The Dinosaur Toy Blog

Afrovenator - that’s one most people haven’t (and won’t) heard of. It almost makes me surprised that CollectA did one (but I guess if any of the mainstream dinosaur companies were to do one, it would be them).

Afrovenator itself was a megalosaur (or allosaur or spinosaur, does anybody even know?) from mid-jurassic Africa, who was about thirty feet long, and was presumably a pretty nasty fellow. This figure’s sculpt seems to be a passable restoration of him. The skull should be a little taller, and the teeth should be MUCH longer (the fangs on this guy were huge!). The nostrils should be a little higher up on the skull, and the postorbital fenestrae should be a little larger. Oh, and the way they hands are positioned is wrong (but really, you should know that). The sculpt does have some good points though; the scales are nicely sculpted and there’s nice ridges of spines on his back.

The coloration of this guy has to be my favorite part about him. It’s very subtle but very nice. Just a light tan on the belly with a darker olive green on top, with some darker blue green tiger stripes. I think this might be a male, due to the facial coloration, which is very bright orange. The eyes are a reddish brown, with slit pupils (this guy was nocturnal!). The claws are black, but the hallux toes’ claws aren’t painted at all.

Now, the pose. It looks ridiculously kinky, unless you have a puddle of water or a dinosaur carcass in front of it. If you have the rest of the CollectA 2010 set, be sure to not place your Tsintaosaurus behind him

All in all, if you can get past the common CollectA shortcomings which are present here, this is one to get. It’s only about $5, and at about 6 inches long this dinosaur is not too small nor too large. Reviewer recommended!

Review by Cordylus, photos and figure captions by Plesiosauria

This is truely a marine reptile lover’s dream come true. For years, Nothosaurus, Metriorhynchus, Basilosaurus and the like were all hard to find and expensive (if there were any to even be found) – until now.

Last september the dinosaur collecting community was stunned by the toys safari ltd was going to release the next year; now, most safari dinosaurs so far this year have been released. One of the ones that most everybody has been looking forward to is the new Prehistoric Sea Life Toob, which offers ten prehistoric marine critters: Elasmosaurus, Liopleurodon, Nothosaurus, Henodus, Ichthyosaurus, Metriorhynchus, Dolichorhynchops, Basilosaurus, Tylosaurus, and a Frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachus).

The sauropterygians (plesiosaurians and their relatived) from the prehistoric sealife toob by Safari Ltd. Top row from left to right, Nothosaurus, Elasmosaurus, Henodus; bottom row from left to right: Liopleurodon, Dolichorhynchops.

The rest of the critters from the prehistoric sealife toob by Safari Ltd. Top row from left to right: Tylosaurus, Basilosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, Chlamydoselachus; bottom: Metriorhynchus.

The plesiosaurians in this toob are very nicely done. The Elasmosaurus is what you’d expect; smooth skin, a straight neck, and a relatively correctly shaped head and correctly placed & posed fins.

Close up of the Elasmosaurus from above.

The Liopleurodon could have had a black and white color scheme to match the adult (actually, I would have preferred the larger version have the color scheme of this one) and it has odd wrinkles between the fins on either side of the body, similar to the procon version and some carnegie dinosaurs. Most anatomical aspects of this figure are correct. The Dolichorhynchops, is the highlight of the three; its inspiration from the IMAX “Sea Monsters” film is obvious (if it only had those white spots behind the eyes it would really be a dead ringer for the sea monsters one). Overall a very pleasing group!

Now onto the more “lizard shaped” animals in the toob ( Tylosaurus, Metriorhynchus and Nothosaurus). The Metriorhynchus is very nicely done and it has the coloration of some crocodiles today (it was an odd strictly marine crocodile!), and it is probably the most fierce looking out of all the marine crocodile toys released so far. The Tylosaurus has some great skin and head details, but the fins really are too large and I think that kind of detracts from it. I’m almost tempted to paint black stripes on it so it will look like its Carnegie Collection counterpart!

Close up of the Tylosaurus.

Now, onto the real gem of the group (and perhaps the entire toob!), the small and beautiful Nothosaurus. The skin detail on this one is insane, as is the paint work! They even gave it individually sculpted teeth! I really love the webbed hands too; those are all features that make this little toy very much like the real thing.

Close up of the Nothosaurus.

Now to the oddballs that I really couldn’t group anywhere else – Ichthyosaurus, Henodus, Basilosaurus and Chalmydoselachus (also known as a frilled shark to all you who couldn’t figure that one out!). The Ichthyosaurus is nice, but it’s very laterally compressed and I can’t say I’m too impressed with it, although I like the green color. It’s probably the weakest of all of the toob critters (it really isn’t bad, though).

Close ups of the Ichthyosaurus from above and from the side, showing how the body in this toy is extremely compressed from side to side.

The little Basilosaurus is a thing of beauty! It looks a lot like one of Todd Marshall’s paintings. It isn’t highly detailed; I would have preferred more things on its skin like barnacles etc. like extant whales have today.

Close up of the Basilosaurus.

The Henodus looks very well done, and because of the paint application, it appears to be made out of a resin of higher quality than it really is. The detail on his one is very good. The Frilled Shark has some extinct relatives that are very similar to it, so it’s not entirely surprising that they put one in this toob. They got the gill count correct (twelve gills in total) and it looks like they tried to make the teeth the right shape too (frilled sharks have very oddly shaped teeth that are very sharp). They managed to really make this one look snake-like like the real one is, and they made it a pale pink like most specimens humans have encountered have.

