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Post by brontodocus on Aug 21, 2010 10:33:28 GMT
Thought the brontodocus "no new arthropod figures in my collection to post here since I bought a new camera?". Well, at least there are two more: Brachypelma smithi (F.O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897); Mexican Red-kneed "Tarantula". Revell X-Ray Anatomy model by 4d Master. Length 172 mm (125 mm without chelicerae), leg span 300 mm, scale approx. 1:0.5. It seems that Revell distributes the 4d Vision models now in Germany, the model is also available from the original 4d Vision series with different box design and logo on the base plate, otherwise they're identical. Dynastes hercules (Linnaeus, 1758), 4d Vision Hercules Beetle Anatomy Model by 4d Master, scale approx. 1:0.5 (l = 273 mm, wingspan = 332 mm). The hind wings are detachable so that the elytra can fold back over the abdomen.
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Post by Himmapaan on Aug 21, 2010 14:02:52 GMT
Gorgeous!! Grrrr, why won't somebody closer to these shores take afer the Japanese and produce creatures as good as theirs and have them more easily available? Better yet, commission Japanese artists to sculpt them. ;D With the amount I've spent on shipping costs and customs charges, I could have added twofold to my collection.
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Post by brontodocus on Aug 21, 2010 14:24:46 GMT
Gorgeous!! Grrrr, why won't somebody closer to these shores take afer the Japanese and produce creatures as good as theirs and have them more easily available? Better yet, commission Japanese artists to sculpt them. ;D With the amount I've spent on shipping costs and customs charges, I could have added twofold to my collection. Thanks. At least the 4d Vision models seem to become more and more available within the EC. I'm pretty sure that there is greater interest in detailed, authentic figures like these in Japan than in Europe. Maybe there are also proportionally more people interested in their local natural environment. When it comes to species knowledge I'm sometimes shocked about how little even our biology students in their first semesters know. It is also not part of biology courses at school, here.
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Post by Himmapaan on Aug 21, 2010 14:42:02 GMT
Gorgeous!! Grrrr, why won't somebody closer to these shores take afer the Japanese and produce creatures as good as theirs and have them more easily available? Better yet, commission Japanese artists to sculpt them. ;D With the amount I've spent on shipping costs and customs charges, I could have added twofold to my collection. Thanks. At least the 4d Vision models seem to become more and more available within the EC. I'm pretty sure that there is greater interest in detailed, authentic figures like these in Japan than in Europe. Maybe there are also proportionally more people interested in their local natural environment. When it comes to species knowledge I'm sometimes shocked about how little even our biology students in their first semesters know. It is also not part of biology courses at school, here. Yes, I'd agree with you there, alas.
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Post by brontodocus on Sept 28, 2010 17:55:37 GMT
My unstoppable greed for arthropod figures forced me to buy this new "Venomous Spider" set (I didn't even know about its existence before postsaurischian showed me a link, thanks again! . The series' name is: Encyclopedia Mystery: Venom Spider Collection and made by Takara Tomy A.R.T.S - and apparently it has been released just a few weeks ago. I bought all of them including the somewhat strange secret figure, the Cobalt Blue Tarantula (which doesn't really look like the species it's based on). It's quite a small series with only 5+1 figures and not too expensive. Top row from left to right: Black Widow Spider, Redback Widow Spider, Japanese Yellow Sac Spider. Bottom row from left to right: Sydney Funnel Web Spider, Tarantula Wolf Spider, Cobalt Blue Tarantula. Perhaps it was intended to make these spider figures 1:1 scale but only the Sydney Funnel Web Spider and the Tarantula Wolf Spider would match their living counterparts in size, the ones from the top row would all be slightly smaller, the Cobalt Blue Tarantula should be significantly larger. Latrodectus mactans Fabricius, 1775; Black Widow Spider. Body length 19 mm. Latrodectus hasselti Thorell, 1870; Redback or Australian Widow Spider. Body length 19 mm. Cheiracanthium japonicum Bösenberg & Strand, 1906; Japanese Yellow Sac Spider. Body length 17 mm. Atrax robustus O.P. Cambridge, 1877; Sydney Funnel Web Spider. Body length 29 mm. Lycosa tarentula (Linnaeus, 1758); Tarantula Wolf Spider (this is the real tarantula, not even remotely related to theraphosids). Body length 31 mm. Melopoeus (syn. Haplopelma) lividum (Smith, 1996); Cobalt Blue "Tarantula", secret figure. Body length 32 mm. The entire surface (except for the peltidium or "carapace") is flocked.
