Plastic elephant on a mission

Sue,

Thank you so much that was very nice of you and I am sure he will love it. You would not believe how hard it was to find reasonably priced toys for kids that they can actually learn from, so I appricate it. Thanks again :)

Lauren

We love it when our animals make someone's day, whether it's to be educational, entertaining, or both. We have quite a collection of toy and collectible elephants. Come have a look!

What goes together better than summer and ice cream? Obviously . . . summer and plastic lobsters!

No matter what color or size you prefer, our plastic lobsters seem to be one of THE most popular items this summer. Get them while they're hot (or cold, or floppy, or whatever tickles your fancy). These crustaceans are going fast! Check them out at Tapir and Friends.

Animal jewelry: yes, we have T-Rex dinosaur jewelry in two colors

We have three dinosaur pins left in stock! We have two green t-rex pins and one red pin. You can order them by phone or e-mail or check out our site. You can call us toll free at (888) 325-3179 or send e-mail. These hand-painted pins are $29.00 each. Read more about this US-based artist's work on the painted animal jewelry page of our web site.

Stuffed hyena and hyena animal jewelry from Tapir and Friends

This is a great time to be thinking about hyenas! Discovery Channel is featuring them this week, and you're bound to learn a lot if you tune in via TV or Web. Hyena gifts and stuffed animals are hard to find, but we've located two that we believe you will like. Our stuffed hyena is made by Hansa in the Philippines, featuring design by the artisans who make the products, and Hansa's typical hand-crafted quality. Hansa's animals are unique and collectible. The fabric is made especially for this animal in small lots with attention to detail. Hansa searches the world for just the right fabrics for each creation. Details are stitched and painted, resulting in stuffed plush animal toys that are not only fun to cuddle, but look like real animals!

Our hyena jewelry comes in earrings, pins, and pendants in your color choice. Individually-chosen beads from the artist's collection will be used on the earrings and pendants. You suggest the color! Each piece is made to order, but takes only a few days. The prices can't be beat for such outstanding artwork! They are made of light-weight aluminum and pack a lot of character. We're sure you will love them! Please check out our animal gift shop at Tapir and Friends! You'll have a warm and friendly welcome. If you have questions, call us toll free at (888) 325-3179 or send e-mail.

Giant Galapagos tortoise 3-D animal puzzle

Have you tried these wonderful 3-D plastic animal puzzles yet? They're among our most popular items. Fun for kids on summer trips, and fun for indoors entertainment when the weather gets too unpleasant to stay outside. I find this tortoise one of our more challenging. We have approximately 40 animal puzzles in stock. Most come in plastic eggs, shells, ice blocks, etc. In other words, the packaging is a snap-together container that you can keep as a way to store the pieces if you decide to take it apart rather than leave it out as a showpiece. The cases are also wonderful for packing to take the puzzles on trips.

I said the tortoise was one of the more challenging, and it is. Most of the bulky animals such as the hippo or one of our two elephants are a bit tough because there are some interior pieces. With the bulky animals you sometimes need to pull off a side, front, back, or top once it's partially put together to get the interior pieces into where they belong. With the thinner animals, most if not all of the pieces have exterior paint and that helps match the pieces up, and you also don't have to maneuver the outside pieces while working on the inside. It's hard to describe, but you'll see what I mean. The snakes, for instance, are reasonably easy, but each animal presents some sort of problem to solve. THE most difficult is our tarantula! Try figuring out which jointed leg goes where - and yes, they have to go in the right sockets, because otherwise the spider simply won't fit together. Kids usually do better with these puzzles than the adults! Check them out, they're lots of fun. And once put together, they look like real animals, so you can add them to your collection of collectible toy plastic animals!

Animal jewelry: Airedale dog pin

If you like Airedales, you might just love our Airedale dog pin. It's hand-cast and hand-painted in the USA. This lovely dog pin is yours for only $29.00 while our stock lasts. Our hand-painted jewelry includes hundreds of animal types, both domestic and wild animals. Come check them out at our new Painted Animal Jewelry Pins web site!

Stuffed wombats at the waterhole

One of the joys of working in a toy shop is coming across scenes like this one. It was night time, and I was alone in the building. I glanced into the storage room as I was about to turn off the light, and what should I find, but three stuffed wombats that appeared to have converged around a water hole or food bowl. Alas, it was not the case! The object of their attention was a six-pack of packaging tape! Still, I found it amusing and took this photo, just hoping there was enough light. I didn't want to use the flash. You can see one of the wombats better here on display.

