Plateosaurus (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

With “1994″ stamped on its tummy the Plateosaurus is fast becoming one of the older figures in the Carnegie Collection. Plateosaurus is from the Triassic of Germany and is classified as a prosauropod dinosaur, that is a close relative of the later large long-necked sauropods.

Plateosaurus was once thought to have been completely bipedal and was usually depicted striding boldly around on two hind legs. Today Plateosaurus is regarded as primarily quadrupedal with the possibility of rearing or running on two legs on occasion (the scientific term is ‘facultative biped’). The Carnegie figure is standing proud on two feet so it is out of date in this regard, although it retains a certain nostalgic charm. The pose is also quite static so it looks like it is just standing there looking straight ahead.

The hands have five uniform stubby little fingers, that’s the correct number of digits but doesn’t accurately reflect the variation in claw and finger size seen in the actual animal, there is no large thumb claw for example. Similarly there is something funny going on with the feet – the right number of toes are present but the 5th toe (on the outside of the leg) is positioned rather high.

The head is well done for such a small piece and it quite ‘boxy’ with a blunt snout. The nostrils are particularly large, in fact is has been suggested that prosauropods such as Plateosaurus had an excellent sense of smell. The colour is very nice with chocolate brown on the back and striking black and white streaks on its flanks. There are also some spots on the neck. Prosauropod figures are not frequently produced as toys so this figure is nice addition to any collection, although it would be interesting to see weather a new version is introduced as a replacement if this aging figure is ever retired.

Available from Safari.com (here) and Amazon.com (here)

Join in the dino-discussions at the Dinosaur Toy Forum

Sphenacodon (Linde)

Here we have Linde Sphenacodon. In May Tomhet wrote an excellent recension of Marx´ classic Sphenacodon, also writing that “the two others were almost impossible to find”. Well, almost.
Austrian company Linde added plastic toys to their coffee packages. Eight of those were prehistoric beasts, not all to scale but well sculptured and highly detailed. Made of marbled olive-coloured plastic sometimes nerved by black or red, with a waxy feel, Linde reptiles are highly collectible.

Their Sphenacodon is no exception. It is 7,6 cm long and 1,9 cm tall. The reconstruction shows the animal in a crawling posture, muzzle opened wide. As for detailedness in relation to size, the Sphenacodon catches up to Invicta Dimetrodon. The skin pattern is worked out very well, so are the feet with their claws and the ridge on the back.
The head requires extra attention. Eyes, ears and nostrils are caringly machined. The mouth lacks teeth for some reason, the cleft in the upper jaw, typical for pelycosaurs is present. Funnily, from above the nose of the animal looks like the nose of an elephant seal.

Regarding this animal and the way it has been reconstructed, I can hardly understand that the cool Sphenacodons are neglected so much in comparison to the Dimetrodons. Probably it is because they lack the spectacular sail, so one can say Sphenacodons stand in the shadow of Dimetrodons´ sails and can thus be easily overlooked. Unfourtunately they do not deserve this fate.

An interesting fact about Linde reptiles: two of their animals´ names bear misspellings: The Tyranosaurus and the Spenacodon.
As a bonus to this review you can see an encounter of Linde and Marx Sphenacodon on the picture above. It´s up to your fantasy what these rarities tell each other…

Size comparison

Diatryma by Bullyland

Bullyland Diatryma is a well done replica of an athletic, robust bird. Bullyland scores with a credible posture, nice colouring and some neat details. On the other hand one can say Bullyland perhaps interpreted Diatryma a little bit too clumsy.

Diatryma, nowadays better known under the name Gastornis, is an extinct genus of large flightless bird that lived during the late Paleocene and Eocene periods of the Cenozoic. Fossils were found in Texas, USA, as well as in Messel, Germany. Some scientists think Diatrymas were top – predators of the rainforests in those times, preying on early horses and other little mammals. Some others think the beak was perfectly adapted to cracking seeds and tearing off twigs and branches from trees. Debate goes on.

