Land Snails and Slugs - The Terrestrial Gastropods

Hello everyone! I'm snailtime and as you can guess, I'm obsessed with snails and slugs.    Specifically land snails and land slugs! I've shared my collection over on Animal Toy Forum but have been meaning to cross-post over here for a while. I will add to this thread in batches.

I also like to document any information I know about these figures, so will be sharing any info and promo material that I find. With that being said, if anyone reading this thread knows more about something I've posted (or has a correction), please feel free to share your knowledge!

As far as I know, I have all known land snail/slug figures produced with the exception of the yellow-shelled New-Ray snail, the three Bullyland slugs, and a mysterious Polymita picta model made by the Chinese company WPRSSG. If you have something else that I don't have, please share here!

One thing to note is that since there aren't a ton of figures made of these animals, I sometimes branch out a bit and collect things that are more accurately classified as "toys." For example, sticky toys, finger puppets, wind-up toys, etc. However, the "toys" I collect must follow some rules to stay on theme. Generally speaking, stylization must be minimal - these must look like land snails/slugs. No painted on happy faces, I want to see eyes on the tips of eye stalks (unless it's one of the few species that has eyes at the base of the stalks). I also don't tend to collect things made of materials such as wood or ceramic.

The final thing I want to note is that I have some professional malacology in my background. I have studied land snails/slugs on the professional level and am quite competent in species-level IDs and have a solid understanding of land snail/slug taxonomy. I actually have an entire bookshelf of primary literature With that being said, the vast majority of these figures are simply not realistic enough to give even the most basic of IDs to. They are just snails/slugs unless the manufacturer says otherwise. However, if I do suspect an ID for a figure, I will share.

P.S. Here's a preview of what you'll see in this thread. Stay tuned though because I have more figures that aren't pictured in these images.  
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Let's start off with some vintage unbranded figures. These simple snails range in manufacture date from the 1960s (so I've been told) to the 90s. These were sold in a variety of formats. Sometimes they were prizes in gumball machines. Sometimes they were sold in creepy crawly sets. Wherever these snails were seen, they were typically also seen with some caterpillars, a scorpion, lizard, frog, stag beetle, slug, etc. Theres no branding on the bottom of any of these other than "CHINA" on a few.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And here's the slugs that were commonly spotted with a snail counterpart. The lime green slug with the orange stripe down the center came with a set of other creepy crawly figures that sported extremely unique intensely colorful paint jobs. Sadly I no longer have the others There was no corresponding snail though to my knowledge. These slugs seem to be in the family Athoracophoridae (the leaf-veined slugs, although these would belong to a species without the obvious leaf-veins that some members of the family have).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And for the sake of reference, here are some photos of example packaging that I've stumbled across (these are just two examples, there are other different kinds I've seen that I sadly don't have images of).

Gumball machine display/insert from the 80s:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

1991 'Toys to Grow On' brand "Bug Box" that would have contained a set of creepy crawlies:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Vintage figures - Part 2. Here's some more snails that were likely gumball machine prizes. Presumably from the 60s or 70s. No branding other than "HONG KONG." The body is rubbery but the shell is a hard plastic. They're simple but somehow still quite detailed.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

More gumball prizes. These are from the 60s. They're pretty small but really nice. Very detailed. The clear gumball capsules they came in are behind them. These also have a rubber part and a hard plastic part. One of the snails is a mini version of the two larger ones above pictured above. No branding other than "HONG KONG." Nice crawdad figure too. I really like these guys.

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

Another made in Hong Kong figure. Probably made between the 60s and the 80s. Really hefty, solid figure made out of something rubbery. Great quality. Suction cup on the bottom too. The snake tongue is an interesting choice, but I like the unique character it gives the figure. I've seen another version of this one without the snake tongue (also orange, but more translucent and no paint on the shell) but I don't have that one in my collection at moment.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here's some interesting ones. I love this unique looking sculpt. Not realistic, but cute. The rubbery brown/black one is from the 60s/70s and says Hong Kong on the bottom. It was a gumball machine prize. There were some other very cool rubbery figures that were in the same "set" as this one but I no longer have them. I distinctly remember a detailed rubbery chameleon figure. The grey one says "CHINA" on the bottom and was another gumball prize. I assume the same about the one with the striped shell (this one I think is from the 90s). The striped shell on this one kind of reminds me of Theba pisana, the white Italian snail, but this is likely just coincidental. There are hundreds of snail species that can have shells striped like this and this figure isn't detailed enough to narrow it down at all.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

These aren't actually toys, but vintage fishing lures. I carefully removed the hooks from them. I absolutely love the detail and colors. And come on, a snail fishing lure? That's not something you come across every day.  :))
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This post will be centered around the models and toys created by the company Archie McPhee (formerly known as Accoutrements). This is a great company for all the slug lovers out there. They're based out of Seattle, WA so the banana slug love makes sense. I will post these in chronological order.

