Microraptor (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

The recently discovered and described Microraptor is known from a number of specimens from China. Not surprisingly, given the short scientific history of this feathered dinosaur, there are very few models or toys of Microraptor. The Carnegie Collection introduced a bunch of feathered dinosaurs in 2005, including this Microraptor, to reflect the recent surge in the number of fossil feathered dinosaurs discovered over the last decade.

Because the actual animal is so tiny, the Carnegie Collection Microraptor is produced at a 1:3 scale (most other Carnegie’s are scaled at 1:40), and the figure is 19cm long. The most striking feature of this figure are the colours of the plumage – bright orange with red, yellow and black highlights. The wings of the arms and legs are spread out and the animal is twisting to look to the right, as if the animal is mid-jump between two trees. The underside of the wings is much paler in colour and the claws are grey. Only the tips of the enlarged sickle-shaped claws are painted, so they look a lot smaller at first glance than they really are. The mouth is open and a big juicy tongue can bee seen protruding.

The sculpded details on the surface of the body are very impressive, the entire surface is feathered, the wings have distinctive layers of feathers. There is a tuft of feathers on the head too. When the figure stands, its right leg rests on the feathers, but this is because the animal is in a leaping rather than a standing position.

It makes a change to see a really delicately built animal become a part of the Carnegie collection. While many toy companies continue to ignore skinny dinosaurs, and overlook the scientific evidence for feathers on theropod dinosaurs, (probably because they are much more dificult to sculpt than smooth scaley skin), Safari have endeavored to embrace these new animals in all their glory, and they haven’t skimped on the details!

This toy review was sponsored by, and is available from Atomic Elephant

Amargasaurus (Battat)

This was my first Battat. Back then, 10 years ago, I wasn’t aware they made dinosaurs this detailed, and I didn’t know of an Amargasaurus. When I crossed with my mum into that little specialty shop so long ago, I knew I had hit the jackpot. Not only was it the first time I had ever seen Battat, but I was immediately mesmerized by their amount of detail. I was looking for Carnegie but I became a Battat fan, too. I was looking for rare dinosaurs I hadn’t come across before (And if not, I’d simply buy a Carnegie Euplocephalus, which I did). Amargasaurus fit the bill (I could have gone for the others…heck I just wanted to buy them all, especially the Diplodocus…)

Back then, Battats came in little boxes. I went to great efforts to keep the box, but, I lost it recently. It gave these dinosaur a sort of…superiority that Carnegies just didn’t have then. Battats are also in scale with Carnegie dinosaurs, which makes it more fitting.

Amargasaurus itself is detailed beyond belief. For the time it was made in, this is what you would call top notch. The texturing is perfect, and it breathes a sense of realism into each dinosaur. The shades of grey over the animal are perfect. This Amargasaurus is depicted as having a sail supported by its tall spines (which is now a cause of debate, and new figures are depicted as having naked spines that don’t support a sail).

Now, I don’t know whether this is a production error, or just mine, but, the right side of the spines that lay on its neck are a little shorter than the left side spines. It…creates a visual annoyance. At 20cm long, this figure is quite small for a sauropod.

As for Amargasaurus itself, this was a quirky looking dicraeosaurid from Argentina that was described rather recently. Gondwanian sauropods like these further prove that both South America and Africa were together at some point in the past.

Review by Emperordinobot

Sometimes avaiable here

Discuss this and other figures in the Dinosaur Toy Forum

Diplodocus (Battat)

The Battat Diplodocus is what sauropod toys aspire to be. This imposing monster is the ultimate collector piece, and even if it still shows some typical (i.e. now questionable) conceptions of the 90’s, I’m tempted to say that this is the most spectacular replica ever released by a mainstream line (not that there’s anything wrong with the new Carnegie Diplodocus, it’s a very respectable effort)

The way I see it, the Battat line was the rightful heir of the classic Invicta set. The Bostom Museum of Science series (not Carnegie, mind you) really strove to offer an affordable modern collection that would result both highly detailed and accurate. The Diplodocus should be a shining example of what you can do with simple molds, competent sculpting and regular manufacturing.

