Palaeozoic Plushies from Japan
During my travels last year in Tokyo, I found some lovely Palaeozoic Fossil Plushies in the National Museum Of Nature and Science at Ueno.
Outside the Museum
So I had to buy some for my son, an Anomalocaris from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, and a Bothriolepis, a Devonian freshwater placoderm.
However there were many more Devonian fish there, but thinking of space in my pack and financial constraints limited what I would buy. Once I got home, and my son had his Xmas presents, I wished that I had bought the other Palaeozoic Plush Fossil, so I went looking on the web.
To my surprise, I found a shop in Ginza, the Hakuhinkan Toy Park that not only had what I sought, but much, much more. However they didn't ship overseas, which I found very frustrating. With further searching, I managed to find another place that had them, Love Journey at Naka, Yokohama. Yet again it had what I wanted and an even bigger range than the Hakuhinkan Toy Park, and best of all, they shipped overseas (and took credit cards).
So here is their selection, nicely translated for my friends (and a translation was sent to Love Journey so they have the English names) and Love Journey is quite happy for me to popularise their shop (so Im using their photos) and they seem quite exicited to have overseas orders (although they are not good with their English, Ive had to rely on my friend Mot for translating back and forward).
At the World Sciience Fiction Convention I wandered around with a green Opabinia attached to my back, and since so many people from the US asked me about where I got them, I am posting this for you guys. I did have a translation for people at AussieCon, but I found that Hakuhinkan Toy Park has a new range in, but I had to wait for Love Journey
(and if you do order from Love Journey, make sure to take off the ticks in all those boxes on the last page, which is basically asking them to send to you lots of email in Japanese)
From the Ediacaran they have
Kimberella - an Ediacaran slug-like organism.
My old Palaeontology lecturer, Pat Rich has a plush Kimberella which resembles the one from the Creatures of the Slime Australian stamp set, made before her book came out.
They also have Jellyfish in their fish section, if anybody is wanting to make an Ediacaran plushie group
From the Cambrian they have lots of fossils from the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang & Qiongzhusi, even a fossil from the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte.
Xidazoon stephanus - a Lower Cambrian Vetulicolia. The phylum of Vetulicolidae are some weird things that might be related to the tunicates and hence distantly related to vertebrates (or maybe not).
Vetulicola cuneata - a Lower Cambrian Vetulicolia
Ottoia - a Middle Cambrian priapulid worm that hunted hyolithids and other creatures (such as other Ottoia's as it was probably a cannibal) from its burrow
Burgessochaeta - a Middle Cambrian polychaete annelid
Wiwaxia - a Cambrian halkieriid which may be related to the annelids and more distantly related to the brachiopods. I also have a Wiwaxia Yowie
which is a lot more colourful but not as soft (and so much smaller as the yowie is a toy that fitted into a chocolate egg)
Marrella splendens - a Middle Cambrian arthropod that is considered a stem group arthropod and while it looks similar to the trilobites, it is no more closely related to them than any other arthropod
Odaraia - a Middle Cambrian crustacean
Hallucigenia - a Middle Cambrian Onychophora famous for being so unusual that nothing about it made much sense, originally it was thought that the spines were legs and that the tentacles were feeding appendages, nowadays that is considered upside down, with the spines providing protection while it walked on its long, flexible legs
Opabinia regalis - a Middle Cambrian anomalocaridid with five eyes abd long proboscis that passed food to its mouth (available in green or another green, as well as in orange or in a small size)
Anomalocaris - a Middle Cambrian anomalocaridid (avalible in different sizes - Pillow, Large, Medium, and small in many colours, pink, brown, green, grey, blue and light green)
Pambdelurion whittingtoni - a Cambrian anomalocaridid
Paradoxides - a Middle Cambrian trilobite
Asaphus kowalewskii - a Middle Ordovician trilobite with long eyestalks.
Sanctacaris (colloquially known as 'Santa Claws') - a Middle Cambrian stem-group chelicerate, so it is realated to the ancestor of spiders and scorpions
Yohoia - a Middle Cambrian arachnomorph arthropod, so it is related to the chelicerates and trilobites
Sidneyia inexpectans (which fed on trilobites & hyolithids) - a Middle Cambrian arthropod
Cameroceras - a giant Ordovician orthoconic cephalopod (that grew up to 9m long, maybe even 11m long) that was an apex predator that lived in deeper water. It appeared in both the BBC's Sea Monsters and Walking with Monsters.
Pleurocystites - an Upper Ordovician cystoid echinoderm
Dinomischus - a Cambrian entoproct (or maybe an echinoderm)
Pterygotus - a Silurian/Devonian eurypterid and it reached lengths of up to 2.3 m, making it the second-largest known eurypterid (sea scorpion). It made it onto the Silurian portion of the BBC's Walking with Monsters series, where it attacked and ate a Brontoscorpio
Megarachne servinei - an Upper Carboniferous eurypterid (sea scorpion), originally thought to be a giant spider
and also some creatures regarded as living fossils
Japanese Horseshoe Crab - a Modern chelicerata
Chambered Nautilus - a Modern nautilus (also in small size)
Next up - the Vertebrates - pre-fish, fish, amphibians and reptiles.
