Recent acquisitions

[SerAndrew]

I have a taobao parcel on the way, including the NTC red-bellied newt, ayu, and frogfish, the Kaiyodo day gecko, xingu river ray, fleischmann's glass frog, nutria, iriomote cat, izu thrush, and japanese shrew mole, Yujin manu poison frog, takara taipan and golden toad, PNSO tree kangaroo, SO-TA male bee hummingbird, Qualia Tiger Keelback, Naturalism (the brand which made the owls with tilted heads) Black and White Hawk Eagle, and strangely, the yowies palila and horned guan.

I have nearly all of those too LOL.

Most of them represent unique species for any species collector - although I will admit to being somewhat inspired by your collection

Hi sorry, which is the Naturalism black and white hawk eagle? Can you send the TaoBao link??

Thanks!

[endogenylove]

Here is a link on ParcelUp, a site I use to navigate taobao. It seems to be a set of eagles, featuring a bald eagle, philippine eagle, stellar's sea eagle, harpy eagle, ornate hawk-eagle, and the unique black and white hawk eagle.
https://parcelup.com/shop/item.php?id=673657441985#4846360848636

[Isidro]

Extremely interesting eagle set, endogenylove! As you acquired some, ¿could you put a size comparison photo with any raptor of the Colorata raptor set, the Safari LTD California condor, or the Science & Nature wegde-tailed eagle?

[endogenylove]

Extremely interesting eagle set, endogenylove! As you acquired some, ¿could you put a size comparison photo with any raptor of the Colorata raptor set, the Safari LTD California condor, or the Science & Nature wegde-tailed eagle?

I don't have the figure yet, it is still on route. The only one of these I have is the science and nature eagle, which I will not be able to have in-hand until december. I will provide the comparison then though!

[Isidro]

Many thanks! Any indication of size of the Naturalism figures? I can't see that in your link...

[endogenylove]

Many thanks! Any indication of size of the Naturalism figures? I can't see that in your link...

I honestly do not know, although I have two of the owls. Here in this old photo you can see a size comparison between the naturalism owls and the science and nature eagle, along with some other figures. I would assume the eagle will be roughly in the same size range, and that the eagles would vary in size somewhat like the owls did by species. There is also a bit of depth perception fake-out in this image, the larger owl and the eagle are about the same height.

[Isidro]

Many thanks! If eagles are roughly as big as owls from same brand, I fear they will be too large for me. Fortunately Safari did a smaller Philippine eagle this year,but as a part of a TOOB it will be difficult to get it alone...

[Isidro]

Those are my newest additions. They come from a package from Croatia by STS member tonhian24. He sent me the figures before I was able to pay because I didn't knew the total amount. We were solving this by private messages in STS forum, but just when I asked about the amount to pay, a malware appeared in my pc (I already tried countless things for get rid of it, including paying 45€ to an informatic for do nothing...) resulting that I'm unable to enter in STS forum (and also in another forum that is my whole life since 2007) as a registered member, as soon as I log in, it appears a malware page instead. As a result, I was unable to pay him. I asked my dear friend Roger if he can contact tonhian24 and tell him my email adress so he can write me and then I can pay, but it seems tonhian24 still didn't readed that message from Roger, as he didn't wrote me. I hope this situation can be solved soon

Anyway here are the figures I got from him:

1. The absolutely magnific Schleich grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus). A figure that various brands bought and released under their names, but mine is marked Schleich. I don't know which brand is the original one, probably Maia & Borges?




With 27 centimeters lenght, this figure is the largest and heaviest of my collection, as convenient for a large whale. It even surpasses the Safari right whale:


And now, the grey whale (calf) swimming in the California coasts bottoms with an exceptionally large leopard shark:


Needless to say, a repaint for this whale is mandatory
   

[Isidro]

2. The Papo dromedary. Together with Schleich one they're the best dromedaries currently in the trade, and with a perfect size compared with most hoofstock on my collection. This is my first camelid.




Some encounters in the desolated lands of the Sahara desert. The dromedary and a barbary sheep competes for the few remains of dry plants.


