"Kid Galaxy" Safari/Deep Sea Animals Review:
Kid Galaxy is one of the many brands that utilize Lontic/Tedco molds. The most commonly encountered items are dinosaur figures, both articulated plastic and static vinyl versions. At Toy Fair a few years back, I saw a display from Lontic/Tedco full of dinosaurs and deep sea animals but did not see any of their product at retail until last year. The deep sea line intrigued me as the figures had representations of several different species of aquatic life that did not usually get alot of toy love but I had never seen them at retail until today. The safari animals were a complete surprise as they were not on display at Toy Fair with the dinosaurs and deep sea sets.
Lontic/Tedco articulated figures are made from a rigid plastic without alot of flex. They are solidly built and heavier than they look. This makes them great toys as they could probably take rough play without breaking. The articulation on the majority of the land animals is very basic, swivel neck, swivel hips/shoulders and swivel tails (the Gorilla lacks a tail but has all of the other articulation) but some articulation is limited such as the Lion's neck due to the mane. The sea life have articulation but not much because of their body plans. The paint apps appear simple but are actually subtly complex and really bring the animals to life.
The sculpts are all very well done. The land animals have tons of wrinkles and folds in their hides and the "hairy" textures are extremely detailed. The sea creatures likewise have incredible sculpts, the underside of the Giant Pacific Octopus is covered with tiny suckers and the Leatherback Turtle's hide looks leathery. The biggest surprise is that unlike a large number of the dinosaur sculpts, every single one of these are original sculpts and not "borrowed" from other lines (several dinosaurs are bootlegged from the Hasbro "Jurassic Park III" line).
The assortment of animals in each set is quite good. They are not always scaled properly as the Elephant and Rhino should be much larger (based on their sculpted detailing, they are full grown adults) and the Cheetah much smaller, but in "toy scale" they work together just fine. There is a second set of deep sea animals out there somewhere as Kid Galaxy always releases these items in groups of 2, but the Marshalls where I found them only had the 1 deep sea set.
These sets retail for $12.99 at Marshalls and are well worth the price! I am going to be on the hunt for the second deep sea set (I really hope it has that spectacular Colossal Squid I saw at Toy Fair in it).
