two interesting fish species from Animal Paradise

Today I would like to briefly introduce two fish that I personally think are very well designed. They are also two species that are not often seen as figures.

Both can be found under the label 'Animal Paradise' at various Chinese dealers. Mostly at very different prices. Except the enclosed tag the figures do not have any markings. Both figures are available with and without a stand (the stand is modelled differently for both species). Both figures have a length of 18cm and a height of 7cm.

Normally the figures of 'Animal Paradise' are almost identical to the corresponding figures of 'Safari Ltd'. If interested I could show examples (Hidden Kingdom, Incredible Creatures and marine animals).

But I could not find these two fish in the dealer catalogues 2012-2019 of Safari.

1. Bichir/Flösselhecht: probably Polypterus endlicherii from West Africa. The animals are up to 80cm in size.
Polypteridae are living fossils. Since 230 million years they are living in fresh water. They are considered a link to the first land dwellers. For example, they have a pair of swim bladders that have been transformed into lungs. Their fins are fleshy at the base and could be the precursor to the legs of amphibians. Today's raft pike species are found in Africa near the aquator. They are 30 - 90 cm long predatory fish.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

2. Arapaima/Pirarucu. The animals of this Genus belong to the largest freshwater fishes on earth. They can grow over two meters long and weigh up to 130 kg. They are living in the Amazon region.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thay are fantastic

I have never thougt Animal Paradise would make something so unusual and interesting, - and very, very good both sculptureing and paintwork

Thankyou very much for those great pictures

these are knockoffs of the Favorite soft model fishes

bmathison1972 wrote:

these are knockoffs of the Favorite soft model fishes

Ahhh !

bmathison1972 wrote:

these are knockoffs of the Favorite soft model fishes

Correct!

They're PVC? That would make them an improvement, and quite desirable. (I dislike soft models) Sbell might be interested in these.

The Favorite Soft Models are also PVC. I'm not sure why they call them 'soft,' maybe to differentiate from their polyresin products? Are you thinking of their squishy vinyl models?

Thank you for sharing with us Thomas.
Yes, like other members already wrote, these models are knockoffs of the Favorite Co, ltd. original models of the Ancient Fishes line.
I have these two also, but the original Kinto Favorite + also the Coelacanth model, which is also very nice.
And I have to say, that these models are made very close to the original models.
Not only of the good qality of the plastic material, but also the paint job is very close.

Sbell is fish model collector and he presented most of these Favorite Co, fishes to us, on the Kinto Favorite section,
but unfortunatelly , all his photos are gone    and you can`t see them.

That`s why I will show here the Favorite website with the Ancient Fishes line
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
You can see all models, which they made.

The  'Animal Paradise' is some kind of chinse manufacturer, which copy almost all major brand models + many more other brands.
Unfortunatelly we can see soo many of these knockoffs everywere on Ebay and Aliexpress.

Ah, okay. I don't have any, and the company naming them 'soft' made me think they were foam rubber or something. Good info, thanks!

Great catch

WOW! Great additions

If they're copies, they look really great! Thanks for sharing such interesting information.

pipsxlch wrote:

They're PVC? That would make them an improvement, and quite desirable. (I dislike soft models) Sbell might be interested in these.

Of course I have the original! And they are indeed PVC. But I'd also get a vinyl oversized one if it existed.

I have seen this knockoff before, and I'll get one eventually. I recently got a sturgeon from a similar source!

Nice models Thomas, now we know that there are several species of Arapaima's by DNA research...

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Nice models Thomas, now we know that there are several species of Arapaima's by DNA research...

As far as we can tell though, most figures if not all are still Arapaima gigas since the species are cryptic.

yes most probably, as the discovery of the new species is just recently anyway.

Interesting post. Is there an online site where I can see all the animal paradise models? I have the 3 Wapiti Elks from this brand but nothing else and I would like to see all the models they made

Numaan wrote:

Interesting post.  Is there an online site where I can see all the animal paradise models?  I have the 3 Wapiti Elks from this brand but nothing else and I would like to see all the models they made

I don't think so. It appears to be one of many recast companies, like Oenux as another example. They kind of take from all of the favorite companies, and make small changes