A fennec fox cheeck out with curiosity this humongous beast.
 

[Isidro]

3. Changing radically from the dry environment of the Sahara to the luxurious jungle of the Congo basin. A magnific male silverback western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), perfectly recreated by Schleich, adventures into a clearing of the rainforest.





Curiosity arouses between two gentle ghosts of the African rainforest. They evaluate each other and after a while each one go their way.



The African equatorial jungle is the land of the primates. Cheeky guenons such as this Diana monkey sometimes tease gorillas for fun.



Contrarily, this male mandrill is more serious. He just follow the gorilla with the hope that he releases some fruit remains. After a long travel with no success, the mandrill decides to abandon and look for fruit himself.

[Isidro]

4. Now to the rocky slopes of Mediterranean mountains. The Collecta European mouflon (Ovis musimon), totally accurate as usual for CollectA ungulates.




My two sheeps, both from CollectA, matches perfectly with each other. Both have the head lowered, so ideal for representing both browsing and fighting.


The two big ungulates of the Mediterranean forest, the mouflon and the fallow deer, are also a perfect match together.
   

[Isidro]

5. The Schleich howling common wolf (Canis lupus). I knew that if some day I acquire a wolf for my collection, it had to be howling. I just love this iconic position.



The wolf welcomes the dawn at the entry of his den with a long howl.


This photo resulted horribly blurry, but I wanted to show comparison between my two wolves: common wolf and Ethiopian wolf.


A bit forced, because a howling wolf cannot represent well a running wolf. I tried to manage the photo so it seems that the wolf is pursuing a desperate wild boar.
 

[Isidro]

6. The last one is the Schleich arctic fox. Wandering slowly in the desolated ice plains of the tundra, looking for anything edible.



This is a substitution figure. I already had an arctic fox in my synoptic collection: the Safari arctic fox. It's a good figure, and represents well the species with a very thick winter coat, especially in the neck. However, it's humongous. Compared with other arctic aninmals I have like polar bear, walrus, harp seal or reindeer, Safari fox had the size of an arctic wolf. Schleich one is more slender and have a maybe slightly too long tail, but it's MUCH smaller and it goes much more perfectly sized for my collection. Now I also need to replace my fennec fox for a smaller one like Eikoh...



Schleich arctic fox is much better in size when compared for example with Papo red fox:



And here, the favourite activity of arctic fox: follow from a prudent distance a polar bear, in the hope he chases some seal and then the fox can eat the remains after the bear is satisfied.
 

[NSD Bashe]

Now this is one of my favorite type of things to find...  a seemingly vintage toy anglerfish that I've never seen anywhere before and have no real information about, other than it turns out to exist.  It is nearly four inches long, old and rubber although quite a bit stiffer and more solid than say a "jiggler" toy, similar to those old hollow rubber dinosaurs with the goofy teeth that often glowed in the dark.  And speaking of, while a little difficult to see in the photo it does indeed glow in the dark.  On the underside, there does not appear to be any kind of marking, not even a "made in Hong Kong" or stray copyright symbol.  I know not if this is a one-off model or part of a set; and if this is from a set I have to wonder what other deep sea animals may have been included, and if they're still out there somewhere...  Although, this being my first time to ever lay eyes on this toy I would suspect they're quite rare to come across.  Not unlike the real world deep sea I suppose.













       

[bmathison1972]

You've introduced us to so many deep sea fish I never knew were made! You keep coming up with new ones! 

[Isidro]

Now comes a very major bunch of Japanese figures bought via Brett and arrived a week ago. Some are truly magnific, others are a bit disappointing because resulted larger than expected, others were surprising and others were deceiving. Will explain on each one now.

1) First one is the magnific Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) by Kaiyodo "Wild Rush" series. In my opinion it's the best shoebill figurine ever produced, and the proportions and posture feels much more accurate than for example the CollectA shoebill. It's a figure with a base, that you know I don't favour, but I can accept it for a so fabulous figure as this one. The presence of a base also allows the figure to have the legs really thin, respecting the real proportion of leg thickness as in the real bird, something that western brands never make with long-legged birds. The size is very slightly smaller than I would wish but certainly I prefair this slightly too small shoebill than the humongous CollectA one. From Kaiyodo Wild Rush I already had the serval, one of my very first Japanese figurines, and both are built at same scale. The series also have a rhinoceros and a lion with the mane waving in wind.




