Zoo World marine prehistoric toys

[Halichoeres]

Recently Amazon showed me an odd product in my recommendations: 18-packs (random assortment) of rubbery critters. They're part of a line called "Zoo World," and this assortment is specifically called "Ocean World." It features at least 36 different animals, some of which aren't actually marine, but they're all some degree of aquatic--with the possible exception of the turtles. Most of them are extant critters, but there are at least 8 prehistorics. None of them is labeled, and there's no printed matter shipped with the figure, so I'm going to guess on the IDs. I'd love to hear your suggestions as well.


Ichthyosaurus. It looks strikingly like a painting of Ichthyosaurus by Raúl Martín:



Elasmosaurus. This photo is slightly out of focus, but some of the smeariness is real.


Tylosaurus.


Helicoprion.


Stethacanthus. It's actually a little more accurate than the Safari version, thanks to the anterior denticle patch.


Dinichthys.


Anomalocaris.


An ammonite.

The non-prehistorics, for those interested, run the gamut:


The quality control is pretty mediocre. Paint is sloppy, some of them show up looking kinda grimy, and some of them have tears or other damage to the very rubbery material. There's no way to know which ones you're getting when you buy the pack, but I bought 4 packs and managed to get all 8 of the prehistorics. (I have a few extras if people want to trade for any.) Interested in other people's opinions!

[stargatedalek]

Never seen these before, but that ratfish is a must have! The eels and catfish aren't half bad either as soft rubber figures go.

[SBell]

Those (modern) ones are sold in Europe frmo DeAgosinti, as the Piranha & Co set. There are actually lots of different sets, mostly modern.

I didn't realize that they had made their way to North America somehow.

Do you have a spare chimaera? Or the prehistoric sharks/fish?

Sadly, the set doesn't include the snakehead figures from the DeAgostini Jungle set.

[Halichoeres]

Good to know! I had no idea about Piranhas & Co. I prefer the n=18 blind bags to the n=1 blind bags, although I do have an awful lot of extras. I just realized that I've never gotten a pufferfish, so there are still some I haven't seen.

I have very few spares of the prehistoric fish--if they'd been that abundant, I wouldn't have bought 4 bags  I'll pm you.

[Roselaar]

Lovely little figures! Not very good looking, but definitely some interesting species here.

[BlueKrono]

Weird, inaccurate prehistoric marine critters? HELLO.

[Joey]

I suppose they are neat looking, but I do have to agree on the fact that the quality control isn't the best, which can definetly be seen on the Stethacanthus and Helicoprion.

[terrorchicken]

they're cool but also kinda gross looking, lol.

[Faelrin]

I quite like that ichthyosaur, Anomalocaris thing, and ammonite the most of the bunch. The ammonite kind of reminds me of the bullyland one though, because of the pose.

[BlueKrono]

Probably copied ("inspired") from it.

[Halichoeres]

they're cool but also kinda gross looking, lol.

Accurate. The promotional material shows a baby chewing on one, but I think giving these to a small child is a terrible idea.

@Faelrin, BlueKrono: I hadn't noticed, but yeah, it looks really similar to the Bullyland, right down to the 10 undifferentiated appendages (and it's about 1/4 the diameter).

Also, the new Schleich ichthyosaur seems to be inspired by the same Raúl Martín painting.

[CityRaptor]

Either the painting or the CG model based on that painting. Meanwhile their Mosasaurus is based on Dino Crisis.

[Roselaar]

A lot of them actually seem to be based off other figures, at least in terms of paint jobs. The Mosasaur looks somewhat like the WS Tylosaurus, the Dunkleosteus like the WS Dunkleosteus, the Ammonite like the Bullyland Ammonite and the Anomalocaris like the Yowies and Favorite Anomalocari. Could just be coincidence though.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks to some sleuthing from SBell, we have a little more information on these guys. Some of these are sold by DeAgostini in Europe, but others are sold by a company called Diramix. There's overlap in the molds, suggesting a shared source for at least some figures. The ones I have are from a series by Diramix called "Epic Animals Antichi Abissi," which you can see here: http://www.diramix.com/antichi-abissi/

The set contains 10 prehistorics; I've seen 8 in the Zoo World release. Listed below, with asterisks next to the ones that so far seem to be Italian-only:

Ammonite
Anomalocaris
Dinichthys
Elasmosaurus
Helicoprion
Ichthyosaurus
Stethacanthus
Tylosaurus
*Mosasaurus
*Plesiosaurus

The last two look like the same molds as the Tylosaurus and Elasmosaurus, but with different paint jobs.

There are also 7 larger prehistorics in a line called "Epic Animals Mega Abissi." None of these is included in the Zoo World release. They look to be roughly twice the size. Whereas the small ones have no printing on them, the large ones have "Epic Animals" on their bellies.

C. megalodon
Dinichthys
Helicoprion
Livyatan
Plesiosaurus
Stethacanthus
Tylosaurus

I'll update the first post with species IDs for the small ones. Finally, here's a photo of some of the smalls next to familiar figures. People have expressed surprise at the size of them, so this should be a useful reference.

[BlueKrono]

I was surprised at their size. Also, they're stretchy! Did you get the Xenacanthus and goblin shark?

[stargatedalek]

Off topic, but their modern reptiles and amphibians (and... moray?) are quite good (for what they are). If anyone knows a source for the modern animals please share.

[Halichoeres]

I was surprised at their size. Also, they're stretchy! Did you get the Xenacanthus and goblin shark?

I got the Stethacanthus (I think that's what you meant?), but I've still never seen a goblin shark. And only one Anomalocaris.

Off topic, but their modern reptiles and amphibians (and... moray?) are quite good (for what they are). If anyone knows a source for the modern animals please share.

I'm not keeping any of the extant ones, so that big pile you see above is all available for trade, except the handful that have already been re-homed.

[SBell]

Now that I've got a bunch thatnks to Halicheores, I can attest that these wouldn't be great for small children. Especially the eels and such.

I also know that we need to somehow find sources for the rest of the sets--DeAgostini and Diramix. There are a lot of interesting animals in their sets, depending on your interests.

Even if they are a little creative in their designs (read: the pictures they use are generally better than the actual product...!)

[BlueKrono]

I was surprised at their size. Also, they're stretchy! Did you get the Xenacanthus and goblin shark?

I got the Stethacanthus (I think that's what you meant?), but I've still never seen a goblin shark. And only one Anomalocaris.

Oops, yes, that's what I meant. Dear me, I almost feel like I just called a Coke a Pepsi! I assume you only got one Steth?

[Halichoeres]

Oops, yes, that's what I meant. Dear me, I almost feel like I just called a Coke a Pepsi! I assume you only got one Steth?

Nope, just called a ratfish a shark 

I'm sorry to report I only have one Steth.