Rtas' additions - Birthday gift from El Desperado

Wow, this was an exhausting post that to be honest I could not fully follow. Fishes are definitely not my thing, I don't even eat them.
I really enjoyed your big blue presentation, it's amazing how you achieved such a "complete" sea-life collection. Most of them are looking very realistic!

Splendid topic. I really enjoyed reading it fully. This is the kind of posts that enrich this place and I think it should be apreciated.

About the fishes. I'm not particularly fond of the freshwaters, specially the salmonidaes, but the saltwaters are very good!

Happy birthday!!

Wow, 52 fish, that it amazing! I love the sound effects of the last video, very good for an underwater theme!

Thanks !

Bonnie, the tune is from a very beautiful French movie about diving and the appeal of the abyss. However, I don't recommend it to any of you because I'm pretty sure the only available English version is the American one in which the ending is completely different : they changed it into a stupid happy ending and purely and solely erased the whole reflection on suicide this movie was about

What a kilometric message! Despite my fondness for realistic fish figurines I was unable to read it all at once
First of all BIG CONGRATULATIONS for your birthday and you have the best present that you could imagine!!! Enjoy it!
As you know I planned to have Colorata fossil fish set + some other Japanese figures as auto-gift for my birthday and I calculated it so well that they arrived just the day before, but due to extreme complications with postal service these wished figurines were finally sent back to sender. I hope Brett can send them me again in september-october.
That red seabream is MUCH better than the Colorata saltwater fish one that I have (waiting since years ago to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for be traded by fossa and tapir...)
Same happens with other fishes I see, being Yujin much better than Colorata. However I prefair the Colorata mackerel over the Yujin one.
The Yujin pollock and alfonsino are in my wishlist. I also need the starry flounder, I had doubted about it in the past, but now seeing it in detail in your image I add again to my wishlist!

The pic of the groupers with Diana monkey is the best image ever uploaded to STS forum

Like others here, I'm not very fond on freshwater fishes and my envy is bigger with the saltwater ones.
Finally, I enjoyed a LOT with your video (with the nice whale-like sounds playing orchestra), it allowed me to see your collection (or the aquatic part of it) and compare figures with others I already have and know. I think I need the Schleich scallop

As always, a fantastic read - I set this one aside til after I'd been to spend the morning with the horses, as soon as I got to the reveal on the sheer number of fish, I knew it would take more time than I had at breakfast!

Particular stand-outs include the halibut, paradise fish, and the adorably ugly mudskippers, but my favourite has to be the lionfish, he's magnificent and so perfectly detailed, plus I think familiarity of the species helps - they're so iconic it's satisfying to see a really good model version, in a way you can't get when seeing an equally good rendition of a species you just hadn't seen before?

I'd love to see your whole fish collection together somehow, even if you couldn't do a nicely arranged group shot like usual, perhaps they could stage a temporary takeover of an emptied bookcase just for a photoshoot? I bet they look impressive on display!

Edit - This is what I get for thinking 'I'll click play on the video after I've typed my reply otherwise I'll forget what I was going to say' - NOW I see you've done exactly what I was hoping to see, just in a film clip rather than still photos

Oh [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], I completely forgot to answer your last message ! I'm glad to learn that your fishes are not lost and could be sent again soon, however that's the kind of misfortune which can easily break you down when everything else is going wrong and your hobby is the only outlet, so I hope it's not what happened to you.

When you ask Brett to send them again, make sure that he lies on the declaration and write the lowest value possible, the 20€ limit is no longer relevant, every package is now subject to customs so the cheapest it is, the least you'll have to pay for customs.

Yujin is better than Colorata overall but the fossil fishes are the exception and I don't think any Yujin I receive surpass my arapaïma in my personal ranking And the Colorata saltwater is still compulsory because of the sunfish, marlin, flying fish, mahi-mahi and gurnard.

What fossa are you talking about ?! I really want a fossa but am not aware of any available one

Most of you are not so much into freshwater fishes but keep in mind that a vast majority of estuary fishes I have presented here are included in the second freshwater set and NOT the saltwater one. Namely the fugu, the best mudskipper, the flounder, the eel, the sculpin... So this is definitely a worthy set. I could have passed on all those salmonids from the first set but I needed the chum salmon, the trout and barramundi anyway, and I'm happy to have the paradise fish and tittleback.

Thanks [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ! I understand what you mean about replicas of very well-known species, I think it's even more complicated and deserving for a company to create satisfactory renditions of very iconic animals because our expectations are higher. For example, I am more impressed by CollectA's hippo or rhino than their hirola and chiru.

By the way, I will soon have something closer to your collecting tastes to show on my farm topic if you see what I mean

Happy birthday and wonderful job on a drool worthy awesome topic, as I am a fish collector. I enjoyed reading your takes on all your figures.

The fossa is a Yowies US figure.

I've seen some huge groupers down in the Keys, I have no problem with the Safari figure. It's very nice IMO.

Holy moly! SOOOOO many fabulous models here!!! Beimg a recent fish fanatic convert myself. Really great package! It has everything you could possibly want in it... and I want it in record! I was not against the wonderful safari grouper. It was my first IC ice breaker and I still think its a great model.

RtasVadumee wrote:

Oh [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], I completely forgot to answer your last message ! I'm glad to learn that your fishes are not lost and could be sent again soon, however that's the kind of misfortune which can easily break you down when everything else is going wrong and your hobby is the only outlet, so I hope it's not what happened to you.

When you ask Brett to send them again, make sure that he lies on the declaration and write the lowest value possible, the 20€ limit is no longer relevant, every package is now subject to customs so the cheapest it is, the least you'll have to pay for customs.

