Land Snails and Slugs - The Terrestrial Gastropods

Something incredible came to me in the mail today and I'm so excited to share with everyone! Susanne generously sold me her three Bullyland slugs and they safely arrived from Denmark today!        I still can't believe it. I've wanted these slugs so badly and for so long and I can't get over the fact that they're now a part of my collection. I am so grateful for Susanne's kindness, she is truly a wonderful person and chatting with her over email was so very pleasant  

Without further ado, I present the trifecta!
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The 1994 set of snails and slugs made by Bullyland is now complete! Here are the slugs with their snaily brethren.
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Just look at those sluggy faces! <3
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These slugs are all repaints of a single, very detailed sculpt. I really appreciate the texture detail on the mantle and the nice detailed tubercles on the foot. The faces look quite good as well. As far as species IDs go, it's a little hard to say for the yellow and black slugs, but I have some ideas. Let's go through them slug by slug!

The black slug has some brown spotting on its mantle. Remembering that these were made by a German company (Bullyland) I'm pretty confident this slug is meant to represent Arion ater, AKA the black Arion or European black slug. Another ID I considered was Limax cinereoniger, but seeing that that's a much rarer species and has a light-colored keel (which this figures lacks) among other things, I'm sticking with Arion ater. Although Arion ater is commonly a jet-black slug, they can be brown too. Some individuals are both black and brown making this ID even more likely. On top of all this, these slugs are also quite common and therefore a likely inspiration for a figure.
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Moving on to the red slug! This ID is easy. There aren't many red slugs in Europe and this is most certainly Arion rufus, AKA the red Arion or European red slug. Like A. ater, A. rufus has lots of color morphs. Some individuals are bright red like this figure, some are more orange, and some are brown. The red ones are the most striking! Like A. ater, A. rufus is quite common and therefore also a likely inspiration.
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Lastly is the yellow slug. This one is the one that's stumped me the most as far as IDs go. I'm sure most people's thought when they see this is that it's meant to represent a banana slug - most likely the Pacific banana slug, Ariolimax columbianus. While that's certainly a possibility, I think we should consider that the other two slugs in the series are European species. I suspect that this yellow slug is also supposed to represent a European species. There are two possibilities that come to mind, Limacus flavus AKA the cellar slug and Limax maximus AKA the leopard slug. Both of these species are European and fairly common. Both can be yellow with dark spots/stripes. L. flavus tends to be very yellow but the spots are typically more greenish or brown than black. L. maximus has black spots and stripes but the body is typically more grey than yellow (although some individuals are yellowish). Which species is it? I really have no clue. In my mind I've been kind of thinking of it as being L. flavus but I'm not totally satisfied. A. columbianus probably looks the most like the figure but is a North American species. But then again, banana slugs are pretty widely known all over the world (I think?) so maybe the German sculptures actually were inspired by banana slugs when they were making this one. Your guess is as good as mine  
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(There are now only two figures I'm missing, the yellow-shelled snail made by New-Ray and the Polymita picta made by WPRS Studio 微胖人生事务所.    )

As I mentioned in another post, I am not surprised that these grails were gifted to you by our dear Susanne. She has helped me many times with rarities and her big heart. Congratulations to you both! (And Susanne, if you are reading this... hello my friend!)

Your new slugs are actually quite appealing! The dark one, even despite its plainness, is really striking in that color. The red is lovely too, almosy velvety looking. The banana slug does indeed remind me of the few years I lived in humid Northern Oregon as a 10-12 year old. HUGE banana slugs would hang out on our porch every day in the early morning, I swear they were almost as big as my arm! (I now know that must be an exaggeration but they were indeed HUGE). Not my favorite animals that I have encountered in my life, but nostalgic nonetheless.

