Taxidermy Sea Turtles on sale at Z Gallerie stores

Z Gallerie has their resin-cast of a taxidermy sea turtle on sale for $49.95, (originally $89.95). At that price I picked up two of them.

These are good-sized sea turtles, measuring just over 2' long. The cast is a nice one and captures all the detail of the original taxidermy turtle, and because it's a resin cast, it's very light and it's completely legal to own.

It has a hanger on the back so that it can hang on the wall of your tiki bar, but it would also look good suspended from a ceiling by wires as if it was swimming.

The paint job on the head and flippers is fine, but I'm going to re-paint the shell on mine to make it look a bit more authentic.

I've seen sea turtles like this at several old vintage tiki bars. Sam's Seafood had a real one languishing in their basement that they brought out before they closed a few years ago and hung near the bar. Not sure if it's still there in its Kona incarnation. Taxidermy fish, sea turtles, lobsters, etc are some of my favorite items in a tiki bar. Growing up near Marineland and the old Cabrillo Beach museum, I loved the way these dusty old sea creatures added ambiance to the nautical decor in those places.

Z Gallerie also has a nice resin cast of a giant crocodile skull for $49.95 that would look great given a Papua-New Guinea makeover (painted with tribal symbols and decorated with hemp cord and old shells maybe). They also had resin casts of giant clamshells that could be used for a tiki-bar waterfall. The shells were closer to $100 each but may go on sale too.

Pick a turtle up if you can. This is a great price, and since they're on clearance I'm not sure how much longer they'll be available.

Sabu

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2008-08-01 19:51 ]

Was this purchased at a local store, near you? I didn't see them on their website. I would definitely pick one up if I could order online. I did see their resin clamshell and it's only $44.95, 12" x 20" but not recommended for outdoor use or anywhere moisture is present.

Their resin casts are GREAT and look like the real thing. I bought a few of the (smaller sized) giant clams for $44 and they are worth the purchase. One of the insides of one started to flake the exterior paint, but that's okay. Rigged up, they make GREAT clamshell sconces (and very light too, and you don't have to worry about supporting the death of a clam either) The larger sized ($100) clam shells are also very cool, although I didn't purchase any.

Last time I was there they had a neat resin sabertoothed cat skull (that from a short distance look just like the more expensive repro ones on skullduggery) for $49!

I've seen the turtle - very life look (except the shell), but from a short distance look just like the real taxidermied ones we have down in the aquariums' collections.

Thanks for the post, sabu - are these from the Del amo store?

I picked these up at the South Coast Plaza location and they still had them in boxes in the stockroom. Not sure about the other locations.

Sabu