Land Snails and Slugs - The Terrestrial Gastropods

Here's a figure I was searching for for a while that I was so happy to find. It's one of the two snails manufactured by New-Ray, dated 1995! I can't begin to express how overjoyed I am to have found this one. It's one of my "holy grail" figures, along with the other New-Ray snail and the slugs by Bullyland. I couldn't help but take a ton of photos of this guy from every angle imaginable. One thing I was surprised about was its size. I thought it would be much smaller but it's actually quite beefy. It's also insanely detailed. The texture of the tubercles on the body is incredible. The shell is beautiful and highly realistic. Even the underside of the body is textured to look like a real snail (it looks like it's in the process of crawling over something). This genuinely might be one of the most beautiful and realistic snails I own. The only thing that's a bit fanciful is the color scheme. The colors are a bit more vibrant than most real snails, but to be honest I think I prefer the colors they chose as opposed to some more realistic, drabber colors. Additionally, the color aren't THAT fanciful. There really are many land snails that have purplish-colored flesh.

This figure is detailed enough to consider giving some kind of ID to. I would like to propose the ID as being Mesodon sp., common name the Globe Snails. My first thought was M. thyroidus, although it could also be M. andrewsae, M. normalis, or any number of other snails in this genus. All of these species have enough variation that could result in individuals with purplish-colored skin and brown shells like the figure has. Other brown-shelled New-Ray snail figures I've seen also seem to have white airbrushing around the lip of the shell (in my figure this is very, very faint). Assuming these figures were meant to have a lighter colored lip, that makes me more certain that these species could have inspired this figure. Globe snails are native snails often found in forests throughout the eastern United States. They can be fairly large and quite striking. Of course, it's possible that this could be any number of snail species since this is just a little plastic figure, but I think this figure could very well have been inspired by native Eastern US forest snails. So, I'll stick with an ID of Mesodon sp.
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This next snail was a gift courtesy of bmathison1972. It's the fairy mount for the figure titled "Ollie and the Snail" made by Safari Ltd. in 2010 for their "Fairy Fantasies" line. The snail itself is highly stylized and clearly not meant to represent any real species. It does have a rather cute smile though which can only be seen when looking underneath the snail. It is a welcome addition to the rest of my slimy crew and I'm very grateful to have it. Thanks again Blaine! Here's some pictures of Ollie's snail:
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The next thing I'd like to share is the Giant Pink Slug sticky toy sold by the Explore Narrabri Region Visitor Center in Australia. This toy is meant to be the Kaputar Giant Pink Slug (Triboniophorus sp. nov. "Kaputar"). The toy shares the same sculpt as the slugs from the "Box of Slugs" made by Rex London shared in a previous post. While the sculpt may not be scientifically accurate to a real Kaputar Giant Pink Slug, the thought really does count here. I'm really glad that the visitor center is advocating for these rare and threatened slugs. Selling toys that appeal to children is a wonderful way to engage and teach the next generation of slug-advocates.

The visitor center is also staffed by extremely kind people who were willing to ship a couple of slugs to me in the United States. They even sent me a postcard and a pamphlet about the slugs (which I will also share). I took one of the slugs out of the packaging and will leave the other unopened. The packaging is attractive and contains lots of slug facts on the back. I really hope I'm able to visit Mount Kaputar myself one day and see the slugs with my own eyes.
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The snails in this post all came from Spain. Roger told me about the snails made by Pech Hermanos over on Animal Toy Forum and I ended up buying them. From what I have gathered, the original snails were produced in the 1950s and then there were others produced later in the 1970s and 1980s. The ones made in the 50s are more colorful and made of a slightly softer plastic. The later productions are made of a stiffer plastic and cast in solid colors (no paint added). I'm not sure if the snails made later were official Pech Hermanos items or knock-offs. None of the snails have any kind of branding on them. If anyone knows more information or has corrections please feel free to share!