First we have an extremely basic slug. Probably the most boring figure I have. It's basically a thin strip of rubber. The underside says HONG KONG 1986.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Next we have a banana slug finger puppet. Very nice paint job. The underside says 1997 and 'Made in China.'
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Compare that to the "Finger Slug" they released in 2017. I think the earlier model looks a little nicer but I think they're both great. The second picture is one of the promo photos.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

These are the "Itty Bitty Snails" that are currently in production. Three different figures in a total of nine different colors. My only complaint is that I want even more colors  ;D  Nice detail, but because these are so tiny it looks like the fragile, weak points had a hard time coming out of the mold. The tips of some of the eyestalks are missing. I appreciate the different shell shapes.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is slightly off topic, but I might as well touch on the other notable slug items made by Archie McPhee. A few years ago (when the "Finger Slug" was still in production) they released a ton of banana slug stuff. Such as this latex mask and an enamel pin of a slug-headed man. I don't have these in my collection since these aren't really what I collect, but they're worth mentioning. There was also a set of sticky slugs ("Slug Stampede") but I will save that for my next post where I feature sticky slugs and snails of all sorts.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

In this post things are going to get a bit complicated. As much as I would like to follow a linear order when going over these models, in some cases I just can't. I group my collection by set and by sculpt, but when knock-offs are generated things can get a little tricky. As much as I would love to go into all the Japanese figures at once and then move on to other companies in this post I think it would be best to go over Kitan Club, Takara Tomy, and Bullyland (not a Japanese company of course, but you'll understand my reasoning soon). I will go over the rest of the Tomy figures and Kaiyodo in the post after this one.

First up is Euhadra peliomphala land snail from Nature Techni Color/Kitan Club. Quite possibly the best land snail figure I have. The detail is insane. It looks exactly like a real snail and species-level ID is easy. The stripe on the body, the shape of the head, the shell coloration. This figure is truly incredible. The only issue with mine is that the eyes are bent inwards. I'm not sure how to fix this if it's fixable. The body is made of a soft, bendable material that feels somewhat rubbery. Even the underside is realistic looking. I love the mouth. The mouth is open as if this snail is in the process of crawling across something and hungrily scraping the surface with its radula. The paper insert is beautiful and contains photos of the real animal.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here is a set of snails and slugs produced by Takara Tomy. These are also highly detailed and the set consists of three different snails, two different slugs, and a charm of the two larger snails and the larger slug (three charms total). I'm not sure if the species these were intended to be was ever officially mentioned. The slugs are quite clearly Ambigolimax sp. probably Ambigolimax valentianus (formerly known as Lehmannia valentiana). Common names include three-banded slug and striped greenhouse slug, these slugs are actually invasive to Japan (and many other places globally). The snails seem to superficially resemble Bradybaena similaris to me, which is commonly called the Asian trampsnail. These snails can have a reddish stripe on their shells but can also come in a non-striped form. It looks like this set includes both morphs. This species is also invasive in Japan.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here are two land snails produced by Bullyland. Both are meant to represent Helix pomatia, also known as the edible snail, Roman snail, or burgundy snail. According to the Animal Toy Wiki, the light-colored snail was produced from 1994-1999 when it was finally replaced by the darker-colored snail as part of the "Woodland" series. There were also three slug figures that were produced with the light-color snail which unfortunately I do not have. The darker-color snail I have is probably circa 2010 but is still in production. I purchased the newest 2022 snail to compare recently and was disappointed to see that it looked nothing like the beautiful production photo (which looked more refined and detailed than the snail I have now). The ~2022 darker-colored snail looks identical to the ~2010 snail except it doesn't say "Made in Germany" on the bottom anymore. Overall, I like both snails a lot, but I think I prefer the older lighted-colored snail. The paint job just looks a lot better to me even if it's a little less realistic.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Now let's take a look at the clones... So many clones!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

In the last couple of years there's been a boom of "life cycle toys" that've popped up all over Amazon, Aliexpress, and elsewhere. These are cheap Chinese models and there are many different animals to choose from. The only figures that seem to be original in these sets are the first and second stages, usually eggs and larvae. The sub-adult/juvenile and adult stages in these sets usually seem to be lower-quality versions of models that already exist. On the snail side of things, the adult stage is usually a knockoff of one of the larger Takara Tomy snails or a Bullyland snail. The sub-adult stage is either missing or another Takara Tomy snail. This is a bit funny since many times the life cycle being sold actually depicts two different species for the adult and sub-adult stages. The life cycle toys also includes a very simple model of a clutch of snail eggs and another simple model of clutch of eggs with a few baby snails hatching out of them. These are overall quite unremarkable but interesting. Alternatively, there are sets of snail toys sold that include the knock-off figures but not the eggs. Some sellers also sell the snail models individually. The models that are featured in the life cycle sets and the non-life cycle sets are not mutually exclusive. These toys are often mixed together and can be found sold in various different sets. I think it's interesting that the Kitan Club, Takara Tomy, and Bullyland snails all got lumped together somehow.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Now let's look at the clones individually. Here's the Kitan Club snail with its replicas. Note the progressive loss of detail that occurs from copy to copy.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here are the different Takara Tomy snails with their duplicates.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The tiny Takara Tomy snail has never been sold in the life cycle sets, instead it can be found in the sets of snails only (no eggs).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And finally, here are the Bullyland snails with their clones. One of the clones is actually quite nice having an almost burgundy colored body and a yellow underside. Not realistic but pretty.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Overall, I actually really appreciate all the copies. It gives me more stuff to collect and adds more variety, even if the quality is a bit lacking. The clones range from being a really hard plastic (almost a resin feeling) to being a more bendy, softer plastic. I just wish they had made copies of the Takara Tomy slugs too. There's not enough slug figures out there! I'm imagining a slug life cycle set with a Takara Tomy slug knock-off as the sub-adult and a Bullyland slug as the adult. I can dream :)