Diatryma measured about 1,90 m in height. The Bullyland version has a 1:24 scale and thus is 8 cm tall and about 9 cm long. Its overall colour goes from bright grey on the belly to dark blue or even black for the plumage. This plumage is worked out well. It allows perfectly for the fact that Diatryma´s feathers were not the ones one knows from flying birds but rather thick, long and hairlike keratin structures.

The head exhibits a yellow beak with black forefronts and an orange eye area. One can well imagine this Diatryma as a male in courtship, trying to attract females by displaying its strong head, shaking it from one side to the other maybe. The beak also reveals an orange tongue.
Let´s look at the legs and feet. The shins and feet show scales, the theropod origin of birds comes to mind. The toes run out in powerful, groundrunners´ claws.
We can conclude that Bullyland did a very good job. The terror bird figure circle of friends is growing, and Bullyland Diatryma contributes to this discovery for sure!

Tyrannosaurus by Linde

It is time for the „King“. Today I would like to review the Tyrannosaurus by Linde. Linde  produced a coffee substitute herbal tea back in the 50´s and casually added little plastic toys as premiums to the packages. There was a lot of eight prehistoric animals among them.  
Linde T.rex is of olive-coloured, marbled plastic with a waxy feel. It is 6,2 cm tall and 7,5 cm long, one of the smaller T.rex collectibles out there, similar in size to Marx or the Bullyland minis.

It is very old fashioned in posture, broad and bulky.  A dinosaur adept immediately recognizes that the sculptors clinged to the Tyrannosaurus from the Great Dinosaur Mural at the Peabody Museum of Natural History from the Yale University in New Haven while sculpting this model.

The unequalled fresco was painted to the wall of the great dinosaur hall by Rudolph Zallinger in 1944 and is still highly esteemed by palaeoartists around the world. The mural shows early reptiles as behemoths of a long lost time and represents the common sense on dinosaurs those days. They were regarded as sluggish, dim – witted animals leading towards extinction cluelessly.

The Linde Tyrannosaurus is a three dimensional version of the T.rex on the fresco. The sculptors assigned all the details accurately: Nostrils, ears, the very small arms, the eyes and the teeth. They even noted the crest on the back, making it look like made of skin. It runs down to the end of the tail as a small, jagged ridge. I also love the highly detailed plaits on the neck. The waxy surface makes these plaits look like leathery skin.
Overall, Linde T.rex is a gem in every collection. Not just because of its overall look, but also because its connection to the Yale mural and the fact it is probably the only Austrian T.rex out there.
This is a figure that affords a multidimensional approach, and that is just of my taste. Unspectacular at first sight it reveals its secrets little by little.
Sometimes Linde prehistoric animals show up on ebay. Their Rhamphorhynchus is supposed to be highly sought after.

Arizonasaurus (The World of Dinosaurs by Bullyland)

Arizonasaurus was a 12 foot long, predatory, long legged Rauisuchian related to modern crocodilians, and it was a top predator in the lower Triassic ecosystem of yep, you guessed it, Arizona roughly 240 million years ago. The name translates simply to “Arizona reptile”. Although to a layperson Arizonsaurus and other Rauisuchians may resemble dinosaurs, they were not. In fact, Arizonasaurus lived before the first dinosaurs had even evolved, though later Rauisuchians would coexist with early dinosaurs for millions of years. Arizonasaurus exhibited a large sail on its back formed from the elongated neural spines of its vertebrae, similar to the older, unrelated Early Permian pelycosaur Dimetrodon. The function of sails like these in fossil saurians has been the subject of much debate, with theories ranging from thermoregulation, to brightly colored mating displays, or just simply to make the animal appear larger. The genus Arizonasaurus was established by paleontologist Samuel P. Welles in 1947 and a mostly complete skeleton was recovered by Sterling Nesbitt in 2002. The figure is mostly based on this 2002 specimen.