The Kaiyodo shoebill fits very well in size with CollectA hippopotamus. This scene is probably common in Nile river, but the bird is really stoic and stand quiet and unimpressed despite the giant yawn of the water colossus.


It also fits very well with some of my long-legged waders such as the jabiru. Of course, however, is a bit small when compared with my ibises or herons, and too big with the whooping crane.







2) The second is another large predatory bird that likes wetlands. But this time is a raptor: the fabulous Kaiyodo Asahiyama 5 white-tailed sea eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla, produced in 2012.





It comes with a base and a branch for stand, but unlike most bird figurines, is not the feet what are attached to the branch, but it stands by a plug that fits in a hole in the rump. The hole is large and deep but relatively unobtrusive due to complexity of feather sculpting around and the dark coat of paintjob in this zone.


This Kaiyodo sea eagle fits perfectly with my Colorata sea eagles. Wings are more folded so wingspan is much lesser, but body bulk is the same. The Kaiyodo eagle is much more detailed than the Colorata eagles, having feather texture sculpted, better proportions in head, much better legs with clearly defined claws. The position of toes in legs is somewhat enigmatic, with all toes oriented forwards like a mousebird (the only bird in the world than can do that), but it's a minor issue in this fantastic figure.


The hungry nordic eagle lands in a dead Siberian weasel...




   

[Isidro]

but checks that it smells too bad. Not healthy for eat. So the eagle soars and ends in a very distant zone, in western Siberia, where the red-breasted geese have their breeding grounds. One goose will not see the light of the next day...







3) Another masterpiece: the Yujin Pacific ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) from Primary color revised Chelonia book, released in 2002 and discontinued. I think Yujin did some of the best turtles of all brands. The quality and attention to detail is amazing, overall in the minute scales of flippers and head.




It have a not much obtrusive hole for fit a rod in the middle of the plastron.


It's my second sea turtle after the good old Papo leatherback, that fits perfectly in size with my newcomer.







4) Now comes two figures from a relatively recent set, the Ikimon/Kitan Club/Nature Techni Colour "MICRO Nature of Satoyama" set. The figures of this set are really TINY. What is good for smaller species on scale-conciousness collectors. And for what I chosed the two smaller species of the set: the Siberian weasel and the copper pheasant.

The Siberian weasel (Mustela frenata) have the typical "perfection" quality level of Ikimon, that is in my opinion the most superior of all Japanese brands. Despite being so diminutive, the figure have greater detail than many bigger figures of western or Japanese brands.



A clever move for these micro figures was to do the legs folded against the body, both in the weasel as in the pheasant. This way the sculptors avoided both a visually umpleasing thick-legged figurine, and a fragile figurine that would end with some broken leg after some playing. The feet sole is as detailed as the rest of the animals, with the pulvini sculpted and painted with great precision.


My mustelid collection for now. I would wish the weasel was very slightly bigger, for fit better with my marbled polecat, however I think it looks nicely proportioned with the Schleich wolverine.


And now, a reunion of Siberian mammals, also with good size proportions between different species:

[Isidro]

5) The other Ikimon MICRO Nature of Satoyama figure I bought is the equally tiny copper pheasant (Syrmaticus soemmerringii). It's not a very colorful pheasant species, but is nice. The figure is very highly detailed with each wing feather sculped and very realistic.



As with the weasel, the sculptor avoided too fragile or too thick legs by making a sitting pheasant.


The copper pheasant is very slighyly too small when compared with my other landfowl, but the difference is minimal and it fits more or less well:


However, I disliked the color pattern of the tail, that is painted in a simple cream-and-chestnut pattern. Real copper pheasants have a more complex pattern that changes gradually from dark chestnut to grey-white in each tail band. And also the tail is too short for a pheasant that have one of the longest tails in proportion to body. Adding paste tips on the tail without breaking the silhouette of it is more difficult than it seems! And as I was customizing it... well, this birds also needed standing feet. So with standing feet and longer tail, it doesn't looks so small together with my other pheasants.

