Land Snails and Slugs - The Terrestrial Gastropods

your plush slugs are beautiful! I make plushes, but have never made any slugs or snails before :)

Congratulations for your new figures. It is so great you still can find so many of them. I like the AAA snail.
I know a person who gets scared anytime she sees a snail. I find it really funny and the only thing I tell to her is... "RUN, RUN!"

Your collection is so interesting, I still have so much to read but I absolutely love seeing such devotion to animals that are often not as beloved in the public eye. It is always cool to hear from a specialist. I know little about gastropods, so this has been a lot of learning as well.

sunny wrote:

your plush slugs are beautiful! I make plushes, but have never made any slugs or snails before :)

Oh wow, are you plushes posted on here?    I would love to look! Making plushes is an art form  

Roger wrote:

Congratulations for your new figures. It is so great you still can find so many of them. I like the AAA snail.
I know a person who gets scared anytime she sees a snail. I find it really funny and the only thing I tell to her is... "RUN, RUN!"

Haha that really is funny!  Yes she better run as fast as she can! Those snails can be quite fast and very vicious  

Jill wrote:

Your collection is so interesting, I still have so much to read but I absolutely love seeing such devotion to animals that are often not as beloved in the public eye. It is always cool to hear from a specialist. I know little about gastropods, so this has been a lot of learning as well.

Thank you so much! I'm glad you've enjoyed and grateful so many people are interested  It's always so fun to share collections with others who appreciate them!

More snails! In Europe there's a "Crawly Insect" blister pack being sold that includes a small snail. Packaging and item name can very, but all variations seem to have these same figures. These toys have a sticky wheel on the underside and are meant to be stuck to a wall. After being stuck to the wall, they will very slowly "crawl" down the wall on their sticky wheels. The company is Banaghan & Co. Ltd. out of Ireland.
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These are some wind-up snails available in the UK under various names/branding/packaging. They're intended to be "racing snail" toys and sometimes come with a laminated paper race track. The ones currently available have white skin. I have an older one that has a more yellowy/creamier skin color. I don't think it's discoloration from aging though it could be. The sculpt of the older one's body is actually a bit different and it's made of a bendier material. They come with wind-up keys.
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This one isn't really a toy or a figure but it's close enough to go into the collection. It's sold on Amazon as an aquarium decoration. It's made of silicone and has a suction cup on the underside. It looks like a land snail wearing the shell of a sea snail.
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This is the Wild Beyond the Witchlight [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Giant Snail. It's a fantasy creature from Dungeons and Dragons I believe. I like the shell colors.
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Here's an unusual part of the collection. Some plastic rings. Why do I have plastic rings in a figure/toy collection? Well, first I've never seen snail rings. But really I have these because they aren't actually snails. These are semislug rings! Semislugs are the evolutionary in-between stage between a snail and a slug. These are slugs with shells. Or snails with shells that are way to small to retract into. Semislugs. I've never seen any kind of semislug representation anywhere in the toy and figure world so I had to get these. Semislugs are common in some parts of China and these are made in China, so I wonder if the designer was inspired by local wildlife. These are available in a set of insect/creepy crawly rings on Aliexpress.
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These are assorted vintage "garden miniature" snails. They are unbranded other than "HONG KONG" on the undersides of a few. I debated about adding these to my collection since they aren't toys and they aren't very detailed, but I already had them so I figured I would keep them. They come in other paint jobs but these models aren't really something I actively hunt for. I know of at least two other paint jobs that I don't have. The purple one with the orange shell is a vintage Kinder toy from 1977. It came with a Kinder yellow capsule egg. Upon closer inspection, the egg says Ferraro. It was sold with a deer model that was also supposed to be from the same series.
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More "garden miniatures." I'm not crazy about these either. They're made of resin and overall not that great.
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Lastly (for now), I thought I'd mention this mold from the 1992 version of the Thingmaker by Toymax. It makes a lovely pair of slug models.
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I've never heard about semislugs and talking about semislugs, I am 100% sure your silicone snail is a nermaid snail. Unbelievable how you can find so many figures for such an alternative subject. Slowly you will turn it into a huge collection.

Roger wrote:

I've never heard about semislugs and talking about semislugs, I am 100% sure your silicone snail is a nermaid snail. Unbelievable how you can find so many figures for such an alternative subject. Slowly you will turn it into a huge collection.