In 2007 the German company Bullyland introduced several figures representing obscure Triassic genera to its World of Dinosaurs museum line, including the Arizonasaurus, which is the only the figure of its kind. It almost seems as if these were released to promote the displays in Germany’s Stuttgart Museum because the poses of the figures are nearly identical to those of their life-size counterparts in the museum. The Arizonasaurus is even the same exact color. The figure is about 8.5 inches long and 3.5 inches tall at the top of its sail. It is scaled at 1:20 (so is the human, for a relative size comparison) along with Bullyland’s Triassic Batrachotomus and Paratypothorax figures. The skin is scaly, wrinkly, and just well detailed all around. The figure is molded in a plastic much more rubbery than is used by most manufacturers, but it’s solid. The paint scheme is quite fantastic and like I said, it matches the Arizonasaurus in the Stuttgart Museum. It is predominantly bright red on its sail and sides, with three horizontal blue-gray stripes wrapping around the sail, gray spots on its sides and limbs, a gray banded tail, and gray markings on the skull. There is a single row of scutes along the neck, top of the sail, and down to the tip of its tail. The belly and inside of the limbs are a rusty brown color with tan, the teeth are painted white on their outer sides only, there is a bright red tongue in the mouth, and the eyes are yellow with black slit pupils. The claws are painted dark gray. It seems to be in a walking pose with the left forelimb raised.

This model is another fantastic entry by Bullyland, with very few anatomical errors. The feet are particularly good, with the 5^th outermost digit of each “paw” curved outwards as it should be. The skull is also highly detailed and almost resembles that of an early theropod dinosaur, although theropods are unrelated to animals like Arizonasaurus and it is merely the result of convergent evolution. Large theropod dinosaurs occupied the same ecological niche as the Rauisuchians had before them. While overall I’d say this is a great figure, there are a few problems. The body of the animal is too short; there should be more distance between the hind and forelimbs. This almost makes the figure look too chunky, but it isn’t a huge problem. The legs are noticeably a bit chunky. The skull is also a bit misshapen, with the snout tapering to too much of a point, the maxillae not being deep enough in places, and the teeth, while not bad looking, are rather generic in shape and size.

This is a great model and it has a very unique and eye-catching color pattern. It definitely didn’t disappoint when it arrived in the mail. It’s still in production and is relatively easy to find online. Rauisuchian fans, this one’s for you!

Batrachotomus (The World of Dinosaurs by Bullyland)

Batrachotomus was a primitive basal rauisuchian, which were a group of crocodile-like archosaurs adapted to a strictly terrestrial lifestyle, and were the dominant predators of the Triassic. Batrachotomus existed around 235 million years ago during the Ladinian Age of the Middle Triassic, and is considered by many paleontologists to be an early form of the more widely recognized rauisuchian genus Postosuchus. Its name means “frog slicer”, since it is believed to have preyed upon the large labyrinthodont amphibians which shared its habitat. Batrachotomus was discovered at Kupferzell in southern Germany in 1977. Rauisuchians evolved an erect limb posture which enabled them to more efficiently chase down prey on land, and this trait would appear again in the Dinosauria through convergent evolution.

There is no debate that dinosaur figures make up the vast majority of prehistoric toys produced, so it is quite refreshing when more obscure groups of animals are represented in figure form. The Bullyland Batrachotomus, released in 2007, is the only replica of this rauischian genus to be produced by any company to date. The figure is roughly 10.5 inches long, 3 inches tall (at the hips) and scaled at 1:20. The prehistoric Homo sapiens figure is from Bullyland’s Evolution of Man line and is also scaled at 1:20, to show the size of Batrachotomus in relation to a human. This figure is clearly meant to be a smaller reproduction of the full-scale Batrachotomus model on display at the Stuttgart Museum in Germany (which sponsors Bullyland’s museum line), sharing a near identical pose, although the coloration of the full-scale is a different dark green shade. The toy figure was produced in two color schemes, one of which resembles more the full-scale with a solid gray-green back and tan belly. This paint scheme seems to be rarer and may even be out of production. The other color scheme, pictured here, is mostly blue-ish gray with red markings and highlights throughout. The figure is made out of a much more rubbery vinyl than other manufacturers such as Safari or Schleich use, but it is high quality and means there is next to no risk of cracked or broken off limbs from a fall off the shelf. The belly is tan and the claws are left unpainted. There is a black double row of scutes with red highlights running along the animal’s spine, and smaller individual scutes running laterally along its sides. The teeth are rather generic and, while individually sculpted, look a bit goofy and are only painted white on their outer-facing side. There are no teeth at the very front of the jaws. The inside of the mouth is pretty plain, with not even a well-defined tongue, and is painted red. Its eyes are yellow with black slit pupils.

