Chalicotherium (Bullyland)

The Prehistoric World by Bullyland produced many remarkable pieces, not only classics like the woolly rhino or the mammoth, but truly unique choices like Andrewsarchus, Gompotherium, Deinotherium and Chalicotherium. Most of them were rapidly retired, so some fetch outrageous prices on Ebay.

The choice is not gratuitous, as Bullyland sometimes produces animals found specifically in Germany (good for them!); that is the case of the type species, C. goldfussi, discovered almost two hundred years ago (although it’s been found in other parts of Europe and Asia). Despite its strange yet charming appearance, the now extinct family of the Chalicotheriidae (that lived from the Eocene all the way to the Late Pliocene) has remained almost unknown in popular culture, so the genus itself is quite obscure. Its description matches that of a chimaera: the gentle head of a horse, the body of a gorilla, a short stubb-like tail, a pair of extremely large forelimbs and big claws. Chalicotheriidae were odd-toed ungulates (that means that the hooves are irregular, in this case, they had 3 toes) and they probably had to walk on all fours (due to the masiveness of the arms) and to support their weight on their knuckles (no wonder it’s always portrayed like that).

The colouring is not something you would call amazing (in my opinion that’s not what Bullyland does best) it’s kind of pale bony yellow with some dark highlights (I’d have added some different paint on the claws and the ears). The sculpt is very respectable, simple pose but great detail (I particularly liked the fur, the long fingers on the forelimbs and the barely visible ribcage). The head is finely sculpted, although the ears seem roundish (classic Bullyland feature); the expression is calm, as if it were about to chew something (I mean, just look at that slightly crooked mouth! He’s sure up to something!) It’s not very big (barely 14cm from head to tail) but it belongs to that unusual kind of figures that we love around here.

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Amargasaurus (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

Carnegie has to keep up with the dinosaur market, which was gotten really competitive lately, with near-perfect accurate sculpts, and amazing paintjobs, from lines like Kaiyodo, Kinto, and so on. For the last 4 years, Carnegie has been making some nice new molds. In 2006, they released a new Amargasaurus sculpt, along with an updated feathered Oviraptor.

The Amargasaurus itself is simply one of the best Amargasaurus sculpts since Battat’s Amargasaurus. It’s done in the Carnegie style, of course, with the wrinkly skin. He’s colored in an apple green, with the sail being yellow and red. This Amargasaurus, unlike the Battat version, follows a more modern reconstruction, with the spines not supporting a full sail, having the naked spines near the top.

At about 22 cm long, this is one of the best sauropods you can buy, but it’s a rather small one, since he is in scale with the others. Amargasaurus was a 9 meter long sauropod, which is considerably smaller than other sauropods.

One drawback to this particular dinosaur figure is that he is rare. I don’t know whether this is just my case, but I had to buy mine online, after hunting for it for almost two years in stores. Another problem with it is that the spines may be bent in some specimens.

 Available here

Dimetrodon (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

The distinctive sail-back ‘mammal-like reptile’ or basal synapsid, has always been a favorite for dinosaur toy companies, even though its certainly no dino. I wrote a very brief blog on this figure back in July 2007 but I have since managed to acquire a figure for myself and can thus indulge you in some of the details.

This 18cm long model is one of the best Dimetrodon figures.  Like most of the Carnegie collection figures, the head suffers from a little deformation and a scruffy paint job, but the. overall shape is good: the deep short skull, highly situated eyes, and premaxilla notch, all contribute to the accuracy of this figure. The mouth is open and there has been some attempt to sculpt some of the larger teeth separately. The lips on the left hand side or contracted into a sort of grimace, but whether this is intentional or accidental is not clear.

There is a dangly pouch, or perhaps it should be called a wattle or a dewlap on the neck, which I think is a nice touch; too often sculptors stretch the skin around the skeleton with little though or the flippy-flappy soft anatomy typically present in living organisms. The tail is held off of the ground, I’m not sure how accurate this is – I would have thought that the tail dragged in this species, and the creature is striding forwards with purpose.