As far as I know, Kaiyodo has released a total of five land snail figurines and a total of three different species. There's the green-shelled Leptopoma nitidum, two variations of the Amalia snail (Euhadra amaliae), and two variations of Mandarina mandarina.

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

Here's the Amalia snail, Euhadra amaliae:

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

Here's the operculate land snail Leptopoma nitidum. This is an unusual one and I think the only operculate land snail model ever made. An operculum is the little disk sitting on top of the snail's tail. When the snail retracts, the operculum acts as a little door, closing the shell. This snail also lacks olfactory tentacles and has eyes at the base of the primary tentacles. These features are characteristic of aquatic/marine species but are also found in some primitive land snails.

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

Kaiyodo also released some models for the Sumida Aquarium, including these two beautiful Mandarina mandarina land snail models. These are easily my favorite Kaiyodo models.

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

Wrapping up the Japanese figures we have this garbage snails made by Takara Tomy x Panda's Ana. The bodies are incredibly realistic and I love the theme. They each represent small pieces of trash that might be found on the streets of Japan. The ketchup snail is my favorite. The paper inserts each have a little comic that shows each snail going through some kind of misfortune.

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

What a interesting and Special collection

What an impressive collection of snail figures.
I would've never guessed there are so many to collect.
The trash snails with their paper comics are hilarious!

widukind wrote:

What a interesting and Special collection

Thank you!  

Bloodrayne wrote:

What an impressive collection of snail figures.
I would've never guessed there are so many to collect.
The trash snails with their paper comics are hilarious!

Thanks, I thought they were funny too. I like that the extra effort was made to give them a backstory.

In 2007, Safari Ltd released a nice Cepaea hortensis (white-lipped snail) figure. I bought this from a museum gift shop around that time. Sadly this figure is no longer in production. The skin color is a bit orange and the lips look odd. Worse still, this white-lipped snail lacks the identifying white lip on the shell. Instead the whole shell including the lip has been painted yellow. Other than that this is a great figure. I hope they bring it back at some point.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Papo has released a few nice snail figures over the last few years. There's a Cepaea nemoralis (brown-lipped snail or grove snail) and two different sculpts of what appears to be Helix pomatia, the edible snail. The larger H. pomatia is marked 2022 but the other two figures have 2020 stamped on them. The larger 2022 model may have been a European only release. I have seen it available on eBay.de and know it was also available in the UK at some point.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

At one point the company AAA released a nice snail model. This one was gifted to me by a fellow animal figure enthusiast and is one of my greatest treasures. I just love this one. I like how knobby the tentacles look and the detail of the body texture and shell. The paint job is nice too.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Utopia Cast. This one was pretty mysterious to me and still is. From what I gather, this is a Chinese company that sells "gk"s or "garage kits." In other words - little resin models of various things that the purchaser hand paints themselves. Apparently Utopia Cast had/has a line of land snail models. Almost every snail in the set is a species that has never been depicted in figure form before. There are a total of six snails, five are real species and one is a fantasy snail with a skull-shaped shell. Here's some of the promo material I was able to find.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Each species is represented by artwork of a photo of the animal in a stamp with the scientific name.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I was lucky enough to find someone selling a full set (which also included a duplicate figure that I didn't need). These figures can be cast in either solid white resin or yellow resin (for the shell) and clear resin (for the body). My set was the second variation. They came to me in a big box and the shell and body are separate pieces. I'm using putty to hold them together, but glue is the permanent option. If one were to buy individual species they would apparently come in separate species-themed boxes such as the Euglandina rosea box in the photo. My set also came with a little poster of the stamp artwork.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I also purchased a set that someone had already lovingly painted. Here's the painted set with the unpainted versions.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Now let's go through these species by species! I'll also include the photo that the seller took of the snails that was on the listing page. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the artist. The first one is Papustyla pulcherrima, the Manus Island Tree Snail. This is a very rare snail from Papua New Guinea and one of my favorite species, so I was delighted to see it in figure form.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Next is a classic, Helix pomatia.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here's Anostoma octodentatum the Brazilian up-mouth snail, a fantastic choice for a figure. This is an incredibly unusual snail. The shell is upside-down.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Number four is Indrella ampulla, however the artist apparently decided they would rather this one be a Platymma tweediei (Malaysian fire snail) instead.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

