Ginkgo (Deluxe by CollectA)

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What’s a nice prehistoric animal figure without the appropriate background? Right, so let’s have a look at another plant offering by CollectA…  

While being a recent species, Ginkgo biloba already existed long before any human had the brilliant idea to develop writing or another kind of reliable method to record dates or stories for generations to come and so setting the foundation for our modern understanding of history and therefore the time before. Ginkgo biloba was probably not around during the time of the reign of dinosaurs, but fossils date it back to a time in the early Eocene, around 50 million years ago. That’s a pretty long run for a species, even for one with specimen living a lifespan of a thousand years. The genus Ginkgo was probably never very strong in numbers and the species naturally shared a lot of characteristics. Today, Ginkgo biloba is the only remaining species and a living fossil in a true sense, how cool and rare is that?

Unlike other plants and trees offered by CollectA, the Ginkgo comes without a base, a real shame in my opinion, because I highly appreciate bases in plants, that add some more environment to those static and immobile entities. Lacking this feature, the tree stands very stable on four strong roots. The tree stands 24 cm high which is not that much if you take in account that the species grows up to 40 metres and more. Most of us will know the Ginkgo from parks, gardens or city streets and there it often grows very straight and thin, lacking a formidable crown which the tree only develops in high age, but then really grows to a majestic tree of diameters of up to 4 metres and more. CollectA’s Ginkgo resembles such a veteran, making the small height especially inapt.Nevertheless, all the details are there, the grey brown bark looks appropriately Ginkgo-like, the branches stretch out horizontally and the leaves resemble that popular fishtail form. The figure’s trunk is assembled from two pieces that only fit one way, two different sculpts for the patches of twigs and leaves can be assembled on the branches to your liking and allow, if properly done, for a look that does not look repetitive.The comparable small size of the Ginkgo makes it best to be shown with smaller scale figures, as shown here with the Kaiyodo Dinotales Sauropelta and the PNSO Mamenchisaurus.

All that being said, you should not miss out on that one. There’s only a handfull of plant models around in the toy animal section, they make a great addition to any collection display and discontinued models (by Schleich for example) call great prices, so you may like to buy them as long as they are around. The Ginkgo can be bought online for around 20 to 25 €. Highly recommended.