My Cetacean collection

[callmejoe3]

So now here's an unusual on with an interesting story. There was a sperm whale toy listed on Etsy listed as ''7 inch sperm whale toy'' that for the longest time I just assumed it was just an MBA sperm whale calf based on these photos. The paint job was very similar.





However, upon closer inspection, I noticed the pose was different, and doing a head-to-head comparison made it more obvious. I bought it out of curiosity, and it just arrived today.









So now it has finally arrived. It's a Toy Major sperm whale from 1994, and its intended scale on the imprint stamp is 1:75. There's a photo of it on the Animal Toy Wiki, but it was a bit hard to tell. Similar to Playvisions tiger shark, great white, and hammerhead shark from around the time, it's pretty obvious that it's aping the look of the MBA sperm whale. Though in all regards, it's a nice looking figure with a good sculpt. The head's probably a bit to tall, but that's my only problem. It's a bit bigger than the calf and its similarity in paint job allows it to work well as an intermediate juvenile between the calf and the adult.

[callmejoe3]

Got the Monterey Bay Aquarium Mountain Display stand! And through the means that I've acquired it, I basically now own like 2-3 of every animal from the collection except for the narwhal and Giant Squid.



I also took a picture to show what the collection could have looked like if everything was to scale, and included even larger figures such as a male sperm whale and a blue whale. The sperm whale looks a little too big compared to the blue whale because of perspective issues with the way I wedged the blue whale onto the stand. However, the lengths are to scale as the sperm whale only comes out to 19.4 meters while the blue whale corresponds to 31.2 meters.

[bmathison1972]

Very very nice, callmejoe!

[sirenia]

Looks fantastic, good going!

[JimoAi]

Got the Monterey Bay Aquarium Mountain Display stand! And through the means that I've acquired it, I basically now own like 2-3 of every animal from the collection except for the narwhal and Giant Squid.



I also took a picture to show what the collection could have looked like if everything was to scale, and included even larger figures such as a male sperm whale and a blue whale. The sperm whale looks a little too big compared to the blue whale because of perspective issues with the way I wedged the blue whale onto the stand. However, the lengths are to scale as the sperm whale only comes out to 19.4 meters while the blue whale corresponds to 31.2 meters.

Now I wish the entire collection was in scale. It's hard to look at a great white bigger than an orca

[JimoAi]

Out of curiosity, do you scatter different species in having average or minimum size due to the size of the figure of that species for example, I have a smooth stingray that is 17cm long which is about 1:25 scale for a maximum size specimen and an orca at 19.cm and using it as a 20ft individual for a scale of 1:32? What I meant is to have them in the same collection together

[callmejoe3]

Out of curiosity, do you scatter different species in having average or minimum size due to the size of the figure of that species for example, I have a smooth stingray that is 17cm long which is about 1:25 scale for a maximum size specimen and an orca at 19.cm and using it as a 20ft individual for a scale of 1:32? What I meant is to have them in the same collection together

So if I'm understanding your question correctly, I don't keep figures in the same collection if there's a gap in scale for the size-ranges of adults. In the situation you describe, I probably wouldn't pair a stingray that's 1:25 for a maximum-sized individual with a 19cm killer whale, which would be a 4.75m/15.58 feet at the same scale. What I do is try to see if the two figures reasonably correspond to either their typical or maximum adult size ranges at the same scale. Anything below 5 meters would be below-average even for a female of the smallest killer whale ecotypes (Ross Sea).

[JimoAi]

Out of curiosity, do you scatter different species in having average or minimum size due to the size of the figure of that species for example, I have a smooth stingray that is 17cm long which is about 1:25 scale for a maximum size specimen and an orca at 19.cm and using it as a 20ft individual for a scale of 1:32? What I meant is to have them in the same collection together

So if I'm understanding your question correctly, I don't keep figures in the same collection if there's a gap in scale for the size-ranges of adults. In the situation you describe, I probably wouldn't pair a stingray that's 1:25 for a maximum-sized individual with a 19cm killer whale, which would be a 4.75m/15.58 feet at the same scale. What I do is try to see if the two figures reasonably correspond to either their typical or maximum adult size ranges at the same scale. Anything below 5 meters would be below-average even for a female of the smallest killer whale ecotypes (Ross Sea).

My marine life are not usually in the same scale except those ones that are 30feet and above. Here's what I follow:
Animals no more than a foot long: no more than 5cm

Animals that get up to 150cm to 210cm will be in the 1:20 scale

Animals from 300 to 430cm will be in the 1:25 scale

Animals in the 450cm to 500cm will be in the 1:28 scale

Animals 540cm to 600cm will be in the 1:30 scale and animals in the 1:31.5 scale are the ones in the 630cm range.

