The Dinosaur Toy Blog

I guess it is time for a review of Bullyland Deinotherium.
It is a highly sought after figure, not yet a myth, but quite close. This is due to the relatively little number of Deinotheriums that have been produced and delivered.
Deinotherium (“terrible beast”) was a large prehistoric relative of modern-day elephants that appeared in the Middle Miocene and continued until the Early Pleistocene. Bones of at least three different subspecies have been found in Erurope, Africa and Asia. In life, it probably resembled modern elephants, except that its trunk was shorter, and it had downward curving tusks attached to the lower jaw. The tusks may have served as tools for abrading the nourishing barks off the trees.

Bullyland always made fantastic mammal figures, and their Deinotherium makes no exception. It is a heavy and massive figure, measuring 11cm in height and 21cm in length. Its sculpt looks like a monument. I can´t deny the charm of the figure; it is a proud bull caught in a protruding walking pose. It is, however, probably not scientifically correct. In the original skeleton, the back declines more than the Bullyland version reveals.

The reconstructions of the animal vary from rather slender to really fat and hippo – style. Bullyland took the golden middle – massive legs and feet on the one side, obvious ribs on the other. The ears are a matter of discussion, too. Were they as big as the ears of an elephant or were they smaller? The Bullylands version tries a compromise that is not that good: The ears do not really seem to fit to the rest of the overall look of the figure. Sorry, they remind me of the ears of an aardvark. But this is the only downer, really. Maybe the feet are a little too massive, too.

Unfortunately Bullyland paint uses to wear off quite quickly. My Deinotherium probably had a long slumber in a toy chest and has been moved very often while the child looked for other toys, and collided with other figures, toys or even sharp objects.
Some collectors thus decided to do fantastic repaints. You find those in our forum. As for me, I love the worn-off style of my own copy, showing it had a life before my cabinet episode. The toy chests and children who underestimate the value of the figure are the chance for collectors. Sometimes Bullyland Deinotherium shows up in lots with other animals, also recent ones. People then seem to consider it an elephant.
I bought mine on ebay, where a seller wrote “Dinotherium”. It was a snip compared to the value this great figure seems to have.

What’s this – the Carnegie Dilong again? Haven’t we seen it around these parts before? Well, yes, we have. Unfortunately, the original reviewer left the blog some time ago and, for whatever reason, deleted all his posts upon departure. As such, what you are reading now is a replacement – written by me, I’m afraid. So, without further delay, let’s take a good gander at the Carnegie Dilong from 2005. Again.

Dilong paradoxus lived in China in the Early Cretaceous, as did Caudipteryx and Beipiaosaurus (although perhaps not at exactly the same time), both of which have also subsequently made it into the Carnegie Collection. While it’s definitely a plus that this Dilong and the Beipiaosaurus are sculpted at roughly the same scale, Dilong was a somewhat more diminutive creature than Beipiaosaurus (or at least, the type specimen was). As such, fine details are a little more fudged than on the therizinosaur, particularly around the head; the teeth are indistinct while the eyes, apart from probably being a little too large, have asymmetrical splodgy pupils.

Of course, Dilong is most famous for having been preserved with evidence of a fuzzy ‘protofeather’ covering, and fortunately this is far more attractively rendered. The details remain very crisp up close, giving a pleasing impression of a ‘furry’ fluffiness. While the colours could be considered a little conservative, in this case it’s probably actually a good thing – a bright blue (for example) Dilong would actually have been incredibly unlikely, as the nature of ‘protofeathers’ all but prevents this colouration from being physically possible.

Anatomically, this model is very good even if it’s not perfect, and certainly excellent given its very cheap price tag. Perhaps most obviously, the hands do not match up especially well, the real Dilong having quite long hands and fingers of more differing lengths. The tail is also rather thin where it joins the body (not allowing room for muscles), although this was common in palaeoart until fairly recently. Other than that, the proportions are good – the legs are nice and long and the head is deep and narrow, with the characteristic low Y-shaped crest evident.

The Carnegie Collection has, since 2005, been so far ahead of the pack as regards feathered (nonavian) dinosaurs that it’s been a little embarrassing  (although that naked Velociraptor is a very unfortunate black mark), with Collecta only now catching up. Although certain aspects of the sculpt could use a little more finesse, this Dilong is certainly a worthy addition to a lineup that now also includes Microraptor, Oviraptor and of course the aforementioned Beipiaosaurus and Caudipteryx. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of them – starting with a Velociraptor resculpt!

We’re joining this particular party late as the following Safari Ltd photos have been circulating the interwebs for months now, so it’s about time we posted them here to complete (more-or-less) our round up of new dinosaur figures for 2012. So, here’s a preview of Safari Ltd’s offerings for this year. Five new figures will be released including a single addition to the Carnegie collection, a humongous Brachiosaurus, that will put the old version to shame. In the Wild Safari line, four new figures will be added. When we factor in all the new releases from Safari Ltd, Papo, CollectA, and Bullyland, we certainly have a lot to look forward to in 2012.

From top to bottom: Carnegie Collection Brachiosaurus, and Wild Safari Vagaceratops, Dracorex, Ceratosaurus, and Acrocanthosaurus.

We’ve already previewed the upcoming offerings from CollectA (New CollectAs for 2012) and Papo (New Papos for 2012), so now we’ll have a peek at what Bullyland have in the pipeline. They have two new figures for our perusal, a somewhat googly-eyed Spinosaurus, and a feathered Therizinosaurus.

The Spinosaurus:

The Therizinosaurus:

Bullyland are continuing their trend of adding points of articulation to their figures, presumably to increase playability and provide a marketing hook, so the new releases have moveable arms and jaws, respectively. Next up from me, an overview of Safari Ltd’s 2012 releases.