I feel that Bullyland did a great job sculpting this prehistoric beast. They managed to make everything quite well proportioned, although I have a few qualms about the skull. The upper jaw seems to curve up a bit much, the whole skull is too short, and the teeth just don’t look right. However the skull is well detailed, with two crests above the eyes and good definition of the underlying bone structure. As land crocodiles, rauisuchians also sported bony scutes all over their body, much as their semi-aquatic cousins do today, and these are faithfully reproduced in this Batrachotomus figure. The feet each have the correct number of digits, which is always a plus and I think it shows attention to detail by the manufacturer, though with the full-scale museum model as their guide, Bullyland really couldn’t have screwed up too much.

I highly recommend this figure both because rauisuchians are an important fossil group which is poorly represented in toy collections and because it is just an impressive piece. As of this review being published, it is still in production and is widely available from a number of online retailers.

Beipiaosaurus (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

Beipiaosaurus is a therizinosauroid although it is not included within the family Therizinosauridae because it is more ‘primitive’. Fossils of therizinosaurs confused palaeontologists for many years. Their fragmentary remains were originally allied with prosauropods because of their long necks, backwards facing hips, peg-like teeth suited for a herbivorous lifestyle, and other anatomical features. But new and more complete discoveries later revealed them to be unusual theropods – some fossils, including those of Beipiaosaurus, preserve filamentous structures that have been interpreted as feathery integument.

The Carnegie Collection Beipiaosaurus figure is moderately sized at about 20 cm long. Beipiaosaurus is actually a very small animal a little over 2m long so the Carnegie model has been produced at a larger scale (1:10) than most of the others in the series. This has allowed plenty of detail to be incorporated in the sculpt.

For example, with the exception of the feet and tummy, the entire surface of the figure is covered in a finely detailed plumage of filamentous feathers. These are especially developed on the arms and also form tufts at the back of the head and at the tip of the tail. This reflect the current consensus on the appearance of these animals and contrasts with Safari’s older smooth-skinned therizinosaur, Therizinosaurus, previously released as part of the ‘Dinosaurs of China’ line. Safai’s ‘Great Dinos’ Therizinosaurus is also feathered.

The beak-like mouth is open showing neat rows of teeth and a small tongue. The arms with their three massive claws are large and long enough so that the left arm support the figure in a tripod pose allowing the tail to be raised. It is unclear what their spectacular long hand claws were used for but the palms correctly face each other and the wrist joint is angled as it would have been in life.

The colour is mellow and quite fitting for such a scraggly creature. There are some white highlights on the neck and side of the head but most of the plumage is grey. The eyes are particularly nice and birdlike, they are red with a gold iris and round black pupil. In my opinion this is the best Therizinosaur figure available.

Available from Safari.com (here) and Amazon.com (here)

Feel free to join in the dino-discussions at the Dinosaur Toy Forum

Reviews updated with new photographs

This is a quick announcement to inform everyone that several reviews have now been updated with new walkaround photographs, these are:

Amargasaurus (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

Giganotosaurus (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

Dilong (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

Parasaurolophus (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

Diplodocus (2008) (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)

Although the 2008 Diplodocus has been featured several times on this blog already, it has never been reviewed, so it’s time to make amends with a photographic walkaround and short review.

