Recent acquisitions

[Sim]

Today I acquired the Safari pelagic fish toob, which I'm impressed by.  I also acquired the Safari venomous creatures toob, which I have mixed feelings about.  It's the new version of the toob, which is both good and bad for me.  Good because it has the version of the Indian cobra that I wanted, bad because infuriatingly the yellow-bellied sea snake in the toob doesn't have a yellow belly.  I'm trying to find the yellow-bellied sea snake in its original colour scheme, help with that would be very much appreciated!

-SafariLtd Yellow-bellied Sea Snake

How did you get this figure in its original colour scheme?

[EpicRaptorMan]

@Sim I painted mine. Lots and lots of light coats of yellow acrylic paint, but I got it to be acceptable for my standards.

[Isidro]

Hello!
My passion with animal figurines collection resumed already, but I still have a bit of interest. I didn't bouhght any figure since February, but a couple of days ago I passed nearby my favourite CollectA-selling toy shop and I entered with only one objetive: to find if they have the new for 2023 boto or Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis). And yes, they have. So it's the 333th figure in my collection!




It's a perfect depiction of the species. CollectA is the only western major brand that dare with river dolphins. I hope some day they also make a Baiji. The boto figurine is bulkier than the Ganges dolphin one, but the snout of the latter is longer so both figures have almost the same lenght (the boto is very slightly longer).


It fits perfectly with some Japanese brands Amazonian big fishes.


That's a special animal for me. I went in 2017 to Duisburg zoo in Germany to see the last of his kind in captivity in the world outside native range (and there are absolutely zero possibilities of them being exported again to a zoo/aquarium outside native range). And within native range, there is only one other captive dolphin of this species, in Peru. Baby died on december 2020, at age 46, being the longest lived Amazon river dolphin under human care ever. Rest in peace Baby.



The same toy shop also have the CollectA Xiphactinus audax. I don't collect prehistorics but I was tempted to buy it. I was impressed by the quality. But start collecting prehistorics now? Hmmm. I don't have space even for more extant animals. Finally I've tought that we don't know the real life colours of a Xiphactinus and that made me reject the possible purchase.

[Sim]

@Sim I painted mine. Lots and lots of light coats of yellow acrylic paint, but I got it to be acceptable for my standards.

Thanks.  You did a great job painting it, I thought it was an unaltered figure!  After doing some more browsing, I've discovered that some real yellow-bellied sea snakes have a brown belly and look like the Safari figure!  So I'm going to stick with Safari's brown-bellied version.  Maybe I'll also call it by one of its alternate names, the pelagic sea snake.

[Koifish]

I've finally received all but one of my recent purchases, so I figured it was time to show them:



- Giant panda by Safari Ltd. Even though I already have Schleich's, which I like, I also really like Doug Watson's sculpt. So now I have two 
- Science & Nature Tasmanian Devil
- Southlands Replicas Dingo (thank you Sbell!!)

I love, love, love how it scales nicely next to the Hellbender Museum Tasmanian tiger 


My next figure to arrive is actually a bit on the "unconventional" side. I am unfortunately a huge sucker for them, though I'm also incredibly picky about them. I looked around for a good while until I finally came across a listing on eBay that fit (most) of my criteria for what I was looking for, and decided to snag it. The only hint I will give as to what it is, is that I did enjoy a certain "play" (also turned into several films) back in high school, by playwright Tennessee Williams, as one of the main characters takes part in a similar collecting hobby.

[bmathison1972]

Those are nice Koifish! I was on the fence for a dingo. I like the dynamic pose of the S.R. model but I think the Safari figure better captures the 'look' so I went with the latter. But the Safari dingo is a bit bigger and in an awfully static pose.

[Koifish]

Those are nice Koifish! I was on the fence for a dingo. I like the dynamic pose of the S.R. model but I think the Safari figure better captures the 'look' so I went with the latter. But the Safari dingo is a bit bigger and in an awfully static pose.

Those were nearly my exact thoughts; I also have (replacing) the Safari dingo; I love the color and the face, but something about it seems very "disproportioned" such as the legs, and the tail looking quite short. Also it's bigger than I would like.

