Liopleurodon (Walking with Dinosaurs by Toyway)

It’s time to continue our review of pliosaur figures – this time we will look at the Walking with Dinosaurs Liopleurodon by Toyway. The line has been out of production for some years and was only available locally for a short period of time so this line, and this rare figure in particular is quickly becoming a ‘holy grail’ for dinosaur collectors.

It is a spectacular figure and is by far the most accurate pliosaur toy reviewed so far. All of the Walking with Dinosaurs figures are almost perfectly symmetrical, which is a let down in most of the figures which are just ’standing around’ – this is not so much of an issue the aquatic Liopleurodon. The figure is 24cm long.

The triangular-shaped head is good – the eyes are in the correct place (so often in plesiosaurs they are positioned too far back) and the little external nares are retracted close to the eyes as they should be. There are other accurate details – the mandibular symphysis and tip of the rostrum is slightly expanded and the teeth are enlarged and slightly procumbent, there is even a short diastema (gap) in the tooth row where the premaxilla meets the maxilla. The mouth is slightly open but there is no detail in the mouth, no gullet or obvious tongue for example. The eyes are yellow and inexplicably framed above by what appears to be a delicate eyebrow – perhaps this is supposed to be a beautiful female? I’m sure I don’t need to explain that pliosaurs almost certainly never had eyebrows I guess it is supposed to be a ridge.

The neck is short but distinct and the body is long and quite narrow (rather too narrow actually) with four long broad flippers. The body region is actually deeper than wide, the opposite should be the case. There is a ridge running along the spine. The limbs are beautiful with a rounded anterior edge and a sharp crenulated trailing edge, perfect for producing lift. The hind limbs are noticeably larger as is typical among pliosaurs. The limbs are expanded where they meet the body accommodating all that strong musculature associated with swimming. The tail is short and laterally compressed slightly.

The texture is quite rough which contrasts with the smooth skinned pliosaurs previously reviewed here. The flippers appear cracked and the tummy area is covered in irregular large scales, all nice details. The colouration is taken directly from the Walking with Dinosaurs TV series – is is speckled deep blue and white on the back and all over the flippers, the tummy is countershaded in white. It is a stunning and distinctive colour scheme – one that has shamelessly been duplicated by the new Procon Liopleurodon (review coming soon…). The WWD Liopleurodon is an amazing figure and one of my favourites.

It is rare but sometimes available here

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Spinosaurus (2008 version, Schleich)

It seems as though Schleich has seen the latest attempts by companies such as Papo and Safari Ltd and are now trying to get away from retro-style dinosaurs and on to new, more modern versions. This is clearly evident in the new Schliech Spinosaurus, which can be considered one of the best spinosaurs out there.

It is easy to be critical of this figure, but given the huge improvement over Schleich’s previous attempt at this species, together with the fragmentary nature of the fossil material, many of these points can be taken with a piece of salt. The head appears partially based on ‘Jurassic Park 3′, just look at the two crests before the eyes, Spinosaurus should only have one on the mid-line. The mouth is closed, and there are 39 visible teeth from the upper jaw. The nostrils are situated too far down the snout but overall the shape of the head is about right. The eyes are yellow with black pupils.

As for the body, the neck might look better with more curve, but they probably based its straight neck on the spinosaur Baryonyx. There are no ribs visible and the arms and legs are muscled up, but not too much. The hands don’t look quite right; the fingers should maybe be a little shorter and a larger thumb claw should be present (like Baryonyx has). The arms are very long, perhaps a little too long – this may have been done on purpose because the right hand touches the floor supporting the figure and allowing the tail to be held high. The feet are a little too large and the claws are a brown-red. The body is also covered with beautiful brown crocodilian-like scutes, which gives it a ‘lizardy’ look. The sail has no scutes and is coloured red and yellow. The tail is really nothing special, it is just the same brown with some red along the top. This figure is massive, it is 13 1/2 inches long (about 34cm), which when scaled up to Schleich standard, would make is 45 feet long in life.

A very nice Spinosaurus figure that isn’t all that expensive either. This figure is available here for only $16.95. A worthy piece for any collection! 8.5/ 10 stars.