This is Safari’s second attempt at a Diplodocus and this version is a much improved affair. The overall appearance of the model is elegant and gracile, the slender neck and tail are held more or less horizontally (the tail suspended above the ground) and the legs are positioned so the animal is striding along with intent. At 55 cm (21.5 inches) the figure is very long, even with the head and neck turned at almost 90 degrees to the body and the tip of the extremely long tail coiled up at the end.

There is a single thumb claw on each front foot and three claws on each hind foot, this makes a refreshing change to the generic five-clawed feet often portrayed in sauropods. The surface of the skin is rather bumpy and wrinkled. A sagging line of skin runs along each side of the body between the front and rear leg; this flabby feature is often present in Carnegie Collection sculptures although I as far as I’m aware it is speculative. Perhaps it is the sculptor’s calling card. There are several warty bumps on the back and base of the tail adding character and texture to piece, these are highlighted in deep green. Similar bumps or scutes are present in the recent Carnegie Spinosaurus but those are not highlighted as in the Dippy- cutbacks perhaps?

The head is nicely sculpted with the mouth slightly open. The nostrils are positioned near the front of the skull in line with the current scientific consensus – older restorations of sauropods had the nostrils on the top of the head.

The back is green-blue and there is a sinuous grey line extending along the entire length of the animal. The colour is paler below the line. In addition to the aforementioned bumps, there are some additional highlights. The throat is picked out in dashing blue and parts of the head too. The curled tip of the tail is striped in blue and green, perhaps the tail is being used as a communication devise as speculated in ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’.

In conclusion, this figure is both impressive and charming due to its combination of large size and attention to detail/ personal touches.

Available from Safari.com (here) and Amazon.com (here)

Tyrannosaurus rex vs Triceratops diorama (Sideshow Collectibles)

Sideshow Collectibles, having released a very popular piece based on their newly acquired Jurassic Park license, has discovered something: Dinosaurs rock.  Sure, they make interesting subject matter in art, but if there’s one thing that consistently performs well in sales, it’s dinosaurs.  New movies and shows might enhance public interest from time to time, but I believe this is merely a reflection of the public’s ongoing and eternal fascination with dinosauria.  To that end, Sideshow gathered up some of the finest paleoartists in the world to develop statues for their latest product line, Dinosauria.

Their first release is a show-stopping “diorama” statue, constructed of polystone and measuring a full foot in height.  Like many products from Sideshow, this statue depicts an intense action scene, a moment frozen in time, much like the fossilized animals themselves.  The classic battle between Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops is portrayed with such ferocious intensity, it is unlike any other reconstruction I have seen.

The slick outer packaging on the box for this diorama offers not only some detailed photographs, but an exciting backstory to explain the events leading up to the scene depicted.  Apparently, the Triceratops is a grizzled bull that has been ambushed by a juvenile Tyrannosaurus.  It becomes badly injured in the ensuing struggle, and this is plainly visible by the gaping wounds on the bull.  A massive chunk of flesh appears to have been ripped straight out of its tail, just the sort of wound one would expect to be inflicted from the specialized jaws of a Tyrannosaur.  Deep lacerations run down its flank, possibly resulting from a fearsome kick or two from the theropod.  Additionally, there are rows of deep puncture wounds along its back, indicating a fresh bite from the Rex’s famous jaws.  These wounds not only add life and character to the diorama, they awaken the imagination to the possible scenes that played out just before this moment.  Sideshow has promised lots of unique character to be injected into each statue, and the older scars running across the Rex’s face seem to highlight the history of this animal.  He led a colorful life before this moment, while his fate now seems uncertain.

At first glance, the carnivore appears to be unscathed.  Rotating the diorama toward the anterior end of the animals reveals a much different story.  The Triceratops, apparently using a time-tested tactic in predator defense, shifts its weight and drives one of its facial lances straight into the belly of its attacker.  This crucial injury is captured in such raw and unapologetic detail, it is almost difficult to study for long periods of time.  The skin is visibly ripped and torn, letting loose hot blood from the exposed tissue beneath.  The product description suggests that this is a mortal blow, and if the Rex has indeed ruptured vital organs from this wound, his position in this diorama instantly becomes more sympathetic.

