Blaine's Synoptic Animal Collection

Especially the fishes are great

Brett offered 10% off his eBay items, so I snatched up three new species by Kaiyodo. I paid a pretty penny for the archerfish (I am sure sbell would approve!):

1. banded archerfish, Toxotes jaculatrix
2. hooded crane, Grus monacha
3. Northern Island brown kiwi, Apteryx mantelli

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He was also offering a free Dinotales figure for every $10 spent. I didn't need most (not into 'dinosaurs' in the classic sense, yet), but snatched up these three:

1. †Sinemys gamera
2. †Diplocaulus magnicornis
3. †Bothriolepis sp.

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Very nice models.

I want the crane and the kiwi.

Kaiyodo figures are phenomenal

Wow, wonderful models. I need the Archer fish and the Crane. They are really fantastic.

Time to start the December focus group. This marks the last of the broad category groups! And we finish with the miscellaneous invertebrates, meaning invertebrates other than arthropods and mollusks (the former is covered under Blaine's Bug of the Day and the latter was covered in October). Today we start with the Cnidaria (jellyfish, anemones, coral)

First the jellyfish (Scyphozoa). I started with Join Collection by Qualia, because they are all small, dynamic figures. The additional larva of the moon jelly is by Epoch:

1. moon jellyfish, Aurelia aurita (adult by Qualia; larva by Epoch)
2. upside-down jellyfish, Cassiopea ornata (Qualia)
3. Atlantic sea nettle, Chrysaora quinquecirrha (Qualia)
4. spotted jellyfish, Mastigias papua (Qualia)
5. flame jellyfish, Rhopilema esculentum (Qualia)

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Next are the corals and anemones (Hydrozoa and Anthozoa). I am presenting these as if a coral reef. The base collection is a complete set of the Yujin Corals in Colour collection, with a few other random figures.

1. elkhorn coral, Acropora vaughani (Yujin)
2. flowerpot, Alveopora spongiosa (Yujin)
3. Japanese green flower, Anthopleura fuscoviridis (Ikimon)
4. giant green anemone, Anthopleura xanthogrammica (Cadbury Yowies)
5. fragile razor coral, Cycloseris (=Diaseris) fragilis (Yujin)
6. knob coral, Dipsastraea (=Favia) pallida (Yujin)
7. hedgehog coral, Echinopora mammiformis (Yujin)
8. flowerpot true red coral, Goniopora lobata (Yujin)
9. plate coral, Heliofungia actiniformis (Yujin)
10. porcelain coral, Leptoseris amitoriensis (Yujin)
11. lobed brain coral, Lobophyllia (=Symphyllia) radians (Yujin)
12. red fan coral, Melithaea japonica (syn. M. flabellifera) (Ikimon)
13. Pavona coral, Pavona venosa (Yujin)
14. lettuce coral, Pectinia lactuca (Yujin)
15. mushroom coral, Pleuractis (=Fungia) granulosa (Yujin)
16. cauliflower coral, Pocillopora verrucosa (Yujin)
17. hump coral, Porites cylindrica (Yujin)
18. intricate fire coral, Millepora intricata (Yujin)
19. lace coral, Stylaster boschmai (Yujin)

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And for fun, here they are in my mini coral reed diorama. Can you tell which ones are figures and which are part of the diorama? ;-)

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That looks amazing

They really look great. Where did you get the Jellyfish?

Megaptera wrote:

They really look great. Where did you get the Jellyfish?

the jellyfish were bought on YAJ (Japanese Yahoo auctions) via Brett

Very interesting. The Qualia models look really great.

Megaptera wrote:

Very interesting. The Qualia models look really great.

they are not quite as detailed as the Kitan Club/Ikimon figures, but I love that they are elevated on bases. There are two slots on the water stream you can place them higher or lower!

wonderful jellyfishes, anemones and corals!!.. I don't collect non-cordata animals but it doesn't empeche me to find them very beautiful!..

Impressive! Like your protozoa and plankton-collection, you´re the only collector that I know who has such a diversity in this group of not so uasual animal figurines. Most of mine for exemple are only used as "decoration", I never thought about classify them, more so that I´m not an expert with these animal groups.

Thanks everyone!

Today we are looking at the Echinodermata, which consists of starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins.

First up, the Asteroidea (starfish). I recently bought the eight 'Play Visions' starfish from an online shop, but only four were true PV, the others were very convincing knock-offs. They are marked with S.H.; could they be Shing Hing or Shing Hung? [for the record, the seller did not specifically advertise them as PV, but I could tell from pics there were PV or based on them]. The quality of the plastic and paint is equivalent to PV; they only differ by missing the name of the animal and the PV logo on the bottom.

