Gecko08’s Collection - MOVED TO A NEW TOPIC

Great collection!!!

Thanks, everybody! My first February additions are here!
First off some fossils.
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I also had the privilege to unbox one of PNSO's best offerings last year, Aidan the Cretoxyrhina.
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There is some artwork of Cretoxyrhina hunting a small mosasaur.
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Cretoxyrhina (PNSO)
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Early-Late Cretaceous North America
Length: 20 feet
Scale: 1:30

This is truly a great figure and the last figure from the Western Interior Seaway I needed to buy. A lot of people equated it to a regular modern shark, mainly because they are sick of Megalodon figures looking like plus-sized Great Whites. But when I actually compare it to Safari's White Shark, you can see it is a bit stockier and a different color. The white shark is a dark blue (almost black), and the Cretoxyrhina is grey in color (similar to what Favorite did with their Megalodon, but they used a lighter shade of blue). The Cretoxyrhina has a blunter snout and larger eyes. While it was similar to the Great White (even in the same order), it's important to remember that Cretoxyrhina mantelli and the Great White Shark are two different animals. Cretoxyrhina would have been a principal predator of the oceans during the Cretaceous, though it was impossible for a medium-sized fish to compete with the Mosasaurs.
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Here it is compared with Safari's old miniature of Cretoxyrhina. 2021 was truly a great year for Ancient Fish, seeing revamps of Helicoprion, Xiphactinus, and Cretoxyrhina.
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Miraculously, Cretoxyrhina is actually known from good remains. It is known from skulls, teeth, and spinal fragments.
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The only four non-miniature Prehistoric Cartilaginous Fish in my collection. C. megalodon (Favorite Co), Helicoprion (PNSO), Bandringa (Paleocasts), Cretoxyrhina (PNSO).
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Here is a full-body specimen of Bandringa.
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While both Cretoxyrhina and Bandringa are known from good remains (which means that as little speculation as possible goes into their figures), Megalodon and Helicoprion are known only from teeth and mouthparts. While the speculation used to make the Favorite Megalodon and PNSO Helicoprion is very good speculation, it's still speculation.

And for the last shark-related image for today, the Western Interior Seaway in 1:30. Figures used being Collecta's Xiphactinus and Favorite's Archelon.
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My second addition this month is a modern species.

Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) (Safari Ltd)
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New Guinea, Indonesia, and Australia forests
Length: 6 inches
Scale: 1:1

There has been a lot of criticism directed towards Safari's Incredible Creatures line, but I really don't see any problem with it. In fact, with small creatures 6 inches and under, I would rather have a life-size figure. The Sugar Glider is a marsupial. It glided from tree to tree similar to a Flying Squirrel, but this is convergent evolution as the two aren't closely related. It is nocturnal and while being an omnivore, it prefers sugary food. Male Sugar Gliders have a bald spot between their eyes, so this figure is female. They are known to carry around objects with their tail.


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While I was racking my brain trying to come up with an idea for a group shot, it suddenly occurred to me to use the only other marsupial in my collection. The extinct Diprotodon from Southlands Replicas. While the Sugar Glider can fit in your hand, the Diprotodon is the largest marsupial to ever exist and has been extinct for 44,000 years.
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02.08.2022

Cretoxyrhina has a beautiful color and the fact it is hollow does not detract to the model. It is performing nicely among our prehistoric finalists.
I like a good number of the Incredible Creatures models and the sugar glider is one of my favorite ones.

You have a beautiful disapeared sharks collection! and thank you for your very interestigs explanations about tylosaurs and mosasaurs! 

Wow

Here are all the modern species I needed to showcase on this thread. I had to make a long post (20 new entries!!) just so I wouldn't be so far behind showing my current modern collection.

Blue Linckia (Linckia laevigata) (Safari Ltd)
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Tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean
Length: 16 inches
Scale: 1:5

Tiger Cowrie (Cypraea tigris) (Safari Ltd)
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Indo-Pacific Ocean
Length: 6 inches
Scale: 1:4

Threadfin Butterflyfish (Chaetodon auriga) (Battat)
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Indo-Pacific Ocean
Length: 9 inches
Scale: 1:4

Zebra Moray (Gymnomuraena zebra) (Diramix)
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Indian-Atlantic Ocean
Length: 1.5 feet
Scale: 1:4

Redeye Piranha (Serrasalmus rhombeus) (Diramix)
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Northern South America
Length: 13 inches
Scale: 1:6

Both the Zebra Moray and Redeye Piranha are part of the Diramix or Zoo World series of rubber figures.

