Kikimalou's "Scale" collection - 1/40 shelves - updated July 7 2024

Lately my diabetes has been flaring up a bit, and I've had to take a few days off to rebalance myself.
Despite being very tired, I've taken some time to look after my collection, particularly the 1/40 floor.
I hesitated for a long time between 1/40 and 1/43 scale. The latter is a classic scale very popular with collectors of small toy cars. As for the 1/40, in the 2000s it was the standard for dinosaur collectors before the 1/35 took over from it by far. This was the era of the Schleich Replica Saurus 1:40, a series whose figures were far from all 1/40.
I didn't give up on 1:43 for historical or sentimental reasons; it was the best option for presenting a certain number of some of my displays inhabitants together.
This collection is modest with 41 models (42 if I get my hands on my Kaiyodo Gastornis again...   ).
More than half of them are extinct species (21).

You can also have a look at my [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] floors of my collection.  

Africa: Eikoh Okapi, Bandai Blue wildebeest and calf, Eikoh African bush elephant, Kaiyodo digesting lion, Kaiyodo Grévy's zebra and Kitan Club Lion.
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Arctic: Play Visions Hooded seal, Kaiyodo Polar bear and Bearded seal.
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Asia:Colorata Malayan tapir, Bandai Tigress and Takara Ania Indian rhinoceros.
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Ocean: Kitan Club Leopard seal & Gentoo penguin, CollectA Basking shark, Colorata Pacific white-sided dolphin, Ikimon Giant oarfish, Kaiyodo Potato grouper, Sailfish and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins.
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Before KT seas: Carnegie Tylosaurus, PNSO Himalayasaurus and Kaiyodo Tanystropheus.
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Carboniferous… and Trias:Play Visions Eogyrinus and Schleich Desmatosuchus
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Jurassic: Eofauna Atlasaurus and Kinto Allosaurus.
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Cretaceous: Toyway WWD Iguanodon,PNSO Therizinosaurus, Battat Styracosaurus, CollectA Sarcosuchus, Kinto Tarbosaurus and Haolonggood Pachyrhinosaurus.
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Pleistocene: Tams7prairie Woolly rhinoceros, Eofauna Steppe mammoth, Hausser 54mm Moose, Tams7prairie North Island giant moa and Kaiyodo Titanis walleri.
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Other Cenozoic citizens: Colorata Paleoparadoxia, Starlux Synthetoceras and Kaiyodo Andrewsarchus.
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Horns !  
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Hunters !  
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Plant eaters  
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Proboscidians  
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Dwarved Proboscidians  
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Swimmers  
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Phantastic

I love seeing your scale collection! My figures are all jumbled together on my diorama shelves and it looks funny to see birds and ungulates the same size. I love seeing your animals scaled together.

That oarfish is gorgeous! I’ve been wanting one for my collection for years but no major brand had one. I’ll have to search for that ikimon one!

I always enjoy your scale shows!

Thank you all for your comments

Jolie, I love the way you are displaying your collection

The oarfish is still available on Aliexpress at awful price unfortunately.

Kikimalou wrote:

Thank you all for your comments

Jolie, I love the way you are displaying your collection

The oarfish is still available on Aliexpress at awful price unfortunately.

Thank you!! I’m currently renovating some displays as well as adding some new ones

Some ikimon sets have been rereleasing lately so my hope is they will rerelease the one with the oarfish and I can get it from Brett

Thanks Crhistophe for taking your time to show us more one section of your scale collection.
For extant animals that's not an easy scale but you managed a way to find a good number of species. It is defintely more suitable for prehistoric figures. Actually a classic scale in this regard.
I hope you also manage your diabetes. :)

Joliezac wrote:

Thank you!! I’m currently renovating some displays as well as adding some new ones

Some ikimon sets have been rereleasing lately so my hope is they will rerelease the one with the oarfish and I can get it from Brett

I can't wait to watch your renovated dispalys soon and I wish you the best for the oarfish.

Roger wrote:

Thanks Crhistophe for taking your time to show us more one section of your scale collection.
For extant animals that's not an easy scale but you managed a way to find a good number of species. It is defintely more suitable for prehistoric figures. Actually a classic scale in this regard.
I hope you also manage your diabetes. :)

In truth, I haven't managed to find a good number of extant species. I didn't go looking for them, they were just models that I liked and that happened to be on this scale. I don't deserve any credit except perhaps for being a greedy and unreasonable collector...

My diabetes has stabilised for the time being, but I'm still very tired. Most importantly, my confidence is intact

love them! especially the wooly whino

Good to hear that you are feeling a bit better, I hope you'll be back to normal soon.

Great variety of brands and species in your 1/40 collection. I have quite a few of these models. Sometimes because they are okay as a very small animal in 1/32 scale, sometimes because I didn't get the size right when I bought it and other times because I didn't care. What is the length of the bearded seal (without flippers)?

I was intrigued by the giant oarfish. I had no idea that they are so large. Probably not as large as some books and websites claim it is (Wikipedia even says 17 m), but still, very large (up to 8 m, see Helfman, 2012). What is interesting is that they lose their tail when they grow larger and their body then consists only of a head and abdomen. The Ikimon still seems to have a complete tail, so this suggests that it is a very small specimen, no longer than 1.5 m. Whether you want to put it on a larger scale shelf, I don't know, I am sure it looks more impressive as 1/40 scale.

Excellent! I Like your scale comparison, especially between extant and extinct species.

Amazing pictures.
As Taos wrote:

Taos wrote:

I always enjoy your scale shows!

To me those "in scale" pictures are like dining in a very expensive restaurant.
You know how the food will taste, but the way the food is displayed on the plate gives it another dimension.

Impressive collection !!!

