Spiders (unknown manufacturer)

In preparation for a comparison topic on small spider figures, I need to do a review of an interesting set of spiders of unknown origin. I have already reviewed the sets by K&M International (https://sts-forum.forumieren.de/t18775-review-spiders-km-international-bulk-sets) and Play Visions (https://sts-forum.forumieren.de/t18769-review-tarantulas-and-spiders-play-visions-habitat-earth) and within the next couple weeks, I plan to do one for the Club Earth Spiders to Go. But for a comparison topic to be complete, we must also visit this intriguing set.

The set, assuming it is complete (my figures are labeled A-L), is clearly influenced by Club Earth and PV. The figures are actually nice, and made of a good quality PVC. They are labeled on the underside with a common name and a letter (A-L), but no company. There are several other sets like this floating around out there, in my collection I have sets of crabs and caterpillars, and I believe there are also tropical fish and birds. I bought my figures individually in large barrels at the gift shop of the Rain Forest Cafe in Tempe AZ, sometime between 2001 and 2005 I believe.

The following figures are listed in alphabetical order of the letter stamped on the bottom. The common name is what is printed on the bottom; the Latin names are of my assigning. I am also listing when these species are included in the aforementioned PV, CE, and K&M sets (only).

A. ‘black’ widow, Lactrodectes mactans
I put ‘black’ in quotation marks because technically this figure is labeled ‘red widow’, as they used the same sculpt as for H, below. They did however stamp it with the letter A rather than H (interesting they made the effort to change the letter but not the spider’s name).
This species shows up in all four sets.

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B. crab spider, gen. sp.
I cannot attribute this figure to an exact species based on this color pattern. The Club Earth set did have two crab spiders (see also J, below) but neither were colored like this.

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C. purseweb spider, Sphodros rufipes.
This species is also in the Club Earth set.

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D. raft spider, Dolomedes plantarius
This species also shows up in the Club Earth set.

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E. green lynx spider, Peucetia viridans
This species shows up in the Play Visions set.

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F. spitting spider, Scytodes thoracica.
This species shows up in the Club Earth set.

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G. Costa Rican zebra tarantula, Aphonopelma seemanni.
This species shows up in the Play Visions set.

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H. red widow, Latrodectus bishop
This species shows up in the Club Earth Set.

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I. tarantula, gen. sp.
This might represent the Mexican red-kneed tarantula, Brachypelma smithi, which is also in the Play Visions set.

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J. crab spider, Thomisus onustus.
This species shows up in the Club Earth set, albeit as the more-familiar pink form (in nature, this species is highly variable, as are many crab spiders). The ‘J’ on the underside is juxtaposed, looking more like a soft ‘L’.
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K. tarantula, gen. sp.
This figure is very similar to the generic tarantula in the Club Earth set. I do not have a definitive identification, but I am thinking it is an immature greenbottle blue tarantula, Chromopelma cyaneopubescens.

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L. tarantula, gen. sp.
This generic ‘tarantula’ is not immediately attributable to any species, nor figures in the other sets. It is labeled 'tarantula' but is modeled after the CE 'wolf spider'; perhaps it is Lycosa tarantula?

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Thanks for sharing.

Very complete explication.

congrats.

Interesting to see and read

Another misterious set. Sorry, I can't check at the moment but Iw ant to share with you this pictures of a Wing Mao set of 12. They don't look like the Clube Earth ones and now I can't check if the moulds are the same of these. Though, it may interest you.

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Roger wrote:

Another misterious set. Sorry, I can't check at the moment but Iw ant to share with you this pictures of a Wing Mao set of 12. They don't look like the Clube Earth ones and now I can't check if the moulds are the same of these. Though, it may interest you.

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these Wing Mau moulds are a mix of CE and Toy Major (either that or they are miniature versions of those two), and there seems to be duplicates among the styles here. Also, most do not appear to actually be painted to look like actual species (at least nothing I am familiar with), which is odd since Wing Mau usually presents interesting species.

They are so cute!

PEC?

Sorry that I couldn't be of much help but please share with us if you ever find which brand are these.

Never heard of A-L but some chinese manufacturer have similar stuff. I know that PEC have similar figurines like Club Earth or PV, (but no knock offs). But i dont know if PEC is the producer or a brand name.

widukind wrote:

Never heard of A-L but some chinese manufacturer have similar stuff. I know that PEC have similar figurines like Club Earth or PV, (but no knock offs). But i dont know if PEC is the producer or a brand name.

Let's look into PEC. 'A-L' is the lettering series on the underside ;-)

A-L; that reminds me of NF. A company we know only the initials of.