Rtas' additions - Birthday gift from El Desperado

These are really nice, but I'm especially enjoying reading all about them, your opinions on the models and the real fish, and I feel like I'm learning a lot about the species as they go along. I don't eat fish either (I'm vegetarian) and it does seem like a lot of people are so familiar with how they look from browsing and buying the dead ones, so it's a gap in what must seem like everyday knowledge for people who often see them up close on fish counters or stalls!

Beautiful fish from Japan!

Nice additions! As you know I have this set so these figures are very dear to me. I disagree that the quality is more poor than on the Fossil Fish set, the quality is equally high in both but it just happens that the species chosen are more simple in design than many of the "living fossil" ones, f. e. with so diminute scales that the skin looks like smooth (such as in scombrids, pufferfish, dolphinfish, etc). Definitely I can see the same style for both sets.

Curious to read (again) that the Ocean sunfish is what motivated you to buy this set: for me, this place is taken by the Striped marlin!

The Colorata ocean sunfish model have the absolutely perfect size without discussion That you put a whale-sized oversized grouper with it doesn't make it too small Most adult ocean sunfishes are far from the record maximum size of the species, I've seen it in aquariums twice (Oceanografic Valencia + Aquarium Barcelona) plus a taxidermized one in a French museum (Nantes or Angers, I didn't remember which), and I can say that Colorata model is very good representative of the 1:20 scale followed by most toys of western brands in mammals. And it fits with the Diana monkey too

I agree that the Safari's ocean sunfish base is maybe the worst base chosen ever for a model. Cobalt blue high waves without foam, that doesn't look like waves at all, and that hide partially the model's body. The only reason for doing this base is that the figure would not stand without it, but a rod such as the Colorata's one is way much more discrete and eye-pleasant.

And yes that white-spotted jellyfish (Mastigias papua) is also the only cnidarian in my collection! Any other jelly that is commercialized as a figure per se, would be too big for me, except maybe the Safari's Good Luck Minis one, that I thnk represent a sea nettle (Chrysaora).

The billfish comparison shot is definitely wonderful and also useful! I still will reject new Papo sailfish despite being so attached to it when it was announced. Once I saw photos of the final real product I discarded it for my collection, as I will try to find the much rarer and hard to get Kaiyodo one.

Skipjack tuna is much smaller than bluefin tuna in real (bluefin is the biggest species of the Scombridae family), and I love that the brand went consistent with both species. As you know, I found the paintjob of the skipjak quite inaccurate and I bought a metallic blue marker with the only reason of customize my tuna. I would have felt embarassed if the shop seller asked me what I want to paint with this marker. "A tuna" would have sound quite ridiculous

The mackerel paintjob is by the contrary superb, and it's one of the models I like more from this set. Shame that is a bit oversized, but not as oversized as the very giant sardine. Despite that, I included the sardine in my collection

The Pacific saury is a species whose existence I knew just because of this set! And it's a very nice piece with that extremely streamlined body. For sure a "fast and furious" predator!

Not "every other" figure of the set have fins that must be assembled. In fact, most doesn't! Only the marlin, bluefin tuna, flying fish and sea bream have some of the fins separated, while the skipjack, dolphinfish, sunfish, plichard, saury, mackerel, horse mackerel, halibut, gurnard, puffer and scorpionfish cames as whole pieces without parts to be assembled.

The dolphinfish is a figure that during a time I rejected from my collection after acquiring it. Reasons are that it can't stand without the rod, a severely twisted tail, and colour of the dorsal fin. Having accepted to display it with the rod, and after the purchase of the metallic blue marker that I used to repaint the dorsal fin, now the only reason for dislike it is the twisted tail (that your model apparently doesn't have), and this is not enough reason for reject it!

I disagree with all you said about the scorpionfish, even when this exact species (and even genus) is one that I knew just because of this set. But being a Sebastidae (rockfish), I find it perfect in texture, shape and appareance, in comparison with Sebastes and Helicolenus that I've seen in aquariums and in fisheries.

I like gurnards a lot too, but for different reasons than you: I just love the colorful patterns of the "butterfly" pectoral fins! I always saw gurnards fished in local fisheries and markets, sold with other "waste fishes" for making soup and such. They never have colorful nor big pectoral fins, that are always folded and brittle and small and dark. So until I investigated a bit in the Internet I didn't knew that there are several species with fantastic looking. The Colorata rendition is superb, despite being, again, too big for my taste, but I can't reject such a magnific model

Yes, the size of the true halibut (different family than the bastard halibut, so as related with it as a fox with a tiger!) is beyond believable, I always has been fascinated by photos of people holding recently fished ones.

As many of you know, I have both the sea bream and the tiger puffer in a drawer, I rejected both for my collection since the begin, because they're just too massive for my tastes. And since about a year ago (?) I'm waiting to trade them with [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in an exchange that is taking eons to happen but I'm as patient as a stonefish, so I don't lose hope :)

That's such a great set! I love Colorata models despite their unique style.
I am from a country where we eat in June, an average of more than 1 million of sardines per day. My contribution to it is quite small but I confess I love eating fish, namely sardines. They're currently being debated a lot in my country because of fisheries.

Thanks for your comment George, I'm happy you enjoyed reading that post and it helped you figuring out what critters all these common names corresponded to. Since I collect fishes, these updates are very educational to me and my quick researches to write them make me learn a lot.

Pardofelis wrote:

Nice additions! As you know I have this set so these figures are very dear to me. I disagree that the quality is more poor than on the Fossil Fish set, the quality is equally high in both but it just happens that the species chosen are more simple in design than many of the "living fossil" ones, f. e. with so diminute scales that the skin looks like smooth (such as in scombrids, pufferfish, dolphinfish, etc). Definitely I can see the same style for both sets.

That was kind of my point in fact. The smooth texture works great on all those "basic" pelagic commercial species but not so well with more complex fishes like the scorpionfish, or more scaly ones like the sea bream.

Pardofelis wrote:

The Colorata ocean sunfish model have the absolutely perfect size without discussion That you put a whale-sized oversized grouper with it doesn't make it too small Most adult ocean sunfishes are far from the record maximum size of the species, I've seen it in aquariums twice (Oceanografic Valencia + Aquarium Barcelona) plus a taxidermized one in a French museum (Nantes or Angers, I didn't remember which), and I can say that Colorata model is very good representative of the 1:20 scale followed by most toys of western brands in mammals. And it fits with the Diana monkey too

Yes, I trust you about that. Actually what is convenient with fish figures is that whatever the size, you are almost always able to pretend it's accurate considering the extreme discrepancy there is between individuals within a same species.
But I wonder, what the hell were you doing in Angers ? I hope you took that opportunity to visit one of the best zoos in France as far as enclosures are concerned [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Pardofelis wrote:

And yes that white-spotted jellyfish (Mastigias papua) is also the only cnidarian in my collection! Any other jelly that is commercialized as a figure per se, would be too big for me, except maybe the Safari's Good Luck Minis one, that I thnk represent a sea nettle (Chrysaora).

