Dear forum members,
Here I present my fabulous newest additions that I'm so happy to have.
And you will think, yep you post additions in 26th December? Then for sure are a Christmas present!
Actually not! It got just in time but they're actually my auto Birthday present!
And my birthday is in July!
Then why post them now? Well, these are the Odyssey figures of my life! They arrived here just a day before my birthday. I calculated the timing very well! However, when I went to post office they gave me a burofax instead the parcel. I followed the instructions of the burofax and from this point it was a nightmare of several telefonic calls, registration in websites, emails and going again to post office various times for know what to do in order to receive the parcel. All was in vain. Days passed doing gestions and with no result. Finally about two weeks later I had to go to a planned travel. When I came back the first thing was going to post office once more for ask about my parcel. But meanwhile they sent it back to sender!!
The following months, waiting for instructions and doing reclamation was long and complicated. Finally, a couple of months later the parcel arrived to sender. Then more weeks passed doing gestions for postal system of each country paying for its fault. Spanish postal system did not admitted the issue and wanted to be Japanese postal system to assume the new costs. After several gestions from sender, Japanese postal system also didn't assumed that. Well, I had to pay again the shipping costs. Fortunately, not a very high quantity. After that, more weeks waiting, as the sender had other items in the queue that go first. Being unaware of this, I insisted the intermediary about this parcel from time to time, and as a result the sender was so kind to put my parcel in first place of the queque. About a week and half after the sending, the figures arrived. I was not able to enjoy them inmediately as I was in covid-related quarantine. But after I passed the quarantine I went to open the parcel and, full of excitement, admire these incredibly wonderful figures!!!
The main body of the parcel is the Colorata "Fossil Fish" set. it include primitive species of extant fishes, "living fossils". The picture represented in the box is a coelacanth, the archetype of a "living fossil" fish, and casually the only marine fish in the set. However I don't need a coelacanth as I had the unbeatable Ikimon/Kitan Club rendition. The inermediary (Brettjn) was so kind for remove the coelacanth using it for another buyer, and remove the correspondent part of the price! That is a very nice gesture from him!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The box came with each figures wrapped in a double plastic baglet (with one part for the fish and other for the base), the booklet and a frame with a series of rods for attach each fish to its base. As you know I'm not fan of bases and I display these fishes without them in my collection. Sadly, I was getting without daylight slowly and hence some photos are a bit blurry, and I had to hurry taking the photos before dawn. I like to put them against a bluegreen garden wardrobe that looks like water, but finally I had to take some picts againts a white wall because this zone have more light.
This is my third Colorata box, after the Raptor set and the Marine Fish set! I will doubt I'll get more whole boxes from Colorata since the only figures I want from this brand are only few and belonging to different sets.
The first figure is the Chinese Sturgeon,
Acipenser sinensis. It's absolutely atonishing and well done. Perfect in size, too. I think it matches more or less well with Safari's Great Lakes toob sturgeon, too (I don't own it).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here with the closest relative in my collection: the extinct Chinese paddlefish (
Psephurus gladius). These two guys fits well in scale. Once both species shared the Yangtze river. The sturgeon is Critically Endangered (like many other sturgeon species), so it may have soon the same fate than the paddlefish. Dam building is of course the main threat from this anadromous fish.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The second figure is maybe the best of the whole set. The magnific Pirarucu (
Arapaima gigas)!!! A very famous Amazonian fish that during long time was believed to be the largest freshwater fish in the world. Actually the largest is the Beluga sturgeon (
Huso huso), but the Pirarucu and some Asian catfishes are very close!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here my Pirarucu with some other Amazonian critters. For example, a matamata....
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]A flagtail characin...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And I absolutely love this photo!!!! A thirsty tapir went surprised by a River Monster!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Third figure in the set is the Alligator Gar (
Atractosteus spatula). This critter is absolutely magnific. Certainly the gar, the arapaima and the sturgeon are for my taste the best pieces of the set. It's a massive fish, as I had chance to check in Seaworld San Diego. The Colorata rendition have the perfect size. The ganoid scales are absolutely well done, and the translucent fins with heavy black spotting are wonderful. The tail is inclined aside as if the fish was taking a steep curve while swimming.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here we see the gar with my other North American freshwater fishes, a bowfin (
Amia calva) and a red salmon (
Oncorhynchus nerka).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Then it comes the Australian lungfish, aka Queensland lungfish,
Neoceratodus forsteri. The most primitive of the three lungfish genus, and also the biggest and most distinctive and wonderful. Colorata rendition is good, but not as breathtaking as the three previous figures.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The diminishing dayling made me take a photo with flash, but I dislike the distorted colours as result....
