Mathison Museum of Natural History

Species: Polypterus endlicheri Heckel, 1847
Common name(s): saddled bichir; sangmeki

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Colorata
Series: Fossil Fish
Year of Production: 2015 (2011)
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 8.5 cm for a scale of 1:3.8-1:7.5
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: The fish is removable from its base. The sculpt was first released in 2011, which was the second release of the Fossil Fish box set (the first set, which didn't have a bichir, came out in 2004). My figure is the second release of the bichir from 2015. This was a difficult figure to photograph because of the curvature of the body.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Central Africa; primarily in the Nile, Chad, Niger, Volta, and Bandama River Basins
Habitat: Slow-moving rivers, lakes, swamps
Diet: Freshwater fish, crustaceans, snails
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Least Concern
Miscellaneous Notes: Polypterus endlicheri is an obligate air breather with the aid of a specialized swim bladder that is divided into two parts.

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Species: †Concavenator corcovatus Ortega et al., 2010

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Safari Ltd.
Series: Wild Safari Prehistoric World
Year of Production: 2020
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 17.0 cm for a scale of 1:29-1:35
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: This is Safari Ltd.'s second Concavenator, following the Carnegie Collection model from 2013.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Early Cretaceous (Barremian) of present-day Europe
Habitat: Subtropical wetlands and adjacent conifer and cycad woodlands
Diet: Small animals, including small mammals, reptiles, and other theropods
IUCN Status (at time of posting): N/A [prehistoric]
Miscellaneous Notes: The most interesting feature of C. corcovatus is the caudal hump formed by two extremely tall vertebrae. The function of this hump is now known but is believed to have been for intraspecific communication and recognition or possibly as a thermoregulator.

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Species: Pseudorhodeus tanago (Tanaka, 1909)
Common name(s): Tokyo bitterling

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Kaiyodo
Series: Chocoegg Animatales Series 3
Year of Production: 2000
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 6.0 cm for a scale of 1.2:1
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Very rare
Miscellaneous Notes: Assembly is required and the fish is removable from its base. The only other version of this species I am immediately aware of is also by Kaiyodo for the Natural Monuments of Japan collection in 2002. Both Kaiyodo figures were marketed as Tanakia tanago before the description of Pseudorhodeus in 2014.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Japan (Kantō Plain)
Habitat: Small, freshwater streams
Diet: Small freshwater invertebrates, algae
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Endangered
Miscellaneous Notes: Pseudorhodeus tanago is endemic to the Kantō Plain of Japan, where it lives in small, clear, freshwater streams. The Kantō Plain contains some of the countries most populous areas, including the capital city of Tokyo. As such, populations of Tokyo bitterling have dropped drastically due to human population and pollution. The species is now classified as a 'National Monument' in Japan giving it special protection.

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Species: Camponotus japonicus Mayr, 1866
Common name(s): Japanese carpenter ant

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Epoch
Series: Japanese Carpenter Ants
Year of Production: 2009
Size/Scale: Body length of queen approx. 4.5 cm for a scale of 2.6:1. Body length of workers approx. 4.0 cm for a scale of 6.6:1-2.6:1 depending on their caste function.
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the second time we've seen C. japonicus in the Museum. There are five components to this set: 1) queen, 2) worker carrying a larva, 3) worker carrying a mantis head, 4) worker carrying a coccinellid elytron, and 5) a pair of workers. The five workers in the set are not all the same sculpt. Interestingly, a couple of the workers are sculpted with ocelli (simple eyes) which workers in reality do not have.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: East and Southeast Asia to the Philippines and Japan
Habitat: Forests, forest edges, grasslands, parks and gardens; nests are made in logs and in the dead parts of standing trees
Diet: aphid honeydew, dead insects, pollen
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: Camponotus japonicus lives in colonies of a few hundred to a few thousand individuals. There is only one queen and several males, with the bulk of the colony being made up of workers of different sizes depending on their function. Usually, in the first year the colony is quite small, with about 10-20 workers. By the second year, the colony has on average 100 workers. But a mature colony can have upwards of a few thousand workers.

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Species: Neophoca cinerea (Péron, 1816)
Common name(s): Australian sealion

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Science and Nature
Series: Animals of Australia - Small
Year of Production: 2007
Size/Scale: Scale difficult to calculate but body length approx. 7.0 cm for a scale of 1:8.6-1:10
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: Other figures of this species were made by Bandai and Cadbury (for both the Australian and UK Yowies collections).

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Coastal southern Australia, from the Houtman Abrolhos Islands (Western Australia) to the Pages Islands (South Australia)
Habitat: Primarily off-shore islands; usually on sandy beaches but sometimes rocky shores and cliffs
Diet: Fish, cephalopods, crustaceans, little blue penguins (Eudyptula minor)
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Endangered
Miscellaneous Notes: Neophoca cinerea is the only extant member of its genus. The only other described species in Neophoca is the New Zealand sealion (N. palatina) which became extinct in the Pleistocene. Fossils of N. palatina were originally considered those of N. cinerea until the early 1980s when it was separated based on the short palate, lack of processes on the ethmoid bulla, and the very wide basiocciptal.

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Species: Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765)
Common name(s): basking shark

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: CollectA
Series: Sealife
Year of Production: 2021
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 22.0 cm for a scale of 1:31.8-1:69.1
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon to rare
Miscellaneous Notes: When I started the non-arthropod part of my collection, I bought the Safari Ltd. basking shark, but immediately replaced it with this CollectA version when it came out. In addition to having a nicer sculpt, texture, and paint job, it's also much larger than Safari's. The basking shark is the second largest extant shark after the whale shark (see below), so it's nice to have a larger figure of it.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Nearly cosmopolitan; rare in equatorial waters and apparently absent in the Indian Ocean
Habitat: Pelagic; at depths of 0-2,000 meters
Diet: Zooplankton, very small fish, small marine invertebrates
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Endangered
Miscellaneous Notes: After the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the basking shark is the second largest species of extant shark and fish overall! According to Fishbase/Seabase, it matures at about 500-900 cm, with a common length of 700 cm. The largest recorded individual was 1,520 cm.

