Monterey Bay Aquarium Catalog circa 1994.

Hey, for Christmas, I recieved this huge lot of vintage marine animals from brands such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium collection, AAA, Playvisions, etc.

Whoever owned this was quite the collector, as it even had an old booklet that contained a lot of the detailed tag info and more from the Monterey Bay Aquarium collection in addition to some images of what I assume are the reference-sculpts for the main figures. Not all of the figures are here as the Giant Squid, Narwhal, Pacific-white-sided dolphin, and the Thresher Shark are all absent. Since the youngest figures here were released in 1994, that's when I suspect this booklet was released. All except for the cover page is intact
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This is so interesting- and how amazing that you have it!

This is very interesting, thank you

Very interresting, especially the last page. It was 1994 good advises... We aren't saved.

Bonnie wrote:

This is so interesting- and how amazing that you have it!

As I continue to search the internet for any scans or listings for this kind of booklet, the more grateful I become for being in possession of it myself. I could barely find anything related to this booklet. Will likely do some scans for preservation purposes.

Yes definitely!

Having these kinds materials is important I think. Most people dispose of them and they are both interesting to read and educational. Thanks for sharing!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Having these kinds materials is important I think. Most people dispose of them and they are both interesting to read and educational. Thanks for sharing!

Agreed, aside from the animal info ( cause some of it is a bit outdated like the sperm whale population stats), I also find it interesting for the sake of the advertising/product history itself like the intended scales and such. The most interesting part was seeing the models for these figures that I have never seen before. I initially posted this on a thread on the animal toy forum where I was also documenting the information on the older tags of these figures.

Here are the proper scans

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The info might be outdated but it tells us something for the time it was published. The marketing too, I was just thinking about how it's a shame they don't do little info tags anymore but I'm sure it cut costs. My Moneterray Bay humpback is black and white, I don't know that I've seen a gray one as pictured.

This is ever so wonderful  

Thos is worth gold in buckets for us as collectors, - thankyou very, very much for sharing    

Kikimalou wrote:

Very interresting, especially the last page. It was 1994 good advises... We aren't saved.

Yes, isn't it horrible that we have not gone much further ?
And it was said so much earlier.
My mother ( borne 99 years ago) always said NEVER to buy a plastic bag , not eat too much meat, but more green food etc etc. when I was a child.
The young people think they invented this, but their grandparents may actually have preached it many years ago.
But not all ! I remember once in the '80s in Austria, a man told me I was a *beep* communist, because I talked about not throwing thrash in a lake !!! ...????  

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

The info might be outdated but it tells us something for the time it was published. The marketing too, I was just thinking about how it's a shame they don't do little info tags anymore but I'm sure it cut costs. My Moneterray Bay humpback is black and white, I don't know that I've seen a gray one as pictured.

As for the sperm whale population stats, I think inaccurate is a better word than outdated, because I don't think that info was accurate even for 1994 ( if it were I then I'd have zero problems with it). I don't believe it was ever proposed that there were 3 million sperm whales prior to whaling. The general pre-whaling population was estimated to have been 1.1 million, with a current estimate of about 300k.

I believe the models here aren't the actual retail figures, but instead likely some catalog-only reference models or masters for the molds. For ones like the humpback, gray whale, and whale shark, there have never been official releases that matched these paintjobs.

cmj3 wrote:

......For ones like the humpback, gray whale, and whale shark, there have never been official releases that matched these paintjobs.

Ahhh! Especially the whale shark looks very different from what I have ever seen

Great to see this catalogue! Indeed, the advice on the last page is more relevant than ever.

I am happy that i bought these figures in the past. That are phantastic sea life figures

God, what a massive flashback!!!.

i had that catalog when i was a kid. i totaly forgot i did!!. but the picture of the otter with the algae made me recover it from somewhere in the depts of my brain. and there was another very similar catalog with dinosaurs that i also forgot... probably both came at the same time from the same place, but i have no clue how that ended up in the hands of a kid from Ibiza before the online purchase era... all i know is i loved to read it and look at the animals!!.

how amazing it is to bring back to light something that has been forgotten for many years. thanks for sharing!!

Fossa wrote:

God, what a massive flashback!!!.

i had that catalog when i was a kid. i totaly forgot i did!!. but the picture of the otter with the algae made me recover it from somewhere in the depts of my brain. and there was another very similar catalog with dinosaurs that i also forgot... probably both came at the same time from the same place, but i have no clue how that ended up in the hands of a kid from Ibiza before the online purchase era... all i know is i loved to read it and look at the animals!!.

how amazing it is to bring back to light something that has been forgotten for many years. thanks for sharing!!

Glad to see my post brought back some memories! If I had to guess, the dinosaur catalog was likely for the Carnegie Collection.

Fossa wrote:

God, what a massive flashback!!!.

i had that catalog when i was a kid. i totaly forgot i did!!. but the picture of the otter with the algae made me recover it from somewhere in the depts of my brain. and there was another very similar catalog with dinosaurs that i also forgot... probably both came at the same time from the same place,

Correct, this style of collector's guide booklet was produced by Safari for all of their main collections in the early 90s - Monterey Bay sealife, Carnegie Collection dinosaurs, and Vanishing Wild. I have a few of the Carnegie ones, approximately 1993, 1995, and 1998 - looks like they may have been updated every other year. There's also an early 200s edition but I'm not sure what year. You can see the cover images here, I will have to get around to scanning the interiors sometime. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

TerribleDactyl wrote:

Correct, this style of collector's guide booklet was produced by Safari for all of their main collections in the early 90s - Monterey Bay sealife, Carnegie Collection dinosaurs, and Vanishing Wild. I have a few of the Carnegie ones, approximately 1993, 1995, and 1998 - looks like they may have been updated every other year. There's also an early 200s edition but I'm not sure what year. You can see the cover images here, I will have to get around to scanning the interiors sometime. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I've recently got my hands on a bunch of these things after having recently purchased the display mountain for the MBA collection. It seems to be from 1996 as it includes both the Sawfish and the Thresher Shark, but no the Pacific white-sided dolphin, Narwhal, or Giant Squid. The downside is that this guide was printed at a much smaller size. So it's a good thing I found this one from 1994, because was able to get higher-quality images.