Spectacled Parrotfish (Chlorurus perspicillatus) (Safari Ltd)
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Hawaii
Length: 2 feet
Scale: 1:10

A lot of the ocean life in this first part is from Safari's Coral Reef tube. As for the IDs, I mainly use none other than the Toy Animal Wiki.

Flame Angel Fish (Centropyge loricula) (Safari Ltd)
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Pacific Ocean
Length: 4 inches
Scale: 1:2

Bullock's Nudibranch (Hypselodoris bullocki) (Safari Ltd)
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Pacific Ocean
Length: 3 inches
Scale: 1:1

While it's nice to have a nudibranch in my collection, it would have been better had they made it purpler.
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Mauve Stinger (Pelagia noctiluca) (Safari Ltd)
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Worldwide
Scale: 1:1

There is a sad lack of Jellyfish figures. Unfortunately, this figure suffers from a similar problem to Safari's Nudibranch. They got the body shape correct, but the colors wrong.
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Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) (Papo)
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Pleistocene-Present Northern India
Length: 16 feet
Scale: 1:25

I just learned that this figure was rare and immediately was very happy that this figure was already in my collection. The Gharial is a docile fish-eating crocodile and is one of the longest crocodilians. The Gharial has 110 sharp teeth designed for catching fish. It's sadly critically endangered with only a couple hundred left. Thankfully there are many conservation projects helping to save them and bring their numbers back up.

Bullet Ant (Paraponera clavata) (Brave Wilderness)
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Central America
Length: 1 inch
Scale: 1:1

Before I actually dive into the info behind this figure and its species, I need to give a backstory of its producers. On Youtube, an educator known as Coyote Peterson went viral with videos about animals, made to educate people. He would travel around and showcase different kinds of animals, but when he really blew up was when he started making videos of himself being stung by venomous insects. The extra popularity even got him his own Animal Planet show, but the show was about his traditional format where he would travel to different places and present the animal life of those places. One of the last things he tried before he faded out of popularity was this kit where if you signed up, you would get a package of different animal-related things either seasonally or monthly. The kits also came with toys featuring animals related to his show. He did three (one for Insects, one for Reptiles and Amphibians, and one for Mammals). I heard he was planning a fourth kit but after a while went by and nothing happened, I just unsubscribed to the kit and never heard about it again.

This is an ant known for its incredibly painful sting. As I'm sitting here holding the only figure of a Bullet Ant ever made, I'm wondering if any entomologists signed up for this kit just for the bullet ant. Its sting is rated as the highest on Schmidt's Sting Pain Index, which was created by Justin O. Schmidt, a man who went on a similar sting venture to Coyote Peterson.

Granular Poison Frog (Oophaga granulifera) (Brave Wilderness)
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Central America Rainforests
Length: 1 inch
Scale: 2x Life Size

That's crazy how this tiny figure is still twice life-size. Unfortunately, Brave Wilderness chose to lump reptiles and amphibians in the same category even though the two are actually quite different. It might ironically be a good thing, because if they had dedicated the whole set to just one of the two, the other one might not have gotten a set, considering that they liquidated after the third kit. I did find some school supply websites still selling the existing three kits, but they are probably just leftover stock from the original batch. The Granular Poison Frog is threatened by habitat loss. Like other Poison Dart Frogs, the Granular Poison Frog uses its bright coloration to deter threats.

Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) (Brave Wilderness)
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North America
Shell Length: 18 inches
Scale: 1:10

It's too bad that the Brave Wilderness sets began to lower the number of figures they were able to pack. The first set had three, the second set had two, and the last set only had one. Anyway, this is a Common Snapping Turtle because it lacks the shell spikes that Alligator Snapping Turtles have. The Common Snapping Turtle doesn't hibernate, instead, it just remains active under the winter ice.

And here are some sea animals.