As we already know, the Battat Diplodocus includes the name of the species, in this case, it’s the Diplodocus longus, the holotype named by none other than Marsh in 1878. Needless to say, the Dippy has become increasingly famous, evolving into one of the more emblematic dinosaur genus. It’s been studied over and over again, so it’s no surprise that even today many anatomical uncertainties still remain.

One debated issue has always been the positioning of the nostrils. For decades the consensus was that they were on top of the head, where the actual nasal openings are located. Now it’s been suggested that they were located at the sides of the snout after all. The Battat version still has the nostrils located at the top of the head, but the issue has not yet been solved as far as I know, so this could go either way.

I still frown at the position though. As dinamic and attractive as it may be, I don’t think it would be easy for such a large animal to rear up like that. The tail is here used as a support and is in complete contact with the surface on which it rests.

The front legs were shorter than the hind ones; the neck and the extremely long tail represent two thirds of the body (the tail alone had 80 vertebrae). The Battat toy reflects all this perfectly (the tail had to be done in two different segments) and the scale itself is right (the Battat scale was 1:40, if we consider that the average length of the Diplodocus is 26 mts, the body measures roughly 70 cm, incluiding the coil of the tail) Although this is supposed to be a light weight sauropod, the toy is quite massive and heavy.

The colouring is nothing otherwordly, it’s efficient tan becomingly mixed with brown but in this case, details are everything. The beautiful teeth, the vivacious eyes, the infinite skin pattern, the bulging musculature, the claws, I cannot begin to describe the sheer beauty of it all. Dan LoRusso must be really proud of this baby.

I won’t lie to you, this replica is almost impossible to find nowadays, but I still hope some other company decides to revive this set.

Currently Avaiable here

Discuss this and other figures in the Dinosaur Toy Forum

Pleurocystites (Kaiyodo Series 3: Dinomania)

Very few times I have come across with a replica so outlandish that it deserves praise. It’s happened to me repeatedly with Kaiyodo and I think this is the case with the Pleurocystites. I mean, who else has had the patience to sculpt an exctinct echinoderm, let alone so exquisitely detailed?

The history of the cystoids (these echinodermata are called so because they resemble a bladder) is very curious. All echinoderms evolved from primitive Cambrian ancestors, but it was not until the Silurian that they reached an enormous diversity. The cystoids, although very well known (just look at the beautiful fossils) still pose mysteries to scientists, for we don’t even know how they breathed or how they moved (if at all). They have no living equivalent; their body (called theca) was asymmetrical, the plates were irregular rhomboids. These animals had one flagellum and a pair of arms called brachioles. Apparently they didn’t live in big communities, as many echinoderms do.

The Kaiyodo Pleurocystites is tiny (barely 10 cm) but the colouring is festive and complex: translucid dark blue, silver, pink, yellow, brown and two different shades of orange for the body. As for the details, I’d say that the highlights are the well positioned openings, the obligatory rhomboidal pattern of the body, the ringed texture of arms and flagellum and some minuscule markings on the arms.

The Pleurocystited may have used the long flagellum to attach itself to something solid, in which case the rest of the body would float horizontally. More recently another theory has been suggested: it is far more likely that it remained lying on the sea floor and sometimes dragged its body using the arms. This seems to be the case of the Kaiyodo replica, it can even be correctly positioned, lying with its two major openings facing upwards. There’s one simple flaw: the ‘ventral’ side, the one that remains underneath, should have a different texture, as it was covered with a set of smaller plates; we find the same rhomboids instead.

I must confess that the authoritative Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology helped me during this research. It’s a very interesting book.

The Kaiyodo Pleurocystites has only 2 pieces, so no difficult assembly is needed. It’s out of production, but surfaces now and then.

