Chondricthyans

[sphyrna18]

The pelvic fins with blunt tips (versus acute and more tapering in A. vulpinus) and rather smallish eyes (versus big ones in A. supercilosus) allows the figure to be identified as a Pelagic Thresher. Total length (TL) of the figure is 175 mm so the scale is between 1:15 and 1:22 for a mature individual. Human figure (Minimen Andreas Köpke) is 1:20 scale.

First, as always, Andre, great walk around of a very decent figure.  I just wanted to note that this figure could represent A. vulpinus, as it features a broad snout and wide mouth; A. pelegicus has a very narrow head, straight forehead, slender snout and a narrow mouth. In regards to the pelvic fins, they are obviously blunted - definitely not as tapered and pointed as they should be for A. vulpinus, but the head, snout, and mouth all accurately represent A. vulpinus far better than A. pelegicus. 

I love this figure, but there are several glaring inaccuracies:  such as the total lack of second dorsal fin (all three species of Threshers have a second dorsal, albeit greatly reduced). Also, it lacks nostrils.  It's a shame because this is a really attractive figure even with these inaccuracies; imagine how awesome it would have been without them.

[sbell]

The pelvic fins with blunt tips (versus acute and more tapering in A. vulpinus) and rather smallish eyes (versus big ones in A. supercilosus) allows the figure to be identified as a Pelagic Thresher. Total length (TL) of the figure is 175 mm so the scale is between 1:15 and 1:22 for a mature individual. Human figure (Minimen Andreas Köpke) is 1:20 scale.

First, as always, Andre, great walk around of a very decent figure.  I just wanted to note that this figure could represent A. vulpinus, as it features a broad snout and wide mouth; A. pelegicus has a very narrow head, straight forehead, slender snout and a narrow mouth. In regards to the pelvic fins, they are obviously blunted - definitely not as tapered and pointed as they should be for A. vulpinus, but the head, snout, and mouth all accurately represent A. vulpinus far better than A. pelegicus. 

I love this figure, but there are several glaring inaccuracies:  such as the total lack of second dorsal fin (all three species of Threshers have a second dorsal, albeit greatly reduced). Also, it lacks nostrils.  It's a shame because this is a really attractive figure even with these inaccuracies; imagine how awesome it would have been without them.

I always knew something was 'off' about the face of an otherwise great figure (must have been the nostrils--pretty important for animals for whom smell is so vital) but I never even noticed the posterior dorsal fin. That's just kind of lazy--unless it was a molding issue--the fin is so small that it is possible (I don't know for sure) that it wasn't even showing up at this scale.

On the other hand, if Nayab could do it, there isn't much excuse:

[AnimalToyForum]

Great overview and interesting discussion. It is a shame about the minor inaccuracies, although to be fair, the second dorsal fin is hardly visible, so I can understandable if it was overlooked by the sculptor.

[brontodocus]

The pelvic fins with blunt tips (versus acute and more tapering in A. vulpinus) and rather smallish eyes (versus big ones in A. supercilosus) allows the figure to be identified as a Pelagic Thresher. Total length (TL) of the figure is 175 mm so the scale is between 1:15 and 1:22 for a mature individual. Human figure (Minimen Andreas Köpke) is 1:20 scale.

First, as always, Andre, great walk around of a very decent figure.  I just wanted to note that this figure could represent A. vulpinus, as it features a broad snout and wide mouth; A. pelegicus has a very narrow head, straight forehead, slender snout and a narrow mouth. In regards to the pelvic fins, they are obviously blunted - definitely not as tapered and pointed as they should be for A. vulpinus, but the head, snout, and mouth all accurately represent A. vulpinus far better than A. pelegicus. 

I love this figure, but there are several glaring inaccuracies:  such as the total lack of second dorsal fin (all three species of Threshers have a second dorsal, albeit greatly reduced). Also, it lacks nostrils.  It's a shame because this is a really attractive figure even with these inaccuracies; imagine how awesome it would have been without them.

