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Monthly Archives: July 2009

Diatryma by Bullyland

Posted on July 23, 2009 by libraraptor | 1 Comment

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!

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Posted in Bullyland, non-dinosaur

Tyrannosaurus by Linde

Posted on July 22, 2009 by libraraptor | Leave a comment

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.