No worries, I found another that was painted correctly for Indrella ampulla. This one transcends being a regular figure and is more like a work of art. The green moss and leaves have faded to brown, but one of these days I'll fix it and stick some dyed green plant matter on there.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Lastly, figure number five is Euglandina rosea, the rosy wolf snail. This is a cannibalistic snail native to Florida. Its diet consists exclusively of other snails. These snails are pretty fast for a snail and use their "mustaches" to smell snail trails belonging to their prey. The body color on this figure is a bit darker than what you'd encounter in real life.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Whew that was a lot! Overall this is an insanely cool set and it's a bummer that it isn't available outside of China. I love all the interesting species choices. I hope they release a second set. Or maybe even a slug set or a semislug set. That'd be amazing. The only downside is the fragility of the figures. Since they're cast in resin they're extremely fragile. Several figures came to me from China with broken tentacles. Thankfully fixing them was easy.

You have an incredible collection, whether for the theme chosen or for the knowledge of the subject.
I can't wait to find out what happens next.
I only have one snail in my collection, the Kitan club, but I'm planning to add the Papo and, who knows, one of those snails with the colourful shells we see in your display.
I assume you have the composition old Hausser elastolin.

Kikimalou wrote:

You have an incredible collection, whether for the theme chosen or for the knowledge of the subject.
I can't wait to find out what happens next.
I only have one snail in my collection, the Kitan club, but I'm planning to add the Papo and, who knows, one of those snails with the colourful shells we see in your display.
I assume you have the composition old Hausser elastolin.

Thank you so much! Yes, I do have the elastolin snail! I will post that one soon. The Papo snails are great. Plus they're affordable and easy to find, which are bonuses.

The snails with the colorful shells you are referring to are probably the Polymita picta series by Chinese maker Nirvana. I will post about those next

The last big post I want to make today is about the snail figures produced by Nirvana Studio 涅槃自然工作室. These figures have an interesting backstory and also ended up being much more difficult to acquire than anticipated. They began as a Chinese kickstarter campaign. Here's a link to the original kickstarter page. It's in Chinese but a quick spin through Google Translate makes it easy to read.

The creator of the figures is really into conservation work and was saddened when he learned about the story of the Polymita picta snail, also known as the Cuban land snail. These beautiful snails are endangered due to overharvesting for their shells, which are highly prized by collectors. One of the guys behind Nirvana Studio had an idea, what if the shells could be collected ethically? He decided to make a figure series so people could collect the snails without hurting them and become educated about species's plight. So, inspired by Japanese gashapon figures and with conservation in mind, the kickstarter project was launched in early 2020. The series was to consist of six snails including two subspecies, which can be seen in the promo image below.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The snails represented the wide range of colors and patterns found in real Polymita picta. Backers to the kickstarter could choose to get one or two at random or they could choose to buy the entire set. The percentages in the image above represent the chances of drawing each figure at random. There was also a second version of these figures in which the snail figure was sitting on a leaf. The leaf versions were exclusive to the kickstarter and were never produced again after it ended. To increase the appeal of the figures and target a wider audience, all figures had a magnet placed underneath them so they could be stuck on the refrigerator. Here's a photo from the kickstarter page showing some of the snails getting airbrushed.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As a kickstarter reward, a bonus seventh snail was promised to be given to a select few lucky people (roughly 10% of backers). The people who were chosen to receive the bonus snail were to be selected at random. The bonus snail represented an entirely new species, Polymita venusta. The design of the bonus figure was kept secret for some time, but was eventually revealed to be a P. venusta figure crawling on a strawberry. Each strawberry seed was meticulously hand-painted. Nirvana Studio expressed in some social media posts that painting these figures was a very painstaking affair. These strawberry snails were exclusive to the kickstarter and were never produced again after it ended due to the difficulty of producing them.

After the kickstarter ended, Nirvana Studio expressed interest in continuing to produce the basic six snail figures from the campaign to continue to support conservation and species awareness. These six snails were continuously produced for some time and were available through online stores. The gashapon-like aspects of this series were emphasized and for fun, a seventh "bonus" or "hidden" figure was again made available. This time, instead of being the strawberry snail it was a glow-in-the-dark or "luminous" snail figure.

