Review: Insects (K&M International - Itsy Bitsies)

Review of the complete set of Insects by K&M International's Itsy Bitsies series (2009). Recent discussions on the COG Itsy Bitsy bucket of Reptiles got me researching to see if they had a bucket of insects. Nothing by COG, but I did come across this set by K&M International (did K&M take over and re-release COG sets, or is this something entirely different with a similar name?)

It was available on Amazon cheap enough, so I decided to invest in it. Honestly, I was expecting the usual Toy Major-style fare of generic toy bugs. And while many of these are generic, they represent sculpts I have not seen before (and I collect most every variation of generic toy bugs), and they are made of a relatively sturdy, quality plastic.

There are 17 critters, plus a small plant and a plastic rock, all packed within a bucket measuring 9 cm high and 8 cm in diameter. The insects are about 30-45 mm each. A few of them appear to be miniature versions of insects from their Polyvinyl bag set.

The bucket:

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Beetles. Now there are some interesting things here. There is a longhorned beetle (might be able to get a genus on it), and a carabid that most-certainly represents Carabus, even painted more like on than the Polyvinyl bag set (the European C. intricatus comes to mind early). There is also a short-winged beetle that may represent the same Polybag figure that, when repainted, looks a lot like a nicrophorine carrion beetle. There also appears to be a possible Cicindela (sens. lato). The lady bug is generic fare.

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Orthopteroids. Pretty generic fare of a mantis, grasshopper, and cricket.

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Odonota and Hemiptera. The dragonfly is generic, well all three are, but I really like the stink bug and little cicada!

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Hymenoptera and Diptera. Usual fare here too, with winged and wingless ants (rather like the latter), bee, and fly.

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Arachnids. Generic scorpion and spider; at least the scorpion has a raised tail and for a small generic figure, accurately has 8 legs (many generic bin scorpions are made with 6 legs).

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Lepidoptera. Here is the one butterfly, a swallowtail with its wings raised, along with the plant and rock. I might permanently attach the butterfly to the plant (and maybe the lady bug or ant to the rock) to make permanent mini-bases :)

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Those kind of look like what the COG figures would have looked like. Too bad the K&M versions of the reptiles and other ones didn't reuse the COG figures.

Nice figurines :)

A joy to see what an expert can make out of these Very interesting reading !
Thankyou for sharing yet a great topic

PS : What is COG ?

SUSANNE wrote:

A joy to see what an expert can make out of these    Very interesting reading !
Thankyou for sharing yet a great topic

PS : What is COG ?

I believe the mention is to the COG we find on TAI.

Roger wrote:

SUSANNE wrote:

A joy to see what an expert can make out of these    Very interesting reading !
Thankyou for sharing yet a great topic

PS : What is COG ?

I believe the mention is to the COG we find on TAI.

COG is kind of a weird company--they have made models for Tedco (the prehistoric panorama, for example) and sold little buckets for themselves (I don't have most of the figures anymore, but I do have photos of everything I had--reptiles, ocean, cats, horses, dinosaurs...). They still produce figures, but I'm thinking they farm them out to other companies most of the time.