You probably think by now that I’m a supporter of marginal creatures and you’re probably right. But they’re universally fascinating. Ever since the Burgess Shale fauna became famous after being revisited in the late 70’s, these animals have been variously depicted by numerous artists. Even Clive Barker mentions the Hallucigenia in his novel The Great and Secret Show. But replicas came later. I’m pretty sure Kaiyodo was the first company to ever make a Burgess Shale toy (first the Opabinia, then the Anomalocaris and the Hallucigenia) So this was the first replica of its kind (and please bear in mind that this is part of the first installment in the Dino-Tales series) Prehistoric Panorama only followed.
The Opabinia (there is only known species, Opabinia regalis) belongs to that kind of fauna that is unclassifiable because the evidence is very scarce (the Burgess Shale is one of the very few locations where well preserved Cambrian fossils of invertebrata have been found) and because almost none of them has living relatives. Scientists believed that the Opabinia only resembled an arthropod without being one (there are no jointed legs) but recent findings from Greenland suggest that opabinids may have had legs after all. This would mean that the Opabinia actually lived in the benthic region and crawled on the sea floor. There is still much to be discovered, so these replicas actually age faster than others: the Kaiyodo Opabinia has no legs, it’s based on early renditions, it’s positioned as if it were swimming, but does this make it necessarily a bad replica? Of course not.
The 15 lobulated body segments, the serrated proboscis (which is NOT in a transveral position, a more plausible supposition for Dinocarida like the Opabinia or the Anomalocaris), the 5 mushroom-like eyes and the curious tail with 3 blades are de rigueur, they’re present (amazingly detailed by the way; there is no mouth though), but that’s not entirely what makes it so wonderful. The resin is transparent (which is a plus for me) on top of it, the paint job is inextricably complicated (mainly a nacre-like silvery tone on underside and proboscis, a coat of orange on the lobes, some green spots, incluiding the eyes) The ‘exo-skeleton’ is smooth, while the proboscis has an irregular feel.
Most of the Kaiyodo figures seem to have surpassed other companies’ products, even more so if we consider that they’re all miniatures (this piece measures 9 cm, so the scale is almost 100:100) The only downside is that the resin seems fragile.
Unfortunately the Opabinia only surfaces once in a while and it can be moderately expensive.
Discuss this and thousands of figures at the forum.
Very cool, I am fascinated with these early creatures. In my google searches, I keep coming back to your way cool blog, and it’s motivated me to take pictures of my own prehistoric creatures.
Check our our clay Burgess Shale creatures:
http://satorismiles.com/2009/05/15/cambrian-creatures/
Our Dunkleosteus:
http://satorismiles.com/2009/06/01/giant-predator-of-the-prehistoric-seas-dunkleosteus/
And now I have more cool ones on the way, thanks to researching them on your blog!
Comment by dotnetdiva — June 4, 2009 @ 10:14 pm