Some of the Life Aquatic

As it may appear by now, the box contains more than just dinosaurs. Indeed, I wish I had a bigger one as its hard to close! Its like a suitcase, only filled with dinosaurs and other random creatures. Lets look at some of these:

Hey! I found Nemo!

First up is some generic fish. No idea where they came from like most generic figures. Hell, I'm not even certain the species in the second picture. Though I know I've seen them before. Overall these guys aren't bad at all. I love collecting sea creatures almost as I love collecting dinosaurs. So many different creatures to choose from, often bright colors, and lots of animals to draw from. Including things such as...

Starfish!

I won this from a small "Play till you win" crane game at an arcade/pizza restaurant on our way back from Wallowa lake a couple years ago. Like a lot of these, I do not know which particular species they are supposed to represent, only vague ideas. Needless to say though, I love this sculpt and use of color. Lots of good detail (including the bottom being covered in scale like suckers). Its shame most play till you win machines that you find are full of only candy as a cost concern. Give me more toys like this instead!

Radioactive Fugu!

Got this around four years ago I think, possibly from some sort of grab bag. I would of included it in the glow in the dark post, but I felt that was better as all dinosaurs. Pretty well sculpted, I mean it even has a beak! While I like that is is glow in the dark, the blue spots seem rather pointless. How about instead mold it in yellow and white? Still cool but a natural scheme would of suited this one more.

Tentacles! Where are my tentacles!!!?!?!

Here they are! Quite surprised I don't own more cephalopods, though I often eye the 18 inch Safari LTD Giant Squid whenever I see it online. The octopus used to have painted on eyes, but they have flaked off over time. I bought it from a box of bulk sea creatures for 25 cents each. There were 3 others, a lobster, a turtle, and I am 95% certain one more creature, but I have no recollection of what. All were made of rubber like the octopus above as well. I had two of each, so its a surprise that only one remains. The squid below I got along with the plesiosaurs from last week. Pretty standard mold for squid toys.

 

Heroes in a half shell!

Mostly generic turtle figures, a lot of generic today huh? All but one of these came from a bag you will likely find at Dollar Tree. Among these my favorite has to be the Mata Mata style turtle in the second image. The green turtle in the first image is not like the rest. It came in a bar of soap from Target in their dollar isle. And despite what you might think, when it came out of the bar of soap it smelled AWFUL! I have no idea how a toy that spent the majority of existence in soap could smell that bad. It makes no sense, as the soap wasn't even scented. I ended up soaking it in rubbing alcohol for a few hours on a couple occasions, before the smell finally disappeared. Go figure.

Tiny Vehicles

Here is a great Micro Machines set, part of the Exploration line in the 90s. It came with a person, a boat, and the tiny shark here. Titled, Tiger Shark Landing, this set had a few more accessories but they have been misplaced over the years. The top of the building is actually a little para-scope that lets you get a look at the shark up close. I also used to have a pirate island set. Awesomely, all the sets in this series can float in water! So this doesn't just look like a pier only for aesthetic, it actually floats like one! Though I wish more than anything when it comes to miniature playsets, that I could get/could of found the awesome, Secret of Loch Ness set! Isn't that the coolest thing you've ever seen? Come on, its amazing! What I would do for one of these...

 

Going to need a bigger diving suit

These following figures are not from Micro Machines. They are from the original line of Mega Rigs by Matchbox. Mega Rigs were large vehicles that came apart and could be put together in man configurations, essentially giving you unlimited combination options when paired with other sets. The only set I had, was an Arctic Submarine, one of the features of it was a motor you could plug into certain wheeled parts to make moving vehicles. Of course, what may be the biggest reason I wanted the set at all was this angler fish monster. It is a pretty neat design, and with the added function of being able to swallow the diver whole! Simple design, yet effective. The only thing that would make it better is if the lure could glow in the dark...

    

Prehistoric Playdoh

Finally, because I told Operaghost that I would, here are some pictures of the volcano I used for the background in last week's post. The display came from a set of "Pro Doh" by Hasbro, with the year of 1996 on it. The set came with some not quite Playdoh and a few molds in which you made a few dinosaurs and even a caveman, as evidenced by the animal skin sofa, campfire, and cave drawings. Other than the volcano itself, I no longer have any of the molds that came with this. But I do have a molded T.rex from green Playdoh, that I have kept for years. This just goes to show, if you let this stuff harden, it will last for years!

That is all for this week, I left out the Grobubble picture this week because there hasn't been any real change since last week. But by next week I intend to have transplanted it to a larger container, and begin growing more back in the capsule. Until then, peace out guys!