Hallucigenia (Plush by ZHONGXIN MADE)

The Cambrian was the very first period of the Paleozoic Era, beginning a little over 538 million years ago and lasting until the start of the Ordovician period 486 million years ago. And during those nearly 52 million years, all manner of weird and wonderful life evolved in the seas. Scores of trilobites, Microdictyon, and Wiwaxia crept along the sandy beds. Swimming above them were alien-like oddities such as Opabinia and Pikaia. At the top of the food chain were large predators like Anomalocaris and Hurdia. And there was also the tiny but terrific lobopodian panarthropod known as Hallucigenia.

While Hallucigenia is certainly one of the most famous Cambrian critters, it hasn’t yet received a toy from any of the usual popular prehistoric toy companies—although there have been a few models, and you can read up on them here and here. And for this review, I have what I believe is by far the biggest Hallucigenia toy currently in existence, a plush from a brand called ZHONGXIN MADE. A very prolific brand at that, as it offers a wide variety of extant and extinct animals: insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, dinosaurs, and a number of Paleozoic organisms like this one.

Being a plush toy often means being hard-pressed to stand up properly, especially when on smooth surfaces and when one’s limbs are long and thin, so for the purpose of this review, I crafted a simple but effective display stand out of handy dandy LEGOs. A bendable wire within the Hallucigenia’s neck allows you to put it in a good range of poses. With the head raised as high as it can go, the animal is 30 cm tall. And with the neck straightened out horizontally, it is 49 cm long. The real deal grew to just 5.5 cm long, so this toy is roughly nine times bigger.

The Hallucigenia is coloured bright orange and creamy beige. The claws are dark brown, the mouth is black, and the hard plastic eyes are very dark brown with black pupils. Simple, but also bold and attractive to the eye.

When the first fossil of Hallucigenia was discovered in the famous Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada, in the 1910s, it was thought to be a species of Canadia annelid worm. Upon being found to be an altogether different animal in the 1970s, it was reconstructed with a bulbous head, stilt-like spines for walking on, and tentacles growing out of its back that were used for catching microorganisms and passing them down to the mouth. The name Hallucigenia was proposed due to the “bizarre and dream-like appearance of the animal.” But by the 1990s, a second set of tentacles had been uncovered underneath the first, proving that these were the real legs and the spines were on the back. And then in the 2020s, the final mystery as to which end of the animal was its actual head was uncracked at last. Spinosaurus has nothing on Hallucigenia when it comes to scientific reconstructions changing over time! And despite the changes, it remains no less unco in appearance.

The Hallucigenia’s head is shaped rather like an egg, with a small, sucker-like mouth and round eyes facing out to the sides. This makes it looks very cute, even friendly, and rather like it’s whistling a happy tune or blowing a kiss. The neck has three pairs of felt appendages dangling down from its underside, which are thought to have used for feeding. It must be noted that the real animal had a much smaller head, a thinner neck, and very tiny, very basic eyes if any, but the toy would have looked considerably less endearing that way.

The body is sausage-shaped and also has a bendable wire inside that allows you to turn, curl, or arch it. The back is protected by seven pairs of long and pointy spines. These are made of a fairly stiff fabric that enables them to remain sticking upward, albeit not straight or in an orderly fashion.

Fourteen long legs jut out from beneath the torso, each ending in two small felt claws. Again, these limbs are really not stiff enough to support the toy’s weight on a smooth surface like my desk, but they do work well enough on carpeting, couches, and anything else with a rougher surface. It’s kind of appropriate in the sense that the real Hallucigenia’s limbs are thought to have been relatively weak as well. It may have spent its life using its claws to cling to the sides of sea sponges while feeding on them. Another possibility is that it scavenged on decaying animal remains.

While its proportions are a little bit off, this is a very accurate and very well-researched representation of Hallucigenia. Anyone who’s ever heard of this species would recognize it here immediately, and probably adore it as well. I sure do. I think this is easily one of the coolest and most fun prehistoric plushes I’ve ever encountered in my life, far superior to any dinosaur one. I highly recommend it to anyone with a fondness for Cambrian life. I bought mine on Amazon Canada back in May 2024, but the price tag there has since doubled, unfortunately. AliExpress is probably your best bet now.

This has been yet another special review, a very special one indeed, because it is in fact my 300th one! Once again I celebrate a fun and exciting journey through the worlds of Beasts of the Mesozoic, CollectA, Haolonggood, LEGO, Mattel, Mojo Fun, PNSO, Safari Ltd., Schleich, and others. Once again I thank everyone who’s been reading and enjoying my reviews all this time. And once again I continue to stride on like the royal Tyrannosaurus rex that I’ve loved since I was four.