Recent acquisitions

[Isidro]

The last one was the most deceiving. I asked for the Kaiyodo Capsule Q Museum Unique Animal zoo vol 2 tamandua, but I received instead a different tamandua figurine, in the same defensive posture than the Kaiyodo one. This unknown tamandua seems clearly larger than the Kaiyodo one, and have much worst quality, with undetailed fur texture, more noticeable seam around neck, the arms stretched straight (more upwards-curved in the Kaiyodo), nails open (closed in the Kaiyodo), a shorter tail in a different position, and the most unpleasant sight: big round unexpressive eyes very unlike the realistic eyes of the Kaiyodo tamandua.




This is the only indication of a brand, anybody knows what is it? Probably @Roger is interested in getting this one.



By last, this is not a purchase but I ended it the same day that I received the figures. It's a homemade Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruviana) that I did for my Peruvian boyfriend





Sorry for the very long messages! Now it's finished I promise     

[SerAndrew]

Good catches @Isidro
About the tamandua, I'm sure you can be refunded if that's not what you explicitely asked for! Good luck

[bmathison1972]

I recently acquired the Schleich 2021 manatee to replace the Papo version.

[RtasVadumee]

This may be interesting to some of you as I think no picture of these jewels have been shared among the community yet.

After a first set dedicated to owls, the almost unknown in the West Chinese brand Naturalism is back with six species of eagles :



Having already a pair of bald eagles, I ordered the five others but these morons just sent a bald instead of the Steller, so I still have to wait for the later and only have four of them to present today.





Most of you will be interested in the black and white hawk eagle as this is the first rendition of this species in toy form. But all are very worthy IMO, and consistent replacements for the figures you already have as they are, I think, the most compatible figures to go with a Western based collection, both from a size and aesthetic point of view. The texture of the feathers indeed, constrasts sharply with the very smooth Japanese figures and the paintjob outperforms many Western production's as proven by this comparison with the harpy from Safari, whose fate is now in the trash can !



Of course, they're all the same size so the bigger harpy and Philippine will result a bit small while the Spizaetus pair is truly humongous :



However, the quality of the models tend to lower the importance of size here, and despite a not perfect scale, these models look very harmonious among other eagles from Schleich, Safari, Papo etc...

[SerAndrew]

@RtasVadumee you should have bought the Steller's too, it's very good

[bmathison1972]

they are very nice indeed!

[EpicRaptorMan]

Interesting to see that Harpy Eagle compared to the 2023 Schleich one.

[RtasVadumee]

I finally received the missing Steller's sea eagle :



This figure having huge stability issues, you'll notice that I have been forced to make a base for the back foot.

Doesn't prevent the model to rank as my second favourite from that set. I saw my first Steller during my first visit to Beauval at young age and my child's mind was even more impressed by the beast than I was by the harpy two years ago, that's why it's quite a mythical species to me. Steller's sea eagle is traditionally associated to the idea of gigantism in my mind, that's why I would have liked a huge figure, yet I was already perfectly aware of the model's size and couldn't pass on a so brilliant rendition of this dear species. The eyes and beak especially, are sooo Steller-like, way more than any other figure's I know (Epoch & Kaiyodo).

Though not big enough, it's not ridiculous with other Haliaeetus, the figure being roughly the size of the Safari bald eagle but with less cartoonish proportions, like all the fabulous replicas from that set.



Now the eagle collection I wish is almost complete, only missing the serpent eagle from Kaiyodo I think.

[bmathison1972]

beautiful collection of raptors! And nice pics!

[SerAndrew]

Following with Naturalism eagles...
The bald eagle that was mentioned before finally decided to nest at my home. However, having no interest in another bald eagle and being not fond (at all!) of the last Papo, I decided to put it into trans-species surgery and made this...

(Not the best photos with my camera and with light in Madrid today...)



I added some clay in the head and beak and then simply repainted.
The original one:

[bmathison1972]

Four packages showed up today LOL

First, the Safari anaconda. Safari requires a minimum of $25 so I got their mustang (since the 2023 CollectA one is a larger scale) and the Masiakasaurus, which I have been eyeing for a while, just never got.