The snails from the 50s were pricey, but I negotiated with the seller into drastically lowering the price if I bought all three. The solid-colored snails were extremely cheap, which makes me wonder if they were actually made by Pech Hermanos. There are a total of three poses. Enjoy the pictures below!

The original snails from the 1950s:
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The original snails alongside their solid-colored counterparts from the 70s and 80s:
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Also from Spain is this nice rubbery snail made in Hong Kong:
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And these glorious snail pop-up toys (popper toys?)! I really love these. I had purchased another pop-up snail (the one with the conical shell) in red but that one was sadly lost in the mail  :'(  Oh well, hopefully I stumble across another some day. Presumably each design was produced in red, yellow, green, and blue. The seller of these stated that they were from the 1970s. They all say Hong Kong on them.
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But wait, we've seen these sculpts before! (The shells of the two-piece 60s toys match, but the bodies are different).
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Now I'm going to go into some Japanese acquisitions!

First up are these rainbow gacha snails. I don't know anything about these guys. They're always referred to as simply gacha snails. I'm assuming these are cheap prizes that can be won somewhere. Supposedly the red polka dot and multicolored pastel snails are rare and the golden snail is ultra rare. They can be found cheaply on various Japanese auction sites. I bought all of them as a set. The molds are familiar and join the other four snails of the same mold I posted about previously. They may not be realistic but I love colorful rainbow stuff so the pop of color these guys provide is much appreciated.
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Next up is this tiny "vintage" snail made in Hong Kong but found on a Japanese auction site. This thing is TINY. The shell is hard plastic but the body is a softer rubbery material. This appears to be a new mold. I doubt a specific species was intended with this figure, but if I squint the colors remind me of Drymaeus laticinctus.
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Next is another slug variation of a familiar mold. This one seems to be cast in a sticky yellow plastic.
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Then we have something really cool and unique... A MASSIVE latex snail prop (?). It's about two feet long    I have no clue what the story is behind this thing. There's virtually no info available online about this even though it's quite a distinctive item. I think it's supposed to be Euhadra peliomphala and I estimate it's about seven years old based off of the limited information I could find. As this is presumably a latex prop, it is susceptible to latex decay. The model was already in a state of rot when I acquired it. One eyestalk had fallen off. I did some minor repair on it including filling in most of the cracks and reattaching the eyestalk. Since the rotting cannot be stopped the entire thing will probably need to be rebuilt at some time if I choose to preserve it. For now I'm storing it in a cool dark place to slow the decay.
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Here is a basic sticky slug. Again, all of these items came to me from Japan but that doesn't mean they were manufactured there. This one is made by a company called Flying Tiger and is branded as "Klister-kryb Sticky creepy-crawly." We've seen this mold before earlier in the thread. The other one was more of an orange color. This one is highlighter yellow.
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Here is the last Japanese item. Some little blister packs of "creepy crawlies" made in Hong Kong. The style looks 1960s or 1970s but the mold is brand new to me. The snail is made out of a rubbery material. The turtle that came in the same pack was more of a harder plastic.
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Interestingly, shortly after I acquired that last snail, I was scrolling on eBay and came across someone selling a lot of vintage toys. Among the toys were three snails, each a different color, all of the same mold as the Japanese snail Like the Japanese snail, these are also made of a rubbery material.
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Very cool

The yellow slug by Flying Tiger-this company is Danish and has many branches in the UK.

widukind wrote:

Very cool

Thank you!

Taos wrote:

The yellow slug by Flying Tiger-this company is Danish and has many branches in the UK.

