The Dinosaur Toy Blog

“Brachiosaurus” brancai comes to the Dino Toy Blog yet again. Of course, it isn’t really “Brachiosaurus” brancai, but rather Giraffatitan brancai, the big old brachiosaur from Africa having recently acquired a genus of its very own, albeit unfortunately a genus coined by Greg Paul on one of his off days (heresy!). If you disbelieve in the reallocation, I would suggest you argue with some real experts. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, plastic dinosaur.

Although my faith was shaken by the slightly shonky Deinonychus (that was nevertheless feathered and therefore better than most), this figure reaffirms my belief in Favorite as a purveyor of quality dinosaur toys. While smaller than most at 1:80 scale (it would be dwarfed by the happy Carnegie beast), this “Brachiosaurus” is a very impressive figure indeed.

Perhaps the first thing you will notice about this figure is the unusually straight and close-to-horizontal neck,  in contrast to most “Brachiosaurus” figures which tend to feature a swan-like or even periscopic neck. Given that the sculpt is a few years old, this is probably based on an infamous study that would have sauropod necks locked in a horizontal position, hardly able to raise up at all. This view has fallen out of favour recently, and I must admit that the ramrod neck is my least favourite feature of this figure. It makes it look like an awkwardly stiff prehistoric see-saw (as well as oddly depressed, in an anthropomorphic ‘I feel sad’ sense). The animal perhaps could jut its neck out in this way, but it lacks the graceful appearance of the 2010 Wild Safari toy or the old Invicta (for a comparison shot with the former, see below).

It’s the body of the Favorite model that impresses me the most and more specifically, the feet. Absolutely no sauropod toy manufacturer in history has managed to get the feet right – until now*. With only one claw per columnar forelimb and three on each hind limb, the attention to detail is impressive, beating even the latest Safari toy. The ‘hands’ are even concave, corresponding with fossil trackways. Someone’s put real care into this sculpt; the feet alone are enough to get a dino-geek all excited. (Oh, admit it.)

My bizarre sauropod foot fetish aside, the poor Favorite “Brachiosaurus” is looking a little Greg Paul-skinny (as in his illustrations – I can’t speak for the man himself). Nothing wrong with that, mind you – who’s to say that these dinosaurs were always lard buckets? It’s also lavished with the usual Favorite detail, including an all-over covering of largely uniform scales. Although the scales might not have been so large on an animal of this size, it beats elephantine wrinkliness any day. The muzzle looks a little off, but it’s a minor quibble. The colouring’s a bit bland too, a problem that all Favorite dinosaurs seem to suffer from.

To conclude then, a worthy and affordable sauropod figure that’s definitely worth a punt. Watch this space for a look at the Favorite Apatosaurus.

Review & awful photos by Marc (‘Horridus’)

*A late addition – apparently the Battat Amargasaurus also had correct feet (and the Diplodocus came closer than most). My apologies to pedantic Americans everywhere.

The unusual theropod Cryolophosaurus is the largest carnivorous dinosaur from the Early Jurassic and the most complete dinosaur known from Antarctica. This fascinating dinosaur is one of two new additions to the Carnegie Collection line in 2010. Their second offering, the first ever Carnegie ichthyosaur, is another figure to look forward to this year.

The most distinctive feature of Cryolophosaurus is the transverse fan-like crest situated above the eyes. There are also two low ridges formed by the nasal bones, that run along the top of the narrow skull in front of the crest. These cranial characteristics are beautifully an accurately restored in the Carnegie figure, clearly based on the fossil skull material. In-keeping with its probably function as a display structure, Safari have chosen a bright blue colour for the front of the delicate ridged crest.

The front of the skull is unknown for Cryolophosaurus so some conservative artistic license has been used to fill in the missing portion. The open mouth is finely detailed with sharp teeth of many sizes and a fleshy sharp-tipped tongue.

The figure is about 24cm long. The overall pose is relatively static with both feet widely spaced and placed firmly on the ground. The body is held horizontally, but the long tail sweeps gently downwards to support the figure with its tip, in a tripod pose. The three fingered hands are reaching forwards and the head is raised up and to the right.