Thanks for precising the jellyfish's species ! It's actually a very nice replica !

Pardofelis wrote:

The billfish comparison shot is definitely wonderful and also useful! I still will reject new Papo sailfish despite being so attached to it when it was announced. Once I saw photos of the final real product I discarded it for my collection, as I will try to find the much rarer and hard to get Kaiyodo one.

Thanks for mentionning the Kaiyodo sailfish. It's quite obvious that, with this new wonderful marlin, I will have to replace my sailfish too sooner or later.

Pardofelis wrote:

Not "every other" figure of the set have fins that must be assembled. In fact, most doesn't! Only the marlin, bluefin tuna, flying fish and sea bream have some of the fins separated, while the skipjack, dolphinfish, sunfish, plichard, saury, mackerel, horse mackerel, halibut, gurnard, puffer and scorpionfish cames as whole pieces without parts to be assembled.

Well, now you're telling it, that's right, I just didn't pay attention (I had only one afternoon to take all the pictures in daylight before starting work the day after so I assembled everything very quickly).

Pardofelis wrote:

The dolphinfish is a figure that during a time I rejected from my collection after acquiring it. Reasons are that it can't stand without the rod, a severely twisted tail, and colour of the dorsal fin. Having accepted to display it with the rod, and after the purchase of the metallic blue marker that I used to repaint the dorsal fin, now the only reason for dislike it is the twisted tail (that your model apparently doesn't have), and this is not enough reason for reject it!

I didn't pay attention to the dorsal fin, I just thought it looked so much like the real fish I had seen in documentaries when I saw it for the first time on TAI. The tail is not twisted at all on my model.

Pardofelis wrote:

I like gurnards a lot too, but for different reasons than you: I just love the colorful patterns of the "butterfly" pectoral fins! I always saw gurnards fished in local fisheries and markets, sold with other "waste fishes" for making soup and such. They never have colorful nor big pectoral fins, that are always folded and brittle and small and dark. So until I investigated a bit in the Internet I didn't knew that there are several species with fantastic looking. The Colorata rendition is superb, despite being, again, too big for my taste, but I can't reject such a magnific model

Didn't you ever see a living gurnard in an aquarium ?! They are quite common I think or maybe I just pay much attention to them everytime I see them.

Pardofelis wrote:

Yes, the size of the true halibut (different family than the bastard halibut, so as related with it as a fox with a tiger!) is beyond believable, I always has been fascinated by photos of people holding recently fished ones.

That's precisely with such a photo I discovered how big it was.

Roger wrote:

I am from a country where we eat in June, an average of more than 1 million of sardines per day. My contribution to it is quite small but I confess I love eating fish, namely sardines. They're currently being debated a lot in my country because of fisheries.

I'm aware about that. In my shop, the summer collection's theme was Lisboa one year and I remember there was a sardine painted on the bentho we sold.

Hi,

As I said previously, the salwater set was scheduled to be my second big purchase from Japan but, as last time with the Kitan ibis, its order was triggered by other nice opportunities.

After receiving the spectacled owl, I decided to collect all models from Kaiyodo's Fortune Owl Collection. The Amazonian bird of prey convinced me and proved to be perfectly compatible with my major brands nocturnal raptors, both size and aesthetic-wise. The seam, located at the neck level, looks absolutely natural as owls lack a proper neck and seem to have the head directly fixed to the body. And the typically Japanese "kawaï" concept fits well to those chubby birds. Unfortunately, the two first series of that collection are retired and the third one is not as good and features ugly perches. So, I am once more facing a little collecting challenge, as the goal is not only to find all of them but also to get them at the best possible price. I already knew more or less where to find the second series easily (I'm just waiting for the end of the month to be paid) but the first bunch was another story. So, when three of its five models popped up on my usual Jap' seller's webpage for less than ten euros each, I jumped on the occasion in the middle of the night ! I nevertheless passed on the snowy owl which I had already from Schleich. That one was a male while my Schleich is a female but I was not 100% sure they would fit well so I didn't take the risk to be disappointed. But I got the other two and also took the opportunity to add another pair from another series.
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These Oriental scops are indeed not part of the Fortune Owl Collection but are from the Animatales line. They are much lighter than the other two and are really cheap looking when you see them in spare parts. But, once assembled, they're very lovely and do not feel out of place at all next to their little friends, unlike the awful ChocoQ long-eared owl for example. They are among the most decent ChocoQ animals which are otherwise often pretty poor-looking figures in my opinion.
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They come as a pair and I had no possibility to buy one without the other. Both morphs exist in the wild and they are not especially supposed to represent male and female as there is no sexual dimorphism. However, you know me, I'm likely to use them as such. I first planned to send one to Andrés in exchange of some meerkats but I really can't decide which one I like best. At first, I preferred the orange one on the promo pics but then, definitely the dark version when I saw them in real. But the dark figure is slightly damaged on its right wing and the reddish specimen would be more interesting aesthetically in my owl family picture.

Scops are among the smallest owls in the world and these ones clearly don't scale accurately with the "fortune owls". But fortune owls do not scale right with each other either so... At least, size hierarchy is respected and those scops are nicely sized despite not being revelant scale-wise.

I have never seen a scops in the wild. In France, they are rather found in the South or the East and I live in the Western Brittany. But I did hear one during my street-fundraising trips for Greenpeace once, and that was still a fantastic birdwatch... well, birdhearing moment to me. One which certainly influenced that purchase. However, as I said, these figures are Oriental scops, ie not the same species. The morphs are not so strikingly different from each other within the the Eurasian species.

However, as much as I may like scops, my fan-favourite species are their cousins, the white-faced owls from Africa
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The main reason why is probably that it provided me with the best portrait of an owl I ever took. I like the spectacled owl because I stroke one in London but I may almost have been able to hug that little white-faced too when it landed a few centimetres from me during a bird show.
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I'm demanding towards figures of species I really like and that rendition is definitely chubbier (some would say more "Schleichy") than the real bird. However, that species is known to be quite a shape-shifter as shown in this silly video


Anyway, the model is so cute and the species so likable that I don't really care, even more so that the paintjob is otherwise quite perfect.
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As a result, it ends up being a fan favourite in my collection too, most likely my favourite owl figure so far !