Review by ‘Cordylus (AKA geckofan)’ and ‘Dinotoyblog’, photographs by “Cordylus (AKA geckofan)”

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Dinosaur figures for 2008 – a review

It’s not the end of the year yet, but all of the major releases this year have been and gone. The only other line we were (especially!) looking forward to, the Sea Monsters figures, have been cancelled – to everyone’s dismay. But not wishing to dwell on our losses, Dinosaur Toy Forum member Bokisaurus had kindly provided a round up of all this years newbies. Let us review the Class of 2008…
- Dinotoyblog

“Well, with the release of Schleich’s Brachiosaurus, Allosaurus, and Spinosaurus, the big 2008 dinosaur toy releases are finally complete (I’m still bitter about those sea monsters

I just got my Schleichs a few days ago, so I wanted to put together a photo of the class of 2008. Now I only included the big names in dinosaur figures. Well, let’s hope that 2009 will be as exciting as this year. Let’s all pray that no more figures will be discontinued the last minute like this years sea monster set. So here they are, the Class of 2008!

Procon: Gave us such obscure and diverse species of dinosaurs to choose from; many species made as toys for the very first time. They also released the most figures with 11 small ones and 6 deluxe figures! Not an easy thing to accomplish in this days toy market. From what I hear, next year’s will be as exciting!

Safari: The leader of the pack! They just get better and better every year! The Carnegie line gave us Giga and Diplo,easily the best figures of their kind. Only Battat’s diplo rival this years Safari star. The Wild Safari line gave us new versions of old time favorites :Three horn, Stego, Allo, and Velociraptor. The oviraptor is in his (her?) own category.

Schleich: Gave us three big ones this year. New versions of Allo, Brachi, and Spino, all big heavy guys! This years figures have lot’s of details and skin textures. The color is still a bit bland. A big improvement from Schleich.

Papo: Gave us just one figure, Big Al, but he is just a beauty! Love him or hate him, no denying that he has the best detail job of all the figures. Lets hope that Papo will release more that just one figure a year.

Bullyland: Ah, hmm, I don’t really know what to say about this lone figure, a feathered viloceraptor. Looks like Bully got left behind and made a desperate attempt to release a figure. :-/

That’s it! Happy hunting “

Thanks to Bokisaurus for the text and amazing photos!

Many of these figures are available here

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Spinosaurus (Famemaster)

Since the release of Jurassic Park 3, Spinosaurus has become one of the most popular and famous dinosaurs. However, there are still relatively few figures of Spinosaurus and even fewer good ones. The Famemaster 4D puzzle is one of the more reasonable ones.

The Famemaster Spinosaurus has the long snout and tall spine typical for this species but there are various features absent in the figure – there is no hallux (innermost digit on the foot), one of the hand claws should be larger, and the snout and teeth (the mouth is open) are rather generic in shape. These errors may be attributed to the small size of the figure (although kaiyodo manage). The overall pose is very nice with the tail held high and swaying slightly. The arms are held out in front, rather reminiscent of the Jurassic Park figure. The colours in this paint version are spectacular orange with black-rimmed white spots like some sort or big cat.

The Famemaster puzzles are quite small, this one is13 cm long, but they have plenty of detail (which is apparently what the fourth ‘D’ stands for). They are larger than Kaiyodo but smaller than museum lines. They are made up of many small pieces which slot together, I can see them being pretty challenging for very young children, but they form a sturdy display piece when completed. No wobbly joints or loose pieces – the Spinosaurus for example, balances perfectly on two feet. The number of figures and the taxonomic diversity in the line has been growing rapidly in recent years and I think given their small size they will become increasingly collectible.

This figure is available here as a set of four for $23.99

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Polyptychoceras (Kaiyodo DinoTales Series 6)

Of all the great Kaiyodo figures, this one stands out as one of the most exceptional. This was for a while the only heteromorph cephalopod replica (not that the market has expanded a lot, the only other one is the Kaiyodo Nipponites, hopefully soon to be reviewed here) The prehistoric cephalopods are an almost infinite source of interesting replicas, specially heteromorph ones (exclusively Mesozoic forms, particularly from the superfamilies Spirocerataceae, Ancylocerataceae and Turrilitaceae). If the other ammonoids can be very hard to classify and identify, the heteromorph shells are hard to miss and differ wildly from each other. I would love to see a Sciponoceras or an Heteroceras.

Take for instance the beautiful Polyptychoceras, of which several species have been found in late Cretaceous stones from Japan (no wonder Kaiyodo did it) and Canada. It’s one of the ‘paper clip’ ammonites (it’s been noted that it resembles a trombone and a candy cane). Much has been discussed about its locomotion and way of life. It must have been primarily benthic, although it was capable of swimming slowly for a short while. The soft part of it should have been massive enough to counterbalance the actual shell, not to mention that, due to the weight contained inside the shell, the entire body could only be positioned in two ways: either with the opening of the shaft pointing upwards or in the angle necessary for the soft body to reach the oceanic floor with its tentacles (the case of the Kaiyodo Polyptychoceras).

