so I glued the pieces together to be on the safe side.


A little disappointed it can't stand up on its own, but still a very pleasing piece.



Very impressed by this one. I love how it even has the translucent bits between the rays.



First and only boxfish toy I've ever seen, very cute.

http://img15.deviantart.net/a6c6/i/2015/341/6/4/4d_puzzle_sea_life_by_michell_vall-d9jd51m.jpg
All 4 together.

[sbell]

The trick with the nautilus is making sure the bottom tentacles are positioned just right so that it can stand. but yeah, it's not good at that.

Nice bugs--I've often considered hunting down the centipede, but between space and how it doesn't really fit my collecting, I've passed so far!

[bmathison1972]

the dung beetle does not have four eyes, but rather the eyes are divided by a sclerite called a canthus. It might be more exaggerated in the figure than in nature; I no longer have neotropical scarab specimens to confirm.

A couple other figures in the series (monarch larva and bumblebee) are smaller; the Smithsonian insects are intended to be, I believe, all 2:1 in scale.

I am still missing the adult monarch and dragonfly (Smithsonian issues mind you, not the poseable Hidden Kingdom follow-ups).