Finally, an Ural owl completes the quartet.
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There is a huge discrepancy between promo pic and reality as far as that model is concerned. The promo pic shows what looks like a masterpiece of realism but the actual product is much more toyish and similar in quality to the other figures from the line. It's still a nice rendition of the species, and definitely the best one on the market. What I like about it is that it represents a "vanilla-looking" owl which I can use as my type-species while waiting for a better tawny owl than my outdated vintage Schleich. My mother doesn't like its upset eyes but I think, to the contrary, that they are infinitely owlish and give it a priceless severe but funny look Ok, the paintjob is a bit dirty and that's definitely not an premium model but it just does the job and that's all I ask from it.

The Ural owl is not a species I am particularly familiar with, I mean, I have known it since my childhood from my birdwatching book but never seen it in the wild.

Kaiyodo released a pair of Ural chicks to go with this adult and, as a family collector, I can't wait to order it along with the striped and burrowing owls from series 2 Then, I will only lack the yellow barn owl from the first series (I don't want the white one from the second bunch and would rather buy the CollectA if I never manage to put my hands on the yellowish Kaiyodo) and the little owl which both seem impossible to find. But again, I do enjoy challenges

Here is my whole owl collection so far :
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As already mentioned, they aren't all at a single same scale but I do believe it could have been much worse. Here is a useful chart as I like so much to help you with real size differences :
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Apart from the owls, two other figures were added to the parcel. These are not especially rare ones or unique opportunities not to miss but I wanted them and thought sooner would be better than later.
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The first one is part of a zoology fetish of mine : venomous snakes. Sea kraits are indeed known to be amongst the deadliest elapids but since they are not aggressive at all, bites are rare and casualities too. I have known these snakes forever under their “stripey sweater” name they were given in French due to the striped pattern of their skin. They are semi-aquatic and are still able to move on land where they diggest and lay eggs, unlike most other sea snakes which almost never leave saltwater all their lives long. A “true” fully-aquatic Blecher's sea snake from Takara exists and has already been set aside for me by my usual Japanese seller.

That stripey sweater model is one of those chocoegg figures I am a bit prejudiced against but the species was too exciting to me and the price too cheep for me to resist, even more so that it looked convincing enough from pics.
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The sea worm comes in three parts you have to assemble but the seams are very discreet as you can notice from my pic. I am calling it a “sea worm” because it is exactly what it looks like. The model is not especially detailed and the head and eyes are barely visible. But... that's precisely the memory of it I kept from old documentaries I saw in my childhood ! Actually, sea kraits are among the very few critters on that planet whose tail is more interesting and distinctive than their head. It is nothing but a paddle they use to swim, a typical feature perfectly represented in the sculpt. The pose is wonderfully dynamic and gives all its flavour to a model which would have been quite insipid otherwise, because of the pretty inconsistent look of that faceless aquatic worm. We may tend to forget it but the pose sometimes heavily contributes to the recognizableness of a species. Have you ever seen a basking shark with its mouth shut ? You can barely tell it's a basking shark and a toy replica of it, even perfectly accurate, would cruelly lack of iconism without the typical filtrating pose. The core concept of sea kraits is that they are snakes swimming in the sea, a piece of information that the Kaiyodo figure's sculpt provides us at first sight. As a consequence, and considering its ridiculously low price, this is definitely a must-have for any collector and not only snake freaks.

Here is a comparison with another worm-looking elapid, the Mojo coral snake. As you can see, that sea krait was made to fit with standard sized snakes from Western brands.
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Finally, another Kitan must joined my Japanese ibis and monkey.

I do enjoy collecting sharks very much as they are popular animals major brands willingly represent in all their diversity. To the contrary, Japanese manufacturers tend to prefer bony fishes and comparatively neglect sharks. However, there is one species no Western company ever produced a figure of while Kitan, the king of Japanese animal toy makers did : that scary abyssal freak known as the frilled shark. With its bright green eyes and eel-shaped body, it looks like a mutant hybrid created in the secret laboratories of Area 51 but it's actually all the opposite : it's a primitive natural species of shark that fewly diverted from its ancestors which appeared in the Carboniferous. The figure from Kitan is superb, nothing to complain about it, I'm just not as enthusiast as I should be, for a reason that escapes me
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I forgot to take any shark with me for comparison so I will only be able to say that this Kitan figure is rather small and thin which is faithful to the real slender and reasonably sized (max 2 m) fish.

That's all for now and I don't expect any big update very soon, except perhaps a tiny parcel from Spain. However, my next main additions will be true spoils of war and a HUGE step further in my collecting hobby since I'll be introducing a brand new phylum with figures catched using a whole new hunting method

Beautiful owls!

RtasVadumee wrote:

But I wonder, what the hell were you doing in Angers ? I hope you took that opportunity to visit one of the best zoos in France as far as enclosures are concerned [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

When I travel, usually is my mother who chose destination and the reason is no other that somebody offer his house in house exchange (hence we can stay without hotel). It happened in Nantes in 2015, and as my mother want to visit nearby zones, we also run out to Angers in the same travel. I visited natural history museums of both places and botanical gardens in both (the Angers one being rather poor compared with Nantes), of course the local zoo also was in my plans (they have servals that at this time I still didn't had, tough later I saw them in various zoos), but after asking in tourism office it looked like there was no way to reach here in public transport.

RtasVadumee wrote:

Didn't you ever see a living gurnard in an aquarium ?! They are quite common I think or maybe I just pay much attention to them everytime I see them.

Yes I've seem them and photographed them. They're not common, I only saw them in a couple of places (Loro Park Tenerife and Dolfinarium Harderwijk), but in both cases they're Chelidonichthys lucerna, a big and not very colorful species that lacks the marvelous butterfly-look of pectoral fins of smaller members of genus Lepidotrigla.

Actually, after seeing your video documentary of the dolphinfishes and frigatebirds cornering flying fishes, I did a second repaint on my Colorata dolphinfish, adding more yellow in belly, pelvic and anal fins and caudal fin. And reinforcing the blue in the dorsal fin. Now it looks like fantastic

Nice selection of owls, but I'm surprised that you don't have the Striped owl from same series, that is the one I have.
I hear a scops owl everynight when I come back from my workplace, but the exciting experience was several years ago when, I still don't have a bike and I went back to home from my work in bus. At the bus stop, sometimes heard in summer nights a scops owl. If I was alone, I imitated the sound of it. The marvelous moment came when the owl suddendly appeared flying over the bus stop, attracted by my sound!!!