In 2018 Discovery Science released 2 sets of shark figures for Shark Week's 30th Anniversary. Those two sets were "The Isle of Jaws" which focused on predatory sharks and "Alien Sharks" which focused on the weird and wonderful side of sharks. I got both of these sets back in 2018. Unfortunately, about half of the sharks featured in the set were either generic unnamed sharks or just copies of popular sharks that were done better by the main companies. I already featured the Goblin Shark, Dark Ghostshark, and Dwarf Lanternshark in my post on page 5 about deep-sea creatures, so they will be the only ones on my shelf that aren't seen in this post. I've been hoping to make a post about these for a while, and so I finally got to do that. Here are the members of that set, along with some other fish and inverts.

Angular Roughshark (Oxynotus centrina) (Discovery Science)
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Mediterranean Sea
Length: 3 feet
Scale: 1:8

Compared to most other sharks, the Angular Roughshark has a very odd appearance, with a high dorsal fin and triangular build. They eat worms, crustaceans, mollusks, and small fish. The Angular Roughshark is rare, but nowhere near the level of rarity that the Megamouth Shark is. It's the only Angular Roughshark figure around, and it's very good. Certainly worthy of my shelf.

Pyjama Shark (Poroderma africanum) (Discovery Science)
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Kelp Forest South Africa
Length: 3 feet
Scale: 1:9

Too bad the other half of these sets were generic Great Whites, Makos, and Hammerheads. Seeing how good they did a lot of the unique species makes me wish that more of them had been unique. This is a popular catshark for public aquariums due to its attractive appearance and small size. It is also harmless, actually being quite shy. The Pyjama Shark is one of the many sharks that reproduce by laying eggs, which are called Mermaid Purses.

Blind Shark (Brachaelurus waddi) (Discovery Science)
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Late Cretaceous-Recent Coastal Australia
Length: 4 feet
Scale: 1:12

Another good unique shark. Despite its name, the Blind Shark has ample eyesight, it earned its common name by shutting its eyes when taken out of water.  The Blind Shark is nocturnal and docile. It was a Carpet Shark, just like the Wobbegong and the Whale Shark. At night they forage on the reef searching for prey.

Speartooth Shark (Glyphis glyphis) (Discovery Science)
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Australia Tropical Rivers
Length: 8 feet
Scale: 1:20

This figure is billed as a sevengill shark, which would have been great had it actually had seven gills. Instead, it only has five. I'm going with Glyphis here because that's what forum member sbell identified it as on the ATF. The Speartooth Shark is one of the several species of sharks in Australia that like freshwater. It gets its name from its sharp, triangular teeth. It's rarely seen, and in 2014 the first known adults were found.

Zebra Bullhead Shark (Heterodontus zebra) (Discovery Science)
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Shallow Indo-Pacific Islands
Length: 4 feet
Scale: 1:15

Most people recognize the similarities between this figure and Play Vision's Zebra Bullhead Shark. This isn't the first time these sets have copied other figures, like how their Great White is a copy of Schleich's, and their Megamouth and Basking Sharks look just like the original Safari versions. I don't have the play visions bullhead, so this will be my substitute for it in my collection. The Horn Shark is also a bullhead shark. The Bullhead Shark gets its name from the heavy brow bone present over its eyes.

Birdbeak Dogfish (Deania calcea) (Discovery Science)
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Pacific Ocean Midnight Zone
Length: 3 feet
Scale: 1:12

It's very good to see a lot of rare sharks being made in this set. The Dogfish is very rare to see in figure form. They got it so close, but the anal fin should be replaced by pelvic fins. They could actually dive very deep, down to the midnight zone, or about 1,450 meters.

Dwarf Sawfish (Pristis clavata) (Discovery Science)
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Northern Australia
Length: 13 feet
Scale: 1:30

The Dwarf Sawfish is just my ID for this figure. Sawfish can be massive, with Pristis pristis growing over 20 feet. This is the smallest species in Pristis, but it's still big. Since the 1800s the Dwarf Sawfish hasn't been seen anywhere else except for Northern Australia, so it's likely restricted to that one area. The Dwarf Sawfish could actually live in freshwater.

The ones that didn't make it onto my shelf. Most of these are generic sharks, but the frilled shark on the far right is okay. I already have Safari's Frilled Shark, and I have no use for two figures of the same animal on my shelf.
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The lucky winners. Most of this set barely made it onto my shelf, with me shelving 10 of them, and not shelving 9 of them.
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I think these are still available on Amazon, just search "Shark Week 30th Anniversary" and a big box set with all the figures from both sets combined should show up.