Thanks for sharing! I didn't know that. Very interesting

Here's a new Glueslug! This time in blue. I wonder how many colors these came in. As with the other sticky toys, I gently remove them from their packaging and put them in a display case. The packaging is saved and stored somewhere safe.
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A (new to me) variation of the AAA snail. This one has a bolder paint job although the paint job has a little room for improvement. It looks strikingly different next to the other, more muted AAA snail.
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Then there's these guys. I thought they were a new mold at first but then I realized they're the same as the glow in the dark snails I shared earlier. No branding or info on these. The say "China" on their undersides.
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This one is a little weird. It was some kind of bonus accessory for an anime figure. The anime is called Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and the character the snail came with is called "Weather Report." I don't watch anime or know anything about this show but apparently this guy has some kind of weather related powers and can make it rain and conjure snails or something. Anyways, this teeny-tiny snail figure was too cute to resist so I had to add it to my collection. Presumably this one is also supposed to be Euhadra peliomphala, judging by pictures I saw of the snails from the anime.
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Then there's this really cool "4D Vision Snail Anatomy Model." I saw these for sale 15 years ago or so and never bought one. Then they disappeared and I was bummed I hadn't bought one. They seem to be back in production along with dozens of other animal species. I got mine off of Aliexpress but they're all over eBay too. I didn't have high hopes for the quality since it seemed a bit cheap. I was blown away when it arrived. This model is incredible! It's extremely detailed and beautiful. The textures and colors are wonderful and for the price this is really a great anatomy model. It looks great on the little black stand it came with. However, there is one caveat... building this thing made me want to tear my hair out. The pieces didn't quite fit together. I made it work and now that it's assembled it's quite sturdy, but I can't imagine a child trying to put this thing together. Assembling it was like trying to assemble one of those 3D globe-shaped Earth puzzles.
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This one I was exceedingly lucky to find. I believe this is the mysterious snail from the Jungle Bugs set referenced in bmathison1972's post titled "Blaine's Bin Bugs" over on Animal Toy Forum judging from some of the other figures that were in the same lot. This is a very strange looking snail. The spire of the shell is very sharp and narrow and the eyestalks look strange. They seem to be very fat at the base of the eyestalks and get more narrow towards the tips. Additionally, I'm only seeing one pair of tentacles. For these reasons I'm not convinced this is a land snail. It reminds me of a golden-shelled Lymnaea sp. perhaps Lymnaea stagnalis. These are pretty simple figures though, so it's hard to put IDs on them. It's made of a soft rubbery material. The colors are bold and this is overall a very unique-looking figure.
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The next couple of figures/toys are generic and unbranded. This one has a hard shell and a squishy body and is from AliExpress.
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This Chinese-made snail is of a mold we've seen before and is made of a very hard plastic.
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This Chinese-made figure is a cute little green one. Nothing to say here.
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This isn't a mass-produced figure but instead a one of a kind work of art. It's a banana slug ring! I love how realistic it looks, especially the face. The artist who made it is Ajiu 阿九手作.
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This small plastic figure is from a sculpt we've already seen several times before. Here's the "Bag of Snails" produced by Fun World. These were sold as Halloween props/toys. I'm not sure how many people find snails spooky/scary so these are kind of funny to me. I hardly ever see snails sold with Halloween stuff. These are cast in black plastic with reddish paint splashed all over them making it look like they're spooky zombie snails covered in blood I guess. These are just weird and funny and since they're old Halloween stock the company sent me a free extra bag of snails (...what am I going to do with this many zombie snails?!)

The zombie snails join their clones. The solid black snail in the last picture is a zombie snail I swiped with acetone because I thought a solid black snail would look cool haha.

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I wasn't originally planning on posting plush toys here but I figured, why not? I don't really collect plush toys, but I do have some exceptions. First, we have this plush snail by Hansa. It's really nicely detailed for a plush.
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Then there's the snail and banana slug finger puppets produced by Folkmanis. The garden snail was presumably intended to be Cornu aspersum or Helix pomatia and the banana slug is Ariolimax sp. Neither were assigned official names from the manufacturer to my knowledge. I really love the detail on these guys. My only complaint is that the banana slug has two pneumostomes (breathing holes) but the slug is so spectacular in every other way that it doesn't bother me too much. These are still in production and readily available.
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