I saw the same "shapeshifter" video about white-faced scops-owl many years ago, but without canned laughs nor Japanese characters writen in it, and then it looked much less silly :)

I'm quite surprised and somewhat disagree with the owl size chart. I've cared both Great grey owls and Eurasian eagle owls and clearly the latter are slightly bigger. The biggest owls of the world are the Siberian subespecies of Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo sibericus), that I also cared, followed by the much less known Powerful owl (Ninox strenua).

Saw this krait figurine long time ago, and doubted about purchasing it or not, as it was very cheap. Finally I find too big for my taste plus the most important thing: an extremely noticeable seam in every images of this model I found in the net, just in the middle of the body. Honestly, your image is the first one I see where the seam is not noticeable. You're lucky guy, you found the best individual of this model!

That frilled shark was one of my first Japanese figures. Obviously is the best shark figurine ever produced by any brand in the whole world, and possibly the best vertebrate figurine of whole animal toy world. Anybody that doesn't feel super-excited for having it, deserves to be devoided of his whole collection

Oh, what lovely owls! I haven't seen many owl figures (remember I'm a newbie - prior to joining this forum recently, I'd only ever been on ones exclusively about equine models) and it's great seeing what's out there, and what collectors are choosing.
I do love owls, I used to occasionally do the barn owls and eagle owl where I worked, and we have a few wild species round here. I often hear tawnies, see little owls in my horse field, and once got slapped in the face by the wing of a wild barn owl (which was entirely my fault - I stuck my head over a door in an old barn, and he was only living up to his name by being in there! )

Beautiful birds and others! I love my frilled shark from Safari (toob) and Discovery. Should get that beautiful japanese model sometime. Congrats!

Beautiful owl collection! one zoo keeper of Rocamadour told me harfangs were very easy to breed, just as chikens, to release then in Wilderness..

Pardofelis wrote:

When I travel, usually is my mother who chose destination and the reason is no other that somebody offer his house in house exchange (hence we can stay without hotel). It happened in Nantes in 2015, and as my mother want to visit nearby zones, we also run out to Angers in the same travel. I visited natural history museums of both places and botanical gardens in both (the Angers one being rather poor compared with Nantes), of course the local zoo also was in my plans (they have servals that at this time I still didn't had, tough later I saw them in various zoos), but after asking in tourism office it looked like there was no way to reach here in public transport.

Yes, most zoos are a pain in the ass to reach without a car in France, I remember often taking a train at 5 am with two or three changes and then the bus, to arrive at 11 am when I was doing my zoo trips. I could have gone with my parents or my grandparents but, you must know it as well as I do, when your goal is to take pictures, it's always better to visit zoos alone.

I was wondering why you went to Angers because it's quite a small city, unlike Nantes which is the biggest one in the North-Western area.

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Yes I've seem them and photographed them. They're not common, I only saw them in a couple of places (Loro Park Tenerife and Dolfinarium Harderwijk), but in both cases they're Chelidonichthys lucerna, a big and not very colorful species that lacks the marvelous butterfly-look of pectoral fins of smaller members of genus Lepidotrigla.

Strange, I would have said the gurnards I saw just looked like the Colorata figure.

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Nice selection of owls, but I'm surprised that you don't have the Striped owl from same series, that is the one I have.

Your striped owl is certainly one of the best from that series and as I said, I'm just waiting to receive my salary.

Quote :

I hear a scops owl everynight when I come back from my workplace, but the exciting experience was several years ago when, I still don't have a bike and I went back to home from my work in bus. At the bus stop, sometimes heard in summer nights a scops owl. If I was alone, I imitated the sound of it. The marvelous moment came when the owl suddendly appeared flying over the bus stop, attracted by my sound!!!

I'm so jealous of that sighting of yours, just as I was jealous of Alain's eagle owl

My own sightings of norcurnal raptors are very poor. I saw the little owl many times of course, but they are as common as kestrels here. I poorly saw barn owls, only flying over the road at night. I have never seen wild tawny or long-eared owls... Curiously, the owl I'm most familiar with is the least common one here : that's the short-eared owl. Because I'm mostly a water birdwatcher and short-eared owls are often found in wetlands (they're even called "marsh owls" in French).

Pardofelis wrote:

I'm quite surprised and somewhat disagree with the owl size chart. I've cared both Great grey owls and Eurasian eagle owls and clearly the latter are slightly bigger. The biggest owls of the world are the Siberian subespecies of Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo sibericus), that I also cared, followed by the much less known Powerful owl (Ninox strenua).

I was surprised too, I remember eagle owls looking more massive than great grey ones but I never seen both together and guess that shart is using "official" measurements.

Pardofelis wrote:

Saw this krait figurine long time ago, and doubted about purchasing it or not, as it was very cheap. Finally I find too big for my taste plus the most important thing: an extremely noticeable seam in every images of this model I found in the net, just in the middle of the body. Honestly, your image is the first one I see where the seam is not noticeable. You're lucky guy, you found the best individual of this model!

Ahahah, no ! I just compressed the parts against each other like a barbarian to make those seams disappear

George wrote:

Oh, what lovely owls! I haven't seen many owl figures (remember I'm a newbie - prior to joining this forum recently, I'd only ever been on ones exclusively about equine models) and it's great seeing what's out there, and what collectors are choosing.
I do love owls, I used to occasionally do the barn owls and eagle owl where I worked, and we have a few wild species round here. I often hear tawnies, see little owls in my horse field, and once got slapped in the face by the wing of a wild barn owl (which was entirely my fault - I stuck my head over a door in an old barn, and he was only living up to his name by being in there! )

Great sightings too, it seems that nocturnal raptors encounters are always specatcular !

Thanks Paige and Alain !

Wonderful Owls.

As I mentioned before, owls is a very interesting and attractive collecting subject. Actually, their different species look like different characters of an anime.
Let's see what is your next step in your collecting adventure.

Hi there !

Having spent more than what I could afford in May, I had planned a quiet June as far as collecting was concerned. However, I still had some parcels to receive and figures set aside for me that I had to pay for as soon as possible, so it ends up being a quite busy summer start anyway and I am as broke as one month ago at the same date, if not more But my collection is richer of some new jewels that I'm happy to show you there

My June acquisitions are basically divided into three parcels I received from three different sellers/parts of the world.