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here with my only other Australian freshwater creature... a platypus (
Ornithorhynchus anatinus). These two speces overlap in a part of its range so this encounter is possible.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The fifth figure of the set is the saddled bichir,
Polypterus endlicheri. I like bichirs and saw a wide variety of species in public aquariums or in the aquarium trade. Bichirs can grow huge, but this figure have an excessive size for my taste. About a quarter less would have been good for me. Anyway is a superb rendition. The figure displays in a closed curve and with wide open mouth. I love the sawlike series of dorsal fins, a trait exclusive to bichirs. The ganoid scales are very well done too. The pectoral fins in different positions add a very dynamic gesture to this figure.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]As with the lungfish, I only have one aquatic animal that share the same area of distribution: in this case the common hippopotamus (
Hippopotamus amphibius).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And the sixth and last figure for the set is also one that I'm not excessively enthusiast about. An Asian arowana (
Scleropages formosus). It's a good rendition, tough the eyes are a bit too big, and the barbels of course cannot be as thin as in the real fish as they would break. Asian arowanas came in a variety of colours but this one looks like excessively metallic for me. Anyway is a good figure ansd I like it, even if I'm more excited about other fishes in the set.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And here, all my bonytongues together:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]However, the Colorata set is not the only thing in the parcel. Together with it I also asked Brett about other figures from different Japanese brands.
Here, my favourite of all: the wonderful Kaiyodo ChocoQ Animaltales Series 6 Japanese Giant Spider Crab (
Macrocheira kaempferi). Not surprisingly, Japanese brands released several renditions of this species. I think this is one of the best ones, and it's perfect in size with my other animals. The figure requires to be assembled: each leg comes separatedly and have a rod for attach in the body. Attach the legs require patience for distinguish left ones from right ones and anterior to posterior ones, but looking carefully is easier, I recommend to display all the legs and arrange them in order before attach the first one. If it's the right leg in the right hole, the attachment is firm, otherwise it can be loose, what can lead to the missing of a falling leg for example.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Ventral side shows well done mouthparts and the characteristic more slender, parallel-sided abdomen of a male, as opposed to the wide and round one of a female.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here with my only other crustacean, the Alaskan king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus). I think these two crabs may overlap in part of it's range, tough the king crab is much more cold-water than the spider crab.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Then it comes the Kaiyodo Bottlecap Figure Collection, Chambered Nautilus (
Nautilus pompilius). It's the only nautilus figure that is enough small for my taste (despite I would have prefaired it even smaller). It's a superb rendition, very well done both in shape as in paintjob. It belongs to a set of 9 deepwater creatures, from which the other ones are excessively big for my taste (or too small in the case of the goblin shark).
Here still unpackaged
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]It comes with a bottlecap and a rod to display it. In the bottlecap is writen the animal name, the size and the depth.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Superb in every sense!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]It matches well with other deepwater creatures such as Japanese monkfish (
Lophius litulon) and Silver ratfish (
Chimaera phantasma).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here, all my cephalopods:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Then another fish, the magnific Kaiyodo Aquatales great barracuda (
Sphyraena barracuda). It comes with a small paperboard box, but not inside it.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The figure includes a bottlecap, a base for attach to the bottlecap, and a very small for attach to the base.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]What a wonderful rendition! Pelvic fins forms a whole unit, but the effect is not visible unless one look at the fish ventrally. Otherwise it's just perfect!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]It matches very well with other open ocean fishes such as dolphinfish (
Coryphaena hippurus)...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]or bluefin tuna (
Thunnus thynnus)...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And the last one, I promise! For those of you that only like tetrapods, finally here comes: the Eikoh Miniatureplanet Alligator Snapping Turtle (
Macrochelys temminckii):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]What a wonderful figure! It catches perfectly the "passive agressive monster" spirit of this animal.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The ventral side is very well done too, very reduced plastron, wrinkles and bumps in the legs...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]These two critters are at the moment my only Eikoh figures. One can notice similarity in style, including the glossy finish.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The ambush predator is waiting for some imprudent fish. Here with red salmon and bowfin, that are also North American freshwater critters.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]These turtles do not go often out of water but when they do, they may have encounters such as this with a surprised white-tailed deer buck:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Finally, all my turtles/tortoises together for better comparison!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
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I have the much larger Safari giant squid but I really like that smaller version to battle a sperm whale. The lesser kudu I really need to purchase at some point. I also agree with you that Safari makes the best sharks, the megamouth is on my list to get. Congrats on the great models and thank you for the comparison pictures!
As a last note, I am also witnessing loads of troubles with post service these days, it is incredible how the world gave a huge step backwards in this regard. 