02.10.2022

Very interesting species Haidn.
As you know, most of the small tube figures are not identified to the species level and it is the dedication of our members and TAW editors that allows us to suggest a species for some of them. It is not always correct and probably some do not intend to represent more than a generic model.
I am quite sure I identified myself the blue linckia, a blue star with long arms with round tips fits nicely to that common species but...
It was interesting reading all the additional informations you provided. They might be useful to those who want to find those figures.

Roger wrote:

I am quite sure I identified myself the blue linckia, a blue star with long arms with round tips fits nicely to that common species but...

Oh, interesting to know! I tought that was the ID provided by Safari LTD! And probably, this species is what they intend to do by just repainting a red starfish blue, but this would be like paint a lion in white and black stripes and say that is a zebra. The result of this repaint is weird as Pacific Blue Starfish have a completelly different appareance, with cylindrical, longer and thinner non-tapering arms and much more fine sculpture :)

Pardofelis wrote:

Roger wrote:

I am quite sure I identified myself the blue linckia, a blue star with long arms with round tips fits nicely to that common species but...

Oh, interesting to know! I tought that was the ID provided by Safari LTD! And probably, this species is what they intend to do by just repainting a red starfish blue, but this would be like paint a lion in white and black stripes and say that is a zebra. The result of this repaint is weird as Pacific Blue Starfish have a completelly different appareance, with cylindrical, longer and thinner non-tapering arms and much more fine sculpture :)

I agree it is not a perfect match but this sculpt is clearly more delicate than other Safari starfish figures.
It is marketed just as starfish, they don't even call it blue starfish, do you think it should go to unidentified starfish or do you really think they intend to represent this species even if the sculpt is not accurate?

While I do agree with you that the nudibranch and jellyfish are probably just generic figures, I try to get to at least genus or species level using Toy Animal Wiki or Animal Toy Blog reviews even if the names I find are only placeholders.

Some recent additions.

Amazon Tree Boa (Corallus hortulana) (Safari Ltd)
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South America
Length: 4 feet
Scale: 1:1

Not to be confused with the Emerald Tree Boa (Corallus caninus). Most of the images of the Amazon Tree Boa you will find on a google search will show snakes with a red color scheme, though they range in many different wild color schemes. Boas and Pythons constrict their prey, so they are very strong. The Amazon Tree Boa has a surprisingly narrow neck for a boa, but this is so they can wrap themselves around the trees that they live in.

Yet another Incredible Creatures model. I was counting the days until this figure arrived, worrying over how I was going to house such a beast on my plants.
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And I believe that I found a good way to display it. I stuck some fake terrarium plants to the very back of my shelf and draped the snake over the shelf.

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This is a rather vintage Safari model, made in 1996. Thinking of this reminds me of one of the things Safari has done in recent years that I wholly disapprove of. They've completely redone their branding from "more than just toys" which was their old magazine slogan to the first picture on their site being of a small child playing. We all know that 2020 wasn't the best year for them, and so maybe they are rolling in extra cash by selling things like baby toys, books, or puzzles. But it just feels like they've completely forgotten who they are or have not realized the quality of their figures. But seeing that Safari views their replicas as child's toys now instead of "more than just toys" I'm suddenly extremely happy that the quality of their figures is as good if not better than what they produced in the older series.

Brown Sea Cucumber (Isostichopus fuscus) (Yowie)
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Eastern Pacific
Length: 1 foot
Scale: 1:8

I got two more Yowies at Walmart to add to my collection. The first one I opened contained this Brown Sea Cucumber. Yowie lists this animal's superpower as regeneration, as they can divide themselves in two to escape predators.

They are Echinoderms which put them close to Sea Stars and urchins. The Blue Linckia from Safari and the Sunflower Sea Star by Yowie are the only two echinoderms I have.
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Using this simple family tree, I am able to show how Echinoderms like Sea Stars and Sea Cucumbers are actually closer to Vertebrates (Chordates) than Vertebrates are to Molluscs or Arthropods.
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Bent Winged-Bat (Miniopterus orianae) (Yowie)
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Australia
Wingspan: 2 inches
Scale: 1:1

Yowie lists its superpower as Ultrasonic calling and hearing, due to the bat's high sense of hearing. The wing structure of a bat is actually closer to that of a Pterosaur than that of a bird.