The gaping jaws of the Tyrannosaurus sub-adult, presently stained with the blood of his prey, suggest he is roaring in some combination of unrestrained rage and incomprehensible agony.  Rotating the statue further reveals that the both of the predator’s feet are in the air, his body pressed painfully against the weaponized skull of the ceratopsian.  This carnivore has not merely been impaled, but battered.  His body lingers briefly in midair before completing what will no doubt be a grievous fall to the earth, from which he may never stand again.  The full weight of the Triceratops has been slammed right into the Tyrannosaur, likely crushing ribs and lungs during the course of this monstrously blunt trauma to his flank.  There is no cautious aggression to be found between them; this is a life and death struggle between predator and prey, and the prey has no qualm about killing the predator in order to survive.  The full fury of the animal has been unleashed on the careless Rex, and the result is nothing short of explosive.  For such a massive predator to have been gored and shoved so violently is a true testament to the often understated power of the Triceratops.

Despite the fearsome jaws and magma-colored eyes, this Rex has tremendous pathos in the diorama.  Having let his instinctual rage get the better of him, he has become overly aggressive in pursuit of this veteran Triceratops, and will likely pay for the mistake with his life.  The base of the statue shows densely layered rocks centered around the herbivore’s footing, suggesting the earth is literally crumbling in the wake of this epic struggle.  Both animals appear likely to lose their footing, but when the dust settles, it seems inevitable that the bipedal attacker will have more difficulty recovering than the stout four-footed defender.  If he stumbles and lands on the ground, he could be helpless to defend against a second, lethal charge from the Triceratops or a brutal trampling of his body.  This is clearly not his day, and quite possibly his last.

Despite their scale, the animals are very intricately detailed.  Most of this detail appears to have been focused in certain areas of the bodies, namely the heads of the animals.  This is not very noticeable when viewed from a distance, but the discrepancy between the amazing ceratopsian’s sheathed beak and the relatively bland foot is a bit disappointing, particularly when one considers the hefty price tag.  Still, the paint is outstanding.  The bottoms of the animals’ feet are appropriately grimy, and the fresh wounds glisten realistically.  Even the teeth of the Triceratops are visible deep within the jaws, a detail most admirable given how few audiences would even think to look there.  The posterior of the animals reveals their tails nearly intertwined in an eternal embrace, a charming yet subtle artistic touch as the two characters complete their dance of death.

The bodies themselves are powerfully muscled and adorned with rows of scutes, just as one would expect a living dinosaur to look.  The Tyrannosaurus is very naturally colored in deep amber, rich bronze and dark browns.  This looks to be an outstanding camouflage for an ambush predator, lurking in the shadows of a Cretaceous forest until the perfect moment to strike reveals itself.  The Triceratops appears to be too large and well-armed to be concerned with camouflage.  His massive body is mostly red with a pale ventral coloration, possibly due to his advanced age or an indicator of sexual maturity.  If the Rex’s colors are intended to say “I don’t exist, you don’t see me”, the crimson colored Triceratops seems to say “I bloody well do exist, and you don’t want me to prove it to you.”  This overt display of tremendous strength and nearly boastful color serves to remind the audience that herbivores in the Cretaceous were not wimpy; in fact, they could be fearsome bullies.

The aforementioned discrepancy in detail across the bodies of the animals remains the only true complaint I can muster with regard to this piece.  I feel it is appropriate to mention this because of the triple-digit price of the item, not because it detracts significantly from the sheer awe of the sculpture.  It is certainly an impressive piece, and this ten pound statue should be given a secure location in any household where children are running about.  Otherwise, I would say this is a beautiful collector’s item and striking centerpiece to any location – you could even use it as a table centerpiece for a unique conversation starter or spouse eradicator.  Sideshow’s Tyrannosaurus vs. Triceratops diorama is sure to become a highlight of any collection.  If this premier sculpture is any indicator of things to come from Sideshow’s Dinosauria line in the future, I believe we are all in for a real treat.

Review and pictures by Dan Liebman