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Monthly Archives: January 2009

Stenonychosaurus / Troodon (Invicta)

Posted on January 9, 2009 by libraraptor | 7 Comments

Review by Stefan Schröder (alias Libraraptor)

This Invicta Stenonychosaurus/ Troodon is already 21 years old and still one of the best coelurosaur reconstructions that have ever been made.

Invicta Stenonychosaurus / Troodon

I really like this very credible sculpture for it has many details which are not obvious at first sight. Since the scale is larger than the typical Invicta scale they could afford giving it real eyeballs. The shape of the snout has been carved out accurately and has distinct nostrils. The tail hits the eye immediately – the figure is very balanced and portrays the presumed agility of these small dinosaurs.

Invicta Stenonychosaurus / Troodon

The posture is good but it is the only Invicta dinosaur to need a supporting base (a different colour to the rest of the figure), to which the feet attach in sockets, but it pays off. The dinosaur looks like pausing after a quick sprint, watching out either for prey or for predators, always ready to continue its sprint.

Invicta Stenonychosaurus / Troodon

20 years ago there was no “feathered dinosaur” discussion and, to be honest, I could not imagine this kind of model wearing feathers, although the real Troodon probably had feathers. But who cares? This clearly is not an everyday dinosaur figure, it is an outstanding ambassador for the already outstanding Invicta line!

The figure can occasionally be found on Ebay

Invicta Stenonychosaurus / Troodon

photos by ‘Webdragon’, used with kind permission

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Posted in invicta, theropod

Tagged dinosaur, invicta, Stenonychosaurus, troodon

Tyrannosaurus rex (baby) (Jurassic Park: 'Dinosaurs 2', Kenner)

Posted on January 9, 2009 by cordylus | 2 Comments

Review by Cordylus

This little guy is one of my favorite Jurassic Park repaints, the original baby rex was released as part of the first wave of Jurassic Park: The Lost World figures (Series 1). The repaint was released later under the ‘Dinosaurs 2′ line – the figure comes with a human and some accessories, but this review will just look at the dinosaur itself.

Any inaccuracies that one can find can be easily dismissed- this is, after all, a baby, so of course proportions and things like that would be open to debate. This little baby is very cute, he is pretty chubby and has fat little arms. His feet and legs are very long and oversized, adding to the cute baby look. He has little needle teeth, and large eyes. He is scaly, no downy feathers (as some paleontologists now suppose) and he looks quite good this way. His tail sways to the right and then the left. He has five points of articulation – Legs, arms, and jaw. He is hard plastic, not rubbery like some other jurassic park dinosaurs and he stands perfectly fine on two feet.

His color scheme is very nice too- the original figure was purple and brown but the repaint is a nice dark blue-gray on the back, which fades into a periwinkle color. He has nice light blue stripes running down is body, some of which are outlined in black. He has a white “JP” symbol on his leg, maybe he was captive-bred? His eyes are red with black slit pupils- this contradicts the movie, as the animals in Jurassic Park had circular pupils. Maybe this is a different subspecies, or a genetic mutation! His teeth are very curiously painted, the bottoms of the teeth are painted white, while the sides are painted black – Maybe he has tooth rot?

This little guy is great for any collection- and he is quite common and cheap. If you are lucky, he can still be found at some KB toy stores, and it is quite common if you search for Jurassic Park toys on Ebay.

Images from JPToys, used with kind permission – a great site for Jurassic Park toy information!