This is the point that discovered the figures. I saw an eBay listing for a set. I didn't understand what I was looking at when I saw it and the listing had been poorly translated into English. The wrong species name was in the listing and they were pretty expensive. They also looked a little too real... I wondered if they were made with real snail shells. I'm not interested in purchasing endangered animal parts, so I passed. A few months went by and I took another look. The listing claimed they were completely made of resin, so I decided to go for it and buy them. Unfortunately, at this point Nirvana Studio had an issue with the manufacturing components for making the snails. The parts used for production had broken. Months passed and the issue had not be resolved. I was disappointed.  

I ended up making my way onto a Chinese version of eBay and figuring out how to export stuff from China. This was not easy to figure out, but using this method I managed to assemble a full set of the original six snails and the glow-in-the-dark snail. More hunting left me very fortunate as I was able to track down a set of the kickstarter-exclusive leaf versions, piece by piece. I was still hunting for the ultra-rare strawberry snail though and wasn't having much luck. Then, I got a huge stroke of luck and found a strawberry snail too. All traces of this set have since disappeared from the English-speaking web as far as I can tell, so I'm very glad I was able to hunt these guys down! Now without further ado, here's the collection:

You can see some of the different boxes the figures came in in the back.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Two packaging styles, the original gashapon style is on the right. The lower tentacles on these figures proved to be incredibly fragile, causing Nirvana to shift to the packaging style on the left after the kickstarter campaign ended.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The original six figures.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The kickstarter-exclusive leaf versions.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The incredible strawberry snail! Has there ever been a greater snail figure?  
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The glow-in-the-dark snails that were included as a "hidden" figure later. They glow an intense blue color. There are two very slightly different versions here - an early version of the figure that did not include a magnet and the later version that did.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Overall, this is such a great set and it's a bummer they're so hard to get outside of China. The leaf on the strawberry on my strawberry snail figure is slightly broken and the tip of the leaf on the black Polymita picta leaf figure is also broken off. This is fine with me, but illustrates how incredibly fragile these figures can be. Resin breaks very easily and there was some general damage I had to deal with after these guys made their long journey to me. Thankfully most of the broken parts were in the container with the figures and some superglue was enough to fix things :)

Beautiful snails. The major brands should make more, because some of the others are hard to get.

Beautiful snails! Some are so realistic! I just have Safari & Papo's

so many snail models! I had no idea that there are so many snails out there how wonderful!
What a truly amazing collection you have snailtime.

My favourite has to be the tiny babies hatching out of their egg cases
so cute and adorable!

and the banana slug mask man reminded me of the creatures on 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets' love that movie!
maybe slugs inspired the writer?

Tupolew Tu-154 wrote:

Beautiful snails. The major brands should make more, because some of the others are hard to get.

I agree! It's sad that there aren't many available at the moment. At the moment, Papo has two nice snails available and Bullyland has one too.

Joliezac wrote:

Beautiful snails! Some are so realistic! I just have Safari & Papo's

Thank you so much! I love the Papo ones. I like that they're small  

sunny wrote:

so many snail models! I had no idea that there are so many snails out there how wonderful!
What a truly amazing collection you have snailtime.

My favourite has to be the tiny babies hatching out of their egg cases
so cute and adorable!

and the banana slug mask man reminded me of the creatures on 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets' love that movie!
maybe slugs inspired the writer?

Thank you so much for your kind words! I love the baby snails too. I think it's interested that a unique sculpt popped up amongst all the Amazon/AliExpress knockoffs and I appreciate that those companies decided to start making something new like that! I've never seen that movie before but I'm going to have to check it out! Any movie that made you draw a connection between it and a slug mask has got to be worth watching

Even more snails and slugs! Here's a Partula sp. manufactured by K&M Int. This is a really interesting choice for a figure. Partula snails are mostly endangered and many have gone extinct. They are tropical tree snails that live in places such as Moorea and Tahiti. I love that they chose to make a figure of a snail that is in dire need of attention. This figure is made out of a soft, bendy plastic and looks like it may have been made in the 90s but I don't actually know. The detail of the mouth is a nice touch.

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

I don't know much about these unbranded snails. The green glow-in-the-dark snails were sold with glow-in-the-dark insects (the most notable of which was a nice antlion larva). I don't know anything about the yellow one. There is no branding other than "CHINA" on the underside.

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

I don't know anything about these unbranded snails either other than that they came from the UK. That's a shame because this is one of the nicest snail sculpts out there in my opinion. I'm guessing these might have been sold with generic packs of insect toys.

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

These slugs on the other hand, I know are sold with generic packs of insects. The glow-in-the-dark and dark blue ones are currently being sold all over Aliexpress and Amazon. The dark blue slug incorrectly says "SNAIL" on the underside. The lighter/brighter blue slug was the one that was common before the dark blue one started being manufactured and is made of a softer, bendier plastic. I don't know anything about the metallic blue slug, but it is "vintage," highly detailed, and also made of a soft, bendy plastic. The purple one was sold to me as being vintage and came from Greece. The brown slug is currently available on Amazon and is sold by the company BOHS. As far as identifications go, the blue and purple ones are likely Bielzia coerulans, the Carpathian blue slug. Yes, there are in fact real blue and purple land slugs. The purple ones are juveniles but adults can range from being bright blue to a greenish teal. The brown one appears to be Arion rufus, the chocolate arion/European brown slug/red slug. These slugs range in color from dark brown to orange to red.