Outside the Museum
So I had to buy some for my son, an Anomalocaris from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, and a Bothriolepis, a Devonian freshwater placoderm.
However there were many more Devonian fish there, but thinking of space in my pack and financial constraints limited what I would buy. Once I got home, and my son had his Xmas presents, I wished that I had bought the other Palaeozoic Plush Fossil, so I went looking on the web.
To my surprise, I found a shop in Ginza, the Hakuhinkan Toy Park that not only had what I sought, but much, much more. However they didn't ship overseas, which I found very frustrating. With further searching, I managed to find another place that had them, Love Journey at Naka, Yokohama. Yet again it had what I wanted and an even bigger range than the Hakuhinkan Toy Park, and best of all, they shipped overseas (and took credit cards).
So here is their selection, nicely translated for my friends (and a translation was sent to Love Journey so they have the English names) and Love Journey is quite happy for me to popularise their shop (so Im using their photos) and they seem quite exicited to have overseas orders (although they are not good with their English, Ive had to rely on my friend Mot for translating back and forward).
At the World Sciience Fiction Convention I wandered around with a green Opabinia attached to my back, and since so many people from the US asked me about where I got them, I am posting this for you guys. I did have a translation for people at AussieCon, but I found that Hakuhinkan Toy Park has a new range in, but I had to wait for Love Journey
(and if you do order from Love Journey, make sure to take off the ticks in all those boxes on the last page, which is basically asking them to send to you lots of email in Japanese)
From the Ediacaran they have
Kimberella - an Ediacaran slug-like organism.
My old Palaeontology lecturer, Pat Rich has a plush Kimberella which resembles the one from the Creatures of the Slime Australian stamp set, made before her book came out.
They also have Jellyfish in their fish section, if anybody is wanting to make an Ediacaran plushie group
From the Cambrian they have lots of fossils from the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang & Qiongzhusi, even a fossil from the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte.
Xidazoon stephanus - a Lower Cambrian Vetulicolia. The phylum of Vetulicolidae are some weird things that might be related to the tunicates and hence distantly related to vertebrates (or maybe not).
Vetulicola cuneata - a Lower Cambrian Vetulicolia
Ottoia - a Middle Cambrian priapulid worm that hunted hyolithids and other creatures (such as other Ottoia's as it was probably a cannibal) from its burrow
Burgessochaeta - a Middle Cambrian polychaete annelid
Wiwaxia - a Cambrian halkieriid which may be related to the annelids and more distantly related to the brachiopods. I also have a Wiwaxia Yowie
which is a lot more colourful but not as soft (and so much smaller as the yowie is a toy that fitted into a chocolate egg)
Marrella splendens - a Middle Cambrian arthropod that is considered a stem group arthropod and while it looks similar to the trilobites, it is no more closely related to them than any other arthropod
Odaraia - a Middle Cambrian crustacean
Hallucigenia - a Middle Cambrian Onychophora famous for being so unusual that nothing about it made much sense, originally it was thought that the spines were legs and that the tentacles were feeding appendages, nowadays that is considered upside down, with the spines providing protection while it walked on its long, flexible legs
Opabinia regalis - a Middle Cambrian anomalocaridid with five eyes abd long proboscis that passed food to its mouth (available in green or another green, as well as in orange or in a small size)
Anomalocaris - a Middle Cambrian anomalocaridid (avalible in different sizes - Pillow, Large, Medium, and small in many colours, pink, brown, green, grey, blue and light green)
Pambdelurion whittingtoni - a Cambrian anomalocaridid
Paradoxides - a Middle Cambrian trilobite
Asaphus kowalewskii - a Middle Ordovician trilobite with long eyestalks.
Sanctacaris (colloquially known as 'Santa Claws') - a Middle Cambrian stem-group chelicerate, so it is realated to the ancestor of spiders and scorpions
Yohoia - a Middle Cambrian arachnomorph arthropod, so it is related to the chelicerates and trilobites
Sidneyia inexpectans (which fed on trilobites & hyolithids) - a Middle Cambrian arthropod
Cameroceras - a giant Ordovician orthoconic cephalopod (that grew up to 9m long, maybe even 11m long) that was an apex predator that lived in deeper water. It appeared in both the BBC's Sea Monsters and Walking with Monsters.
Pleurocystites - an Upper Ordovician cystoid echinoderm
Dinomischus - a Cambrian entoproct (or maybe an echinoderm)
Pterygotus - a Silurian/Devonian eurypterid and it reached lengths of up to 2.3 m, making it the second-largest known eurypterid (sea scorpion). It made it onto the Silurian portion of the BBC's Walking with Monsters series, where it attacked and ate a Brontoscorpio
Megarachne servinei - an Upper Carboniferous eurypterid (sea scorpion), originally thought to be a giant spider
and also some creatures regarded as living fossils
Japanese Horseshoe Crab - a Modern chelicerata
Chambered Nautilus - a Modern nautilus (also in small size)
Next up - the Vertebrates - pre-fish, fish, amphibians and reptiles.