Rubber Bug Collecting: Miscellaneous
"Bugs" seen too seldomly for pages of their own!
Like fly toys, cicadas are usually made with
transparent wings. This one isn't painted too
well, but the color scheme does match certain
species. Cicadas are the loudest of all insects,
their mating calls well-known around the world.
A cheaper, smaller cicada in brown and yellow.
I'd love to see a toy of the nymph stage one of
these days...
The most common type of rubber cicada is quite
large, usually sold alongside the large weevil in
my beetles page.
A rather uncommon caterpillar mold. It appears
to be a species of swallowtail caterpillar,
complete with eyespots and tentacles.
Rubber dragonflies aren't really rare, but they
are rarely any different from one another. I'm just
throwing this in for good measure.
I can't tell what sort of larva this is supposed to
be, but it resembles those of certain beetles.
This is a wheeled, pull-back toy and very cool.
Another big favorite of mine, this pull-back bug
is the only rubber termite I have ever seen, and
has a very pleasing all-around shape and color
scheme. Interestingly, termites are currently
considered highly specialized cockroaches.
Cicadas & Leafhoppers
It's hard to tell if this small bug is supposed to be
a cicada or a member of the closely-related (and
often gorgeously colored) leafhoppers,
Insect Larvae
Odds and Ends
I'm not generally including wind-up toys here, but I wanted to show this one
because of its unique basis; it rather obviously represents a giant waterbug,
sometimes called a toe-biter. These aquatic true bugs are among the largest
insects that can be found in western climates.
This incredibly crappy rubber trilobite was sold
to me at an exorbiant price as a "godzilla movie
prop." I didn't really believe it then, and still
doubt it. The Trilobita, now extinct, once
dominated our planet's seas.
Included in many cheap bags of plastic insects,
this specimen stumped me for years until a
reader pointed out that this is none other than a
Grylloblattid or "rock crawler," a very obscure
insect to be so common in toy form!
A somewhat nicer-looking cicada, black with red
eyes like several North American species.
This nondescript caterpillar/worm hybrid came
attached to a lollipop.
The only toy I've ever seen of a grub-type larva,
perhaps that of a beetle or wasp. It actually came
with an accessory pack for a line of monster toys
you could decorate with different parts.
One of my only rubber butterflies. I've seen
others, but nothing about them ever grabs my
attention. Maybe I'm just bitter that these are
sometimes one of the only insects people don't
irrationally hate.
This may actually be some kind of sea snail, but
it's hard to tell. It certainly has a neat shape with
the long neck and prominent knobby eyestalks.
This little guy is one of only two or three rubber
slugs I ever had in my possession. I don't think
any real slug comes in these colors, but some
tropical slugs are pretty vibrant.
Gastropods
Garden-dwelling slugs and snails are actually mollusks, like bivalves or cephalopods, but end
up packaged with rubber "bugs" when they're even manufactured at all, so I'm going to follow
suit and lump them in with all my arthropods.
I love everything about this vintage snail,
probably made around the 60's or 70's. The
transparent body and highly detailed,
olive-green shell are a beautiful combination!
Related to the previous snail, this may be the
simplest "bug" I own; its eyes are all that even
differentiates it from some meaningless plastic
strip, which somehow only makes it more
endearing to me.
This spiny caterpillar is made of transparent
green rubber, but painted over with a very
eye-pleasing, swampy sort of color scheme!
This big guy is a highly accurate representation
of a puss moth caterpillar, though not quite as
vividly colored as the real thing. When
frightened, they rear up to startle attackers with
their false eyes!
Despite their common name, horseshoe crabs are actually marine arachnids, the only modern survivors
of the ancient and diverse "sea scorpions" that once reached gargantuan sizes. This specimen came as
an accessory to a playskool octopus toy, and I just adore the anatomical detail of its underside. They
could have just as easily left it blank or hollow on the bottom, like so many other animal toys.
This large, bendable Leaf Insect was left in my
car a bit too long and was bleached to a much
lighter green than when I bought it. Real ones
are so perfectly camouflaged that they have
notches resembling fake caterpillar bites!
This adorably tiny, skinny snail actually came with
a figure of "Oogie Boogie," from The Nightmare
Before Christmas!
To me, a priceless collectible and one of my
all-time coolest purchases, this "zombie snail" is
over three feet in length and produced in a
limited run by Frightprops.com!
Produced by frightprops.com, this monstrosity is
more than three feet in length! Read more about
it on my Halloween collecting blog.
April 2010, Target's dollar aisle - A
BREAKTHROUGH! The first toy antlion larva I
have seen in my entire life, and beautifully
accurate!
The only earwig toy I've found, this little guy
comes from "Legend of Nara" and buzzes along
the ground when turned on!