[EpicRaptorMan]

Yes, I too got my Dingo from sbell.

These are my newest additions. The turkey replaced my old ugly Schleich one. And the Quagga replaced my custom repaint. The ToyMany Chinstrap penguin replaced the SafariLtd.
I also got a Tibetan Sand Fox and finally got the SafariLtd Opossum!!! But both are too large so I'm actively in the process of 3D printing those too at a smaller scale.

[Sim]

I've acquired the Safari river toob.  I got it for the salamander and cottonmouth, the salamander being my first figure of one!  I'm happy with them!

[sbell]

Happy to help with people getting the Dingo. Sadly, that's the end of what I had left over... not sure how many are available out in the world now.

I've often debated about the Tibetan fox... it appears to be getting harder to track down (more so the Pallas cat).

[JimoAi]

My latest haul: Some collectA,a PNSO and some anthropomorphic cephalopods and a ray

CollectA: Thylacine, Attenborousaurus and Right whale.

PNSO: Alamosaurus

[bmathison1972]

Ooooo. Nice to see the Alamosaurus. I'll order it once HHT gets it in stock!

[Fembrogon]

I had a BIG box day yesterday, mostly courtesy of @brettnj - a mix of extinct and extant animals. There was too much to catch in just a couple of photos, so I'll post the extinct stuff over at the DTB.



Takara Tomy tardigrade set - I have two of the four assembled so far. They're fun to work with and handle; they fit perfectly in the palm of your hand!



An assortment of brands, but of focus here are the Eikohs: sea otter, slow loris, and frilled lizard. These are delightful little figures.



And the star attraction of the entire haul - a surplus of Bandai geckos! ...And a few other Diversity of Life sets. I've been craving the leopard geckos most out of all the Diversity of Life figures, and with this I now own nearly all the variants. The peacock spiders are very cool too, if a little more fragile.
I have yet to fully open the coconut crab. I might let it sit and wait for a while to enjoy the others first...

[bmathison1972]

Ooooooo @Fembrogon - you got the Advanced coconut crab! I didn't get it, as it doesn't meet my current criteria for buying Japanese figures. I hope to see it on the Blog someday.

I do have the entire peacock spider set, and already reviewed the flying male+female pair on the Blog.

I have the tan tardigrade. I struggled forever with the damn thing and then realized I had the body segments backwards. LOL.

[Fembrogon]

Haha, I sympathize on the tardigrade, @bmathison1972! I had fun with it but I took a while to get it right. The translucency on the other versions doesn't make it easier, either!

I'm kind of surprised I managed to get the crab myself; it was in pretty high demand, it seemed. I can say with certainty it's the most expensive extant toy animal I've ever bought (more expensive than most of my extincts, too).
I think I've read all of your Diversity of Life reviews, spiders included, at least once; they played a big part in hooking me on the line. I plan to review the geckos in the near future and I'd be happy to reserve the crab as well.

[Sim]

I've acquired the Naturalism grass owl.  I like it and I was keen to get a figure of this interesting animal.

[SerAndrew]

Hi!
Today I received this short-faced bear (Arctodus pristinus). It's my first 3D printed figure but I have others on their way.
I've been buying some resin figures from artisans like Signatus or Beauty of the Beasts, but never 3D printed. This is a dangerous game!

Btw, I wasn't able to find the creator of the file to print, so if anyone knows the artist I would appreciate if he/she can let me know.

Bear is very good, I like the paint details on the face specially, gives him personality. It's printed as 1/20, so will fit with my pleistocene species. Hope you like it

[Sim]

It looks excellent, SerAndrew!

[SerAndrew]

It looks excellent, SerAndrew!

Thank you!
I'm really pleased with it. I realize now that the eyes on the pics seem a bit "allien-like", they are more natural in live.

I'm very excited about the other figures from the same seller that I'll receive in late december-january. Will update them here

[bmathison1972]

Got my Wild Past Studio Scutosaurus + Kotlassia pair. Thanks to @Halichoeres for helping me acquire them!

They are advertised at 1:20; I calculated the Kotlassia at 1:20 but the Scutosaurus closer to 1:23-1:28