Microorganism Acrylic Mascot (Ikimon - Science Techni Colour)

Review of the complete set of plankton in the 2018 collection Microorganism Acrylic Mascot by Ikimon - Science Techni Colour. Normally I would not collect flat, acrylic figurines like this but for plankton I can make an exception (also they can be displayed flat without losing too much).

There are eight figures, all representing plantonic organisms. They appear to be printed decals (or similar) embedded in clear acrylic. Some are unique to the toy/figure realm. Something a microbiologist like me just cannot turn down :).

On to the pics, in no particular order:

Group shot:

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1. Pedastrium species, a green alga that lives in small colonies.

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2. Volvox species. I was excited for this one! It shows a cluster of vegetative cells, each containing several daughter colonies!

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3. Noctiluca scintillans. This one was also in the Epoch set.

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4. Scenedesmus species. Another unique green alga!

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5. Euglena species. This is not identified to the species level so not sure if it is E. gracilis or Leptocinclis acus (which is often marketed as a Euglena (it does look more like a true Euglena).

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6. Paramecium bursaria. This was a nice choice! Other Paramecium figures have been attributed to P. caudatum.

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7. Daphnia pulex. The lone arthropod in the set (sigh) and a staple in sets of plankton toys.

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8. Closterium species. The one showed up in the Takara TOMY set as well.

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Japanese series are very very special :)

Very, very unusual and interesting

I love them, and thank you for sharing the wonderful pictures

This is a similar set of acrylic plankton mascots by an artist named Ayano Katayama. She sells them on an Etsy-like Japanese site. They compliment the Ikimon set well, but in some ways they are better because they have some texture and 3D relief to them. The artist is on maternity leave, but she was gracious enough to make me a complete set (thanks to Brett and Emiko for helping make it happen). Even got them slightly cheaper because I didn't need the keyrings.

Left to right, top to bottom:

1. Paramecium sp.
2. Amoeba proteus
3. Brachionus sp. [my first rotifer]
4. Closterium sp.
5. Pedastrium sp.
6. Daphina pulex
7. Volvox sp.
8. Bosmina longirostris [new genus and species of water flea]
9. Leptodora kindtii
10. Cyclops sp.

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I missed the original post and that is such an interesting subject. Thanks for sharing both groups of figures with us.

I missed this post too, what cool figures! Thank you for posting these, I'd love to see something like this amongst big brands. Talking about micro organisms, I'd enjoy a parasite set from some brand someday.

Blaine, I know you are a very special collector and your shelves are a place I would love to visit.

Since I know you I'm collecting surprises  and this is another one for my surprise collection: The biggest and loveliest microorganism models collection I know.