Who makes it? Colorata, in their Stag Beetles Real Figure Box. It’s number 1 in the set.
When did it come out? Not sure. At least 2004 although there may have been revisions in that time (it’s true of many of the Colorata boxes I have)
Still available? According to the Colorata website, yes. And from at least a glance, it does not look like the set has changed!
Where can it be found in my displays? It’s actually not…the beetles are on my son’s shelf.
How does it fit in the collection? Again, it’s not really my set–I picked up the box fairly cheaply in a Japanese auction for my son.
Any story behind it? As I said, the set was purchased for my son. He was fascinated by the large beetles and such, and his birthday was coming up, so it seemed like a good idea.
Notable remarks about this figure (a review that isn’t really a review): I am really out of my element here. I really don’t know a tonne about insects overall, including large beetles. I do know that this beetle, and the ones in the set, look pretty darn real. When placed properly, the legs rest on the ground, it could easily pass for a real (not-moving) beetle. The figure is pretty much 1:1 life size scale, so for where I live, this beetle would stand out as a giant (and it’s not the largest one in the set)! The figure itself, like the others in the box, come with small base on the form of a fake piece of curved wood. While this might reflect a forest floor, this also means that the beetle’s legs don’t necessarily rest on the wood properly. This figure, however, appears to rest about right, even if its legs stick out. The figure itself is actually multiple pieces, with each leg needing to be placed into specific spots on the body. This isn’t an easy task, especially since there isn’t much direction in the packaging. I think I got them right though! Easy to fix, since they actually fall out pretty easily.
Would I recommend it? As I said, I’m not a major collector of insects, but I very much appreciate them as animals and as figures. I would highly recommend the Colorata set for anyone looking to add some big beetles to a collection. I wouldn’t, however, recommend them as toys for kids, since as I mentioned the legs can fall out pretty easily. But as teaching models or shelf displays they’re great. Admittedly, there are a large variety of beetle figures, especially out of Japan, in particular of stag and rhino beetles; as it is, there is a Colorata Rhino beetle box as well–I don’t have it, but I bet it would go really well with the stag beetles! And really, you can almost never go wrong with Colorata sets!
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