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

These generic land snails are sometimes sold alone and sometimes sold in packs of sea animals for some reason despite clearly being land snails. The snail with the orange shell, yellow stripe down the neck, and orange tentacles is the original figure as far as I know and has circulated online for the last 10 years or so. I used to see a lot of them coming out of Germany but this could be coincidence. The other two are currently sold in sets of sea creatures on Aliexpress and Amazon with the yellow/brown one being the newest. IDs are not possible with these as they are way too generic.

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

These are very similar to the snails above, but are a different sculpt. These can also be found in sets of sea life toys or as "garden miniatures." The orange-shelled one is on Amazon and Aliexpress at the moment. The white-skinned one I just bought yesterday at the Archie McPhee store in Seattle, WA. It was the only one there and was in a bin of assorted sea life toys.

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

This snail is truly vintage. It was made some time in the 1930s or 1940s in Germany by the company Elastolin. It's made of what feels like some kind of hard resin or plastic.

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

I don't know anything about this simple grey slug or what it was sold as or with, other than it came from the UK. I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to buy this. It came with an eBay lot of insect toys that I purchased to get a snail figure. The slug was a bonus. Into the collection it goes  :)

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

This simple snail has been available on and off on eBay for a few years. It's unbranded, made of plastic, and sold as a "garden miniature." It was sold as a Euhadra sp. but really looks too generic to be identified as that or as anything else. For those that want IDs, let's just call all of these unidentifiable land snails as being in the clade Stylommatophora. That's the best, most accurate ID that can reliably be given.

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

These little plastic snails have been floating around the internet for at least 10 years, but they've never been easily accessible (outside of Germany). They seem to come from Germany and are also sold as "garden miniatures." A lot of these plastic snail toys seem to be sold as garden miniature figures to be put outside in a flowerpot even though that's clearly not a good idea. Most of these are more suitable as small toys. They probably wouldn't last long being left outside as they are too small and fragile. One of these was sold separately as a magnet prank item along with a bunch of other magnet insects/frogs/etc. This magnet toy also came out of Germany.

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

In this post I'm going to go over sticky/stretchy slug and snail toys. There are quite a few of these out there, so this will be a longer post.

Earlier I discussed Archie McPhee. The one terrestrial gastropod item I left out was their "Slug Stampede" set of three sticky slugs. The sculpt of these is really incredible. The attention to detail is amazing! I especially love the detail of the breathing hole or pneumostome. I'm sad that these were only made as sticky toys and not as hard figures because these would make some great models. There appears to be a suction cup on the bottom of these, but it's a little pointless on a sticky toy. I can't mention these without mentioning another set of three sticky slugs made by the company 'Ridley's House of Novelties.' I'm not sure what the relationship is between this company and Archie McPhee, but the slugs are identical except for color and packaging. I think Ridley's may be a UK-based company, but I don't remember.

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

As you can see, I'm trying out a new way of storing and displaying sticky toys. I don't like keeping everything in the original packaging because it takes too much room (I save packaging in a box in my closet). For a while I attempted to store sticky toys in individual bags. However, the problem with sticky toys is that they don't always store well depending on what they're made of. The sticky toys started leeching an oily substance through the bags which got everywhere. I'm now trying different sized clear display boxes (intended to store things like Hot Wheels and baked goods). If I notice they start leeching through these containers I think I'll try setting them down on wax or parchment paper inside the containers. Anyways, on to the next thing. The sticky/stretchy land gastropod toys are almost exclusively slugs. I'll cover all the slugs first and then talk snails.

Next up is the beautiful "Box of Slugs" made by the company 'Rex London.' These are nice looking but the box is what really stands out to me. I love the box art. These are the kind of sticky toys that are so sticky they basically want to melt into anything they touch. They instantly grab any and all dust and hair nearby. Like all sticky toys, they wash completely clean with a little soap and water. An oily residue is left on the fingers and these have a chemical smell, but not a bad smell. This came from the UK.

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

And here we have the "Glueslug," my all-time favorite of the classic sticky toys. These are very interesting and I don't know much about them. They were manufactured by a now defunct elastomerics company based out of San Francisco, California called 'Applied Elastomerics.' The yellow slug seems to be from 1990 and is the original. The orange slug seems to be a later run of the same toy from 1999. The packaging changed between that time somewhat significantly. I do not know if other colors were ever made, but at one point I found some of the original patent information on the Glueslug and found there were also patents for many other "Glue" animals. I think I remember there being a starfish. The phrase "Natural Wonders" appears on both variations of packaging, perhaps this was the name of the line of toys these were from? These have no smell and leave no residue on the fingers. I like the realistic faces and the inclusion of olfactory tentacles (something that the slugs from Rex London lacked).

