Safari Ltd Special Release Desert Pupfish Cyprinodon macularis walkaround

For all of your consideration--an unknown Safari Ltd figure date stamped 2009, a Desert Pupfish Cyprinodon macularis. Item number 251429 according to a recently found test report. According to the report, an endangered Razorback Sucker Xyrauchen texanus was also tested, but nobody has seen that one (yet!). It is also marked Tempe AZ, which is unusual for Safari, which are often marked Miami FL.

I tried to find out more from the ebay seller where I bought it, but all that he knew was that it came from a garage sale! I reached out to Safari on Facebook, and they took about a week for them to figure it out. It was produced exclusively for the Arizona State government for promotion of endangered animals. So I really shouldn't have one!

As for the figure, it's clearly a male, given it's colour. The larger males are about 7.6 cm long, but the figure is probably about 6 inches (as seen in the photo with the ruler). So it would be roughly 3:1 scale. The real fish is a pretty neat little one (for a cyprinid  ), being able to survive extreme environments. Sadly, they are less able to survive human-affected environments, taxonomic changes (the species was divided up over time, so that means they are found in fewer places) and introduced predators, and so are extirpated from much of their former range. Hopefully the figure continues to represent a living animal into the foreseeable future.

Pictures!

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And with some people, who are incredibly undersized, even the New Ray fishermen)

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Yesterday, Calamity asked us about rare items to collect, I guess you have the perfect answer.

You made a great job here, both for the walkaround and for the research.

The model is incredibly rare and beautiful too, I wish you to find the Razorback Sucker.

I reduced the size of two pics, they were too big for a comfortable looking on STS, I hope you don't mind.

Incredibly rare and very beautyful    

How wonderful that YOU rescued this model from a garage sale, imagine if some child had got it and destroyed it  

That must be the find of the century ! Totally awesome !  

Congratulations , and thankyou very much for sharing

PS : That last picture

The fish looks very striking!
Beautiful!

A beauty but so huge:) Big congratulations!!

Wow! What an incredibly rare model! Huge congrats to you! Funny how all the rare things seem to trace back to yard sales

Thanks everyone. I was pretty happy to find it, even before I new how rare it was. I thought maybe I had just missed something in a catalog or something like that.

Best part is that it wasn't even all that expensive!

And yes, it's okay that the picture were re-sized; not sure why some came in bigger than others.

this is an awesome find.

I'm pretty happy with it!

And I had mentioned evidence of a Razorback sucker as well.

This link will pop open with a PDF for the testing report for the two Arizona models. Meaning that someone, somewhere, might have a razorback. They are kind of ugly fish, but it would make a cool figure!

Ugly I don't know, at least it has an odd looking  Never heard about such fish. Good luck

Kikimalou wrote:

Ugly I don't know, at least it has an odd looking  Never heard about such fish. Good luck

Razorback suckers are not pretty fish. The Desert pupfish is much prettier.

Although, honestly, I have always had an affinity for scary and odd-looking fish, so that sucker needs to show up for me someday!

I love toy archaelology! It is very interesting when we know that there are some really rare and unknown collectibles and you're very lucky owning one of these "special" figures.
Some other interesting points, "Tempe AZ", as you know, is a reference to Tempe city, Arizona. Home of the known company of action toys called McFarlane Toys .
Arizona State government for promotion of endangered animals, I think here is the key to you try to find the other fish and some more figures if they exist. Have you ever contacted them?
I have another question, is the manufacturing typical to Safari, maybe their Incredible Creatures collection?
Many thanks for sharing, that was really great to know.

It's similar to an IC figure, but quite a bit bigger than most of their fish and such, more on par with the bass. It has the same hollow feel.

I know someone that worked for the AZ government around that time but he wasn't aware of these fish. Maybe they never went past a few prototypes? Because that would be really expensive to produce. I know that currently, Safari requires an order of something like 5000 units for special orders, but even when I was in touch with Safari they didn't know about it, so who knows what happened.

Huge congrats on a great model!

sbell wrote:

It's similar to an IC figure, but quite a bit bigger than most of their fish and such, more on par with the bass. It has the same hollow feel.

I know someone that worked for the AZ government around that time but he wasn't aware of these fish. Maybe they never went past a few prototypes? Because that would be really expensive to produce. I know that currently, Safari requires an order of something like 5000 units for special orders, but even when I was in touch with Safari they didn't know about it, so who knows what happened.

Thanks for your reply, it is really interesting and intringuing!

Is it from a serie of 5 fishes? I saw this figurine together with 4 other fishes.

widukind wrote:

Is it from a serie of 5 fishes? I saw this figurine together with 4 other fishes.

I know that a razor back sucker was also made, but they were never actually released to the public for sale.

And yes, I do remember seeing the set of 5 on Aliexpress:

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But 1) It would not have been an official/legal release and 2) It was no longer available when I went to get it...

It's the first time I see this set of fishes...

Bowhead Whale wrote:

It's the first time I see this set of fishes...

Yesterday was the first time to see that pic. I found it on a online auction.

widukind wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

It's the first time I see this set of fishes...

Yesterday was the first time to see that pic. I found it on a online auction.

I'm pretty sure the online ones are knockoffs/bootlegs/unoffical copies. The one I got was from a short-run series made for the Arizona State government.

I'm pretty sure I will get the 5 fish, and the I'll know if they have markings of any kind!

sbell wrote:

widukind wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

It's the first time I see this set of fishes...

Yesterday was the first time to see that pic. I found it on a online auction.

I'm pretty sure the online ones are knockoffs/bootlegs/unoffical copies. The one I got was from a short-run series made for the Arizona State government.

I'm pretty sure I will get the 5 fish, and the I'll know if they have markings of any kind!

I could believe it is the same that heard by other things. The brand produce in china and later the producer produce any more without the brand.

widukind wrote:

sbell wrote:

widukind wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

It's the first time I see this set of fishes...

Yesterday was the first time to see that pic. I found it on a online auction.

I'm pretty sure the online ones are knockoffs/bootlegs/unoffical copies. The one I got was from a short-run series made for the Arizona State government.

I'm pretty sure I will get the 5 fish, and the I'll know if they have markings of any kind!

I could believe it is the same that heard by other things. The brand produce in china and later the producer produce any more without the brand.

It wouldn't be the first time. I personnally own two Styracosaurus figures that were made from the exact same mold. Only, one is marked "Imperial 1985, Made in China", while the other one is only marked "Made In China". If it happened with Imperial molds, it can also happen with Safari ltd molds.

Wonderful fish! I wish this line were more widespread since these are rather rare and interesting species. I haven't heard of this one, but I have heard of razorback suckers. Hopefully, they'll eventually release that one as well.

barracudacat wrote:

Wonderful fish!  I wish this line were more widespread since these are rather rare and interesting species.  I haven't heard of this one, but I have heard of razorback suckers.  Hopefully, they'll eventually release that one as well.

I know that these--and a few other rare SW species--are available on various Chinese sites as bootlegs, but I have never heard of anyone successfully getting them.

excellent find !! and good information on the pupfish , safari ltd has quality gems in their line