Susanne is truly a special person. She is a dedicated Bullyland completist collector, and it is her immense generosity that surely made her give up these figures upon realizing that they made perfect sense in your collection. Not everyone has this sensitivity to give up a part of their own collection to fill an important gap in another collector's collection. I'm happy for you, I think those slugs have found the right way and despite not being as active as she was for over a decade, she remains an indispensable member of what this forum represents.
About the species identification, when it is fairly generic, it is safe to choose an European species. Though, the phylosophy of the brand is probably to show different colors, not exactly accurately representations of species. Nevertheless, despite the symbolism of the banana slug as a very popular one, I tend to think it is supposed to be Limacus flavus... our yellow slug.

Congratulations. It's funny, but as soon as you came to STS, I was sure this was going to happen. Our forum is lucky enough to be home to a few fairies and Suzanne is the perfect illustration of what I like best in our village. It's a pleasure to hear from her, even via slugs. It's also a great pleasure that one more collector has had his wishes granted by one of us.
About identification, I think the three species are European. Banana slugs are certainly well known now, but in 1994 there was no internet so only specialist would have heard about this American species.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

As I mentioned in another post, I am not surprised that these grails were gifted to you by our dear Susanne. She has helped me many times with rarities and her big heart. Congratulations to you both! (And Susanne, if you are reading this... hello my friend!)

Your new slugs are actually quite appealing! The dark one, even despite its plainness, is really striking in that color. The red is lovely too, almosy velvety looking. The banana slug does indeed remind me of the few years I lived in humid Northern Oregon as a 10-12 year old. HUGE banana slugs would hang out on our porch every day in the early morning, I swear they were almost as big as my arm! (I now know that must be an exaggeration but they were indeed HUGE). Not my favorite animals that I have encountered in my life, but nostalgic nonetheless.

She is such a wonderful person!     Thank you so much and I want to say that I'm not sure your comment about banana slugs is an exaggeration - some really are nearly as long an a forearm when they're all stretched out! I'm living in the Pacific Northwest at the moment and get to see them all the time. Its paradise for a slug lover.  

Roger wrote:

Susanne is truly a special person. She is a dedicated Bullyland completist collector, and it is her immense generosity that surely made her give up these figures upon realizing that they made perfect sense in your collection. Not everyone has this sensitivity to give up a part of their own collection to fill an important gap in another collector's collection. I'm happy for you, I think those slugs have found the right way and despite not being as active as she was for over a decade, she remains an indispensable member of what this forum represents.
About the species identification, when it is fairly generic, it is safe to choose an European species. Though, the phylosophy of the brand is probably to show different colors, not exactly accurately representations of species. Nevertheless, despite the symbolism of the banana slug as a very popular one, I tend to think it is supposed to be Limacus flavus... our yellow slug.

She is one of the most special people I have ever had the pleasure of talking with   I feel inclined to be generous in return in some way. I have an extra set of Nirvana snails and I think I'll keep the kindness going by donating them to another collector!   Susanne truly does represent the best parts of this community.

Thanks for your input on IDs! I am glad you agree with Limacus flavus, it may not be a perfect match but the figure is also quite stylized. I also just noticed that together the slugs make up the colors of the German flag. I wonder if Bullyland intended on making a German flag out of slugs  

Kikimalou wrote:

Congratulations.    It's funny, but as soon as you came to STS, I was sure this was going to happen. Our forum is lucky enough to be home to a few fairies and Suzanne is the perfect illustration of what I like best in our village. It's a pleasure to hear from her, even via slugs. It's also a great pleasure that one more collector has had his wishes granted by one of us.
About identification, I think the three species are European. Banana slugs are certainly well known now, but in 1994 there was no internet so only specialist would have heard about this American species.

She really is wonderful and her slug mail has made my entire year And thank you for your ID input, I agree with you. I think they are most likely all supposed to represent European species!