All animals that get to average/max size of more than 30ft will be in the 1:40 scale. All dinosaurs will be in the 1:35 scale.

I know it's alot to digest but it allows me to collect a wider range of fish, especially rays

[JimoAi]

 

Here's to make you understand where I'm going easier

The Yujin Blue tang is 5cm long and the largest blue tangs are about 31cm

The colorata  atlantic football fish is about 6.5cm and they get to about 60cm and it's an extreme as it's one of the few that breaks the scale rule but isn't too intrusive

The colorata Napoleon wrasse is 9.5cm corresponding to a 190cm adult male

The safari ltd Short tail stingray is an oddity though. Its a 1:20 scale figure compared to a 210cm wide individual when measured from the width but 1:25 scale at 17cm long corresponding to the longest recorded of 430cm I have trimmed the tail a little to meet those requirements.

The Papo Orca is 19.3cm long which corresponds to 1:31 scale for a 600cm male offshore orca which can get up to 21ft or so as you said.

And finally, the Papo whale shark is about slightly over 24cm but under 25cm which roughly corresponds to a 1:40 scale for a 960cm female.

In short, they may not be in scale but they are accepted if they do not look too off putting as in the bigger animals have to be larger Than the smaller ones. For example, a blue tang must be smaller than an orca but not the size of a great white

[callmejoe3]

@JimoAi

Seems like a fine way to partition the collection. You mention the assigned scales up to 630cm and what you describe for species 30ft and above. However, what scale do you subscribe to for species with an average or maximum size of 700-800cm?

[JimoAi]

@JimoAi

Seems like a fine way to partition the collection. You mention the assigned scales up to 630cm and what you describe for species 30ft and above. However, what scale do you subscribe to for species with an average or maximum size of 700-800cm?

They are about 1:33 scale to 1:38 if I do get them. Will be about slightly larger than the 630cm animals. Will come back when I get those said animals

[JimoAi]

@JimoAi

Seems like a fine way to partition the collection. You mention the assigned scales up to 630cm and what you describe for species 30ft and above. However, what scale do you subscribe to for species with an average or maximum size of 700-800cm?

Shouldn't be larger than 22.5cm though

[callmejoe3]

Adding my homemade models to the list. My 59.5cm Fin whale and my 41.5cm sperm whale bull. These are the updated models I just finished yesterday.

[callmejoe3]

I'm finally back from my radio silence! For those curious what has happened:

For basically all of July, I was retaking Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry courses and aced both

For August, I was hired for a new job in South Carolina and had to move all of my stuff in two waves. My animal figures just came over this past weekend and I currently only have a shelf available for my ''main'' whale figures.



Here, all of Balaenopteridae ( I don't consider Eschriichtidae to be valid based on modern phylogenetic data)


Balaenidae+ Neobalaenidae+ Physeteroidea



MBA display




Other odontocetes+ fossil cetaceans

[bmathison1972]

Wow that's really awesome display Joe!

EDIT: I failed organic chemistry first time I took it. 24 years as a clinical microbiologist and I've used almost nothing from the course LOL

[Gwangi]

Welcome back! Love the display, that cetacean collection is jaw dropping.

[callmejoe3]

About 8 days ago, my PNSO Livyatan arrived. Here's the photos I've posted on Twitter













The Livyatan is about 34cm long

At the 1:40  scale

Livyatan-13.6m
Pilot whale-6.4m
Killer whale-7.7m
Gray whale-11.4m
Female sperm whale-11.6m
Humpback-14.48m
Male sperm whale-16.6
Rheic Livyatan-19.2 (unrealistic)
Blue whale-31.2m

At the 1:40 scale, the figure is at the lower bound estimate for holotype's specimen's total length, which is derived from scaling the bizygomatic width with that of the modern sperm whale. The approximate skull length of the PNSO Livyatan is 6.4m. The total length of the Pisco Formation holotype skull is estimated at 294cm. This places the model at roughly the 1:46 scale to the holotype. This would in turn result in a 15.6m whale.

[bmathison1972]

neat! My Livyatan is enroute!

[Gwangi]

As much as I want a Livyatan I'm holding back on this one for the time being, due mostly to the visible seams and price point. I'm banking on CollectA or some other company hopefully releasing one in due course but if I end up having to wait too long I may just settle on this one.

[bmathison1972]

As much as I want a Livyatan I'm holding back on this one for the time being, due mostly to the visible seams and price point. I'm banking on CollectA or some other company hopefully releasing one in due course but if I end up having to wait too long I may just settle on this one.

I like your thinking, but I get too impatient when a cool new species appears on the scene