Safari Ltd Hidden Kingdom Scorpion and Tarantula

As you've probably already guessed, this is going to be a weird one.

My wife and I have been going by Michaels a lot recently to pick up supplies for custom projects she's working on.  During our last trip, she picked up a pair of very large bugs.  One or both of these guys may soon be going under the knife; dissected for a project that I'm sure my wife will share once completed.

For now, I thought I'd take a look and see how plastic bugs pulled out of a bin hold up on close inspection.  We're going to look at two figures today, a scorpion and a tarantula.  Both were produced by "Safari Ltd" as part of their "Hidden Kingdom" line.

Appearance:
Tarantula: 5
Scorpion: 8

There's a big difference here, and that's mainly due to the paint work.  I'm no entomologist, so I can't speak with any authority on whether these are accurate to their real-world counterparts.  What I can tell you is that the tarantula looks like lump of plastic while the scorpion looks like a giant bug.

The detail work is far better executed: the scorpion has painted texture - take a good look at the joint work.  In addition, there's some really nice contrast work between the brown and yellow.  He's creepy, but he's fun to look at.

Compare that with the dull bands on the tarantula's legs.  The application is fine, but the color is faint and uninteresting.  The sculpted hair on the legs is wasted without paint.  There just isn't enough detailing here to make the toy work visually.

The scorpion scores far better than its counterpart, getting a 8 versus the tarantula's 5.  If they had made the front claws and stinger a little more menacing, I'd have gone even higher with the scorpion.  As it is, I considered going to nine.

Packaging and Extras:
Tarantula: -----
Scorpion: -1

Packaging?  What packaging?

These guys were pulled out of a compartmentalized bin on an endcap at Michaels.  No boxes; no bags: just two little tags: one containing some information about the insect, the other advertising the articulation (more on that later).

Fundamentally, I could care less whether these were packaged or not.  Unless, of course, that lack of packaging is the cause of damage to the figure.  And, sadly, that seems to be the case for the scorpion.  Oh, it's nothing serious, but the segments on his tail are beginning to tear.  I suspect the culprits are the children who have been playing with him.  And how were they able to do this?  Because he's completely unprotected.  I'm taking the unprecedented step of deducting a point for the lack of packaging.  I'm only docking the scorpion, however, since the tarantula was undamaged.


In terms of extras, you effectively get nothing.  The only thing it comes with is a miniature fold out "booklet" giving you a sentence of information about your bug in several different languages.  I'm not impressed.

Play and Display: +1

I don't expect toys like these to be poseable at all.  These surpass that expectation by providing bendable appendages.  The four large legs on the tarantula contain a hard wire, as do the pinchers and tail of the scorpion.

This opens up your posing options quite a bit, particularly on the tarantula.  It's too bad the smaller legs aren't poseable, too, since that would really give you some choices.

I'm handing over an extra point to each for this poseability.  Had the little legs bent as well, I'd be giving the tarantula two.

Price Tag and Final Analysis:
Scorpion: 8/10
Tarantula: 6/10

We paid full price for these guys: that's four for the scorpion and five for the larger tarantula.  Keep in mind, though, we weren't picking these up as collectibles, but rather as potential parts.

That doesn't mean we couldn't use them as accessories around the apartment.  If my wife leaves the tarantula intact I may stick it on my Lord of the Rings shelf: it should be passable as a Shelob, albeit a bad one.

This doesn't mean it's worth five bucks.  Plastic spiders are easy to find around Halloween, and they get far nicer - and cheaper - than this one.

The scorpion is a little easier to recommend - assuming, of course, that you're in the market for a toy scorpion.  I don't have anywhere to display him, though if he doesn't get cut up he'll find use in my D&D miniatures box.

Questions or comments?  Leave a response at The Middle Room.