Thank you! Yes, I think the silicone snail can be a mermaid snail I hope a major company makes a semislug at some point, that would be so cool. I don't think very many people have heard of semislugs before

Time for even more snails and slugs  ;D I found a pair of squishy snails made by Play Visions in 2001 on eBay. These guys are more toys than they are figures, but I decided to add them to the collection anyways. They've presumably yellowed with age a bit over the years making them look a little gross, but I like them all the same. Apparently these were sold at Rainforest Cafes and the packaging refers to them as "Pearl & Confetti Snails," part of the "Squeeze Me Squirgles" line. One has glittery purple fluid inside, the other has blue.
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I also found an old set of "Wind-Up Snails." I had posted some wind-up snails earlier, but these look like the original iteration of the toy. The last photo shows the new snails with the one I had posted previously. The ones I already had were recently produced and have white plastic bodies. These ones have bodies that are more clear and seem to have yellowed with age.
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Here's a set of unbranded plastic sea creatures I found. Included is a land snail for some reason. Earlier in this thread I posted a similar set of sea creatures that also included a land snail. The last picture shows the newly obtained snail with the one I had posted previously for comparison. I like the realistic paint job on the new one  
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Another vintage rubber slug! This time in a new shade of green cast in a soft, rubbery material. I think this could be the original slug! This is the only slug that has a maker's mark on the bottom, although I don't recognize the logo. A few of the other slugs said "China" on their undersides, but up until this point I haven't seen anything else. If anyone can help identify the logo please let me know. The new slug has been added to the herd  
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Last snail for now is something I never would have purchased normally. It's a rare snail toy made by Steiff sometime between 1961-1963. The snail is named "Nelly" and if you look up "Steiff Nelly Snail" you'll see that this is an incredibly expensive little toy  I've known of it for a while and as adorable as it is, that's just not a price I'm wiling to pay for a toy. However, the other day I was browsing on eBay and found a seller selling this snail, along with a few other rare Steiff toys for practically nothing. I decided to go for it! Now I have a Nelly    Nelly came in at least two different colors. Mine is the brown spotted one, which is actually my favorite of the two colors I've seen. I will obviously not be seeking out the other color because I am not spending hundreds of dollars on a snail toy, but if I get lucky a second time and find another dirt cheap eBay listing I'll probably buy it. My Nelly is missing the neck tag and is a little beat up but I couldn't care less   By the way, my STS post has now officially caught up to my post on Animal Toy Forum! Hooray!
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Nelly have a beautiful smile

Interesting "new" stuff

Maybe your slugs are from Mattel. They have some lines with slugs conceived to help kids experiencing different textures and tactile experiences. Isn't it a "M" in that logo?

Here in the Netherlands is an outbreak of brown slugs due to the weather.
Everytime I carefully step over one, I have to think of your collection now.
Thanks for sharing.

I missed your Pech Hermanos snails and I'm glad I could point you to something you didn't know yet.
However, I can't help with information. I can tell the original are really old models and Spanish people value a lot the Pech Hermanos figures. The fact they ask for relatively high prices is normal.
There's a crossover among many Spanish brands with moulds being reused but I'm not confortable about the subject. Maybe Ricardo, can tell it.
Gacha is a generic Japanese word used to all figures which are sold in capsules of vending machines which are very popular in Japan.
About the AAA snail, if you like variations, expect to find it in several colors. AAA was a manufacturer which produced to other companies and often according to their own specifications.

Kikimalou wrote:

Nelly have a beautiful smile

Thank you, I think so too!

widukind wrote:

Interesting "new" stuff

Thank you!

Roger wrote:

Maybe your slugs are from Mattel. They have some lines with slugs conceived to help kids experiencing different textures and tactile experiences. Isn't it a "M" in that logo?

It's hard to say if it's an M, and H, or a W It's certainly a possibility that it's an M for Mattel.

Bloodrayne wrote:

Here in the Netherlands is an outbreak of brown slugs due to the weather.
Everytime I carefully step over one, I have to think of your collection now.
Thanks for sharing.

Aw, I love that! We have the exact same slugs over here in the USA. They're European invaders and show up everywhere when it gets wet. Some are quite big. I love seeing them but always get a little worried someone will step on them!

Roger wrote:

I missed your Pech Hermanos snails and I'm glad I could point you to something you didn't know yet.
However, I can't help with information. I can tell the original are really old models and Spanish people value a lot the Pech Hermanos figures. The fact they ask for relatively high prices is normal.
There's a crossover among many Spanish brands with moulds being reused but I'm not confortable about the subject. Maybe Ricardo, can tell it.
Gacha is a generic Japanese word used to all figures which are sold in capsules of vending machines which are very popular in Japan.
About the AAA snail, if you like variations, expect to find it in several colors. AAA was a manufacturer which produced to other companies and often according to their own specifications.

Interesting about the Pech Hermanos! They're such wonderful little figures and I'm very grateful you pointed them out to me. I'm guessing those gacha snails were generic little prizes or basic vending machine toys. As for AAA.. wow, now I need to keep my eyes peeled for other AAA variations It's always exciting to discover new stuff I've never seen before!