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

Here's a classic. One of the greatest slug toys ever made and still in production! "Banana Slugfest" is a sticky toy, but isn't sticky like the toys before. It's more of a stretchy toy than a sticky toy (though it still is a bit sticky). This is made by Play Visions (Club Earth) and the packaging has changed over the years. The packaging on the left is the older design and the one on the right is the newer art currently being stocked (old and new packaging are in reverse order in the second image). I prefer the original art but I'm just glad this is still in production. These are supposed to be banana slugs as the name suggested. The spots are more like little dashes/stripes but I think it works fine for this toy. Also the inclusion of the word "Slugfest" is all this toy needs to make it perfect.

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

Play Visions/Club Earth made a second very similar banana slug toy around the time the Banana Slugfest was first released which is no longer in production. It was a rubbery banana with holes in it that came with two mini slugs. The packaging encourages kids to "pull your banana slugs through the banana holes." A wonderfully weird concept. This was exclusively a stretchy toy. There was no stickiness to any of the pieces. I only have one of the mini slugs. I hope they put it back into production one day because I'd love to have the banana to go with the slug. The mini slugs in this toy are miniature versions of the banana slugfest.

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

Here's a couple of miscellaneous sticky slugs that appear to be of the same sculpt. The translucent yellow/orange one seems to be suffering from a significant loss of detail. The black one smells absolutely horrible and leaves greasy, oily residue all over the fingers. It is made by 'Tobar' ('One for Fun') and is sold as "Sid the Sticky Slug." Production photos online often make this toy look blue but it is in fact black. The yellow slug is sold by 'PlayWrite.' Both of these toys came from the UK. There are a few of these slugs sold in different kinds of packaging under various different companies but they all seem to be the same toys.

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

Next up are some really basic slugs sold by 'Oriental Trading Company.' This have been around for a while and are still in production. They're often sold as treat-or-treat/halloween favors. They come in four colors but are not very detailed and don't look very sluggy. The tentacles are really thin. It looks like they're supposed to appear spotted on their mantles. Perhaps the creator was inspired by the leopard slug, Limax maximus when designing them.

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

These sticky slugs were also made by the Oriental Trading Company, although to my knowledge they were never advertised anywhere. They came as a surprise to me when I bought a set of 100+ assorted sticky toys from the company in attempt to get the slugs show above. These ones were a complete surprise. They're much nicer than the other slugs made by OTC. I like the colors more and I love the detail of the tubercules on the skin, the lines on the underside of the foot, and the lines on the head near the mantle.

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

Moving on to the snails. I don't have any sticky snails but I do have stretchy snails. These three are made by Blue Frog Toys and came from the UK, although they were once available on Amazon. The body is stretchy and the shell is hard plastic. I love the design of the body and the detail. Looks very realistic. What I don't love is the paint job on the shells. I don't really like how the shells are white plastic with paint kind of washed over them. If the shells were cast in brown or some other earthy color and then had another color added I think that would've looked much better. Then again, these are just kids toys and they're great for what they are :)

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

Last but certainly not least are these beautiful gumball machine prizes made by the Chinese company Yiwu JO Toys Co Ltd and sourced off of Alibaba. These may not be realistic, but I adore them. I love the bold choice of using black rubber for the body. You don't often see that with snail toys even though it's a common snail skin color in real life. I also like the color combinations on the shells. The orange/yellow shelled snail almost reminds me of a cartoonish Cuban painted snail, Polymita picta. The shells are made of a hard plastic. The rubber bodies are interesting in that they appear to have some kind of cotton stuffed inside. This gives an interesting texture when squeezed. They're also quite stretchy.

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

That's the end of the sticky/stretchy land snails and slugs (for now  )

Thanks to BlueKrono on Animal Toy Forum, I got a tip about the new "Crowned Critters" snail by Archie McPhee back when it had just been released. Mine just came in the mail along with a certificate saying that I'm the first person to buy it and therefore am a "person of taste and distinction" Lol  

It's a really nice figure. It's detailed and the rich, bright colors make it really nice to look at. Not to mention that it's adorable. This figure was likely inspired by a snail in the genus Cepaea. Either Cepaea hortensis (white-lipped snail) or Cepaea nemoralis (brown-lipped snail/grove snail). We can't give this figure a definite ID since the lip isn't developed. It looks like this is a juvenile snail and these can't be ID'd until they reach adulthood and develop either a white or brown lip. So we'll just leave the ID at Cepaea sp. and move on. The website description says "Learn the legend of the Crowned Critters! A group of overlooked forest critters got together in a support group to see why they weren’t universally adored. They decided they were all amazing and deserved to wear crowns. Believe us when we say that you have never seen a snail slay this hard."