I love the way your animals are display. So many exotic brands I'm not familiar with. It must cost you a fortune to import them to Europe.

Yes Annette the wooly whino is a really nice sculpt, my fab Coelondonta model  

Roger, the length of the bearded seal (without flippers) is is 6.5cm following the spinal column. At 1/40, mine is a big one, at 1/32 it would be a very small specimen.  On the subject of giant oarfish, I'm not aware that they systematically lose their tails as they age. My understanding is that they sometimes have their tails cut off by predators but that they can survive this amputation because their vital organs are close to the head.
As for the figurine manufacturers, I can't imagine for a moment that they would start offering a giant oarfish without its tail.
Apart from its strange beauty, what interests me about this fish is its size, and that's what I want to show. So for me, it's an old 9.60m guy that hasn't had its tail eaten by an ill-mannered fish. It could be a nice 7.68m fish at 1/32.

My pleasure Andrea and Simone  I like displaying scale comparison pics, especially between extant and extinct species.  

Aeglil, thank you for you comment. Actually my 1/40 shelf isn't my most impressive collection by far. I collect seriously for more than 20 years so I bought a lot of exotic stuff when they were new. It's only since the Covid epidemic that transport and customs costs have skyrocketed. It used to be much easier before.

Thanks a lot for measuring the bearded seal. I also thought it would be too small, but this article by Anderson et al. (1999) shows that some adult bearded seals are around 2 m. Most adults are larger though. Do you think the Kaiyodo is male or female?

Colorata (later version of the Deep Sea Fish box) sells an oarfish from which you can remove the tail to mimic autotomy (losing the rear part of their body). But yes, most sculptors probably think that a giant oarfish without tail doesn't look so attractive or they may fear that people think they have forgotten the tail.

There seems to be consensus in the scientific literature that no oarfish larger than 8 m have been found and that almost all oarfish over 1.5 m have undergone autotomy. This is mainly based on work by Roberts (2012). I don't have access to the book, but the review by Helfman (2015) summarises the important points. Lengths larger than 8 m are based on projected lengths if they had not lost part of their body:

Technical (e.g., ichthyology textbooks including Helfman et al. 2009) and popular reports on oarfish commonly give maximum lengths of as much as 50 ft. These are in fact projected lengths, “based on addition of extrapolated lengths of the posterior part of the body lost at much smaller sizes (p. 40)”. In truth, the largest fish measured do not exceed 8 m (26 ft) in total length, all showing past autotomization. This still makes Regalecus the world’s longest bony fish.

It is interesting that Helfman acknowledges that he was wrong about the size of oarfish in his earlier work. Other scientific articles seem to accept the maximum length of 8 m. McClain et al. (2015) provide another quote from the Roberts (2013) book:

The largest specimens preserved in museum collections, of both R. russellii and R. glesne, are just under 8 m total length. I have not been able to find any evidence that Regalecus ever attain lengths greater than this. The report of a 15–16 m (50–60 foot) long Regalecus stranded on Stronsay Island in the Orkneys in 1808 is based upon the rotting carcass of a large basking shark. Records of oarfish 10, 10.7, or 11 m total length are based on addition of extrapolated lengths of the posterior part of the body lost at much smaller sizes.

I haven't found anyone who argues against the maximum of 8 m or autotomy at relatively small sizes. Consistent with this, photos of large giant oarfish on the web are without tail, as far as I can tell. The reason why giant oarfish undergo autotomy seems to be unclear, but it is thought that it isn't due to predation because they have few predators and the end of their autotomised body doesn't look like a shark bite. I'd add that the fact that almost all larger oarfish have undergone autotomy also suggests that it is natural self-amputation.

I have no idea about the Bearded seal gender Roger.

I know about the Colorata, I have it and I've lost the tail I can't find it and I'm sure that no predator has eaten it...

So you know oarfishes better than me, I'm unable to read the articles you are talking about (except spending too much money) but your point is very interresting.

It means I will have to change something for this fish (except amputation of course...). I need to think about it.

No, I don't know much about oarfish, I only searched for information about their size and autotomy. In fact, until you showed your oarfish in this topic, I assumed they were small fish.

Perhaps I don't have to pay for the articles because my university has access to it. I can email you the articles if you are interested.

Kikimalou wrote:

I know about the Colorata, I have it and I've lost the tail I can't find it and I'm sure that no predator has eaten it...

Don't worry about it, it's a natural process.

Yes Roger, I would be happy to read the articles

some of these look 'off'; can't imagine Pachyrhinosaurus was that big next to a woolly rhino?!

The Therizinosaurus looks a tad big too, but maybe only by a very little if at all.

Thank you Roger for the PDFs

bmathison1972 wrote:

some of these look 'off'; can't imagine Pachyrhinosaurus was that big next to a woolly rhino?!

The Therizinosaurus looks a tad big too, but maybe only by a very little if at all.

Largest Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis lenght between 6 and 8 meters. Wooly rhinoceros lenght from head to tail between 3.2 to 3.6 metres. On the pic the Haolonggood Pachyrhinosaurus seems taller because it is not exactly in the same plan than the Wooly rhino ( It was the only way to show them all in a compact pic.) When you look at it in the Cretaceous pic, you will see it is not so tall compared to the Styracosaurus which is on the two photos.

Tarbosaurus bataar was approximately 10 metres long and 3 metres tall at hips. Therizinosaurus was supposed to be 9 to 10 m in length with from 4 to 5 m in total height. Both models are ideal for 1/40 scale.

Kikimalou wrote:

Yes Roger, I would be happy to read the articles

I have emailed them to you.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Kikimalou wrote:

Yes Roger, I would be happy to read the articles

I have emailed them to you.

I read them Thanks