I love the boastful big boy

I freaking LOVE this character, thank you for making him SO perfect to his character!!!

This has such a vibe of a monkey's paw wish. It's so funny. and I do feel it too as a latino XD

I think the Species you are looking for are called "Leaf-Nosed Bats" they are a species that ranges mostly the new world from southern US to south america :D I think they are used a lot because that the Genus a lot of Vampire bats belong to. so there's the Vampire appear.

I don't mean to be shallow here, but they are ALWAYS the MOST Wax-museum exibit looking people aren't they?

Second option would require the beads to be long enough to touch the base and thick/strong enough to support the weight of the model in the air. (which could be tricky to pull off)

I've seen miniatures go about this usually in one of two ways. Miniatures that are supposed to be flying or floating have a little transparent strut that connects to some part of the model OR a part of the model (like say, the beads) are used as a support strut to keep the model "floating".