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


And here's some more snails that I haven't posted yet. First we have these two cute miniatures. No maker's mark. They only say "Made in Hong Kong" on the underside. I was told one of these was from the 70s. The one with the solid yellow shell is made of a slightly softer, bendier plastic than the one with the orange stripe on its shell.

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

This snail is apparently from the 90s and was supposedly sold with some various sea life figures. But, this is a strange figure. It appears to be a cyclops snail. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. At first I thought maybe the "eye" was where the liquid plastic was poured into the mold, a spout that was never removed or something. However, I've seen others like this and they're all cyclops snails. Then I thought, maybe this WAS intended to be an aquatic species? Perhaps the "eye" is actually a siphon? It really doesn't look like a siphon though and that would still raise questions as to what the bottom two tentacles are supposed to be. If those are primary tentacles then the placement is really odd. Finally, I think I might have figured it out. Earlier I posted a few vintage snails from the 60s. One of them (which is clearly a land snail) looks like it's the original sculpt of whatever this one is. On the original sculpt the two eyestalks were very close together. I think over time as the sculpt was copied again and again over the decades enough detail was lost that the eyestalks fused into one creating the cyclops snail. It is totally unmarked except for "CHINA" on the bottom and what looks like a maker's mark that was totally defaced on the mold. Very strange overall.

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

Then we have this guy. Made out of a very light, hard plastic (the kind that feels like it'll shatter if you drop it). This was also sold with some sea life, presumably as a set of miniatures. There's a fish, a crab, a lobster, a sea snail shell, and a crab/lobster trap in addition to the random land snail. The figures have a very thick and glossy paint covering that looks quite nice. The trap is made out of wood.

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

Lastly there's these two. I don't know anything about their origins and they have no maker's mark anywhere other than "Made in China" on their shells. These two are virtually identical except one snail has more yellowish spots on its shell. I originally assumed the spots represented places where the paint was more worn at first, so I attempted to scratch some of the brown color off of one of the snail's shell to test this. I was unable to remove any of the brown coloration. I'm not so sure the spots are places of wear. I think these just represent natural variations in the manufacturing process.

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

Wow, I love it when we learn new members that collect something unusual in this already unusual hobby^^ Never thought there would be so many different snails and slugs :)

I have recognized some of them as I own them, too. The papo models, the Made in China Bielzia coerulans or the snail that is often sold with other sea animals (hope for an ID, but when even you say it´s to generic, I will believe it^^). The last one I bought as "Weico" - you can find it here with other slugs (however sea snails): [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I have another snail, that I couldn´t find yet in the moment, but maybe it will be shown. However it´s not a real toy figure and seems to be more a deco article as it overstylized. Curious if it will pop up :)

Again you have an incredible collection, the only one of this kind I heard of. It's a pleasure to read you.

During one of my sporadic digressions through other collector boards, I had the opportunity to see your collection on another forum and, given the unusualness of the theme, I couldn't resist the temptation to comment. Now I see you had the good idea of sharing this collection here, where I basically reside, and once again I have to emphasize the fact that you have an absolutely unique collection that truly enchants me. The way you research the surroundings of each figure is also something special. Surely you are the person who deserved to receive this certificate, which is a beautiful piece to document this personal taste of yours.

Duck-Anch-Amun wrote:

Wow, I love it when we learn new members that collect something unusual in this already unusual hobby^^ Never thought there would be so many different snails and slugs :)

I have recognized some of them as I own them, too. The papo models, the Made in China Bielzia coerulans or the snail that is often sold with other sea animals (hope for an ID, but when even you say it´s to generic, I will believe it^^). The last one I bought as "Weico" - you can find it here with other slugs  (however sea snails): [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I have another snail, that I couldn´t find yet in the moment, but maybe it will be shown. However it´s not a real toy figure and seems to be more a deco article as it overstylized. Curious if it will pop up :)

Interesting about the Weico brand    I think several companies have made a figure using the same mold at this point but Weico may be the original brand! Yes, sadly it's way too generic for an ID, but I can say with certainty that it's a land snail, not a sea snail. No idea why it keeps getting packaged with sea life! If you need some sort of ID you can classify it under the order Stylommataphora. I'm interested in seeing your deco snail! You should take a photo and post it. Perhaps we both have one  

Kikimalou wrote:

Again you have an incredible collection, the only one of this kind I heard of. It's a pleasure to read you.

Thank you so much!  

Roger wrote:

During one of my sporadic digressions through other collector boards, I had the opportunity to see your collection on another forum and, given the unusualness of the theme, I couldn't resist the temptation to comment. Now I see you had the good idea of sharing this collection here, where I basically reside, and once again I have to emphasize the fact that you have an absolutely unique collection that truly enchants me. The way you research the surroundings of each figure is also something special. Surely you are the person who deserved to receive this certificate, which is a beautiful piece to document this personal taste of yours.

Thank you so much Roger! It's such a pleasure to run into you again here. I am still so thankful for you pointing me in the direction of the snail figures by Pech Hermanos!