I thought this group shot would be a good idea since the Future Predator is supposed to be a highly evolved bat.
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So I went back to the Exploreum today to watch some more IMAX movies, and I found two dinosaur bird figures I decided to buy. I found out that they were selling the Kaiyodo Royal Museum of Science Space sets that they have given to me for free a couple of months ago.
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I had all the dinosaurs that I needed from their shelf, but my taste in collecting has broadened recently to modern animals as well as my extinct life.
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Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) (Safari Ltd)
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Eurasia
Length: 2.5 feet
Scale: 1:10

I usually use wingspans for calculating flying animal scales (like the next entry on this post), but not this time. This is one of the largest species of owl. They were endangered during the 20th century, but they have now been restored to a healthy population thanks to local governments and conservation efforts.

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) (Safari Ltd)
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Everywhere except Antarctica
Wingspan: 4 feet
Scale: 1:12

The fastest bird in the world is now the third modern bird to take its spot in my collection. The Safari Peregrine Falcon is positioned on a small patch of grass in a grasping position as if it's diving from the sky and preparing to grab its prey. Just like the Eagle Owl, the Peregrine Falcon used to be endangered, but now it is back to healthy population numbers.

Edaphosaurus (Collecta)
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Early Permian Texas
Length: 11 feet
Scale: 1:18

I haven't been very consistent with buying prehistoric animals, but I'm sure that the next post will have more of them. This is one of Collecta's best ancient animals, a nice and big figure. Edaphosaurus itself was a Synapsid or a Mammal-Like Reptile. Even though it looks reptilian, it's creatures like this that will eventually evolve into mammals. While milk and live birth don't evolve for millions of years, some of Edaphosaurus' descendants that lived only a short while ahead had whiskers and probably fur.

Edaphosaurus was a docile plant-eater that used its sail to warm up or display for others. Its biggest threat was posed by Dimetrodon, its predatory close relative (Dimetrodon from Safari).
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And here are all the life forms from the Permian in my collection. (Left to right) Inostrancevia (Safari Ltd), Dimetrodon (Safari Ltd), Sarcoprion (Safari Ltd), Scutosaurus (Safari Ltd), Cestoid (Character Options), Moschops (Marx), Trochosaurus (Kaiyodo), Helicoprion (PNSO), Edaphosaurus (Collecta), Dinogorgon (Schleich).
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There are a few funny figures like the Marx Moschops and Cestoid from Character and to a lesser extent the Sarcoprion and Helicoprion, which are full-body reconstructions from mouthparts.

For an era that ended with over 90% of all the animals dying in a great dying caused by volcanic traps, the Permian doesn't get half the attention it deserves.

02.15.2022

I enjoy all those Permian animals, I avoided the Dinogorgon but surely it was not a good idea.
I also enjoy lifesized figures like your boa, it is a fantastic old Safari model.
Brands are repositioning their target to younger children.
Last decade seemed to show a tendency for figures more collector oriented but the market is always flutuating. Now 4 years old kids are already anymore interested in plastic figures, their main toy is a tablet or any technologic device. So, brands try to make figures for kids under 3, when they're not yet able of using a tablet but they can already play with an animal figure.
Papo already has figures certified for 10 months + babies, Schleich assumed a childish oriented design and much probably Safari needs to do the same to survive.
Fortunately CollectA is being able of surviving with collector quality models with toy prices.

Thank you Gecko for making me to discover so many extinct species!

The last post of February starts off with a figure I already had in my collection for a couple of years.

Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) (Schleich)
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Pleistocene-Recent North America
Length: 6 feet
Scale: 1:20

Just when I thought that I had displayed all the modern animals I have, I found this on one of my shelves. I was holding out for another bear figure, but now I can buy something else with the money. Interestingly, the name "Grizzly" comes from being gruesome and scary, but their fur is silver-tipped, also known as grizzled. These bears are actually more dangerous to humans than sharks are.

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) (Safari Ltd)
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Pleistocene-Recent North America
Length: 40 inches
Scale: 1:12

This one was an impulse buy at Michaels, but it turned out for the better. Keeping with the theme of American Life, we have Safari Wings of the World Bald Eagle. The Bald Eagle builds the largest tree nests of any living bird. These eagles were once in danger of extinction, but they have bounced back. To show just how in danger they were, Bald Eagles had 412 nesting pairs in 1952, but in 2006, they had 9,789 nesting pairs. Fish make up over half of their diet.