The first one comes from Spain and some of its figures even came from much further away, China ! Indeed, Andrés has got used to ordering from TaoBao, the main Chinese online shopping platform, the only place where the owls from the Chinese brand "Naturalism" were available at first, when they were released, and a great spot to find rare or expensive Japanese at ridiculously cheap prices !
Another trade subject and even a gift were added to the package, resulting in a very heterogeneous parcel.
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The second one is from my usual Japanese Ebay seller. He had several snakes from Takara set aside for me and I had to pay him when I received my salary. I'm sure he would have been kind enough to keep them longer but I considered it was a matter of trust and respect to complete the transaction quickly and I also have to confess that I was craving for my figures too ! A quite rare and very wished crab to complete the platter of seafood was one more reason to hurry up and I took the opportunity of a pretty small purchase (with no usual Colorata set I mean) to add a relatively expensive Kitan which had been in mind for a while.
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Finally, I am making it a point of honor to complete the "Fortune Owls" collection from Kaiyodo and I knew a good address in Italy to order the easily available ones I missed. The delivery was quite epic, as I had to make the guy come to my workplace after three failed attempts, but they finally arrived safe and sound, happy to reunite with their relatives.
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I have waited to receive the three parcels to start writting my update because it will be much easier and faster for me to present everything at the same time. As you may have noticed, my June additions are basically focused on three main kinds of animals : owls, snakes and crabs. I will then present them by taxonomic groups rather than parcels for a clearer result I hope.

1) Owls
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I have recently entered an unstoppable owl mania since I distractedly bought the Kaiyodo spectacled owl for the only sake of giving a try to that series praised by my Spanish partner in crime. I obviously first gave priority to the rarest and longest-lasting retired models, the Northern white-faced and Ural owls from series 1 namely, the other ones from series 2 could wait. Not forever though, as they are not so common and, although more recently, still retired. I thus ordered them as soon as I was paid my salary, from an Italian "geek shop" mostly selling video game and manga goodies, the same as the one Andrés ordered my spectacled owl from I think.

Two new species were added to the collection : the striped owl and the burrowing owl.
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The striped owl is the only one Isidro owns and he was surprised not to find it in my last owl family picture. To be honest, it's the species portrayed in the Kaiyodo series I'm the least familiar with but I do understand his perplexity about my choice, as its replica is certainly one of the most beautiful models from the line. A quick google image search confirms me that it's not only gorgeous but also very faithful to the real bird and if the Northern white faced owl was not a fan-favourite of mine, this larger South-American cousin would likely kick it off its throne in my rankings !

The burrowing owl is, to the contrary, a very well-known species I'm familiar with. I was thus far more demanding towards it and was definitely not convinced by the Kaiyodo rendition when I first saw it on pictures. Indeed, this species is known for its long legs but also tall and slender body and I thought that this model was way too chubby to "feel like" an actual burrowing owl. But it would have been a shame to miss only one model and my completist urge "forced" me to order it Finally, I'm not disappointed in my choice at all. I still firmly believe it is not perfect, the belly especially should be striped rather than spotless as it is, but at least it's aesthetically pleasant, nicely painted, and I guess the "wader legs" are enough to recognize the species.

The third newcomer from Italy, or rather the third and fourth , are two Ural chicks to go with the adult I already have. As a family collector, owl chicks were something I COULD NOT miss, and this figure ends up being even more exciting to me than the other two despite it's no new species.
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They are furthermore quite gorgeous and I love that they are big, older but still silky babies, as they look very funny next to their tiny mother who surely is having a hard time fulfilling their horse appetite ! Unlike diurnal raptors which often focus on only one chick to maximize its chances of survival and let the others die, owls do care for all their offsprings so this duo figure is relevant, besides being very cute

Finally, I still missed another major species in my owl collection. I'm not talking about any improvised addition I would gladly welcome at some point without really looking for it in the first place like the fan-favourite, but still quite unexpected spectacled and white-faced owls. I'm thinking about a compulsory ABC must-have no one can miss in his/her collection, owl fever or not. Often considered as the longest species of nocturnal raptor (albeit not the heaviest or most massive), the great grey owl is also a silent predator which hunts its preys in daylight (as its yellow eyes suggest), in the snowy lands of Nothern Europe, Asia and America.

This is a species Bullyland is quite famous for, as the poor man's Schleich was the only one to release a figure of it in the Western world. A quite decent one if you want my opinion, another big aesthetic disagreement between Andrés and I. The hunting pose is what I was expecting for that formidable rodent killer and I would have got it at some point if I had not opted for the newly released Naturalism counterpart. At first, I didn't even liked the later, finding the white crescents on the face too prominent to look natural and of course, the silly kawaï pose bothered me a lot. But the Bullyland was retired and always expensive while Andrés could get a Naturalism rendition for 3€ on TaoBao. He had previously bought one for him and I was attracted by its huge, impressive size (after all, it is supposed to be one of the largest owls in the world) so I finally asked him to order one for me too.

Finally, I don't regret my choice ! The face and plumage are surely more distinctive than on the Bullyland model which is kind of a random grey owl that we identify as the great grey species only by process of elimination. The model is wayyy better in real, trust me, and the white crescents surrounding the eyes are not as disturbing as they look on my pic. The massive build, what initially appealed to me, is enjoyable and fits great with my Schleich snowy owl, although it looks big compared with the eagle owl from the same brand.
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However, considering my whole array of owl figures, it appears that the eagle owl is the undersized one as it's barely bigger than its snowy cousin. I may consider the Safari rendition but it does not fully satisfies me, especially because of its awfully sculpted thick feet. A shame all the models from Naturalism share that silly pose that I don't want to be featured twice in my collection, because their eagle owl is certainly the best I've ever seen. Anyway, that's not the point. Here is the now (almost) fully complete family picture...
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... with the size chart to compare.
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I still lack the little and barn owls from Kaiyodo which will surely be a pain in the ass to find, and the poor long-eared owl from Safari that I will get sooner or later without much conviction, for the only sake of completism I guess.

2) Snakes
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I do love snakes, you know it, especially venomous ones. And I am kind of a Yujin/Takara groupie since I got their crustacean set. So when I saw three models from the Takara venomous snakes set available from my usual Japanese Ebay seller, I asked him to put them aside for me straightaway ! In the end, I'm very satisfied by one of them that I recommend to everyone, while the two others are not so exciting and only suitable for snake freaks like me.

