Deep-sea fish

[sbell]

Agreed, there really do need to be more--save for a couple frilled sharks, almost all deep-water sharks are Japanese figures, and either hard to find or expensive (or both!).

And I was thinking of cigar and lantern sharks, because they could almost be full size in the IC line--but even a 1/4 size Frilled would be fantastic (maybe Favorite will do one as a soft vinyl? Still Japanese though...)

[Jetoar]

I have thought to make more shark species overall deep sea species as Hexanchids and some members of Somniosids  .

[sbell]

I have thought to make more shark species overall deep sea species as Hexanchids and some members of Somniosids  .

How about a bramble shark or oxynotid rough shark? Now those are weird and obscure!

[brontodocus]

Retired but not forgotten: Image urls of IC Pelican Eel are back.

[brontodocus]

Safari Black Loosejaw mage urls fixed.

[Advicot]

I had no idea this figure even existed. It looks like a Halloween character, but I like it in some way.   

[NSD Bashe]

I've had these a long time. Can't recall the company. It came with some other figures like a vampire squid and football fish. Not done that well. These I've never seen duplicated.

The brand for these I believe are called "Bio Beams" and/or "Think-of-it!"  There is a football fish, pony fish, hatchetfish, pine-cone fish, flashlight fish and vampire squid, and they seem to be fairly obscure (and decidedly difficult to find).  Even information is hard to find on these, but I at some point stumbled across this, which is most of what I know about them: https://www.coroflot.com/sheriinla/Toys-n-Products
Also this old listing for the football fish on Worthpoint.com seems to indicate it was once available at the Discovery Channel store: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cool-toy-deep-sea-angler-fish-1998-478556781
Just recently I finally found the vampire squid--actually there were two versions, a green and a purple--and I managed to get the green one.  Still on the hunt for the others (especially the football fish, which I saw only once on eBay and didn't bid at the time) but I am glad to have finally located even one of the figures from this set

[K907]

I've had these a long time. Can't recall the company. It came with some other figures like a vampire squid and football fish. Not done that well. These I've never seen duplicated.

The brand for these I believe are called "Bio Beams" and/or "Think-of-it!"  There is a football fish, pony fish, hatchetfish, pine-cone fish, flashlight fish and vampire squid, and they seem to be fairly obscure (and decidedly difficult to find).  Even information is hard to find on these, but I at some point stumbled across this, which is most of what I know about them: https://www.coroflot.com/sheriinla/Toys-n-Products
Also this old listing for the football fish on Worthpoint.com seems to indicate it was once available at the Discovery Channel store: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cool-toy-deep-sea-angler-fish-1998-478556781
Just recently I finally found the vampire squid--actually there were two versions, a green and a purple--and I managed to get the green one.  Still on the hunt for the others (especially the football fish, which I saw only once on eBay and didn't bid at the time) but I am glad to have finally located even one of the figures from this set

Oh I recently got that flashlight fish on eBay! Man I would have loved to have that vampire squid.

[NSD Bashe]

Oh wow that's cool; you know I suppose it's theoretically possible these are actually a lot more common than we think and they just go so fast we never realize it...  But keep your eyes open, right after I got the Bio Beams vampire squid a different rare vampire squid figure appeared on eBay (one of them's still there last I checked)--so it's possible eBay sellers may be influenced by each other, at least that's my theory.  At least, it's not the only time I've seen weirdly similar rare items go up for sale within a short span of time...

[MudpupWaterdog]

The brand for these I believe are called "Bio Beams" and/or "Think-of-it!"  There is a football fish, pony fish, hatchetfish, pine-cone fish, flashlight fish and vampire squid, and they seem to be fairly obscure (and decidedly difficult to find).  Even information is hard to find on these, but I at some point stumbled across this, which is most of what I know about them: https://www.coroflot.com/sheriinla/Toys-n-Products
Also this old listing for the football fish on Worthpoint.com seems to indicate it was once available at the Discovery Channel store: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cool-toy-deep-sea-angler-fish-1998-478556781
Just recently I finally found the vampire squid--actually there were two versions, a green and a purple--and I managed to get the green one.  Still on the hunt for the others (especially the football fish, which I saw only once on eBay and didn't bid at the time) but I am glad to have finally located even one of the figures from this set

Whoahh, you just solved one of my biggest personal collecting mysteries. I have a whole set of these and for years had no idea what brand they were. I remember buying them (or rather, my parents bought them for me) in the local Discovery Store back in the 90s. I still have the football fish, giant purple vampire squid, gulper eel, angler fish, smaller vampire squid, and viperfish. I used to have the light-up hatchet fish, tiny hatchet fish, and poseable brittle star, but lost them somewhere over the years and moves. Thanks for identifying them!

