"Kid Galaxy" Safari/Deep Sea Animals Review II:
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 a lot of toy love but I had never seen them at retail until recently. The Safari sets were not shown at Toy Fair the year I saw the other sets.
Lontic/Tedco articulated figures are made from a rigid plastic without a lot 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/hinge neck, swivel hips/shoulders and swivel tails. The sea life have simpler articulation because of their body plans.- left/right motion on the heads (the Hammerhead has the greatest range of motion here), up/down motion on the pectoral fins and left/right motion on the tails (somewhat limited). 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' "hairy" textures are extremely detailed. The sea creatures likewise have incredible sculpts. 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 scale is a bit off on some of the animals- the Giraffe and Whale Shark should be much larger and the Tiger much smaller- but are close enough in "toy scale" to be useful with 3.75" figures.
These sets retail for $12.99 at Marshalls and are well worth the price! I am going to be on the hunt for the third deep sea set (I really hope it has that spectacular Colossal Squid I saw at Toy Fair in it).