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Nice

Species: Chalcosoma moellenkampi Kolbe, 1900

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: F-toys
Series: World Insect Encyclopedia Vol. 5
Year of Production: 2010
Size/Scale: Body length (including horns) approx. 11.0 cm, within scale 1:1 for a major male
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the fourth time we've seen C. moellenkampi in the Museum. The World Insect Encyclopedia series is essentially the precursor to the Insect Hunter series. F-toys released C. moellenkampi in the 2014 Insect Hunter collection, but it was a new sculpt, slightly smaller than this one. I've stopped paying attention to the annual F-toys sets unless they introduce a new species, which they have not in quite a while, but it looks like C. moellenkampi was most recently produced in 2023, and that was probably a reissue of the smaller 2014 model.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Borneo
Habitat: Rainforests, palm plantations
Diet: Larvae develop in rotting logs; adults feed on tree sap
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: Like other large dynastines, only males possess the cephalic and pronotal horns. Apparently, C. moellenkampi is one of the more aggressive species, and breeders must keep males separated in terraria otherwise they will violently fight one another, resulting in physical injury!

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Species: Tyrannodoris luteolineata (Baba, 1936)
Common name(s): predatory sea slug

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Agatsuma Entertainment
Series: Amazing Creatures
Year of Production: 2011
Size/Scale: Body length (excluding open mouth) approx. 5.5 cm, within scale 1:1 for a smaller specimen or 1:2 for very large specimen.
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Unique
Miscellaneous Notes: The nudibranch is removable from its base.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Indo-Pacific
Habitat: Coral reefs
Diet: Other nudibranchs
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: Tyrannodoris luteolineata is a fast-moving, active predator of other nudibranchs in the family Polyceridae, notably members of the genera Tamba and Nembrotha.

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Hard to recognise it as an animal, it could be a piece of abstract art!

Still on my wishlist... Must do something!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Hard to recognise it as an animal, it could be a piece of abstract art!

I suppose it's mouth opening could make a nice lampshade

Species: Prosopocoilus astacoides (Hope, 1840)

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: K&M International
Series: Wild Republic - Insects Polyvinyl Bag
Year of Production: unknown
Size/Scale: Body length (incl. mandibles) approx. 14.5 cm for a scale of about 2:1 for a very large major male
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Unique (see below)
Miscellaneous Notes: This figure was not marketed at the species level. It is a community-based ID (I think first proposed by brontodocus) that I agree with based on the sculpture of the head and mandibles. If one was to accept this identification, it is currently unique for its species; however, just last week Bandai announced they will be releasing two versions of this species in December of this year as part of their growing Diversity of Life on Earth line.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Southern and Southeast Asia
Habitat: Tropical and subtropical hardwood forests
Diet: Larvae feed in decaying wood; adults presumably feed on sap and similar organic liquids
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: I had difficulty finding much information on this species. The Taiwanese subspecies P. a. blanchardi appears to be popular with breeders.

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Species: Megadyptes antipodes (Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841)
Common name(s): yellow-eyed penguin; hoiho

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Toymany
Series: 12PCS Realistic Penguin Figurines
Year of Production: 2023
Size/Scale: Accounting for the posture, height is approx. 6.0 cm for a scale of 1:10.3-1:13.2
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the second time we've seen M. antipodes in the Museum. The first time was the Yowie Group figure that has since been replaced with today's by Toymany. In fact, when I showcased the Yowie figure back in February of this year, I wrote: 'I might replace this figure with the 2023 version by Toymany if I can ever find it sold individually'. When Toymany started selling figures individually on their website, I snatched it up!

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Southern New Zealand
Habitat: Coastal forests
Diet: Fish, marine invertebrates
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Endangered
Miscellaneous Notes: There are three subspecies of M. antipodes, the nominate subspecies (M. a. antipodes) and two extinct subspecies, the Waitaha penguin (M. a. waitaha), which was present on North Island, South Island, and Codfish Island, and Richdale's penguin (M. a. richdalei), which was endemic to the Chatham Islands. Megadyptes a. antipodes is believed to only have colonized mainland New Zealand in the last 200 years. It expanded its range from subantarctic islands to South Island to replace M. a. waitaha, which became extinct around 1300-1500 after Polynesian settlers arrived on the island.

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Species: Hexarthrius parryi Hope, 1842
Common name(s): giant fighting stag beetle

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Sega
Series: Mushi King - small series, standard
Year of Production: unknown
Size/Scale: Body length (including mandibles) approx. 5.4 cm for a scale of 1:1.7 for a large major male
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the third time we've seen H. parryi in the Museum. The Sega 'small standard series' were 10 sets of 10 figures each, for a total of 100 figures representing 65-75 species of Lucanidae and dynastine Scarabaeidae. The dates of release are currently unknown to me (c. 2008). The figures were produced in conjunction with Bandai and came with Pokemon-style playing cards. At the time of this writing, I think I have all but two of the species. For a review of the sets, please see the overview by forum member Beetle guy here.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Southeast Asia
Habitat: Tropical broadleaf forests
Diet: Larvae feed in rotting hardwoods; adults feed on tree sap and overripe fruit
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: Hexarthrius parryi is popular with breeders, but can be tricky to rear in terraria. If the diet of the adults is not supplemented with proteins, adult males and females may kill each other!

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