This is a review of the complete set of insects as part of the '
Special' release of the
Insects Collection by Hayakwa Toys (sometimes misspelled as Hayakawa). Hayakwa releases these figures in various sets, from a few to many, often marked as being 'Special', 'Deluxe', etc. This particular set contains 28 different figures representing ~20 species. Only six of the figures are not beetles, and of the beetles only one is not a scarabaeoid.
The larger figures are marked with 'Hayakwa Toys' and the year (2004) on the underside. The packaging includes illustrations with Japanese and English names (with several errors in the latter, probably lost in translation). There are no scientific names, so all of the names presented below are my identifications based on the morphology of the figures and/or the common names supplied.
None of these species are unique and they have all been made much better once or (sometimes) several times by gashapon-style manufacturers (Kaiyodo, Yujin, Takara, Sega, etc.). They range from 20-60 mm in length (total length, including horns and all).
On to the critters:
Japanese rhinoceros beetle,
Allomyrina dichotoma. It wouldn't be a set of Asian beetle figures without at least one of these, and this set has three: a large and small male, and a female:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Hercules beetles in the genus
Dynastes. There are four figures, one large and one small each of
D. hercules (left) and
D. neptunus (right):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]A few miscellaneous rhinoceros beetles. From left to right,
Megasoma elephas,
Xylotrupes gideon, and
Eupatorus gracilicornis:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Atlas beetles. Large and small figures of
Chalcosoma caucasus:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Stag beetles, from left to right:
Prosopocoilus giraffa,
P. inclinatus, and
Lucanus maculifemoratus:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Stag beetles in the genus
Dorcus. From left to right,
D. curvidens,
D. hopei and
D. titanus. Unless the features are good,
Dorcus can be hard to discern from figures; that last one may even be a
Lucanus...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Some miscellaneous stag beetles. From left to right,
Hexarthrius parryi,
Odontolabis femoralis, and
Allotopus rosenbergi:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Some miscellaneous insects. The cerambycid beetle appears to be based on a
Anoplophora species. The large dragonfly is most-certainly based on the biddie,
Anotogaster sieboldii. The smaller dragonfly is too generic in toy form, although the illustration on the back is suggestive of
Boninthemis insularis or maybe
Crocothemis servilia. The cicada is very generic but is labeled as the brown cicada (
Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata) which would be great, as I do not know of any other figures of adults (Kaiyodo did a couple nymphs):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]lastly three orthopteroids. The mantis is not further identified but probably meant to be the giant Japanese mantid,
Tenodera aridifolia. One of the grasshoppers is labeled as the migratory locust,
Locusta migratoria; the slant-faced grasshopper is most likely based on
Acrida cinerea:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
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