Discuss this and thousands of other figures in The Dinosaur Toy Forum

Acanthostega (Kaiyodo Dino-Tales Series 2)

This is a very special guest. The Acanthostega has been heralded as one of the earliest amphibians known to man, the sole member of the Acanthostegidae family, a late Devonian tetrapod that raised doubts about the evolutionary process that mediates between fish and amphibians. This is one of the emblematic animals (the Tiktaalik and the Ichthyostega come to my mind) that make visible the tenous link.

Acanthostega gunnari (the only known species) still bears a great resemblance with fishes. Measuring around 1 meter, it still had gills (there’s even fossil evidence of them) and lungs. It had a tail fin composed by very thin fin rays. Its ‘labyrinthodont’ dentition (incluiding a set of fish-like fangs) is another primitive feature (so it would have been interesting if this Kaiyodo had its mouth open).

Decades ago scientists were pretty sure that fishes like the Eusthenopteron came out of the water and only then developed limbs. This and other animals proved that the limbs actually appeared before they could actually use them for crawling or walking, that is, they may have needed limbs for some other reason. Acanthostega’s limbs were too fish-like to support the body on land (it didn’t even have wrists). But that’s not all. Acanthostega had eight fingers on the front limbs and seven on the hind ones; this probably meant that the digit number was not a stable factor when limbs first appeared.

The Kaiyodo Acanthostega manages all this quite well. They didn’t get the digits completely right (it seems as if they tried to do them all, but in the end they only did 7 and 6 respectively) but that’s the only ‘fault’. The plastic is dark purple, almost black but at some points it’s translucid, and it’s covered by white and yellow dots, so the effect is pretty amazing. The caudal fin is extremely well done. The pattern of the skin is meticulous beyond measure.

This is a very attractive piece, but keep in mind that it only measures around 10 cm. It’s rarely seen on Ebay nowadays, but it’s worth every penny.

Discuss this and thousands of other figures in The Dinosaur Toy Forum

Diplocaulus (Kaiyodo Dino-Tales Series 1)

A good looking amphibian, the Diplocaulus has won a warm spot in all our hearts. This unorthodox critter has even been a subject of interest for that circus called ‘cryptozoology’ (the supposed Diplocaulus was a fake, of course). I’ve seen at least one anonymous Chinese Diplocaulus toy, but not many companies have come up with a decent replica. Only the Kaiyodo Dino-Tales series cover as many bases as possible and I’m pleased to say that this is yet another winner.

The Diplocaulus was a Permian lepospondyl (a type of amphibian with very curious vertebrae) of the family of the Keraterpetontidae (name provided by another cool member, the Keraterpeton). The Diplocaulus measured up to 1 meter and lived in swamps and rivers; it probably didn’t venture outside its aquatic enviroment because its limbs were relatively weak and primitive. It probably preyed on fishes and insects. The order Nectridea (to which the Diplocaulus belongs) were very similar to modern newts; their tails were flat (no caudal fin).

Perhaps the most notorious thing is its head. The cranial projections are practically unique and have been subjected to debates for decades (the topics range from growth to locomotion, you name it). They were so big that they probably didn’t fit inside the jaws of bigger predators. There are two known species, D. magnicornis and D. salamandroides (curiously they were both found by Cope). I think this toy is based on the latter, which is the holotype, but I could be wrong. Advanced Nectridea members were supposed to have four fingers on the fore paws, and five on the hind ones, but the Kaiyodo Diplocaulus has 5 fingers on each.

All in all, the detail and the paint job are not as revolutionary as the ones from Series 3, but they’re still awesome. I particularly liked the feel of the skin (almost smooth but not quite), the big mouth (which is closed, so no visible dentition) and the bulging eyes. The squashed body is not as fat as in most of the artistic renditions. The belly is white, while the rest of the body is green with yellow and orange patterns (the yellow one seems a little bt clumsy). The nostrils are inexlicably absent.

As with many Kaiyodos, the resin seems fragile; that’s not all, sometimes the pieces of the puzzle (in this case, the two pieces, the body and the head, require minimum assembly) do not fit perfectly due to production problems. I guess it has to do with its being a miniature (the toy measures aprox. 9cm).

Discuss this and thousands of other figures in The Dinosaur Toy Forum