Yujin is better than Colorata overall but the fossil fishes are the exception and I don't think any Yujin I receive surpass my arapaïma in my personal ranking And the Colorata saltwater is still compulsory because of the sunfish, marlin, flying fish, mahi-mahi and gurnard.

What fossa are you talking about ?! I really want a fossa but am not aware of any available one

Most of you are not so much into freshwater fishes but keep in mind that a vast majority of estuary fishes I have presented here are included in the second freshwater set and NOT the saltwater one. Namely the fugu, the best mudskipper, the flounder, the eel, the sculpin... So this is definitely a worthy set. I could have passed on all those salmonids from the first set but I needed the chum salmon, the trout and barramundi anyway, and I'm happy to have the paradise fish and tittleback.

Thanks [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ! I understand what you mean about replicas of very well-known species, I think it's even more complicated and deserving for a company to create satisfactory renditions of very iconic animals because our expectations are higher. For example, I am more impressed by CollectA's hippo or rhino than their hirola and chiru.

By the way, I will soon have something closer to your collecting tastes to show on my farm topic if you see what I mean

Well I just hope the fishes are not lost, but I had no news about them, and nor Brett nor Wes told me that they received the items.
Thanks for the shipping advice, I will take care of it! :)
Yes the arapaima is maybe the main reason for having the Colorata fossil fish set in my wishlist since years ago, I'm glad that you also discovered this set.

The fossa I'm talking is Yowies but it never happened to me to agree in a trade and after that many many months pass before sending actual items. Advicot already have my adress since before the pandemy... but I don't have his adress for give him the figures we agreed to exchange.

I hope you enjoyed your birthday a lot!

That's very interesting about shipping from Brett, as I was thinking of ordering some figures from him, thank you! I was just wondering if it would be possible to explain a bit more about it- does it mean that there is no upper limit to how much you can spend? And if so is there anything different that you need to tell Brett? Thank you!

Thanks pipsxlch !

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Holy moly! SOOOOO many fabulous models here!!! Beimg a recent fish fanatic convert myself. Really great package! It has everything you could possibly want in it... and I want it in record! I was not against the wonderful safari grouper. It was my first IC ice breaker and I still think its a great model.

Nope, it doesn't have everything you could possibly want, it lacks a carp

And indeed, I know you are my first support here to defend that poor grouper

This fossa is not so bad, but not what I'm expecting for that iconic species, so let's wait until CollectA does one

Bonnie, I don't deal with Brett, I directly order on my own

RtasVadumee wrote:

Thanks pipsxlch !

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Holy moly! SOOOOO many fabulous models here!!! Beimg a recent fish fanatic convert myself. Really great package! It has everything you could possibly want in it... and I want it in record! I was not against the wonderful safari grouper. It was my first IC ice breaker and I still think its a great model.

Nope, it doesn't have everything you could possibly want, it lacks a carp

And indeed, I know you are my first support here to defend that poor grouper

This fossa is not so bad, but not what I'm expecting for that iconic species, so let's wait until CollectA does one


Bonnie, I don't deal with Brett, I directly order on my own

Ok, thank you for letting me know! I would be interested to know if you find it cheaper that way (Sorry for another question! )?  

Very nice figures!

Could you point me towards some websites for the Yujin fish figures?

I started reading your post when it was still your birthday but as I only finished it now, I think I am a little late to congratulate you for your birthday.
Just kidding, that's a very interesting post and contributions like these are one of the many reasons why a forum is much more informative than ordinary social media.
I like your idea of using superglue, the result is very good and maybe it will help me to find more interest in that kind of asemblable figures. There's the thing of destroying the authencity of the model but maybe the result compensates that feeling.
It would be fantastic if you could upload your pictures directly on TAW. I am not so confortable with these series, Japanese models are rare in my collection. You can find how to upload images on TAW in this page going directly to the section uploading images you will find all the information needed. You can message me if you wish and I would be glad of guiding you whenever needed. Even if the only thing you can do is to upload the pictures in their correct links, I'd be glad of completing the work with tables, species pages, etc.
Just a little note, while watching your video, with that music, I thought at a certain point your fish could start breeding with each others, I even watched it until the end but...

Congratulations What a year for you!

Hi !

The day I came back from holidays, I had the pleasure to discover a small package in my mailbox : it was my birthday gift from Andrés !

I was expecting the meerkat pups from Schleich that he had already considered sending to me on several occasions but this was instead a complete surprise for me :
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

He explained me that he wanted something that I wouldn't expect and that I wished but would not necessarily make the effort to order on my own. He actually hit the bull's eye with that choice that I appreciate much more than the meerkat babies. Indeed, I started considering this Northern mockingbird after the purchase of the Papo robin and the decision to be more flexible on passerine scale. But it was retiring and being still monopolized by my Japanese purchases, it's likely that I would have missed it like the American badger and the roadrunner. I don't have the required figures for comparison with me but I can tell you that this American fellow works quite well both with the Schleich raven and Papo robin in an "illusive scale" perspective

Apart from that, it's a beautiful model, nicely sculpted and whose typical Safari paintjob is more efficient than on other species.

That's a mocking gift. I also enjoy the figure, not a masterpiece but pleasant enough and surely an interesting species.

Congrats! I love that model so much and I remember being so excited to get it when it was released. Definitely worth getting I think, especially since it is retiring, I just have a favoritism for Safari birds haha

A must have figur

Really great addition. Hurray for you both!

What a wonderful gift, it's a lovely model of this interesting species!

A late happy birthday, and WOW so many lovely fish!!! I could not possibly pick a favorite, I am just very impressed by the realism of all of them as well as your dedication to collecting a specific aesthetic. I didn't even think there were this many model fish in the world. Congrats on the awesome additions!

And that mockingbird is beautiful.

I repainted mine into a grackle because it had a poorly painted eye. I would like another one to keep as is.

Wow, what a great models and excellent presentation