Mutable Rain Frog (Pristimantis mutabilis) (Yowie)
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Ecuador
Length: 1 inch
Scale: 2x Life Size

This is a species that really interests me because it can change the texture of its skin to match the texture of what it's standing on.

It's really hard to visualize how small these frogs are. This is a miniature that's even larger than the real animal.
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Daeodon (Safari Ltd)
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Paleogene North America
Length: 10 feet
Scale: 1:25

Daeodon is an Even toed ungulate, meaning it's in the same group as camels, whales, giraffes, and pigs. The Entelodonts (the family Daeodon is part of) are often compared to pigs. Daeodon was one of the largest entelodonts, but others were similar in size. Entelodonts were powerful enough to hunt their own prey, but they were probably scavengers, using their sense of smell to find a carcass and using intimidation to scare away any animals that were already there.

Here are some other Paleogene creatures, all around 1:25. Gastornis (Safari Ltd), and Eusmilus (Bullyland).
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Doedicurus (Collecta)
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Pleistocene-Holocene South America
Length: 12 feet
Scale: 1:20

It often shocks me when I see a creature that died out not very long ago. In this case, the Doedicurus died out a mere 7,000 years ago. It may seem like a long time, but that's not even a fraction of a million years. Doedicurus is from the same family as armadillos, so the similarities are due to their relationship. One of the things that helped Darwin study evolution was the similarities between modern armadillos and the fossil Glyptodonts like Glyptodon itself and Doedicurus. Glyptodon was very similar to Doedicurus, but it lacked the tail club.

Being attacked by some Saber-Toothed contemporaries.
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Doedicurus shared the land with some very odd creatures. Since the age of reptiles, South America was a separate island from the rest of the world, and isolation leads to the animals evolving in many different ways from the rest of the world. For example, Terror Birds like Phorusrachos ruled South America while the predatory mammals took over the other continents. In fact, the decline of South American Terror Birds was set off by the arrival of Smilodon and other mammals from North America. Also seeing the Safari Doedicurus with the Collecta one makes me like Collecta's even more.
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On a much smaller scale, we have Machrauchenia and Doedicurus, minis by Safari. Machrauchenia lived in South America as well. Safari made a "standard size" Machrauchenia, so I have to get that sometime soon.
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I would like to congratulate the Collecta Doedicurus and Xiphactinus for winning 2021's Prehistoric Figure of the year poll.
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At last, all of February's Additions are in! It appears as modern animals have once again dominated over prehistoric, it's just that there are so many cool modern creatures that I'd like to get!
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Permian~

Edaphosaurus (Collecta)

Cretaceous~

Cretoxyrhina (PNSO)

Paleogene~

Daeodon (Safari Ltd)

Plio-Pleistocene

Doedicurus (Collecta)

Modern~

Amazon Tree Boa (Safari Ltd)
Bald Eagle (Safari Ltd)
Bent Winged Bat (Yowie)
Brown Sea Cucumber (Yowie)
Eurasian Eagle Owl (Safari Ltd)
Moose (Safari Ltd)
Mutable Rain Frog (Yowie)
Peregrine Falcon (Safari Ltd)
Sugar Glider (Safari Ltd)


03.01.2022

Great new additions. I am surprised to learn that the Daeodon was a carnivorous ungulate and that the Doedicurus died out so recently. 7000 years ago was the dawn of human civilization.

Nice pictures again, My favorite is the Xiphactinus.

I am not sure but I think my downstairs neighbor domesticated Doedicurus when she was young... or was it Phorusrachos???
Really many great additions, I love especially the prehistoric ones, they'd surely be among my prioritairy choices if I was collecting this kind of models. I really enjoy that you calculate scales, 1:12 is excellent for large birds and I had no idea that was the scale of the Wild Safari bald eagle.

March’s first additions are in!

Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus) (Collecta)
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Miocene-Recent Tropical Oceans
Length: 26 feet
Scale: 1:35

Usually, Safari is the king of sharks, but recently Collecta produced this awesome Basking Shark that won the 2021 Sealife poll. It was a nightmare finding it locally, but I couldn't pass on such a great figure now that I collect modern animals, so I gave in and bought one from Australia. Minizoo has great shipping costs and customer service, so it was a great experience if I ever have to do it again. Now onto the Basking Shark itself. The Basking Shark is the second largest modern fish (Whale Shark being the largest) and like the Whale Shark, it's a filter feeder. They pose no threat to humans and sometimes breach out of the water to attract attention from other Basking Sharks. This is seen in this extraordinary video.



