Kikimalou's "Scale" collection - the "Bigger than Life" shelf - updated August 12 2024

Now that I've shown you my smallest scales, I'd like to move on to the other extreme of my collection.
This floor is called 'Bigger than life' and it houses all the models that are larger than life size.
When I started collecting seriously in 2003, I never imagined I'd acquire such models, as my horizon ranged from 1/6 to 1/40. But my love of the jungle soon got me hooked on frogs of all kinds, and that was the beginning of the end... of my certainties!
The years went by and I got to know a guy called Blaine Mathison, who led me ,a bit, to the tiny side of the Force.
Today my horizons are limited only by the size of my bank account and the size of my displays.

This microcosm is divided into seven different scales. It is the realm of weird and colorful creatures.

First of all, the 200/1. At this scale, I would be 356m tall, I'm 26m higher than the Eiffel Tower,  and an African elephant could measure 700m at the withers, 66m higher than the Tokyo Skytree.
There are only two residents here, a Takara Water bear (Macrobiotus sapiens) which in real life measures just 0.5mm and a Play Visisons American dust mite which doesn't exceed 0.2 to 0.3mm... the latter is a bit cartoonish with its two eyes that don't exist on the animal.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Let's divide our scale by 10 and here we are at 20/1. I'm now only 35.6m tall and my friend Tantor the elephant is 70m tall at the withers.
There are only two residents here too: the kaiyodo Argentine ant and the Bandai peacock spider (Maratus volans). The spider body length is mostly around 4–5 mm and the ant's body is no larger than 2.6mm. The photo session was very lively and I don't know which picture to show you, so I'll give you four.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Let's split the difference and reach the 10/1 scale, I'm still able to see life from the top of my 17.8m and Tantor measures 35m at the withers. Three housemates share the space, all Bandai. There are the carpenter ants Camponotus japonicus (in black) and Camponotus obscuripes (the brown one), giants whose actual size varies from 6 to 14mm. There is also the famous Seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) which may reach a body length of 7.6-12.7 mm.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


When it came to the 4/1 scale, Tantor still measured 14m and I had to make do with just 7.12m, I'm at last smaller than my house.
Four arthropods made their nests there: Bandai European hornet (Head&body around 25mm) and Bullet ant (18-30mm long), Kaiyodo Little sea isopod (Cubaris murina 11mm long max) and Papo Common house spider (Head&body between 5 and 6mm). During handling, the part that connects the Hornet to its support broke off - life as a collector isn't always easy.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


With 8 residents, the 2.5/1 scale is slightly bigger. However, I'm now only 4.45m tall and Stantor 8.75m.
Prehistoric fauna makes its first appearance with the Kinto Favorite Pikaia and Marrella (Cambrian) and the Kaiyodo Pleurocystites (Ordovician).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The current fauna consists of the Bandai Copris ochus, the Kaiyodo Lethocerus deyrollei and its prey Lesser emperor larva, the Kaiyodo Adanson's house jumper and the Bullyland Ranitomeya amazonica.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


At 2/1 scale, I'm only 3.56m high and Tantor 7m. The model of tardigrade presented at the beginning of the topic would measure barely 1mm.
The fauna here is 17 animals.
Let's start with Central America with the Safari Ltd Solarte Strawberry poison-dart frog and the Nature's Wonders Hourglass tree frog.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


With seven amphibians, South America is the continent most represented: Safari Ltd Beireis' tree frog, CollectA Darwin's Frog, PlayVisons Ecuador poison frog, Club Earth Phantasmal poison frog, Red-headed poison frogs and Zimmermann's poison frog.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Asia offers us four species: Bandai Citrus long-horned beetle, Kaiyodo Chestnut tiger caterpillar, Common map caterpillar and Indian awlking caterpillar.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


There are also four isolates: Papo Yellow fat-tailed scorpion from North Africa and Tarantula Wolf Spider from Europe, Yujin Golden mantella from Madagascar and Kaiyodo Fruit-piercing moth caterpillar from Australia, which I had forgotten about but which could join its Asian colleagues.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


A few family portraits?

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

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

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


Finally, here's the last tribe on this floor, the 1.4/1 scale and its 15 inhabitants. At less than 2.50m for me and less than 5m for Tantor, our height is almost normal. Here the models are just a little larger than life.

Africa first: Bandai Homoderus mellyi and Schleich Common reed frog
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


America: Club Earth Ameerega braccata, Colorata Strawberry Poison Frog et Darwin's Frog. I took the opportunity to dust it off a bit but Darwin's frog managed to escape me.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Asia: Bandai Rabbit ear beetle, Papo European rose chafer and European mantis
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Australia: Yujin Corroboree frog and Bullyland Sydney funnel-web spider
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Under the seas: Kitan Club Noumea alboannulata and Hypselodoris festiva, Takara Sea angels
The second unfortunate episode of the session was when one of the Sea Angels' supports broke and I had to improvise to take the photo. A repair workshop will be needed in the next few days.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

A few more pics !

Frogs: I added Colorata Painted Mantella from Madagascar because it was feeling lonely.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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

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

As usual, 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.], [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 the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] floors of my collection.

