Recent acquisitions

[Gwangi]

Always happy to see a positive review work. We write them but how much influence do they actually have?

[EpicRaptorMan]

I have the AliExpress knockoff version of the frogfish. And it's okay. But the size is a bit large for my tastes; I get it, it's the IC one, but from what I can tell the AliExpress knockoff is a really close comparison.

[BlueKrono]

@NSD Bashe See if you can find a glow-in-the-dark ball about the size of a marble or maybe a little smaller. I have this fish and iirc that's what its lure looks like. 

[NSD Bashe]

@BlueKrono Yeah thanks, from what I can tell I need a ball about 9 mm - 1 cm or so in diameter, so a little smaller than a regular marble size.  Here's how a marble looks for comparison  (this marble is about 1.5 cm)

[SerAndrew]

First batch of CollectA figures (yes, on my bed)

The llama is good but ridiculously small. I don't think it even fits with their last year alpaca.
No way I can display it with my Papo alpaca and guanaco. Replacing the Papo alpaca by CollectA's will not solve the problem, I think, they will be too small next to the guanaco. On the other hand, I think they will fit better with the other camelids (camel and dromedary).

Shark is, as we all knew, too big as well. But expected. As well as the dolphin. But at least this one fits with the Ganges dolphin.

Brands are not taking scales into account anymore. And I don't expect them to make their figures fit (well, yes, to some extent). But at least to keep some size hierarchy among their figures!

[JimoAi]

First batch of CollectA figures (yes, on my bed)

The llama is good but ridiculously small. I don't think it even fits with their last year alpaca.
No way I can display it with my Papo alpaca and guanaco. Replacing the Papo alpaca by CollectA's will not solve the problem, I think, they will be too small next to the guanaco. On the other hand, I think they will fit better with the other camelids (camel and dromedary).

Shark is, as we all knew, too big as well. But expected. As well as the dolphin. But at least this one fits with the Ganges dolphin.

Brands are not taking scales into account anymore. And I don't expect them to make their figures fit (well, yes, to some extent). But at least to keep some size hierarchy among their figures!

I personally think the goblin shark is alright size wise considering the monster sized specimens found in 2000 but the claspers does hinder that

[SerAndrew]

The goblin is ok, I can accept it and I was aware of the size.

The llama, however, is unacceptable and cannot join my collection.

[EpicRaptorMan]

Robert Wadlow is a real person. But I wont accept him as a normal representative for my human figurine collection 😂

Aside from that the goblin shark is too straight. I like the more dynamic posture of the Colorata figure.

[SerAndrew]

Well, no offense @EpicRaptorMan , but if one chases realism there's no way the Colorata can be put on top of CollectA despite the pose... I mean, lipstick, crazy eyes, lack of detail...

The most and only disturbing think in CollectAs are the blunt teeth, but we know how this is!

[EpicRaptorMan]

@SerAndrew yeah the paint and detail is not matched. But Colorata is the only other manufacturer that I could think of on the top of my head who made a Goblin Shark.

I actually opted for a larger knockoff version from AliExpress with the intentions of maybe one day repainting.

[SerAndrew]

@SerAndrew yeah the paint and detail is not matched. But Colorata is the only other manufacturer that I could think of on the top of my head who made a Goblin Shark.

I actually opted for a larger knockoff version from AliExpress with the intentions of maybe one day repainting.

There are several other from jap brands. Better than the Colorata IMHO but still at the small range and not very detailed.

Check for example: https://ninjaaquarium.web.fc2.com/aqua/AQUARIUMFIGURECOLLECTION/shinnkai/

[bmathison1972]

that set in the link above is by Kaiyodo, for anyone curious

[SerAndrew]

Bandai 2023 sharks:

[sbell]

@SerAndrew yeah the paint and detail is not matched. But Colorata is the only other manufacturer that I could think of on the top of my head who made a Goblin Shark.

I actually opted for a larger knockoff version from AliExpress with the intentions of maybe one day repainting.

There are several other from jap brands. Better than the Colorata IMHO but still at the small range and not very detailed.

Check for example: https://ninjaaquarium.web.fc2.com/aqua/AQUARIUMFIGURECOLLECTION/shinnkai/

There's lots of goblin shark figures, almost all Japanese, including from Play Visions, several from Takara (NHK and deep sea series) (open and closed mouth), the Kaiyodo MIU deep sea AND Deep sea capsule that was linked to, a tiny figure from a Wild Republic ball, and the huge Discovery Shark Week figure...there are actually a surprising amount of them in different sizes. This list only includes ones I have or had but I know that there are others beyond this--I once included a spare one with an order to a kid that started school and loved goblin sharks; his mom bought the Safari Prehistoric Sharks toob and I surprised them with it. Thankfully, the Takara are more toy-material and actually fit well with that set!

Bandai 2023 sharks:

I have those two coming eventually when I get my Japan order shipped (it will be a while). They look great, so I'm pretty happy about that.

[bmathison1972]

K&M morpho buttefly. This is a repaint of the monarch from the original Insects Polybag collection. I remember seeing polybags in the past that had this morpho rather than the monarch, but I never pursued it since I never saw it sold solo, until now. There is a '2020' stamp on it, but I am sure this paint job is older.
It's fairly generic, but I will database mine as the common blue morpho, Morpho peleides.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Beautiful butterfly. I think this, along with variable swallowtails, are my favorite butterflies to collect (albeit my assemblage is still premature). Congrats!

[bmathison1972]

Just got the complete Bandai Diversity set of ladybugs! It will be my next Blog review (probably late next week), so no pics yet ;-)

[Gwangi]

Just got the complete Bandai Diversity set of ladybugs! It will be my next Blog review (probably late next week), so no pics yet ;-)

Looking forward to that one!

[NSD Bashe]

Couple more of my "new for 2023" crossed off the list:



Folkmanis nudibranch and Bandai viper dogfish

[bmathison1972]

I recently got the Bandai viper dogfish, too! Cool figure!