Before:


After:






6) Now wandering into a new brand for my collection: Eikoh. Eikoh Miniature Planet have some very nice figures, and even if the detail is not as sharp as in other Japanese brands, it's far enough. My favourite Eikoh figure was the king cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, and that is what I got. It's a prety good snake with accurate scaling on head and on the underside of the hood, not so accurate on the body. The paintjob is a bit lazy, and the transverse stripes do not follow the shape of the body in the curves, but I think that is a minor issue.




The size of this king cobra is perfect together with my other snakes, both with enormous pythons and with smaller vipers and ratsnakes. By the way, the smaller snakes must be careful: king cobras only eats other snakes!!


Somewhere in the Western Ghats, a king cobra is surprised by a gentle nilghai that walks in search of pasture. The snake hisses and spread its hood, but being a mild-tempered species, soon it sees that the ungulate is not a threat and it retreats into the forest.

[Isidro]

7) A stag beetle of the species Prosopocoilus dissimilis (as suggested by Blaine by appareance and distribution). This is my only branded insect. I bought it in a flush of passion, thinking that it would be the only branded insect enough small for my collection ever done. For buy the beetle one also must buy a dog, an insect net, an insect cage and a cicada exuvia, none of which are interesting to me, but I tought the beetle would worth the buying of the other things. It belongs to a little known brand called Re-Ment, of course new brand for my collection.



The insect is probably as detailed as a mass produced figure can be. Thinner legs and the presence of antennae are things that one can't expect in a branded stag beetle of this size. However, the sutural line of elytra is well defined, while the joints between head and thorax, and thorax-elytra, are not. It would have been much nicer if they did a sharper separation on these joints.


Here the stag beetle newly emerged from its pupal chamber in a rotting log.


The underside is relatively detailed, there are not abdominal joints but the gular area under the head is well sculpted.


This stag beetle is slightly too big when compared with my only other beetle, a homemade goliath:


In fact, this beetle is noticeably bigger in scale than any of my other insects. But I can stand with that, is not a so striking difference.







Again a top quality figure and a full right guess in my purchases!! The Kaiyodo dorado (Salminus brasiliensis) from the Sunshine aquarium series, released under older synonym Salminus maxillosus. This fish model is PERFECT in every sense: texture, detail, paintjob, size, position...




Here my Amazonian fish team growing. The flagtail characin is a bit too large compared with the others, but in my defence, it was done before I had any of the others.

[Isidro]

And now, it will comes those figures that I bought (or not!) but that I must discard for my collection.

The most difficult is the white-blotched river stingray, Potamotrygon leopoldi. This figure is so absolutely neat and well done in appareance that the inclusion in collection seems mandatory.


However, when compared with all my other rays, the excessive size it's too striking for me to include it.


This ray comes from the Capsule Q "Dangerous animals" series of Kaiyodo, that also includes a giant centipede, two fire salamanders (same sculpt in two colors) and a 1:1 cubozoan. Strangely enough, three of these unsolicited cubozoans gets into my package, very probably because buying the ray with cubozoans had been a cheaper option that buy it alone.



Another one that is pretty good but too strikingly big is the Kaiyodo Japanese spiny lobster (Panulirus japonicus) from the Enoshima aquarium series. After having bought it, Blaine published an entry about it in his Museum thread, indicating a scale of 1:7, which surprised me. But now, having the lobster in hand, I see that certainly it's far from the 1:15-1:20 ideal scale that I would wish for a crustacean.



Certanly, too striking sized when compared with my only other crustaceans. Suggestion of realistic crustaceans done at roughly same scale than the Kaiyodo crabs shown below, are welcome!


Another figure I guessed badly is the Eikoh green pheasant (Phasianus versicolor). The Ikimon copper pheasant was very slightly smaller than wished, but the Eikoh green pheasant is way bigger than wished. Plus not very detailed in sculpt nor in paintjob.


It's not easy to perceive in the photo but is much larger than my other pheasants in proportion.