These models are all very interesting!! The insects look so realistic That peacock spider is really neat! I remember seeing a segment about them recently.

The frogs of course are my favorite

The insects in this topic, are very detailed.

Congratulations

Joliezac wrote:

These models are all very interesting!! The insects look so realistic That peacock spider is really neat! I remember seeing a segment about them recently.

The frogs of course are my favorite

I saw a segment about those so tiny spiders too. Advances in camera technology, lenses and image resolution have completely transformed the quality of wildlife reporting, particularly on insects and other tiny animals. It's extraordinary!

The frogs are the spices of this floor

landrover wrote:

The insects in this topic, are very detailed.

Congratulations  

Thank you for them, Kaiyodo and even more Bandai are making an incredible work on arthropods, it is even an invasion and it's hard for me to resist .

Those are not easy to collect at a certain scale but it would be great to see a sort of microscopic world at a certain scale. I'm sure the real proportions between those tiny figures would result quite bizarre. Some of these models have a special scientific appeal and I really like them. I considered to collect frogs at 1:1 scale but some of the iconic species are too small.

Now we're talking . Wonderful assortment of our microcosmos. Happy to have been a positive influence

The animals at these large scales are very colourful. The funnel-web spider creeping up on the frog is very funny (perhaps not for the frog). It's not so common that people display their models by scale, and especially not such large scales. Lots of beautiful models!

Beqautieful figures but not the size for my shelfs

widukind wrote:

Beqautieful figures but not the size for my shelfs

Most of these figures are not big, as figures, they are just larger than the natural size of the animal. Some of the Bandai are large but most, especially Kaiyodo, are not.

Roger wrote:

Those are not easy to collect at a certain scale but it would be great to see a sort of microscopic world at a certain scale. I'm sure the real proportions between those tiny figures would result quite bizarre. Some of these models have a special scientific appeal and I really like them. I considered to collect frogs at 1:1 scale but some of the iconic species are too small.

There is a lot of 1/1 frogs but some are indeed too small and some, like the one I'm showing here are too big. I think the next scale I will show will be the 1/1 floor    
Don't worry, it is very easy alas to collect at scales, you just need to spend too much money  

bmathison1972 wrote:

Now we're talking .  Wonderful assortment of our microcosmos. Happy to have been a positive influence

Yes, thanks again for helping me to spend my money    

rogerpgvg wrote:

The animals at these large scales are very colourful. The funnel-web spider creeping up on the frog is very funny (perhaps not for the frog). It's not so common that people display their models by scale, and especially not such large scales. Lots of beautiful models!

Thanks Roger, of course we are far here from the 1/32. I think I'm the only collector I know who is trying to show at least a part of his collection by scale.

widukind wrote:

Beqautieful figures but not the size for my shelfs

Some are not so big Andreas

Kikimalou wrote:

Roger wrote:

Those are not easy to collect at a certain scale but it would be great to see a sort of microscopic world at a certain scale. I'm sure the real proportions between those tiny figures would result quite bizarre. Some of these models have a special scientific appeal and I really like them. I considered to collect frogs at 1:1 scale but some of the iconic species are too small.

There is a lot of 1/1 frogs but some are indeed too small and some, like the one I'm showing here are too big. I think the next scale I will show will be the 1/1 floor    
Don't worry, it is very easy alas to collect at scales, you just need to spend too much money  

Well, just a small number of lifesized amphibians is fine for me. I have the Safari IC American bullfrog and the Bullyland European tree frog, I think both fall into the lifesized ones. I have also a few lifesized Safari salamanders. Looking forward to see your 1:1 scale topic. I would love to add some more frog and toad family representatives, like a true toad and so.

Roger wrote:

Well, just a small number of lifesized amphibians is fine for me. I have the Safari IC American bullfrog and the Bullyland European tree frog, I think both fall into the lifesized ones. I have also a few lifesized Safari salamanders. Looking forward to see your 1:1 scale topic. I would love to add some more frog and toad family representatives, like a true toad and so.

I don't have the Safari IC American bullfrog and the Bullyland European tree frog so I can't tell but my 1/1 collection hosts 32 frogs and 11 salamanders. It is an amphibian scale

You never know what you might collect in ten years from now!
Such interesting facts and fantastic photos again!
The insects look very realistic indeed! (Some of them would be a nightmare for my sister )
Thank you for sharing these great figures!

Thank you so much Shanti I'm sorry for your sister

Amazing models. I really like the peacock spider

Megaptera wrote:

Amazing models. I really like the peacock spider

He'll be very pleased, if he dresses up so well it's to please the girls.

These are so cool, some really beautiful pieces. I love the peacock spider and the ant, they are both gorgeous!! And the caterpillars, wow. And the play visions dust mite is one of my favorites, mainly because of the goofy eyes. I am so incredibly allergic to dust mites, this one kind of endears them to me all the same.

I was so happy when I measure them and discovered the peacock spider and the Argentine ant were at the same scale. They're both beauties in their own right, and combining them makes them even more beautiful.