Hi Chad, many thanks for your input! And, yes, I agree with your complaints, too (but I'm still overly happy that we've got a good thresher shark figure this year).
The figure has indeed characters that would also support the idea that it may represent A. vulpinus instead of A. pelagicus. I believe that the sculptor had photos of both as a reference, being unaware that these are actually two distinct species (they may well have all been identified as A. vulpinus because they are so often confused with each other). But I'm sure the reference for at least the lateral view must have come from A. pelagicus. So it's a matter of which of these characters you consider more important (or if it's better to simply leave it as Alopias sp.). In fact it's more complicated than I wrote above. I weighed other characters from an identification key over head and mouth width, though.

Characters for A. pelagicus that are present in the WS Sealife figure (I've copied the text from here.  The entire reference can be downloaded as a zip file which contains many pdf files. The Alopiidae are in the document w7192e45.pdf and in general it's a reference worth getting, I've found it through fishbase):
Sides above pectoral-fin bases without an extension of the white abdominal area; pectoral fins nearly straight and broad-tipped (they are slightly curved on the figure but not as falcate and especially not pointed as in vulpinus); distance between pelvic and caudal-fin bases shorter than prebranchial length (i.e. head in front of gill slits, this means that the caudal peduncle is shorter as in A. vulpinus); a weak horizontal groove on nape on each side from level of mouth to pectoral fins (that's the shallow longitudinal groove we see on the sides of the head above the gill slits in the figure, it's also visible in Sean's Nayab Thresher Shark); the first dorsal located about equidistant between the pectoral and pelvic-fin bases or slightly closer to the pectoral-fin bases.

And while I don't know how big the intraspecific variability is, all reference illustrations I've seen seem to show A. pelagicus having a less pointed first dorsal fin and the figure has a rather blunt one, too. All in all I think there are more similarities with the Pelagic Thresher, although the head would indeed clearly speak for A. vulpinus.

[brontodocus]

A walk-around of the 2014 Schleich Wild Life Largetooth Sawfish, Pristis microdon Latham, 1794 - which may or may not be a junior synonym of the Common Sawfish, Pristis pristis (Linnaeus, 1758). Total length (TL) is 167 mm so the scale is anywhere between approx. 1:15 and 1:45 for an individual that has reached maturity (length data from P. pristis were used as a reference here).
Schleich officially identified the figure as Pristis zijsron but the number of teeth on the rostrum (18 pairs), the forward position of the first dorsal, and the presence of a ventral lobe on the caudal fin suggests P. microdon instead. However, it has been suggested in 2013 to regard P. pristis, P. microdon, and P. perotteti as a single species, P. pristis (Linnaeus, 1758), and IUCN has followed this suggestion. P. pristis is considered "Critically Endangered" by IUCN (and P. microdon and P. perotteti had the same status when IUCN still listed them as distinct species. The human figure (Diver from Safari Ltd Coral Reef Toob) is approx. 1:32 - 1:35 scale.



















Edit 2017-02-07: Fixed broken image urls.

[Jetoar]

Cool figure and walk -around  friend. When I saw it in the store I think that it was very beautiful and now I think the same. I am waiting to have my figure of this curious specie in my hands  .

[brontodocus]

Thanks again, Jetoar! since you mentioned how you found one in a store that had some scuffs - it's strange that Schleich now uses a softer, waxy plastic for their sealife figures (much like the one we know from Bullyland) which allows the paint to flake off more easily. I've noticed that on the 2013 Great White Shark and Blue Whale, too.

[Jetoar]

Thanks again, Jetoar! since you mentioned how you found one in a store that had some scuffs - it's strange that Schleich now uses a softer, waxy plastic for their sealife figures (much like the one we know from Bullyland) which allows the paint to flake off more easily. I've noticed that on the 2013 Great White Shark and Blue Whale, too.

This scuff are produced when the children play with the figures in the stores and people touch it  . When I go to a store and I find a figure that I am looking, out scuffs, I buy it  .