Wonderful that you found your wishes

snailtime wrote:

Roger wrote:

Susanne is truly a special person. She is a dedicated Bullyland completist collector, and it is her immense generosity that surely made her give up these figures upon realizing that they made perfect sense in your collection. Not everyone has this sensitivity to give up a part of their own collection to fill an important gap in another collector's collection. I'm happy for you, I think those slugs have found the right way and despite not being as active as she was for over a decade, she remains an indispensable member of what this forum represents.
About the species identification, when it is fairly generic, it is safe to choose an European species. Though, the phylosophy of the brand is probably to show different colors, not exactly accurately representations of species. Nevertheless, despite the symbolism of the banana slug as a very popular one, I tend to think it is supposed to be Limacus flavus... our yellow slug.

She is one of the most special people I have ever had the pleasure of talking with   I feel inclined to be generous in return in some way. I have an extra set of Nirvana snails and I think I'll keep the kindness going by donating them to another collector!   Susanne truly does represent the best parts of this community.

Thanks for your input on IDs! I am glad you agree with Limacus flavus, it may not be a perfect match but the figure is also quite stylized. I also just noticed that together the slugs make up the colors of the German flag. I wonder if Bullyland intended on making a German flag out of slugs  

Susanne surely deserves and loves gifts. We all do but knowing her, I'm sure she didn't ment to get anything in return.
Very curious observation about the Germany flag, it is hard to be sure and I think we will never know but I enjoy the idea. The way they present them on catalogue almost corroborate it but ...

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widukind wrote:

Wonderful that you found your wishes

Thank you!  

Roger wrote:

Susanne surely deserves and loves gifts. We all do but knowing her, I'm sure she didn't ment to get anything in return.
Very curious observation about the Germany flag, it is hard to be sure and I think we will never know but I enjoy the idea. The way they present them on catalogue almost corroborate it but ...

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Oh wow, thanks for sharing a picture of the catalog! That's so cool to see and a worthy addition to this post. I didn't know there were scans of it anywhere.

We have scans of a few catalogues on forum, this page is from the 1995 catalogue which we have [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] thanks to Susanne. Probably she is the most devoted Bullyland collector of ever.

Good news in the snail figure collecting world, Archie McPhee just released a new set of four "racing snails!" As said before, with almost all snail figures IDs are virtually impossible. However, these racing snails clearly appear to be Cuban painted snails, Polymita picta. That's mind-blowing to me that they'd pick such an exotic species and I love it.

P. picta has been depicted twice before, first as an impossible to find figure by Chinese company WPRSSG and secondly as a gashapon-inspired series by Nirvana Studios, another Chinese company. The previous instances of this species are fairly inaccessible and depicted morphs of black-skinned snails. Archie McPhee's figures conversely depict light-skinned snails which is the first time these morphs have appeared in figure form. The figures by Archie McPhee also possess shell patterns that haven't made an appearance in figure form yet.

The figures themselves are of a nice rubbery material and are the same mold as the "Crowned Critters" series snail they made earlier this year. On the underside of the figures is a small cart. Pull the cart back, let it go, and the snails race forward. Overall, a fantastic addition to the snail collection and I'm very happy to have these guys  
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This isn't a figure, but I wanted to share anyways. There's a fantastic artist named aleia who does photography of snails in miniature scenes. The scenes are made up of countless miniature handmade items and I've been in love with her art for many years now. To celebrate the release of her second art book, she decided to do a giveaway. The prize was a little handmade blister pack of snail-sized handmade miniatures (think Barbie accessory item set but for snails). Two winners were chosen out of many, many entries and I happened to be one of them! What are the chances?      I sent her a photo of my snail collection and she loved the snail and slug figures. She ended up sending me a ton of prints, a couple of bookmarks, and a sticker in addition to the blister pack! I'm so glad to be able to add so many cool items to the collection. I'm going to have to frame the prints   I'm so thankful for her generosity!
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That is wonderful from aleia but you surely deserved it. Your collection is special, you know it. Not many people show this love for snails and snail figures.
I like that snails race, I'm surprised it was not included in the 2024 Paris Olympics.