My Non-Cetacean Animal collection

[JimoAi]

I finally got it! The Monterey Bay Aquarium Thresher Shark!



I got it as part of this huge lot of vintage marine animal toys, mostly consisting of the Monterey Bay Aquarium figures and AAA. The person who owned this was quite the collector. Not only having a good chunk of the MBA figures, but they appear to be the original 90s casts. I plan on keeping some of them for the sake of comparing them to the newer casts that were already in my collection. I plan on keeping the humpback, sperm whale, dolphin, beluga, and orca. I'm planning on selling off the great white, tiger shark, great hammerhead, whale shark, sawfish, and manta ray because I already own the older casts to these.



This person even had a neat booklet with all the old info that was present on the tags of the earlier releases. I plan on adding this to the thread I made on the tags.



Now here are the AAA figures of this set.


And here's the miscellaneous group of figures I have yet to identify. Exceptions being the epaulette shark being K&M International and the red octopus being Toy Major.

You mean the ones that are still in production uses different molds than the previous ones?

[callmejoe3]

@JimoAi
The molds the casts are produced from are essentially the same, but the casts from the older versions tend to have differences from the current versions. Along with having different paint jobs, the older figures tend to have differences in body proportions, such as the older humpback having a thinner and wider body than the modern one, the older bottlenose dolphin having more girth than the current one, or the older sperm whale being noticeably a bit longer. Another difference is the casts are made from different materials, with the older casts generally being more rubbery and flexible than the modern figures, which are made from a stiffer material.

[JimoAi]

The new manta ray is very flexible

[callmejoe3]

The new manta ray is very flexible

Like I said, it's only the general case. For the Manta and possibly the other chondrichthyans, it's the opposite situation, but for the Humpback whale, Narwhal, Beluga, and Bottlenosed dolphin, the older figures are very noticeable more rubbery in texture. Now in the case of the Bottlenosed dolphin and beluga, they've had atleast 3 casts and it's their 2nd ones that are the most rubbery, and the original casts are more similar to the current figures. Now I normally don't go out of my way to collect different casts, because on their own I don't find them different enough to hunt down. I simply keep them whenever they're part of a used collection I get when looking for other figures.

[callmejoe3]

The new manta ray is very flexible

@JimoAi  Just checked. When comparing the chondrichthyans that I currently have both the new and older casts for, the Sawfish was more flexible than the older cast like the manta, but the older Great White was more flexible, like in the humpback whale's case.  The whale sharks are about the same, just different in paint job and size.

[callmejoe3]

I finally DID IT! I've just recieved the otter pair!



And with that, I own the complete Monterey Bay Aqaurium collection!

[bmathison1972]

congratulations, @callmejoe3 - I recently completed the otter pair as well!

[callmejoe3]

congratulations, @callmejoe3 - I recently completed the otter pair as well!

Between the Thresher shark and Pacific White-sided dolphin, I was almost convinced I'd never get this collection completed.

[K907]

@callmejoe3 I love it!!! I completed mine years ago. I do have 3 paint variants of the sea otter pair, I'll post it when I can.

I find the refreshed version of the Giant Squid, cuter especially of the eyes and paint job, I'm gonna get that one too.

[callmejoe3]

@callmejoe3 I love it!!! I completed mine years ago. I do have 3 paint variants of the sea otter pair, I'll post it when I can.

I find the refreshed version of the Giant Squid, cuter especially of the eyes and paint job, I'm gonna get that one too.

Ooh, if you have variants of those, please post those over on the thread I've started for cataloging the variants. The otters are among the pre-94 figures, so I'd imagine they would have had a fair number of variants.

[K907]

@callmejoe3 I love it!!! I completed mine years ago. I do have 3 paint variants of the sea otter pair, I'll post it when I can.

I find the refreshed version of the Giant Squid, cuter especially of the eyes and paint job, I'm gonna get that one too.

Ooh, if you have variants of those, please post those over on the thread I've started for cataloging the variants. The otters are among the pre-94 figures, so I'd imagine they would have had a fair number of variants.

Will do!!!

[bmathison1972]

congratulations, @callmejoe3 - I recently completed the otter pair as well!

Between the Thresher shark and Pacific White-sided dolphin, I was almost convinced I'd never get this collection completed.

I got one of the otters on eBay back in July 2020 and was content with one, but in the last few weeks I saw the other on eBay so I thought I'd get it since they were sold as a pair

[Advicot]

Great collection of all the Safari Monterey Bay figures!

I don't have any yet but I do however have their pacific white sided dolphin on my wishlist 

[Isidro]

Congrast for being able to complete such a magnific collection!

[callmejoe3]

Congrast for being able to complete such a magnific collection!

Thank you, it took a painstaking amount of monitoring on eBay, Mercari, and Etsy to get it done, especially the Pacific white-sided dolphin

[callmejoe3]

Great collection of all the Safari Monterey Bay figures!

I don't have any yet but I do however have their pacific white sided dolphin on my wishlist

Ooh, that's a rare one. Not sure if the listing will be available where you live, but on eBay there's currently a listing for a used shark lot that includes the Big-eyed Thresher Shark, if you eventually like to get all the figures. It's easily the next rarest figure to find after the pacific white-sided dolphin. After that, I'd prioritize any calf you come across.

[Loon]

Wow, it's so cool to see all of them together. They really hold up so well, which I can't say for many of the Carnegie figures released at the same time. I've got to get those otters, they look really nice.

[callmejoe3]

Anyone have any recommendations on octopus figures? Most of them seem rather nice, I might go with the CollectA figure, though I'm also curious about the Mojo figure as well, since not too many seem to talk about that one. It seems nice enough, and it only has one siphon, unlike the Safari Giant Pacific Octopus and Papo octopus.

[bmathison1972]

Anyone have any recommendations on octopus figures? Most of them seem rather nice, I might go with the CollectA figure, though I'm also curious about the Mojo figure as well, since not too many seem to talk about that one. It seems nice enough, and it only has one siphon, unlike the Safari Giant Pacific Octopus and Papo octopus.

Common octopus:
Too bad the Papo one has two siphons, because it has a nice sculpt otherwise. I have the CollectA version. The Maia & Borges one is nice, but I can't tell from pics if the siphon number is correct.

Giant Pacific:
The three from Safari (orange and blue/green Wild Safari or IC); the IC figure would be pretty big though.

Otherwise, smaller Japanese figures by Yujin, Kaiyodo, etc.

[callmejoe3]

Common octopus:
Too bad the Papo one has two siphons, because it has a nice sculpt otherwise. I have the CollectA version. The Maia & Borges one is nice, but I can't tell from pics if the siphon number is correct.

Giant Pacific:
The three from Safari (orange and blue/green Wild Safari or IC); the IC figure would be pretty big though.

Otherwise, smaller Japanese figures by Yujin, Kaiyodo, etc.

The Maia and Borges figure only has one siphon. Mojo is the same sculpt and this listing shows the profile from both sides

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mojo-OCTOPUS-plastic-animal-sea-toy-figure-model-figurine-fish-bath-marine/233663282082?hash=item36676abba2:g:mzEAAOSwP8NfECiq