The Dinosaur Toy Blog

Once upon a while, companies decide to make some very obscure dinosaur genera. Procon is one of those companies, releasing this year a number of dinosaurs not many have heard of, such as Becklespinax, Rebbachisaurus, and so on. Agustinia is one such dinosaur.

Agustinia ligabuei isn’t a well known sauropod that hails from Argentina. It appears to be a titanosauriform that bore strange plates all along its neck, splitting into longer double rows of spines towards its back. It is known from such spines, and some vertebrae. Some researches think it might be allied with little known, high spined diplodocids known as rebbachisaurids.

The figure itself is very nice for a sauropod figure, painted in an olive green with darker green highlights all over. The spines and osteoderms around its neck are painted in olive green. The model itself is very smooth compared to other scaly dinosaurs. The reason why this dinosaur is so attractive is because of its rarity, and its obscurity. Agustinia isn’t very big, barely measuring 20 cm long. Apparently, a bigger replica is due for release soon, with different colors, at almost twice the length.

If you like obscure dinosaurs, this one is for you.

At last the Carnegie Giganotosaurus is available to the world. This is one of the finest dinosaur pieces of its generation, due to its high level quality. This is simply one of the best dinosaurs Carnegie has ever released, not because it’s an impressive dinosaur, but because it’s very accurate, and very detailed.

At a little more than 30 cm long, he’s slightly longer than the Carnegie Tyrannosaurus (as he is in scale with the rest of the line). Giganotosaurus harbored a lot of attention by the media recently, because it appears to be the longest theropod found yet. Carnegie has done an excellent job producing Giganotosaurus carolini in all its glory.

The figure is colored in a beautiful mix of cerulean blue, creamy white for the underbelly, and darker cerulean blue all over its back, with some light green stripes running along. The Giganotosaurus is posed in a sort of “I’m king of the world” pose, with an open mouth, and a classic “roar” stance. It towers over most Carnegie dinosaurs. It’s certainly one of the most impressive dinosaur molds as of late, with its awesome color, size, detail, and above all, accuracy. It definitely deserves all the hype it’s getting among dinosaur collectors. This is a must buy for all dinosaur lovers. And he’s certainly not that expensive, either. It can be found anywhere you look. On all major dino shops, museums, specialty stores, and so on.

Giganotosaurus is carnosaur found in Argentina. It lived along some of the biggest animals to ever walk the land.

Available here for example.

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Carnegie has to keep up with the dinosaur market, which was gotten really competitive lately, with near-perfect accurate sculpts, and amazing paintjobs, from lines like Kaiyodo, Kinto, and so on. For the last 4 years, Carnegie has been making some nice new molds. In 2006, they released a new Amargasaurus sculpt, along with an updated feathered Oviraptor.

The Amargasaurus itself is simply one of the best Amargasaurus sculpts since Battat’s Amargasaurus. It’s done in the Carnegie style, of course, with the wrinkly skin. He’s colored in an apple green, with the sail being yellow and red. This Amargasaurus, unlike the Battat version, follows a more modern reconstruction, with the spines not supporting a full sail, having the naked spines near the top.

At about 22 cm long, this is one of the best sauropods you can buy, but it’s a rather small one, since he is in scale with the others. Amargasaurus was a 9 meter long sauropod, which is considerably smaller than other sauropods.

One drawback to this particular dinosaur figure is that he is rare. I don’t know whether this is just my case, but I had to buy mine online, after hunting for it for almost two years in stores. Another problem with it is that the spines may be bent in some specimens.

 Available here

This was my first Battat. Back then, 10 years ago, I wasn’t aware they made dinosaurs this detailed, and I didn’t know of an Amargasaurus. When I crossed with my mum into that little specialty shop so long ago, I knew I had hit the jackpot. Not only was it the first time I had ever seen Battat, but I was immediately mesmerized by their amount of detail. I was looking for Carnegie but I became a Battat fan, too. I was looking for rare dinosaurs I hadn’t come across before (And if not, I’d simply buy a Carnegie Euplocephalus, which I did). Amargasaurus fit the bill (I could have gone for the others…heck I just wanted to buy them all, especially the Diplodocus…)

Back then, Battats came in little boxes. I went to great efforts to keep the box, but, I lost it recently. It gave these dinosaur a sort of…superiority that Carnegies just didn’t have then. Battats are also in scale with Carnegie dinosaurs, which makes it more fitting.

Amargasaurus itself is detailed beyond belief. For the time it was made in, this is what you would call top notch. The texturing is perfect, and it breathes a sense of realism into each dinosaur. The shades of grey over the animal are perfect. This Amargasaurus is depicted as having a sail supported by its tall spines (which is now a cause of debate, and new figures are depicted as having naked spines that don’t support a sail).

Now, I don’t know whether this is a production error, or just mine, but, the right side of the spines that lay on its neck are a little shorter than the left side spines. It…creates a visual annoyance. At 20cm long, this figure is quite small for a sauropod.

As for Amargasaurus itself, this was a quirky looking dicraeosaurid from Argentina that was described rather recently. Gondwanian sauropods like these further prove that both South America and Africa were together at some point in the past.

Review by Emperordinobot

Sometimes avaiable here

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