A golden brown hue forms broad stripes along the neck, flanks and tail. A darker brown runs along the top of the spine and the (unpainted?) underside is a very light green. The throat region has a nice dewlap that adds character to the model. This is highlighted in light blue, very much like the recent Diplodocus in the same line. The eyes are gold with black pupils, the mouth is pink and the teeth are white. The claws, including the hallux on the inside of each foot, are picked out in beige.

The sculpt gives a nice indication of the underlying bony anatomy – the hips bulge out a little, as do the scapular regions. The skin is rough and wrinkled, in particular, a line of wrinkled skin runs along each side of the tummy between the base of the arm and the leg. This seems to be one of the signatures of Carnegie sculptor Forrest Rogers and has been noted in the vast majority of Carnegie figures.

Is summary, this is a awesome rendering of a really interesting species – a great addition to the Carnegie Collection line. It should be available to purchase shortly and I’ll add links here when the time comes. I’d like to thank Safari for sending an early sample of this figure for The Dinosaur Toy Blog to review.

Up for review is yet another Papo dinosaur – Velociraptor. This figure is largely praised in the dinosaur toy collecting community, as is the real Velociraptor itself!

Unfortunately, most aspects of this Velociraptor are wrong. The tail is too short and curved, the arms are awkwardly pronated, the tibias seem a little too long, and there’s no feathers – all very un-dromeosaurid like features. The shape of the skull is largely too robust for that of a Velociraptor, it is more reminiscent of its distant relative Deinonychus. Velociraptor was believed to have been a diurnal animal, so the slit pupils don’t make much sense. The pose really doesn’t help this figure; it can stand on its own two feet but it’s still rearing up. I would have preferred to have seen a velociraptor with a pose more similar to the Allosaurus or Spinosaurus. The teeth in the skull are all one piece with little lines sculpted in it to make it look like teeth – the end result are teeth that look like something from a flamingo or Pterodaustro.

Minus its inaccuracies, this figure does have some commendable points. The musclature is well defined throughout the body. The skin is very detailed, with each individual scale suclpted (there should  really be feathers, not scales, though!). There are also some nice wrinkles on the tail and the neck. It really looks like it could be alive.

The color scheme is largely unattractive. It seems as though they tried to get a mix of both Jurassic Park and The Lost World in one. The end result is kind of boring, especially for a little dinosaur who had potential to be VERY colorful.

If you want a true to the real thing Velociraptor, your best bet would be Bullylands 2008 version. If you are a big dromeosaur fan, or you like the animals of jurassic park, this one belongs in your collection for sure.

Available on Ebay here

Stegosaurus has always been a staple dinosaur. It’s featured prominently in museums, the media, museum toylines, chinasaur bins, and it’s been heavily researched. Many renditions of this animal have been done in toy form (just about every dinosaur toy collection has one!) so we’ll look at the attempt by Papo for now.

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The detail on this Stegosaurus is really insane. Each individual scale is sculpted, and the plates/spikes/nails are all very lifelike. There are nice skin sags on the tail, belly and legs, and there are even traces of ribs showing in the torso. Unfortunately, for such a detailed figure, it has a lot of inaccuracies.

First off, the head (while very nicely sculpted) is far too large; Stegosaurus is known for having a tiny head relative to its body size. The tail spikes, again, while nicely sculpted, are too curved upwards and they look very cracked (in real life they would have been smoother). The tail itself is tiny! It surely won’t be swatting away any Papo Allosaurs with it. The plates look like they are covered in skin, while in real life they were probably covered in keratin. Also, the plate size is too small; Stegosaurus had very large plates. The back feet have one claw too many, I’m pretty sure Stegosaurus had only two claws on its back feet (do correct me if I’m wrong in the comment box below). There seems to be an absence of nostrils too which is very strange.

The coloration is very nice and is very similar to that of Jurassic Park Stegosaurus. It’s a lime green on top with darker green drybrushed over it, which fades into a creamy grey belly. The outward-facing sides of the plates are brown with a green blotch in the center with a white blotch within it, while the sides facing in are strangely the same color as the rest of the body. The claws and the tail spikes are the same grey as in the splotches on the plates. The eyes are yellow with dotted pupils – this was a diurnal animal!

All in all, If you want a Stegosaurus replica that is true to the real animal, I would recommend Kinto or Wild Safari. All in all – If you are a fan of Stegosaurus (well really, who isn’t?) this is one worth picking up.

Available from Amazon.com (here)