Its life was just as interesting. Their food was diverse: from ostracods to crinoids and plancton, incluiding crustaceans and even other ammonites. It’s been supposed that these animals lived in schools, because they have been found lumped together and there’s no evidence to support post mortem transportation. In fact, there’s unique evidence about the way they established their home, one of those rare fossilizations that englobes two or more organisms: the empty shell of a dead Eupachydiscus became a shelter for at least 10 Polyptychoceras especimens. Apparently they were looking for a safe place to live and, possibly, to nest, but died mysteriously. But reality is no place for wonders. This fossil is (or at least used to be) a turistic attraction in a Japanese restaurant *sigh*

Anyway, this beautiful replica is accurate enough (correct shape of the shell, although it might be a little too short). It’s tiny (less than 10 cm long) but extremely detailed and it comes with a base, a pretty rock The reconstruction of the soft parts is almost pure speculation, as almost no evidence has been found so far (interestingly enough, we can still see the markings left by their muscles inside the shells), but it is consistent with recent renditions (I remember seeing several Japanese illustrations that are very similar). The ridges of the shell are beautifully done. I like the paint job: mostly grey with pink and yellow highlights (this is the dark version, there’s a yellow one too) The soft body appears to be made out of a different kind of resin, it looks semi-transparent and the color is interesting (a kind of smoky purple that is almost grey). The paint of the eyes is golden. 

It took me a while to get it but it’s definitely worth it. For those who want something else other than a T-Rex replica.

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This review was endorsed by Atomic Elephant, a great online store

 

 

Pic and diorama made by Tomhet.

Dilong (Carnegie Collection by Safari)

This dinosaur was once considered a basal tyrannosauroid, but now it’s been suggested that it’s another kind of coelurosaur; even if we were to accept that it was feathered, this animal has no direct relationship with the Rex, so one wonders why the hell did Safari do a feathered young Rex, since it’s not been unanimously accepted that tyrannosauroids had feathers at some point of their lives, (only Xu Xing and his crew speculate that) and yet popular culture eagerly swallows nearly everything it’s given (the Schweitzer fiasco comes to mind). Dilong is a good example of how people sometimes see just what they want to see.

The Dilong was a famous dino for a while, but the Carnegie version is the only one available. It’s recent (the date on the belly is 2005, one year after its description). As you may know, Carnegie has raised the bar of museum-line sculpting in recent times, so this is a delicate product. The detail is not as great as Papo, true, and it’s still irritatingly thin (which is even more annoying on big theropods and sauropods) but these fresh batches are unquestionably superior to the first ugly sculpts.

I do support Carnegie’s attempt of producing medium-sized carnivores, they’ve nailed the trick, but not always: the Deltadromeus (whose build is somewhat similar to that of this Dilong) is a personal favourite, but I still consider the Carnotaurus a big failure; I certainly hope they release a Ceratosaurus. Some parts of the Dilong are awesome: the extremities, for instance, are smallish but they are remarkably well done. The muscles are decent, although the head could have been a lot better, compare the actual skull, a very good illustration (can’t remember where I found it) and our subject:

SKULL (image found here, the American Museum of Natural History)

COOL DRAWING (taken from here, a BBC link)

As you can see, the head needs some reshaping. The generic teeth only make it worse.

I dislike feathered dinosaur replicas, first and foremost because they look ugly to me (although I’m still suspicious about those miraculous Liaoning findings) and this one is completely covered either with ‘protofeathers’ or simple feathers; several scientists have said that these fossil markings could be explained due to collagen remainders; nonetheless, people tend to dismiss these scientists as lunatics. I would have preferred to see a scaly Dilong but on Carnegie’s behalf I will say that these hair-like structures are well-reproduced and will be fairly appreciated by those who favour them. They even went as far as to put a tuft of multicoloured feathers on the tail and a mass of red fuzz on the head (!)

The colouring is not really exceptional, it’s not bad, but it’s rather simple. I like the gradual blending from white to grey, from grey to black. The latter covers the four extremities, which produces a nice effect, although I’d like to see a different colour on the claws. The head and the tail however are another story. The turkey-like representations of feathered dinosaurs seem to me like a cheap shot, and this one features the official turkey triad: red, yellow and black. Fortunately they are hardly noticeable on this one.

It measures approx. 5.5″

You can find it on Atomic Elephant, a great store for your science-craving inner self

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Last picture submitted by forum member therizinosaurus. You can see the miniature Carnegie Dilong from one of the toobs.