Box Turtle Rescue: Partnering with other conservationists ~ Earthshine Mountain Lodge, Lake Toxaway, NC, USA

Photos copyright by and courtesy of

Earthshine Mountain Lodge

Conservation is such an important issue, we partner with other conservation organizations and movements whenever possible. The other day, we received this heartwarming letter from Steve O'Neil:

I am a naturalist and wildlife rehabilatator at a small environmental education facility called Earthshine Mountain Lodge in western North Carolina. I am working to educate our guests on the plight our planet's wildlife is facing due to human encroachment into their habitats as well as habitat destruction and fragmentation locally and worldwide. Last year I started an Eastern Box Turtle rescue and rehabilitation program for turtles injured on roads and those that have lost their habitats due to over development. We currently have two large outdoor habitats with 4 non-releasable turtles and one waiting to be released. We are also participating in a statewide project called the Box Turtle Connection that is trying to learn why the box turtle is declining in numbers throughout the state.

For this project we are censusing and marking all the wild turtles we find and tracking 4 wild turtles using micro-radio transmitters. Guests at the lodge learn about turtles through special programs and guided turtle tracking hikes and through the website linked below. We fund most of our project on donations and therefore we are on a tight budget when it comes to purchasing equipment and educational aids, so if you are interested you may "adopt" a turtle to help support the program.

Below is a link to the Earthshine Nature website that covers our nature and box turtle projects:
http://www.geocities.com/thesolorover/earthshinenaturepages

The main Earthshine site can be found here:
http://www.earthshinemtnlodge.com/

Thank you,
Steve O'Neil
Naturalist/Environmental Educator/Wildlife Warrior
Earthshine Mountain Lodge
Lake Toxaway, NC
www.earthshinemtnlodge.com
(828) 606-8939

-----------------------------

The Tapir Preservation Fund realized we could help out by donating certain plastic turtles to their gift shop that fit better with their programs than with ours. We also broke one of our cardinal business rules and gave out a couple of contacts. Sure, we need to make some money for the tapirs, but conservation efforts such as Steve's are extremely important to all of us and to our planet. We believe in working together to preserve nature in its entirety for everyone. Please check out the links above. Have you ever thought of vacationing in a gorgeous setting in green North Carolina? Think about it! Or make a donation.

All the best,

Sheryl

Cute stuffed hedgehog!

Our hedgehog came yesterday - so cute - we just love it. Thanks.

Ann

--------------------------------------------

Thanks for letting us know! We only have a few of these left –
they are being discontinued. We hope you enjoy your new
friend!

Sue

Cute and lifelike stuffed wombat

In March we featured our plastic wombat on this blog. Today we'd like to introduce you to a newcomer who has already collected a following of fans. Our stuffed w0mbat from Hansa is outstanding, from his soft nose to his whiskers to his teeny little tail (yes, he has a tail!). Our wombat is soft, and so realistic you won't believe he's a cuddly toy and not the real thing. His bright eyes are waiting to welcome you as his new best friend! Come check him out! Our entire collection of realistic Hansa stuffed animals is quite alluring, especially if you enjoy collectible lifelike stuffed animals and soft toys. If you're not already a fan, you may become one soon! (We even have a tapir on the way!)

Our beautiful Hansa stuffed goose is back!

Our gorgeous stuffed Canada goose from Hansa is back in stock! It's nearly life-size and wonderfully huggable. Please come take a look!

21-inch stuffed cheetah by Zoology 101

Our big stuffed cheetah is a cat-lover's delight. It's cuddly and huggable, yet regal-looking as a cheetah should be. I especially like the soft white end of its long tail. This big cat is one of the more realistic cheetahs we've seen. Made by Zoology 101, it is sturdy and is made with the quality you've come to expect from this line of stuffed animals. Get yours today!

Plastic deep-water fish replicas - strange and weird!

Plastic Viperfish

Plastic Anglerfish

Plastic Barrel-eye or Spookfish

Plastic Frogfish 3-D Puzzle

Customers had been asking us for deepwater fish, and for the longest time we couldn't find any. Finally we found some nice ones, and you've been discovering them! These are wonderful fun for kids, and have even been used in biology classes for props. Some have been discontinued by the manufacturer, but fortunately we have quite a number left in stock.

At the top is our viperfish, one of the most imposing, although one of the less true to life. He's creepy and looks like the monster from Alien, although he's actually perfectly safe. The greenish-white "thing" springing from his back actually glows in the dark. He is generally in keeping with a real fish from deep water, but is not perfectly accurate. You can read more about all of these fish by following the links in the deepwater fish section of our very popular fish page. Next comes the angler fish, another one popular with kids. After that, the barrel-eye fish or spookfish. At first we thought this fish was cartoonish-looking and not realistic, but in fact, it's the most true-to-life of the three top-pictured deepwater fish. Pictured lowest on the fish totem pole above is a 3-D puzzle of a frogfish. Frogfish don't live in deep water. They tend to be shallow-water fish (and I think I saw one under the mangroves while snorkeling in a scary spot in Panama) but they are related to the deep-water fish on this post, so we've included them together. As a puzzle, this fish is quite fun. You can take it apart and put it back together unlimited times. You can leave it out to look at when it's finished or pack it away in a plastic box that looks like a nautilus shell until you want to put it together again. These fish are all reasonably priced (quite inexpensive, check them out). The only one that has small pieces that could be a problem for very young children is the puzzle.

