The Dinosaur Toy Blog

“All brontosauruses are thin at one end; much, much thicker in the middle and then thin again at the far end.” – a theory by Anne Elk (Miss)

The Apatosaurus (formerly known as Brontosaurus) by Invicta provides strong evidence for Miss Anne Elk’s theory; this figure is indeed much thicker in the middle, and thinner at either end.

I like the Invicta set because, despite increasing anatomical (mostly posture related) errors, they are all so finely sculpted and stunningly natural in posture. The Invicta Apatosaurus has its tail dragging along the ground and the head raised high, contrasting with modern reconstructions which portray the tail and neck held roughly horizontally. The nostrils are positioned quite far back, recent evidence suggests that the nostrils in all dinosaurs were positioned more anteriorly in the narial cavity, and the teeth would probably have been visible too.

The back is strongly arched and forms a beautiful natural curve, and the tail has been sculpted with a slight undulation, adding to the naturalistic pose. The details are very fine (see some close up details of the head and rear right foot, pictured below), the shape and distribution of claws is very true to the fossils bones. The figure is posed in mid-stride, so although it is old fashioned in general appearance, it does not appear sluggish, this Apatosaurus is on a mission to find food!

The majority of the Invicta line were produced at a standard scale (1:45) and as such, the sauropod figures are the largest (and most expensive) in the collection. The Apatosaurus is about 45cm long. I have figured the plain colour version here (a pale white gray), but a softer plastic colour version was also produced. Still occasionally available in some British Museums, and sometimes available on Ebay.

Discuss this figure in the Dinosaur Toy Forum

I also recommend this video, the origin for my opening quote:

The Dinosaur Toy Forum- the official forum of The Dinosaur Toy Blog – was launched this month as a place for dinosaur toy collectors and enthusiasts to share and discuss their collections and to talk about dinosaur toys in general. Please feel free to browse the posts and we look forward to you joining in the discussions!

-the Dinosaur Toy Bloggers

EDIT – October 2008- The Papo Allosaurus is now available here.
And full review of this figure is featured here

The latest in Papo’s line of detailed prehistoric creature figures was unveiled today in their 2008 Catalogue. The new addition is a super-cool Allosaurus and it is remarkable for plenty of reasons.

The new Allosaurus is similar to the existing Papo sculpts in a number of aspects: the detail is immense, the colouring is vivid but natural, the pose is fluid and dynamic, and the lower jaw is poseable. However, the Allosaurus also stands out from all of the other dinosaurs in the series because it is not been based on the dinosaurs portrayed in the Jurassic Park movies. This figure on the other hand, represents a dinosaur not even portrayed in Jurassic Park and is a original sculpt strongly reminiscent of the work of palaeoartist Todd Marshall.

There are some speculative details in this sculpt, notable are the protruding scales (not feathers) on the top of the neck and on parts of the back. I personally like this sort of detail, dinosaur figures are always open to a degree of artistic licence but this touches are usually beneficial in terms of the aesthetics of the model and in this case add a realistic feel to the animal; many dinosaur figures are often quite conservative in this regard.

The legs and arms are muscular (perhaps a little too strongly developed in the feet) and the animal is taking a long stride, the tail is long and held high so that the figure balances perfectly on two feet. I do not yet know the length of the figure and will update this blog when I find out – I believe it is around 25cm long or so. The claws are black and the teeth are white, while the skinn is covered in a mottled pattern of greys and greens with some orange highlights. The eye ridges are typical of this genus. In all honesty, this is probably the best mass-produced dinosaur figure currently available (possibly ever) and redeems Papo for all of the erroneous details in some of their other figures. Papo is raising the standard in museum quality dinosaur toys, lets hope that the other companies such as Schleich, Bullyland and Safari will keep up…

Available here.

The full review or this figure is here

Image from Papo Catalogue, 2008

The long-necked elasmosaurs are one of the most unusual of all prehistoric animals. Most elasmosaurid toys and figures are allocated to the genus Elasmosaurus, the most famous of the very long-necked plesiosaurs, however, in reality Elasmosaurus platyurus is quite a poorly known species, and much of the original skeleton has been lost. Therefore much of the anatomy of Elasmosaurus remains speculative. Toy companies are basically ‘playing it safe’.

On the other hand, there are plenty of better known elasmosaurid species, which due to their general unfamiliarity with the general public, have slipped by or been ignored by toy companies. For this reason, I was delighted to see Procon produce the first ever replica of Hydrotherosaurus, an elasmosaurid from the Cretaceous of California.

At 19cm long (9cm of that neck), the Hydrotherosaurus replica is quite small (compared with length of the Elasmosaurus by Schleich [31cm] Carnegie [29cm] and Bullyland [28cm]) but it retains plenty of detail. The neck and head are outstretched directly in front of the body, and slightly bent to the right, so no impossible swan or snake-like pose as seen in other plesiosaur toys. The neck is notable in that it is flat underneath so that it is ‘D’ shaped in cross section and almost snake-like; the necks of other plesiosaurs are sculpted as circular tubes. The detail of the head is limited by its small size, but it is obvious that the cranium has been based on actual fossils or accurate illustrations of Hydrotherosaurus – the snout has a distinctive squared-off tip. The needle-like teeth are highlighted in white and the eyes are evil orange, but they are in the correct position and face outwards and upwards as they should. Many heads of many plesiosaur toys are complete monstrosities, the Procon Hydrotherosaurus makes a nice change.

The body is barrel-shaped, a little too deep and too rounded on the tummy, it should be wider than tall but the figure is opposite. The limbs are quite nicely shaped, however they are not robust enough where they meet the body (this region was full of muscle in life for propelling the animal forwards) and the expanded portion near the base of the flippers should be facing backwards rather than forwards, the limbs therefore almost look like they are on backwards. The tail is short and stubby.

The figure is textured with coarse scaley skin on top and is smooth below (it is not known whether plesiosaurs had scales or not), the colour very nice, stippled green and black on top with a lighter grey tone below. The figure is printed with the company name, but not with the genus name.