Overall, this is a fantastically done toob of prehistoric animals, and I couldn’t recommend more. There’s something for everyone in here – plesiosaur collectors, crocodile collectors, whale collectors, shark collectors – will all have a gem to find in this ~$10 toob (that’s only a buck a piece!). No longer do dinosaur toy collectors have to spend loads of money on hard to find Nothosaurs, Basilosaurs and the like - this really is a dream come true.

Available on eBay here

For Jurassic Park fans, the news of a new toy line back in May of ’09 made many excited, and others indifferent. Hasbro was going to release another line of Jurassic Park toys that was only made out of repaints. Or so we all thought……

JP fans had come across a list of the toys in the line and their prices. There was a “large tyrannosaurus” slot with a $60 mark next to it. Most JP fans expected this “rex” to be a repainted issue of the “Ultra T-rex” from the Jurassic Park 3 toy line, because its inflated price matched up with the rest of the new prices of the 2009 line. So when pictures of this retooled “Bull Rex” came out, everybody was extremely pleased and everyone was also filled with shock and awe.

Why do I say retooled? Because this figure is very different from its “ancestor” from 1997. The back legs can move, the body is made of solid plastic with a button on its back, it can’t swallow figures completely, and the ankles are ball-jointed; all are the opposite in the original “bull rex” from 1997.

Luckily, those who have always had trouble finding an original “bull rex” can have essentially the same thing but have so much more. One plus is that it has ten different movie-accurate roars and it makes stomping sounds (because no dinosaur from jurassic park can walk around without registering on the richter scale), which make it much more fun.

The sculpt is very detailed, and this dinosaur toy is HUGE. It’s 29 inches long! It really is the biggest dinosaur toy out there, maybe aside from the definitely dinosaurs “Ultrasaurus” (which is a largely poor dinosaur toy). It is full of lovely wrinkles and different textures. I love the teeth in the mouth; some are big and strong while others appear to have been cracked off, as if he has been munching on some bones (the differing teeth also make this figure more of an individual as opposed to a regular mass-produced drone like some dinosaur toys are). The eyes look kind of walleyed though, because the pupils are painted on the surface of the eye rather than sculpted in the middle. The figure has huge, slightly posable feet that are perfect for stomping around in and they also help it stand.

The color scheme is very nice too. It isn’t one found in jurassic park, so that is another characteristic that makes this seem like an individual. It’s mostly greenish with darker green patches all over, with a greyish stomach; and, obviously, the slightly obnoxious orange and brown on the head and back. There is also some lovely blue stripes outlined in black on the head. I like to think of this as a tyrannosaur that is in the mating season trying to attract some females!

Overall, this is a fantastic dinosaur toy, but it’s seriously lacking in the accuracy department. Luckily, it is only half of its original retail price as of now, so if you are thinking about getting this beast now would be the time!

This dinosaur is available from here: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3535365 (it will be less if you just go to your local store, though!) and Amazon.com (here)

The Pachyrhinosaurus by Papo is easily one of the most (if not the most) anticipated figures of 2010. This is one of the first times where papo has released one of their figures so early in the year; I’m glad I got mine so soon!

Pachyrhinosaurus, despite being a very funky ceratopsian, is very obscure, and has been largely looked over by toy companies. The only other plastic renditions of this animal I can think of are the largely inferior tyco and procon Pachyrhinosaurs.

The sculpt on this is great, if not a little small. The skull is very true to the real thing, and the mass of bone on the snout is the right shape and has no odd horn sticking out from it like some renditions have on them. The tail is very small, which is good – ceratopsians like Pachyrhinosaurus had relatively short tails, but many toy makers and paleoartists alike give them tails that are far too long. The limbs are correct in size and proportion and have absolutely fantastic muscle detail. There’s also nice folds of skin connecting each limb to the body which is a very realistic touch. The horns are very nice. Papo finally decided to give a ceratopsian non-fossilized horns (the horns on the triceratops are horribly cracked and look more like the fossils than what you’d expect on a living animal!). The horns at the very back of the frill aren’t correctly shaped though – they look more like deer antlers than the horns of a Pachyrhinosaurus!

This is very small compared to the Papo Triceratops. There are very nice ornamental scales on the ridges of the skull and on the ridge down the back. The enitre body is covered with irregular finely sculpted scales. The front feet seem a little off though, isn’t the toe placement incorrect?

The colors are mostly shades of grey and brown. I’d imagine a reptilian rhinoceros to be colored like this. It isn’t anything exceptional, but it isn’t anything grotesque either. The coloring of the claws has me a little puzzled, though; the claws on the feet are black, while the horns and beak on the head are grey, and the small horns on the sides of the frill are the same color as the rest of the skin! I wish they would have made them all more uniform in color.

(papo Allosaurus head for scale purposes)

All in all this is the best Pachyrhinosaurus replica on the market. The price, however, is a little off-putting – it’s the same size as the Wild Safari Triceratops but it’s triple the price! For that I think they could have made it the same size as the Papo Triceratops, but this is still one of the best ceratopsian toys ever produced and it is still very worth owning.

Available from Amazon here