Happy Shark Week, blog readers! For nearly a year I’ve been holding onto and waiting to review one of 2025’s most exciting releases, the CollectA megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios) just so I could feature it during this auspicious occasion. I believe this is the 7th year that we’ve celebrated Shark Week on the ATB and it makes me happy that it has been so warmly embraced by my fellow blog reviewers. This must be one of the busiest weeks of the year on the ATB, and I honestly look forward to reading the Shark Week reviews more than actually watching Shark Week on TV, which I haven’t done in many years.
Megamouth shark figures are as comparatively uncommon as sightings of the actual megamouth shark, with only a small handful of mostly Japanese figures available. In the western market the Safari Ltd. megamouth has long been the default best figure of the species available but now there is a new contender, and even though I have Safari’s excellent figure I couldn’t resist owning another model of this unique shark species.
Since its discovery in 1976 and as of March 2025, 296 specimens of the megamouth shark have been caught or observed. Despite their elusiveness, the megamouth shark occurs around the world in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. They undergo nightly vertical migrations to follow plankton to near-surface waters and can be found at a depth of up to 544.6’ (166 meters) in offshore environments. Like another filter feeding shark species, the basking shark, it has interesting ties to cryptozoology. Decomposing basking sharks are often the true identify of purported sea serpent carcasses whereas the megamouth shark’s “recent” discovery is used to legitimize cryptozoology as a field of study.
The CollectA megamouth shark measures 8.25” (20.96 cm) in total length whereas the actual megamouth reaches a maximum length of 18’ (5.49 meters) but averages 13’ (4 meters) for the males and 16’ (5 meters) for the females. Since it has claspers the CollectA megamouth represents a male and when scaled down from a length of 13’ comes out to be 1/18 in scale. The megamouth is the smallest of the three filter feeding shark species.
This megamouth is statically posed with its terminally placed mouth agape and extending back past the eyes. The head is long, bulbous, and rounded off. The body is cylindrical in shape, with pectoral fins shorter than the length of the head, and low dorsal fins with the second dorsal about half the size of the first. The upper lobe of the caudal fin is longer than the lower lobe. All that is to say, the toy looks good and accurately matches the morphology of the actual megamouth.
Miniscule, rough teeth are sculpted along the mouth, and a wide, flattened tongue is held against the jaw. The eyes are small and beady. Five moderately long gill slits are sculpted on each side of the head. The entire toy has a wrinkled, flabby looking texture, particularly along the flanks.
The figure is dark, muddy gray, and white below with dark spotting on the lower jaw. The pectoral and pelvic fin margins should be white but aren’t, which is the absolute most minor of nitpicks. A pale line is painted along the upper lip which in life, along with some paleness on the mouth interior (also seen here), reflects the light off of bioluminescent plankton and is thought to attract prey.
The CollectA megamouth delivers one of the most thoroughly researched, lifelike, and meticulously detailed sharks in my entire collection. I still like the Safari figure and will keep it but if I had to choose, or if you have to choose, CollectA’s is the way to go. If you like to have multiple examples of the same species then all the better, you’ll now have two excellent megamouth sharks to display.
All articles on the Animal Toy Blog are written without the use of ‘AI’