[brontodocus]

Walk-around of the CollectA Sea Life 2014 Tiger Shark, Galeocerdo cuvier (Péron & Lesueur, 1822); item No. 88661. The largest of the requiem sharks, Tiger Sharks reach maturity at 2.26 m length or more and usually reach 5, occasionally 7.5 m total length (TL, i.e. including tail fin). Total length of the figure is approx. 200 mm (if the figure was stretched out), so the scale is between approx. 1:12 and 1:37. The human figure ("Freddie the Free Diver" by Safari Ltd is between approx. 1:22.5 - 1:24 scale.
The species is caught in target and non-target (i.e. as a bycatch) fisheries but the population trend is unknown. Currently IUCN considers it "Near Threatened".
When I saw the first photos of this new figure I immediately thought the brilliant, similar sized Safari Ltd MBA Tiger Shark may be dethroned now. And while the new CollectA version features a lot of correct details like the truncate and wide rostrum and even faint lateral keels (which the species often has, although they are hard to see) there are two errors that keep this one from being a perfect figure, the caudal peduncle should have a more pronounced lateral keel (which is better executed on the MBA figure) and - oops . the figure has only four gill slits instead of five.
Here is a link to the figure at CollectA's website: http://www.collecta.biz/en/collections/sea-life/88661











Edit 2017-02-07: Fixed broken image urls.

[Jetoar]

Other great figure of Collecta of this year. Really impresive, I believe that it is one of the best figures of this specie currently. It is a male  , wil it be the partner of MBA figure  ?

[brontodocus]

Thanks, Jetoar!  Well, that's possible, the MBA figure doesn't have any claspers.

[widukind]

I have the older Safari Ltd version, i think this is a bigeye tresher shark. But i will also add this version in my zoo 

[widukind]

Beautieful 

[widukind]

After I brought the lantern shark home (removed from the ball) my son was the one who bought the rest (to be ripped apart). My kids have also torn apart a few turtle and dino balls.

I am clinging to that hope my kids would react similarly when I should find them. (okay, chances aren't that bad maybe)!

Cool K&M sharks!   One question though, is it possible that the Frilled Shark could actually be a six/seven-gilled shark?

Oh, that seems like a good suggestion. Would make the figure even more interesting since there are several frilled shark  figures around by now.

I realise I have a group photo of (most) of my chondrichthyan figures that I took in April and then forgot to post... well, then...


Some later additions like this years WS Blacktip Reef Shark and the small PV sharks are not in the photo. At the very bottom of the photo are my NekoWorks sharks, all painted. _{Hmmm, there hasn't been a new Neko release since the Angel Shark, I hope the line isn't retiring...}

Have you more informations about that NekoWorks sharks and closer pics please? I newer heared of that

[sbell]

The Neko Works sharks could be found here

That link includes the discontinued models. I only have the Hybodus and Stethacanthus myself. It appears that they claim that the figures will be available within 4-6 weeks, but I haven't seen them in stock for a very long time.

[widukind]

The Neko Works sharks could be found here

That link includes the discontinued models. I only have the Hybodus and Stethacanthus myself. It appears that they claim that the figures will be available within 4-6 weeks, but I haven't seen them in stock for a very long time.

Thank you so very much, i never saw them before but they are very wowwwwwwwwwwwww

[brontodocus]

Phew, it's been a few months since I posted my last walk-around... but, hey, new figures have been released! 
So here's the walk-around of the CollectA Sea Life 88679 Shortfin Mako Shark, Isurus oxyrinchus (Rafinesque, 1810), new for 2014. Total length (along the curve of the back) is approx. 158 mm, so the scale is between approx. 1:18 and 1:25, corresponding to a total length of between 2.75 and 4.00 m total length (TL, i.e. including caudal fin).  The human figure (Minimen Andreas Köpke) is 1:20 scale. This is one of the best shark figures I've seen, my only complaint is the very soft material that tends to warp (so I had to do some hot water treatment on mine) and probably the paint may flake off easily as is the case in many soft figures.

Sadly, like most larger cartilaginous fishes this elegant and highly dynamic shark species is declining in numbers due to overfishing and IUCN lists it as "Vulnerable".


















Edit 2017-02-05: Fixed broken image urls.

[widukind]

Very wonderful figurine, i think i wish one too 

[Jetoar]

Thanks for share the imagesof this figure. I was waiting to see this replica and I think thtat it is really terrific  . In Andalucia, its name is "Lobito"  .

[OkapiBoy]

I'm not usually a big fan of shark figures, but this one is a cool figure. The mouth is very well sculpted. Hoping to get this figure,too... when they are available.