The overall colour scheme is pleasing, being made up of natural shades of tan and yellow but the painters have done a messy job with some of the highlight, which are quite obviously crude brush strokes. Maybe my figure was produced at the end of a long working day ? The eyes on the other hand are a work of art – extremely precise. The claws are not painted separately.

This toy review was sponsored by Dinosaurs at Atomic Elephant

It is available here

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Pterygotus (Kaiyodo DinoTales Series 7)

The Pterygotus was for a while the largest eurypterid ever (a while ago some paleontologists found the remains of a particularly large Jaekelopterus) Still, and although other sea scorpions measured 20 cm, the Pterygotus was obscenely large (measuring up to 2.3m!) It lived during the Silurian and the Devonian. There are several known species, but this one reminded me of P. rhenaniae due to the girth of the body.

This must have been a notorious predator, so the medium fishes were no match for this horror with big claws (although maybe larger fishes like the Dunkleosteus did prey on them). We don’t know for sure whether these entirely aquatic animals had poison or not on their tails (called ‘telson’) but the large pincers were a very efficient weapon (modern scorpions that possess big pincers do NOT possess a powerful venom, so this could be an indicator)

This is an stunningly accurate replica. The number of extremities is accurate (4 pairs of legs, one pair of beautifully done paddles and a pair of segmented pincers, one of which seems to be about to grab something), and so is the number of body segments (14). It amazed me beyond measure to discover that the tiny pair of eyes that should be located at the top of the head is in fact there. At first I totally missed them, but after careful examination, I saw that they were there! The enormous purple compound eyes are also noteworthy.

I’m not entirely pleased with the rest of the paint job, though. I’d expect an eurypterid to have a more uniform colouring, but guess what, as always, this Kaiyodo piece has many different shades (green, purple, gray, white, yellow). The underside is a little bit more conservative. If I had had my way, I’d have liked it to be black or gray.

Kaiyodo did another good job on this one, it’s a well done piece that shows that they did some research. It’s smallish, true (11 cm approx.) but it’s still one damn fine toy.

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Stegosaurus (‘Great Dinosaurs’ collection by Safari Ltd)

The Great Dinosaurs collection is a series of large hollow figures produced by Safari Ltd. They are cheap for their size and overall the sculpting is of a high standard, in fact, most of the figures are superior in terms of posture to their more expensive Carnegie Collection museum range counterparts (also by Safari Ltd), at least the older Carnigie moulds anyway.

The 29cm long Stegosaurus presents many nice features. The mouth is wide open, as if the animal is roaring, and a tongue can be seen prodruding from deep inside the gullet. Stegosaur heads ae very small, which is perhaps the reason why most Stegosaurus figures have a simple sculpt with the mouth closed. The surface detail is nice: there is a row of bumps on each side of the back running from head to tail. The skin is generally very wrinkled, and there is no indication of scales as there should be. The lower surface of the neck is covered by a packed array of ossicles, a detail frequently overlooked in other Stegosaurus toys.

The colour scheme is vivid, mostly yellow with a deep red back and plates with more yellow decoration. The toe claws are highlighted in grey, the eyes in black. There are only 13 plates (Stegosaurus actually has 17), but their shape is accurate – all of the plates are completely vertical so they do not form a ‘V’ shape when seen from the front.

The posture is dynamic, the animal is facing to the right and the tail is swinging to the left – the forelegs are striding but the hind legs are not so the creature looks a bit uncomfortable, like it is defending itself rather than taking a stroll.

All of the figures in the Great Dinosaurs Collection have an unsightly join where the two hollow segments have been joined together. Despite the very wrinkled surface, this is still visible in the Stegosaurus. These figures are light and cheap, making them perfect for kids play, but they also present enough detail and accuracy to warrant shelf-space in any serious collection too.

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

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