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Post by postsaurischian on Sept 29, 2010 8:32:18 GMT
Cheiracanthium japonicum Bösenberg & Strand, 1906; Japanese Yellow Sac Spider. Body length 17 mm. Niiice ! Is that sushi the Sac Spider's on? ;D
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Post by brontodocus on Sept 29, 2010 9:14:55 GMT
Hey, postsaurischian, you just invented kumo-zushi! ;D
These Cheiracanthium species enroll leaves to protect their eggsacs. By the way - not so far from you a very similar species exists, Cheiracanthium punctorium (Dornfingerspinne) lives in the warmest regions of central Europe (e.g. Kaiserstuhl near Freiburg) and is one of only two spiders in Germany with a bite that is reportedly harmful for humans (but not fatal). The other one is the Diving Bell Spider (Wasserspinne), Argyroneta aquatica.
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Post by Himmapaan on Sept 29, 2010 10:38:31 GMT
I thought that about the sushi resemblance, too. ;D
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Post by brontodocus on Nov 19, 2010 13:41:10 GMT
It took me some months to decide whether I should buy them or not but finally I did: On Monday I received my Colorata stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles. The stag beetles are mostly about 1:1 scale (although larger specimens than the models are known), the rhinoceros beetles are a little smaller than their living counterparts, mostly approx. 1:1.5 scale (although in all large beetles that feed on decaying wood as a larva, there is great variation in imago size). Here they are: Odontolabis femoralis Waterhouse, 1887. Stag Beetles model No. 1. Length 70 mm. Prosopocoilus (= Cladognathus) giraffa Olivier, 1789. Stag Beetles model No. 2. Length 87 mm. Mesotopus tarandus (Swederus, 1787). Stag Beetles model No. 3. Length 69 mm. Hexarthrius parryi Hope, 1842. Stag Beetles model No. 4. Length 69 mm. Allotopus rosenbergi (Vollenhoven, 1872). Stag Beetles model No. 5. Length 61 mm. Dorcus hopei binodulosus Waterhouse, 1874. Stag Beetles model No. 6. Length 55 mm. Phalacrognathus muelleri MacLeay, 1885. Stag Beetles model No. 7. Length 48 mm. Dynastes hercules (Linnaeus, 1758). Rhinoceros Beetles model No. 1. Length 99 mm. Dynastes neptunus (Quensel, 1817); Neptune Beetle. Rhinoceros Beetles model No. 2. Length 97 mm. Megasoma elephas Fabricius, 1775; Elephant Beetle. Colorata Rhinoceros Beetles model No. 3. Length 80 mm. Chalcosoma caucasus (Fabricius, 1801); Caucasus Beetle. Rhinoceros Beetles model No. 4. Length 79 mm. Eupatorus gracilicornis Arrow, 1908; Five-horned Beetle. Rhinoceros Beetles model No. 5. Length 68 mm. Trypoxylus dichotomus (Linnaeus, 1771), Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle or Kabutomushi. Rhinoceros Beetles model No. 1. Length 53 mm.
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Post by Himmapaan on Nov 19, 2010 13:44:27 GMT
I have both the beetles sets too. They're wonderful.
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Post by brontodocus on Nov 19, 2010 21:20:08 GMT
Oh, yes, and I'm glad I finally bought them. Something I already recognized when I received the Saltw ater Fish Set - Colorata is really good when it comes to metallic colours, the Phalacrognathus muelleri and Allotopus rosenbergi are no exceptions. Thinking of it, they should really make more boxes containing beetles, perhaps a Goliathini box. I'd love to have a Mecynorrhina oberthueri figure.
