The Dinosaur Toy Blog

We’re joining this particular party late as the following Safari Ltd photos have been circulating the interwebs for months now, so it’s about time we posted them here to complete (more-or-less) our round up of new dinosaur figures for 2012. So, here’s a preview of Safari Ltd’s offerings for this year. Five new figures will be released including a single addition to the Carnegie collection, a humongous Brachiosaurus, that will put the old version to shame. In the Wild Safari line, four new figures will be added. When we factor in all the new releases from Safari Ltd, Papo, CollectA, and Bullyland, we certainly have a lot to look forward to in 2012.

From top to bottom: Carnegie Collection Brachiosaurus, and Wild Safari Vagaceratops, Dracorex, Ceratosaurus, and Acrocanthosaurus.

We’ve already previewed the upcoming offerings from CollectA (New CollectAs for 2012) and Papo (New Papos for 2012), so now we’ll have a peek at what Bullyland have in the pipeline. They have two new figures for our perusal, a somewhat googly-eyed Spinosaurus, and a feathered Therizinosaurus.

The Spinosaurus:

The Therizinosaurus:

Bullyland are continuing their trend of adding points of articulation to their figures, presumably to increase playability and provide a marketing hook, so the new releases have moveable arms and jaws, respectively. Next up from me, an overview of Safari Ltd’s 2012 releases.

Up until about a week or so ago I was intending to lump the modest parade of new 2012 figures by Safari Ltd, Papo, and other non-CollectA companies, into a single post. That was before the slow trickle of anticipated 2012 releases from these companies swelled to a veritable torrent , almost, but not quite, matching the army of  figures CollectA has in store for us next year. It therefore seems only right to reward them all with a separate post each. So, let’s will begin with Papo – Jurassic Park fans may wish to hold onto their hats.

With the much maligned Tylosaurus (see below) a distant memory, Papo have pulled it out of the bag and surprised us with news of not just one sad soggy reptile, but seven new prehistoric animal sculpts for 2012. And they’ve thrown in a repaint for good measure too. Here’s what we have:

First up, a brand new version of an adult Tyrannosaurus rex:

I suspect this new T. rex is supposed to be the male counterpart  to the prexisting female (repainted for 2012), because two baby Tyrannosaurus are also being introduced to complete the family pack:

Also exciting, 2012 will see Papo produce their first ever sauropod, a mighty Brachiosaurus:

And we’ll breeze past the aforementioned Tylosaurus so find, bringing up the rear, and also sticking with the family theme, two new baby mammoths:

Coming up in the next few days, summaries of the new 2012 figures from Bullyland, Safari Ltd, and perhaps even Schleich if I’m in the mood.

Review and photos by Nathan Morris (‘Takama’)

It’s a well-known fact that CollectA’s prehistoric animal figures vary in quality. Some of them are good and incorporate current palaeontological knowledge, while others are poorly sculpted and sacrifice accuracy. The subject of today’s review belongs to the latter group, but to be fair, the toy was released when CollectA was just venturing into the dinosaur toy business in 2007. The figure is supposed to represent Dilophosaurus, a 20 foot long Early Jurassic theropod notable for two thin crests on top of its skull and a distinctive notch in its jaw-line. However, CollectA’s effort bares almost no resemblance to the real animal. It takes on a cartoonish persona instead, which might appeal more to little kids instead of collectors.

Reviewing this figure and pointing out its flaws is a piece of cake, you will immediately see that this Dilophosaurus is in an outdated tripod position, but then you might also notice that its tail doesn’t actually touch the ground – it is able to stand on its own two feet. This makes the tripod position redundant as it could have been sculpted in a more accurate horizontal position like CollectA’s Eustreptospondylus and standard sized Neovenator (even though they were both bad sculpts as well). The rest of the body also has many flaws. Dilophosaurus was a long slender animal, but this figure is a pot-bellied, short-tailed abomination. And while it has a fat belly, the ankles appear too thin to support its weight if this creature were real. In general appearance the whole body has detailed wrinkles and folds of skin, a common feature of generic dinosaurs in the toy market. The arms should be shorter but at least the hands have the right number of fingers. On the head the bottom jaw is crudely sculpted and dislocated, while its teeth are blunt and pebble-like when they should be sharp and pointed. It also lacks the aforementioned notch in the jaw, so the only character that really distinguishes it from other generic theropod figures is the pair of iconic crests on top of its head.

The colours on this figure work fine in my opinion. A line of black is painted along the back of the figure, while the rest of the body is a dark blue-green with bands of lime green running down the flanks. The hand claws are just little black spots dotted on the edges of the fingers. The head crests are orange and the mouth is sparkling clean with pink gums and a raspberry tongue, when it should probably be rotten and dull from eating all those Anchisaurus.

So that’s it, in terms of accuracy this model is among the worst in CollectA’s ever-growing line of prehistoric figures. But accurate or not, I see this as a happy little fellow to be played with by a happy little child, although I can’t recommend it to anyone who only accepts the most accurate models into their collection. If you’re one of those people, then Safari’s awesome rendition of this genus might be up your street. I bought this figure because I’m a sucker for Dilophosaurus and CollectA’s expanding collection of prehistoric animals. And remember, it could have been worse – at least it lacks a retractable frill! Always available on eBay here.