Red fox pin - nice animal jewelry!

These delightful hand-painted pins (or larger tie tacks) are outstanding. I've posted many of them on this blog, and here's another one: the red fox. It's amazing to me how the artists get such beautiful, lifelike detail on a small pin. Most of the pins measure about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches in the longest direction. They're made in the US, in the state of Washington, originally cast in pewter, which gives them weight and texture, then they're hand painted and finished with a clear, shiny material that makes them extremely durable. Each one has two pins on the back with a pinch clasp. The two pins are used so the fox (or other animal piece) doesn't twist and turn and end up at a weird angle when you attach it to your hat, lapel, tie, scarf, etc. Come check them out on our Web site.

I'll be presenting the whole array of species at Chamber of Commerce After Hours event tomorrow night (Astoria-Warrenton Chamber of Commerce in Oregon). This will be interesting, and a new experience for me. It should be fun. We've been online since 1996, but we've only had our store front since a year ago March. I'm looking forward to meeting more of the local business people.

Sheryl

Animal jewelry: Our horseshoe crab pin is baaaaaaaaaaaack!

This intriguing horseshoe crab jewelry (pin or tie tack) was a favorite until we learned that it had been discontinued by the manufacturer. It was a sad day when we had to take it offline! BUT WAIT! When the artist brought his entire bulk stock into our store on consignment so he could move on to new projects, guess what we found? We found our old favorite horseshoe crab! What fun! They are now availabl to order online either pained or in metallic finishes. If you have any questions, please call us at (888) 325-3179 toll free. This is one of the earlier pieces designed by this artist, and unlike some of the early ones, it is quite three-dimensional, standing tall enough in the shell to resemble a real-life horseshoe crab.

Stuffed anteater joins the menagerie

Our new stuffed anteater by Fiesta has joined the rest of the company here at Tapir and Friends. You'll find him/her congenial, soft, and huggable. This anteater is house-broken and plays well with others. What more could you ask? Actually, we've had the anteater in our showroom for a few months and finally got a chance to put it online and share it with you. Our anteater is well acclimated to living with other stuffed animals.

Online this giant anteater is classed among our "Edentates." Anteaters, along with pangolins, have no teeth (hence, "edentate"). We have other animals in this category also. Some belong there, some probably do not. If you can think of a better name for our Edentate category, please let us know. We had to categorize them for the web site one way or another. One fun thing about putting a new toy online is the chance to do some reading and research and learn about the animal. It's always fascinating! Animals come in such a variety of shapes and sizes, but also of habits and habitats, food needs and preferences, and abilities - some of which are quite astounding. Did you know that giant anteaters actually crush small insects such as termites with their STOMACH MUSCLES? Those are some ab crunches I'd like to simulate! Our stuffed anteater won't tear up your home looking for termites. You can feel confident that you'll have a friend rather than a handful of trouble when you take yours home today! Have fun!

Emperor penguin adult and chick - beautiful plastic animal replicas!

This engaging emperor penguin and chick are museum-quality with many nice details. They're hand-painted and somewhat shimmery-looking as if still wet from a swim. Come check out our plastic penguins (a wide selection) and other toy animals. See you on our Tapir and Friends web site!

Blue stuffed catfish toy (plush catfish)

Our blue stuffed catfish has been a customer-pleaser since we received our first one several years ago. Now the company that makes them (Zoology 101) has discontinued this popular stuffed fish! We've stocked up to forestall the inevitable day when we have to take the catfish offline and discontinue it ourselves. Meanwhile, we do have a supply of them . . . while they last. At 22 inches long, this catfish stuffed animal is big enough to be hugged and cuddled by children or adults. It's often used as decor at summer parties and barbecues . . . and you can keep it for fun and entertainment when the party is over. You can buy the catfish online at Tapir and Friends, or give us a call (toll free) at (888) 325-3179. If you've bee looking for a nice stuffed fish, you might want to get one while they last! Your purchase also helps support endangered species (tapirs and their habitats). Thanks!

Carved and painted wood puffin - great gift or decoration for your home!

For you puffin fans out there, we have two carved wood painted puffins left in stock! Check them out on our Tapir and Friends Wildlife World Gift Shop web site, or call us toll free at (888) 325-3179. Nice puffin, nice price! Remember, we ship anywhere in the world. We also have puffin jewelry and a small plastic puffin figurine as well.

Two new stuffed animals in the gift shop

Please welcome . . .

Our new stuffed chinchilla (above) . . .

. . . and our new stuffed mole.

Both stuffed animals are quite real-looking and are expected to be popular. In fact, one stuffed chinchilla is already going to a new home, and we just put it online yesterday. As of today, you could still be the first to take home our first pet (stuffed) mole! Any mole fans out there? We ship around the world! Take a look!