Next the recent 1:1 scale Primary Colour Japanese Dragonflies by Takara. One species, Sympetrum frequens, is new in toy form! Beetle Guy will be reviewing this set for the Blog



Lastly, some replacement figures. The CollectA chinchilla and Schleich rabbit replace Kaiyodo/Furuta pet series figures which require assembly. I might start doing this when a solid piece figure of a comparable size and quality is available. I would have gotten the chinchilla the first time around, but I assumed it was much larger than it is! I will review the rabbit around/on Easter. The large firefly is a rare vintage Bullyland figure. I had this figure, courtesy of an STS forum member, but it came with broken antennae. I seized the opportunity to get an intact figure!!!

[bmathison1972]

Got this new Dioramansion for photographing Museum posts. Will be great for waterfowl, small riparian mammals, frogs, turtles, riparian insects; basically any animal that lives in an aquatic habitat but comes on land at last sometimes

[Fembrogon]

Wonderful range of figures shown in here as always; @RtasVadumee those eagles look incredible!

I had a box arrive from Safari ltd yesterday with a variety of goodies; the Cryolophosaurus was the main incentive, but everything else looks quite nice too.



I've always been fond of morays, and have a couple of Safari's smaller bendy versions in storage; the Incredible Creatures figure is a very cool upgrade.
The kookaburra and the king vulture are splendidly sculpted, to my eye, and I've been thinking about having a red panda in my collection for a while, so this one is cute and satisfactory.
I haven't opened the Asia Toob yet, which is hiding behind the dinosaurs.

[bmathison1972]

Congrats Febrogon! My Cryolophosaurus came today too!

[Isidro]

Almost two weeks ago (I had no time for posting until now) I acquired these two jewels in my usual CollectA-selling toy shop. I went here especifically wishing to find the new basking shark, and indeed, it was here:






Cheek the inside of the mouth. It's an atonishing figure. Zillion times better than the older, simplistic and small Safari basking shark.


Sizewise it fits very nicely with the other plankton-eater sharks I have, Papo whale shark and Safari megamouth shark:
   


The other figure I bought is the scimitar-horned oryz¡x:



A bunch of Sahara Desert animals:


Sizewise if fits exactly with the Schleich gemsbok I have. I did not took photos of both together however, the gemsbok have very fragile customized horn tips, so I avoided the risk of bring it to my parent's garden for photo session.

[JimoAi]

@Isidro ur description posts are always *chef's kiss

[bmathison1972]

Bought several PV and CE figures from Cody, who announced a sale of many models.

From Club Earth I got the cloudless giant sulfur butterfly caterpillar! The LAST of the Caterpillars to Go set and I think the LAST figure I need to complete a Holy Grail insect set

From Play Visions Exotic Snakes, I got the following:
Bothriechis aurifer (Guatemaln palm viper)
Acrantophis madagascariensis (Madagascar boa)
Bitis gabonica (Gaboon viper)
Crotalus basiliscus (Mexican green rattler; marked as a basilisk rattlesnake)
Aspidelaps lubricus (Cape coral snake; marked as a sharp nose cobra)

From Play Visions Parrots & Cockatoos, I got the following:
Pionus menstruus (blue-headed parrot)
Lorius lory jobiensis (black-capped lory; marked as a Jobi Lory)
Arantinga solstitialis   (sun parakeet; marked as a sun conure)



Also got the For Corporation cloudy catshark!!!



Not shown is also the Favorite Archaeopteryx, which replaced Kaiyodo, which replaced PNSO. I like the PNSO one, but the damn thing wouldn't stand up. I replaced it with the Kaiyodo Dinotales figure, since the Favorite version is hard to buy in North America. Finally bought the latter when I found in on eBay from a North American seller!

[endogenylove]

Many things on my wishlist! I have only the playvisions palm viper so far.

[Gwangi]

Totally stoked to cross this set off the list. This set has been a holy grail for me since I got into this hobby.

[bmathison1972]

the whole set? Congrats Gwangi! What's funny is I used to see these at the AZ Natural Histoy Museum in Mesa when I lived in Arizona (2005 I think). Who knew they would have become so saught after.