Like the Baleen Whales, the Basking Shark's throat is tiny, meaning it is restricted from eating anything larger than a grapefruit. It is actually named the Basking Shark due to it often feeding close to the surface. It is part of the Lamniformes order of sharks which includes the Great White, Megamouth, Goblin, Thresher, and Megalodon Sharks.

Here it is with Safari's Great White (also 1:35)
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And with Safari's 1:30 Megamouth Shark (One day I will buy Papo's Whale Shark to complete this trio)
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Here it is with its predecessor by Safari. The new Collecta one fits better in terms of accuracy, realism, and scale (Safari's was a bit small).
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West Indian Ocean Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) (Safari Ltd)
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Pleistocene-Recent Indian Ocean
Length: 6 feet
Scale: 1:15

Coelacanths are often seen as Living Fossils, people claiming that they haven't changed a bit since the dinosaurs went extinct, but this isn't true. This Coelacanth evolved in the last 20,000 years, meaning it's nowhere near as old as a dinosaur. Its order (Coelacanthiformes), however, has existed since the Devonian era but saying it belongs to an ancient order and saying it hasn't changed in 66 million years are two very different things. It is also part of the Lobe-Finned Fish, which eventually became the land vertebrates. Latimeria in general is Critically Endangered, with the West Indian Ocean Coelacanth and the Indonesian Coelacanth being the only surviving species. Several studies have been conducted using DNA from the living Lobe-Finned Fish because Coelacanths were considered to be the closest living relatives to Tetrapods (like Acanthostega), but the studies resulted in lungfish being the closest relatives to Tetrapods.

Speaking of Acanthostega, here is the Coelacanth with Kaiyodo's Acanthostega.
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03.08.2022

Congrats! I love this basking shark and certainly one of the rare instances where it surpasses Safari's counterpart. I buy from Minizoo all the time and I really recommend buying from them they are great! My orders always arrive in about 2 weeks and the shipping is more than fair. By far the best prices for CollectA that I could find and they have a large range. They also seem to get new CollectA eariler than other sites. Mojo is decent from them too.

I really need to grab that megamouth shark by Safari too and I highly recommend the Papo whale shark, its definitely the best one on the market.

I really love the coelacanth! I've been meaning to grab it for awhile but its always out of stock on Safari's site.

I voted the basking shark for figure of the year, not only sealife and I think it tells how much I think this is a great figure. It could swallow easily the predecessor from Safari. The Coelacanth is also very beautiful but I have big expectations for the new Mojo model.
About MiniZoo, I bought once from them and everything worked perfectly.

Really great additions as always. The basking shark is a figure I need even when I have absolutely no place in my shelves for it.

Just a couple of corrections if you don't mind largest tree nest from birds are made by Sociable Weavers, and largest non-commnunitary tree nest from birds are also from another African species, the hammerkop :)
And armadillos and glyptodonts are two different families, if well they belong to the same Order (Cingulata) :)

Wonderful february batch!!

Thanks, everyone. I usually don’t do posts for singular figures, but this has been a dull moment for my collection. I’m planning on making a trip to an aquarium (maybe pick up some more Safari sea life) in the next couple of weeks and I will see what results from that.


Centrosaurus (PNSO)
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Late Cretaceous Canada
Length: 18 feet
Scale: 1:35

Recently it's felt like PNSO's dinosaurs are getting smaller and pricier, and while I believe I said I'd pass on this figure, the Centrosaurus I previously had in my collection was highly articulated, while this one is one fluid sculpt. Also, the nasal horn curvature is more accurate on this figure. This one is 17 centimeters long, so it feels like a small figure, but PNSO was still able to cram in accuracy and Papo-like detail, so I'm very happy. Now for the animal itself, Centrosaurus lived before Triceratops, more aligning with the time of Gorgosaurus. They would have traveled in large herds, as indicated by the presence of massive bonebeds of Centrosaurus.

Here are some other ceratopsians. Machairoceratops (PNSO), and Einiosaurus (Safari Ltd).
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And here is the Centrosaurus going face to face with Papo's Gorgosaurus, its likely predator.
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And lastly, here is the Centrosaurus with Safari's Triceratops. Triceratops was huge, even compared to its earlier relatives.
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03.13.2022