The one I love is the wonderful death adder.
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It's a very interesting animal as it is named "adder", definitely looks like an adder with its triangular head, fat body reminding a puff adder and vertical pupils, but it's actually an elapid so a cobra/mamba relative ! Such a curiosity had to be featured in my collection, even more so that it's also one of the deadliest snakes in the world, as most Australians are. The figure itself represents a desert death adder and is a gorgeous replica of the real snake. The body shape is perfectly right, with that striking contrast between the fat body and very thin tail, and the eyes are definitely the best painted snake eyes in my collection so far.
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The size may be a bit big but there is far worse coming later, you'll see

As I said, the other two are less tremendous because they highly remind figures I already own, but still enjoyable as long as you are a snake lover. Moreover, the choice for decent snake figures is tiny as they are scarce among Western ranges and Takara seems the only Japanese company that released models at the same level of quality (I'm not considering the Kaiyodo Choco eggs stuff). Kitan also did a nice pit viper I think, but that's all. So, you definitely can't afford yourself the luxury of being finicky here.
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The Takara coral snake represents Micrurus corallinus, a different South-American species and even genus than the Mojo North-American counterpart which is Micruroides euryxanthus. It's much smaller and clearly better sized to fit in my collection, as coral snakes are usually quite short elapids. They do not really fit together sizewise as the Arizona coral snake is supposed to be smaller than its Brazilian cousin in real while it's the opposite in toy form. But I'm happy to have them both anyway as both figures got the body pattern of their respective species right, which makes them useful identification tools to tell the species apart from each other :
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I also got a new sea snake, a Belcher's sea snake more precisely.
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It is very similar to the sea krait from Kaiyodo I already have but is actually a slightly different critter : unlike sea kraits from the genus Laticauda which are oviparous and come to land to lay eggs, “real” sea snakes from the genus Hydrophis are exclusively aquatic. That's why it's a worthy addition to the pit.

I would say that it's a more detailed and thus better figure with a finer finish than the Kaiyodo sea krait. Yet, its pose is far to be as iconic as the later. The undulating body is meant to represent swimming but it could equally be a crawling pose to anyone who is not familiar with the marine environment of this animal. Unlike the Kaiyodo sea krait which, thanks to its base that enables it to "levitate", is immediately identified as a swimming snake. Once won't hurt, I thus do prefer a figure over another thanks to its base

Finally, the last serpentine addition is another deadly Australian, the brown snake from Science and Nature.
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It's a gift from Andrés who had bought it without being aware of its size and then rejected it for that reason. Actually, it's too big for me too, being longer than my green anaconda, but I am into snakes enough to accept it in my collection as it represents a quite wished species since I learnt about it from comedy Australian writer Kenneth Cook who mentions it in his funny short stories about Australian wildlife. The Eastern brown snake is a quite large elapid and the S&N figure is actually not so ridiculously oversized if you only compare it to the other venomous snakes. Here is a family picture :
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Well, ok, it's still quite humongous but I like it ! I would mostly need a large king cobra to conterbalance it in fact, and the Mojo model is on my list now that I have checked Blaine's assumption according to which it's a king despite the "glasses" pattern on the back of the head, and concluded he was indeed correct. The last Takara I miss is, meanwhile, the inland taipan and I feel like it's going to become a new Holy Grail for me, like the little owl from Kaiyodo and spiny lobster from Kitan. But I do enjoy that the most venomous snake of all will be my final boss

3) Crabs
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Crabs are, like owls and sharks, an addictive collecting subject. There are so many species of different shapes and colours and most of them are so funny and friendly-looking that you just can't help catching them all ! As I said on my other topic, Yujin/Takara runs the crustacean game without any doubt possible. But one brand is able to rival on gorgeousness despite a much poorer species catalogue and that brand is no other than Kitan, the Japanese company that excels in everything it undertakes. I had noticed their horsehair crab for a while, even praised it to Andrés who got it before me, most likely on my indirect advice. Yet, it was not especially a familiar or important species to me, I just found the model amazing and was convinced that Kitan was a token of quality. That's why I didn't hesitate to spend as much as 17€ when my usual Ebay seller offered it. And I don't regret my choice as it is as good if not slightly better than its Takara new friends.

The hairy crab is visually quite similar to the king crab with its long, spider-like legs but short craby arms, that's why a comparison seems relevant to me.
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The Kitan model is obviously too big to fit efficiently with the Takara king but it remains more or less acceptable, or at least not absolutely scandalous. Anyway, there are much more worrisome size issues inside the Takara set itself. Here is a real size comparison in video :



That small and quite cheap update was also the opportunity to add another crustacean I had spotted in Andrés' collection. It was not a must-have either but its very low price and friendly look spoke for itself. A crab whose acquisition was driven by my little guilty pleasure to gather all the members of that funny band of brothers. I'm talking about the red-streaked box crab, also known as shame-faced crab because its big claws are hidding its face as if it was ashamed of itself.

I know there are several renditions of this crab and I have to confess I didn't compare them at all. I just saw the Kaiyodo one from the Aquatales series in Andrés' collection and it convinced me so I didn't look for another one. It's good, nothing to complain about it, and adds more diversity to the seafood party. In a crab cartoon, I would imagine it as the shy and clumsy guy often used as a comic relief so let's just say it reminds me a bit of myself several years ago, and still nowadays in certain occasions ! I'm no expert in crustacean sizes but I would say it scales conveniently with the rest. Here is a comparison with my "vanilla" reference crab, the blue swimming one :
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More crustaceans are coming soon, especially two new species even wayyy more exciting than these ones (and wayyy more expensive too ). I was supposed to be reasonable and fix all my money issues this month but it seems that it will take me a little while longer : I just can't resist the call of seafood ! In the meantime, here is the current family picture :
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4) Others

Three more miscellaneous figures came along the snakes, owls and crabs.

The first one is the quagga from Mojo.
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I was not thinking about this one until Andrés offered me to get one for each of us. This is not a figure I had especially considered as it is, to speak true, quite poorly painted and was already retired (and I was not ready to put much effort or money in finding and buying it). But the catch here was easy and cheap and I do collect non-prehistoric extinct animals (I already had the thylacine and dodo, it would have been a shame to miss that one) so there was no good reason to reject it.

Upon receiving it, I have to say that my opinion has slightly but not significantly evolved : it's indeed quite poorly painted and not zebra-looking enough with these too thin and diffuse stripes, but at least aesthetically quite pleasant and fitting well with my Schleich plain zebra herd. Nothing compared to Isidro's nice repaint or George's absolute masterpiece though.