1. Edmond's sea star, Anthenea edmondi (unknown, Play Visions copy)
2. common starfish, Asterias rubens (Safari Ltd.)
3. common sun star, Crossaster papposus (Play Visions)
4. necklace starfish, Fromia monilis (unknown; Play Visions copy)
5. icon star, Iconaster longimanus (Play Visions)
6. common comet star, Linckia guildingi (Play Visions)
7. blue Linckia, Linckia laevigata (Safari Ltd.)
8. rose sea star, Nardoa rosea (unknown, Play Visions copy)
9. ocellate sea star, Nectria ocellata (unknown; Play Visions copy)
10. blue bat star, Patiria pectinifera (Ikimon)
11. purple sun star, Solaster endeca (Play Visions)

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Next, the Echinodea (sea urchins) and †Rhombifera (crinoids)

1. sand dollar, Astriclypeus manni (Ikimon)
2. Japanese sea biscuit, Clypeaster japonicus (Ikimon)
3. burrowing urchin, Echinometra mathaei (Ikimon)
4. purple sea urchin, Heliocidaris crassispina (Ikimon)
5. purple sea urchin, larva Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (Epoch) [presumably, this is a different species than the preceding]
6. collector urchin, Tripneustes gratilla (Ikimon)
7. †Pleurocystites sp. (Kaiyodo)

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Lastly, the Holothuroidea (sea cucumbers)

1. pink swimming sea cucumber, Enypniastes eximia (Kaiyodo)
2. golden sandfish, Holothuria scabra (Yowie Group)
3. Graeffe's sea cucumber, Pearsonothuria graeffei (Cadbury Yowies)
4. sea pig, Scoptoplanes globosa (Agatsuma Entertainment)

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You're taking the diversity subject in a very serious way. You're not missing a single branch.

Your miscellaneous invertebrates are stunning! I used to exclude them from my collection but as I've learned more about them I've decided I need to represent them in my collection now. Just a wonderful collection of weird and alien-esque figures! Congrats!

Wonderful Echinodermata. I only have two Starfish species. It is quite to get some models of them. Congratulations

Thanks everyone! Invertebrates are my specialty :)

So that one PV set is close to half of all the echinoderms available? That's bananas. I would have guessed some combination of Kaiyodo/Ikimon/Yujin would have made some sea lilies or brittlestars.

For the third and final post, we finish with a multitude of miscellaneous invertebrates. Some of these have been shown on Bug of the Day but are being transferred here as BOTD will only be for arthropods going forward.

First, the flatworms (Platyhelminthes), represented here by the planarian Girardia tigrina made by Kitan Club.

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Next, horsehair worms (Phoronida), represented by the larval stage of Phoronis sp., made by Epoch.

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The segmented worms (Annelida).

First up, earthworms!
1. earthworm, gen. sp. (Bullyland)
2. Pheretima communissima (Kayiodo)
3. earthworm, gen. sp., life cycle (Safari Ltd).

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The giant tube worm, Raiftia pachyptila by Kaiyodo. Notice the small white crabs added to the base! Perhaps they represent the Yunohana crab, Gandalfus yunohana, like the one made by Colorata (shown here on the right).

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Phylum Rotifera, represented here by Brachionus sp., by Ayano Katayama.

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Next we visit the tunicates (Tunicata). These distant cousins are here represented by two figures:

1. sea pineapple, Halocynthia roretzi (Kaiyodo)
2. predatory tunicate, Megalodicopia hians (Agatsuma Entertainment)

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Lastly we finish with two prehistoric organisms that are of uncertain taxonomic placement, but are most-certainly invertebrates:

1. giant disk jelly, Dickinsonia sp. (Cadbury Yowies)
2. Tully Monster, Tullymonstrum gregarium (Paleo-Creatures)

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Very interesting animals. I thought the Tully monster may be large, but I checked and it is just a small monster. Is it right that its eyes are at the ends of the "roll" on top of the body? How strange!

Wonderful invertebrates. I'm really impressed. The Predatory Tunicate looks really interesting. Tunicates are a very interesting group.

So, I was checking out the pages of one of my regular eBay dealers in Japan to see if she had a nautilus. The Japanese nautilus figures tend to go fast! Luckily, she had one, by Kaiyodo, so I decided to snatch it up. But being so close to Christmas, I thought I would buy 10 figures as a Christmas gift to myself (besides if they are being shipped from Japan might as well make it worth it lol). They arrived a couple days ago but I waited until this morning to open the box :-)

1. chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius (Kaiyodo)
2. Japanese striped loach, Cobitis biwae (Yujin)
3. coffinfish, Chaunax abei (Kaiyodo)

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4. Japanese badger, Meles anakuma (Kaiyodo)
5. yellow-banded poison dart frog, Dendrobates leucomelas (Furuta)
6. Japanese fire-bellied newt, Cynops pyrrhogaster (Kitan Club)

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7. cockatiel, Nymphicus hollandicus (Kaiyodo)
8. goldcrest, Regulus regulus (Kaiyodo)
9. Oriental dollarbird, Eurystomus orientalis (Furuta)
10. common cuckoo, young, Cuculus canorus, with host great reed warbler, Acrocephalus arudinaceous (Kaiyodo)

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