[NSD Bashe]

Glad to help!  But also, it sounds like you are also partly referring to (I think) another line as well...  I think I know which ones you're talking about though, there's a smallish angler fish, gulper eel, viper fish, vampire squid, brittle star, firefly squid, hatchet fish and flashlight fish (and for all I know more but those are the ones I have), and they all have little glowing dots and most of them have pose-able wires going through them or something...  Believe it or not I was still trying to figure out what brand they were based on them all having "DCS" on them, and I had not figured it out until you just mentioned you got them with the Bio Beams fish at the Discovery Channel Store... making me finally put two and two together and realize the DCS on those stood for Discovery Channel Store.  As far as I know they're still a different line, but at least we know what the trademark means now.  My guess would be those were directly produced for the DCS and the Bio Beams were more distributed there but still their own brand technically?  But I don't know for sure.  It does now make sense I also saw some of these smaller ones in the same listing as the football fish I didn't bid on.  So in turn, thanks for helping me identify exactly what those ones were 

[NSD Bashe]

Also a weird note, I think there might actually be spelling errors on a couple of them; does your DCS anglerfish by any chance have "anger fish" written on it, or is that just mine?

[MudpupWaterdog]

You know, I'd always just assumed they were the same brand because I bought all of them from The Discovery Channel Store at the same time. Now that I look, yeah, the DCS ones are branded and the Bio Beams/Think-Of-It are not. Glad to help with what DCS could mean, though. Have you found any catalog scans or promotional images for the series? I wonder if there are other figures besides the ones we've mentioned.

The bottom of my anglerfish just says "angler," but interestingly it is printed upside down. Here are some photos of the ones that I have:

[bmathison1972]

oh wow those are really cool!

[BlueKrono]

They just don't make 'em like they used to. I have a hard time believing these wouldn't be hot sellers if someone could source them. If someone does I hope they post here on the ATF.

[NSD Bashe]

Oh interesting, I think they fixed the print on yours; mine has the same print except it's more "faded" and it says "deep sea anger fish" (I'll definitely try to show a picture when I figure out the picture function)--so at some point they must've realized they labelled it funky.  But alas no, I've yet to even find an image of these fish outside of the now defunct eBay listings (including the ones I finally got) much less any other info on them.  It would be awesome to know for sure if we got em all or not...

[NSD Bashe]

They just don't make 'em like they used to. I have a hard time believing these wouldn't be hot sellers if someone could source them. If someone does I hope they post here on the ATF.

Also I agree with those sentiments, they really should make more like these...  I miss the old days when you could just walk into a store and maybe find a random bin full of cool looking deep sea fish (I mean I miss even walking into stores now but anyway...)

[Gwangi]

Those are fantastic, and this is my first time ever seeing them. Why does it seem like all the best toy animals came out in the 1990's?

[K907]

You know, I'd always just assumed they were the same brand because I bought all of them from The Discovery Channel Store at the same time. Now that I look, yeah, the DCS ones are branded and the Bio Beams/Think-Of-It are not. Glad to help with what DCS could mean, though. Have you found any catalog scans or promotional images for the series? I wonder if there are other figures besides the ones we've mentioned.

The bottom of my anglerfish just says "angler," but interestingly it is printed upside down. Here are some photos of the ones that I have:

Oh I have the anglerfish and viperfish in the first pic set!! I agree these 90's figures are actually awesome!

[NSD Bashe]

Toy Major also produced a line of deep sea fish in the 90s; you can see them here: https://www.amazon.eg/-/en/Toy-Major-Ocean-Fish-Pieces/dp/B08Y8VM2J7
unfortunately, it only seems you can get these if you live in Egypt or something.

I used to have most of these, then gave them away, then years later started looking for them again.  I didn't know what brand they were for the longest time, just that I'd gotten them from a bin in an odd little shop (I think it was called the D&K Store or something).  I currently have the green anglerfish, the gulper eel and two versions of the viperfish (one is aqua colored like in the link and the other is a very light blue).  I have not managed to reattain the flashlight fish or lantern fish yet and have never owned that orange fish.  There is also a completely pale version of the anglerfish which I've yet to see again (basically it was the color of typical glow-in-the-dark toys figures, although I think only the lure actually glowed in the dark).  Even after I got some of them it took me a long time to figure out what they were because the brand mark just said TM and I thought they just put a trademark without remembering to label the actual brand with it.

These may not be the most realistic looking of deep sea fish, although I like em (partly for nostalgia, partly just because I think they're cool anyway).  There are also a few interesting things I've noticed--the viperfish and gulper eel look interestingly like much larger versions of the DCS brand ones (although the angler looks nothing alike) while the flashlight fish and lantern fish (I'm 90 percent sure that's what it was, although it's been a while since I actually owned it) look a little bit similar to the flashlight fish and pony fish from Bio Beams.  I am not certain of the date for the making of Bio Beams fish, although the date 1998 was listed with the football fish on Worthpoint, and the date for the Toy Major fish seems to have been 1997 (that's what they have written on them anyway). So it appears they may have possibly come out around the same time as well...  Not sure if it's coincidence or intentional similarities, but I found it curious.

There is one thing in particular I am dying to know...  what in the world is that orange fish supposed to be?  Is it actually meant to a fangtooth?  Or an orange roughy?  ...or a whalefish?  blobfish?  I know these aren't the most realistic looking figures, but the others all at least intend to resemble actual deep sea fish--I'm assuming this must also be meant as a deep sea fish but...  Anyway, the ones of these that I'm currently missing (along with the remaining Bio Beams fish) I guess are basically my "holy grail" at the moment.  These at least do occasionally show up on eBay and I now know the brand name which might make it just a bit easier to locate.  But if by any chance anyone actually owns that bizarre looking orange fish..  what does it say on it's stomach?  I need to know..