What is particularly funny is that the quagga is not a species on its own but "only" an extinct subspecies of the plain zebra but I got it BEFORE the actual distinct species available in toy form : the Grevy's zebra from CollectA. Having already too many Schleich zebras, that one was never a priority in my orders and was constantly neglected until I shifted from Western to Japanese brands and completely forgot to purchase it. Maybe that quagga is the opportunity I needed to trigger the Grevy's zebra acquisition too. I still do need a few CollectA models actually, namely their orangutan, Grevy's zebra and possibly barn owl, as well as a few cattle for my farm. I hope being able to make that CollectA order in July, if I manage to calm my Japanese fever down

The next outsider is a charismatic but horrendous critter I definitely needed but was waiting to get because of its price (14€) I couldn't afford on big purchases including a Colorata set. Let's guess what it is with a riddle : my first is what the Spanish organized crime uses me for on this forum. My second is the future of earth once Shiva will have destroyed us all with the Indian variant. I am of course :
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In reality the naked mole-rat is definitely a rodent and has nothing to do with a mole, except a shared underground way of life. That's a fascinating species and not only because of its physical appearance. Indeed, that freak is kind of an indestructible terminator insensitive to pain, resistant to cancer and able to live in extremely low oxygen environments. They are, moreover, socially organized in colonies similar to ants For all these reasons, along with the fact that I killed a fair share of giant versions of them in the Fallout video games, the mole-rat was a must-have species in my collection.

The figure itself is everything you would expect from Kitan, the best of Japanese brands : it's good, detailed, and faithful to the original model. The skin folds are particularly realistic. The figure comes on a "wooden" base which is removable and that I didn't show here. The rock it is standing on is not bothering at all.

Sizewise, it's a small figure for a tiny species and fits well with my already oversized small rodents and insectivorans. Here is the cute hybrid with Schleich daddy and Papo mommy :
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As far as I remember, I have only seen naked mole-rats in one zoo : London's.

Last but not least, I actually kept the best for last, I finally got the third member of the holy Kitan triumvirate I was craving for when I started collecting Japanese figures
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I'm not so much into amphibians than I am into reptiles, birds or even crustaceans now and while I'm ready to accept crazy oversized crabs, I'm still not willing to do the same with frogs and newts. Or, more accurately, I'm not ready to spend big money on that. However, amphibians represent a whole class among the vertebrates so they have to be represented within my collection. And when you have to choose a unique standard bearer because you are not going to start collecting all its relatives, you necessarily want the most charismatic member of the family.

Who else than one of the two giant salamander species in that particular case ? They are undoubtedly the most impressive amphibians with their lenght reaching up to 180 cm, a perfect choice for redneck Ben. As a consequence, they are basically the only species whose replicas could theorically fit in a standard sized collection. But that convenience is not the only thing that made me put the Kitan Japanese giant salamander on top of my priority list. It is, besides that, a pure jewel "made in Kitan".

I said that the crested ibis was the Kitan perentie but this one is maybe even better than both. The sculpt to begin with, perfectly renders the skin texture of that animal, with its pearl studded head and veined body. The pose is convenient for display and photography as it highlights both the head and tail. The paintjob is superb and combined with the rough skin texture, gives life to the figure. As Isidro pointed out, the tiny eyes are a success too : considering their small size, Kitan could have been lazy and just painted them black but they didn't and, to the contrary, carefully demarcated the iris from the sclera and thus, got the salamander's facial expression perfectly right. Such a level of detail, refinement and accuracy is amazing on what is initially supposed to be a key chain figure ! I can't stop being amazed by how the Japanese make such a big effort for cheap gashapon, choco egg or key chain/magnet figures !

Because of that, the Kitan giant salamander is certainly one of the most wished Japanese figures by collectors and it can reach quite high prices on Ebay. Fortunately, Andrés got it for a few euros on TaoBao so I didn't ruin myself even if I would have been ready to do so for such a major addition !

There is another giant salamander from Kitan. This one is the Nature Technicolor model included in the salamander and newt set but there is also one from the Nature of Japan line, the same that released the wonderful ibis, macaque and horsehair crab I already have. It's represented in a swimming pose and I want it too in order to pair it with mine ! Even amphibians have to get married



Apart from that, I don't plan any other amphibian addition soon, even if my collection of them is quite miserable for now :
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Actually, I do like my green tree and blue poison dart frogs from Schleich, even if they are just repaints and the mould does not really suit for the dart frog. But my big old Schleich frog, even if I discretionarily identified it as an Australian green tree frog, does not represent anything really... Considering its size, a bullfrog repaint would be just perfect as this is maybe the only other species, along with the "pacman" frog for more personal reasons, that I am willing to add to the pond.

That's all for now and I guess for June too, at least on this thread. Next update will be a farm one so stay tuned

What a marvellous parcel, or rather collection of them! They are each splendid in their own way but that giant salamander is what I fell in love with... congrats!

Ι agree, most of them are cool choices, though I'm not too keen on Japanese models usually.
If I had to choose just one, it would be the the naked mole-rat. That adder looks very nice too, so does the grey owl and the salamander.
Very interesting post again, I wonder where do you find the patience to write them down.. It seems exhausting to me..

Many phantastic newcomers

Wow, mon ami, you're in high collecting fever

It surprises me the ginormous size of the Naturalism great grey owl, since I have the quagga in the photo that allows me a comparison.

I'm glad you finally got trapped by the Striped owl. The facial markings of this species made it my favourite owl amongst those that I never saw in captivity (but that I know well).

Wow, you have so many owls now! I have only two. From your image I only like the Ural owl, it's quite decent and having in real the same size than a Great Grey Owl, it would be perfect for my collection (despite the Striped Owl being very oversized). However I would not get it due to stricking seam (including different paintjob on each side) in the neck. In your image most owls are harmonic sizewise, except the Great Grey Owl that is ginormous (should be a bit smaller than the Eagle Owl and about same size than Snowy Owl), and some of the smallest species like scops and burrowing owls, that of course are very big when compared with bigger species, but this is what to be expected in every animal figure (small species at bigger scale than big species).

That burrowing owl is nice, but maybe it needs a bit more white speckling in plumage. (I can do it for you if you don't dare to do yourself). But the chubby appareance of it is absolutely perfect. This is how they are really. They only are slender when alarmed.

I don't like the Safari's long-eared owl, even if sizewise is more acceptable for you, the paintjob is ugly. Dark grey with an orange face. Real long-eared owls have a brown mottled plumage.

The death adder is superb, I agree!! They got perfectly the ridiculous little tail sticking out of the flat body. And I love the scales arranged in perfect annular series, with each scale oval-shaped, instead a much more simplistic and easier to do criss-cross pattern as most branded snakes have.

