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Archive for June 2008

Velociraptor (Wild Safari Collection by Safari Ltd)

June 27, 2008, 5:04 pm Posted by cordylus

It looks as though Papo finally has some competition. This Velociraptor by Wild Safari is great, and it can be found pretty cheap too. I bought mine for $7.99. It has to be the best Safari velociraptor ever (All of the other safari velociraptors are ugly in my opinion!). Previous attempts by Safari at this dinosaur include those in the Carnegie Collection, Dinosaurs of China Collection (see blog entry), and the great dinosaurs collection (see blog entry)

This raptor looks as though it is just about to jump on a unsuspecting Protoceratops. It’s right foot is pushing off the ground, it’s left foot is up and ready for attack, the jaws are wide open showing many yellow teeth and a pink tongue, and the arms are (somewhat) ready for grabbing any unsuspecting prey.

It is mostly just a mixture of browns, which would have been very good camouflage in a desert environment. The eyes are yellow with vertical pupils (suggesting this was a nocturnal creature), the claws are black, and the inside of the mouth is a mixture of pink and purple. The detail on this figure is amazing; you can see every little bump and wrinkly on it’s skin, you can see the small scales on it’s hands and feet, and you can even see the muscles rippling beneath it’s skin. This Velociraptor is not very big: This guy is only about 8 inches (20 cm) long, and more then half of that is tail.

If you don’t have this figure, you must buy it ASAP! This is one of the best Velociraptors out there, and despite the minor flaws (lack of feathers, wrong positioning of the hands), it still makes a great display figure and deserves 11/10 stars.

Review by Geckofan

Available here for example ($4.99).

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velociraptor wild safari

Tags: dinosaur, safari ltd, toy, Velociraptor
Category: Safari Ltd, theropod | 10 Comments

Triceratops (‘Great Dinosaurs’ Collection by Safari Ltd)

June 4, 2008, 2:19 pm Posted by plesiosauria

This most famous of ceratopsids has been reincarnated in toy form on many occasions; Triceratops is after all a household favorite.

Triceratops_great

Once again, the Great Dinosaurs collection impresses us with a pretty good figure, far exceeding our expectations for a $6 bargain and offering an embarrassing comparison for one of Safari’s other attempts at this dinosaur (the original Carnegie Collection Triceratops is simply appalling in my opinion).

This figure feels a little like a stamping bull getting ready to chase down a squealing matador. The right foot is scraping along the ground and the huge head is lowered and tilted to the side – its making a show of things. The colour is basically bland and grey with a little brown details. There are no painted details on the claws, horns, spikes, tongue or beak (it would have been easy to and would have improved the figure significantly), but at least the eyes have been highlighted in black and surrounded by pale eyelids. As with the rest of the figures in this series this is a large figure – 26cm long and not to scale with the rest of the series.

Triceratops_great