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Post by Radman on Nov 20, 2010 1:46:47 GMT
I have a couple flying Coleoptera models. I also have a few of the real thing; if I ever start a thread on my bug collection, they will be there. Anyway here they are: Bronto, if you're interested in these, I'm open for trade.
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Post by brontodocus on Nov 20, 2010 12:40:10 GMT
:oAaaaaaaaah! I've seen these somewhere before. That's a Dynastes granti on the right!!! If only I can find something to trade for you. I've seen your collection and I guess it won't be easy to find something you don't have already. I'll PM you. By the way, over a decade ago I had many tropical scarabaeid beetles in culture. Dynastes hercules among others.
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Post by Radman on Nov 20, 2010 14:36:07 GMT
:oAaaaaaaaah! I've seen these somewhere before. That's a Dynastes granti on the right!!! If only I can find something to trade for you. I've seen your collection and I guess it won't be easy to find something you don't have already. I'll PM you. By the way, over a decade ago I had many tropical scarabaeid beetles in culture. Dynastes hercules among others. No worries, Bronto, they are reserved for you. I'm sure we'll work something out in the future. Do you have any pics from your culturing days? I'm digging through the garage for my actual specimens.
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Post by Radman on Nov 20, 2010 17:36:45 GMT
Aha! Well, I found at least one of my beetles: I was always more of a lepidopteran and hymenopteran man before I was the radman, i.e., before I found this forum and reawakened my love of dinosaurs and dino models. Anyway, here is Lucanus elaphus, the largest North American beetle. I did not kill this particular specimen, believe it or not, I found it dead in a parking lot. I did mount it in its current position, of course. I haven't seen a live one, but plenty of similar species, esp Bess bugs. Thanks to Bronto for opening this thread, I have found stuff that has been packed away for years, maybe decades, so I will be starting another thread on my bug collection over the holidays. /pats chest/ I do have some really nice butterfly and moth displays. Stay tuned.
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Post by bokisaurus on Nov 20, 2010 17:45:04 GMT
;D Wow, very cool collection ;D I have a butterfly collection, thats about it ;D So far, I was able to resist going that route ;D I do find a lot of cool dead insects when I go out to the sand dunes in Oregon. Nice figures also ;D
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Post by Himmapaan on Nov 20, 2010 20:40:53 GMT
Aw, those three beetle models are lovely. Couldn't Dr Andre be persuaded to part with one for me? ;D ;D
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Post by brontodocus on Nov 20, 2010 22:43:59 GMT
Wow, that's a really nice stag beetle. In central Europe we have Lucanus cervus which is very similar. Most specimens have smaller mandibles though, depending on conditions at larval stage. And it became quite rare because the grubs require decaying oak trees that stay where they are for several years, they need five to seven years at larval stage... It has occasionally been found even here in Bochum but I never had luck to find one myself. And nice butterflies, too. I think the top one left of the Lucanus is a Graphium sarpedon which is also available as a Yujin figure (see page 1). By the way, I have doubles of some of the Yujin Insects of Japan Series 1 figures. Unfortunately I only have very few digital photos of the tropical insects I had in culture, most are slides. I received my first digital camera in 2003, long after I quit breeding insects. Here's a Dicronorhina derbyana layardi shot on my balcony in 1995: Eudicella gralli hubini: Or this "Tyrannosaurus of the insect world" (there was actually a paper with that title in the 90's) Mantichora latipennis: These giant tiger beetles are as evil as they look. Unfortunately I have no photos of the Dynastes hercules in digital form... And I can't wait to see more of your insect collection, Radman!
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Post by Radman on Nov 21, 2010 2:08:02 GMT
It's a Graphium milon. I have a couple of them, better mounted, somewhere. Wow, I used to really be an entomological enthusiast and could quote these latin names comfortably, although now I 'd be better at arguing about Saurophaganax and Allosaurus... How times change.
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Post by bmathison1972 on Jan 16, 2011 1:08:06 GMT
Blaine here, creator of the Insecta Synthetica site. I have officially joined DTF (Finally). Nice to see this thread. I have almost all the replicas on this thread (except the flying beetles). I will post my extinct arthropods to the Collections pages soon.
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