The sea snake is somewhat that I want! I already told you I discarded the Kaiyodo one for my collection. But this one have much better size, infinitely better scale texture, not a base, better colour, and overall, lacks a seam in the middle as it's a single piece. So I want one (tough I would like to know the size, as compared for example with Colorata's boa constrictor that I have)

Your amphibian collection is not so miserable: you have the double of figures/species than me!

You have wonderful taste in quality and realism for your model collecting, these are all absolutely beautiful! I love the new owls, and the big group photo of all of them together, they're such varied and pretty birds and the models have captured the detail and character of each species so well. I don't think it matters too much about the burrowing owl not being tall and slim enough, they're all such flexible birds and the variation between photos can be amazing, depending on whether they're posing squat and hunched, or stretched up to full height. Yours is just resting with his body tucked down low, maybe it's windy and he doesn't like it

The crabs are, again, beautifully detailed, both in sculpt and painting, I can see why they've become something of a collecting addiction, and enjoy seeing each new addition!

And I do like the quagga, he's on my wishlist too but unfortunately none left at UK retailers, and none on ebay right now, so I'll just have to wait and hope. I don't mind that his colour's quite pale and stripes a bit sparse - the real quaggas varied so so much there were light individuals with less striping, just like there were dark ones with a lot more pattern to them (I saw a lot of museum specimens when researching my paintwork), so I'd be perfectly happy with this interpretation.

So many wonderful additions, those crabs are beautiful! And the Naked Mole Rat is a lovely model of a more unusual, and interesting, species!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

What a marvellous parcel, or rather collection of them! They are each splendid in their own way but that giant salamander is what I fell in love with... congrats!

Thanks Paige, if you're interested, I can have a look if I ever find another one at a very cheap price !

spacelab wrote:

Ι agree, most of them are cool choices, though I'm not too keen on Japanese models usually.
If I had to choose just one, it would be the the naked mole-rat. That adder looks very nice too, so does the grey owl and the salamander.
Very interesting post again, I wonder where do you find the patience to write them down.. It seems exhausting to me..

Thanks Kosta ! It used to be actually, I remember writting the Southlands review every night after work during one week... But after many of them, I basically write as quickly in English as in French now, this one only took me two evenings for example.

widukind wrote:

Many phantastic newcomers

Thanks !

Pardofelis wrote:

Wow, you have so many owls now! I have only two. From your image I only like the Ural owl, it's quite decent and having in real the same size than a Great Grey Owl, it would be perfect for my collection (despite the Striped Owl being very oversized). However I would not get it due to stricking seam (including different paintjob on each side) in the neck. In your image most owls are harmonic sizewise, except the Great Grey Owl that is ginormous (should be a bit smaller than the Eagle Owl and about same size than Snowy Owl), and some of the smallest species like scops and burrowing owls, that of course are very big when compared with bigger species, but this is what to be expected in every animal figure (small species at bigger scale than big species).

That burrowing owl is nice, but maybe it needs a bit more white speckling in plumage. (I can do it for you if you don't dare to do yourself). But the chubby appareance of it is absolutely perfect. This is how they are really. They only are slender when alarmed.

I don't like the Safari's long-eared owl, even if sizewise is more acceptable for you, the paintjob is ugly. Dark grey with an orange face. Real long-eared owls have a brown mottled plumage.

The death adder is superb, I agree!! They got perfectly the ridiculous little tail sticking out of the flat body. And I love the scales arranged in perfect annular series, with each scale oval-shaped, instead a much more simplistic and easier to do criss-cross pattern as most branded snakes have.

The sea snake is somewhat that I want! I already told you I discarded the Kaiyodo one for my collection. But this one have much better size, infinitely better scale texture, not a base, better colour, and overall, lacks a seam in the middle as it's a single piece. So I want one (tough I would like to know the size, as compared for example with Colorata's boa constrictor that I have)

The great grey owl's size does not bother me so much and I think I would be able to fix the issue with a bigger eagle owl. However, it prevents me from getting the Kaiyodo Blakiston's fish owl which is quite small... I would enjoy a smaller and "true" Ketupa like the brown fish owl in fact. You're right about the burrowing owl, I just think that the alarmed pose is the most iconic one for that species, like the open mouth is the iconic way to represent the Tasmanian devil for example.

Yes, it's horrible. I don't know about the American specimens but "our" long-eared owl are definitely not black... But you know, gotta catch 'em all, eh.

I'm happy you love my death adder and enjoy its distinctive scales as Andrés doesn't like it because of that !

The sea snake from Takara is definitely more what we both are looking for in animal replicas than the Kaiyodo sea krait even if I do think the pose is not as charismatic. It's really a tiny figure, I don't think it will be shocking with your Colorata boa.

George wrote:

You have wonderful taste in quality and realism for your model collecting, these are all absolutely beautiful! I love the new owls, and the big group photo of all of them together, they're such varied and pretty birds and the models have captured the detail and character of each species so well. I don't think it matters too much about the burrowing owl not being tall and slim enough, they're all such flexible birds and the variation between photos can be amazing, depending on whether they're posing squat and hunched, or stretched up to full height. Yours is just resting with his body tucked down low, maybe it's windy and he doesn't like it

The crabs are, again, beautifully detailed, both in sculpt and painting, I can see why they've become something of a collecting addiction, and enjoy seeing each new addition!

And I do like the quagga, he's on my wishlist too but unfortunately none left at UK retailers, and none on ebay right now, so I'll just have to wait and hope. I don't mind that his colour's quite pale and stripes a bit sparse - the real quaggas varied so so much there were light individuals with less striping, just like there were dark ones with a lot more pattern to them (I saw a lot of museum specimens when researching my paintwork), so I'd be perfectly happy with this interpretation.

Thanks George ! I'm not so much into owls but the quality of the Kaiyodo models converted me !

You'll be glad to know that more crabs are coming.

Thanks for the info about the quagga !

Bonnie wrote:

So many wonderful additions, those crabs are beautiful! And the Naked Mole Rat is a lovely model of a more unusual, and interesting, species!

Thanks Bonnie !

I know you're tired of this comment but I insist, you're not the same collector anymore. Now you're even collecting Pokemons and feeding them with earthworms. It seems the only figures I have from these you're showing are those you consider somewhat like poor friends. The quagga, brown snake and Lapland owl. OK, I admit, most of those Japanese models are absolutely superb. Though, I surely don't want to feel tempted into crabs too. Those are too good to be ignored but I will try to stay faithful to my collecting tradtions.