The Dinosaur Toy Blog

I guess it is time for a review of Bullyland Deinotherium.
It is a highly sought after figure, not yet a myth, but quite close. This is due to the relatively little number of Deinotheriums that have been produced and delivered.
Deinotherium (“terrible beast”) was a large prehistoric relative of modern-day elephants that appeared in the Middle Miocene and continued until the Early Pleistocene. Bones of at least three different subspecies have been found in Erurope, Africa and Asia. In life, it probably resembled modern elephants, except that its trunk was shorter, and it had downward curving tusks attached to the lower jaw. The tusks may have served as tools for abrading the nourishing barks off the trees.

Bullyland always made fantastic mammal figures, and their Deinotherium makes no exception. It is a heavy and massive figure, measuring 11cm in height and 21cm in length. Its sculpt looks like a monument. I can´t deny the charm of the figure; it is a proud bull caught in a protruding walking pose. It is, however, probably not scientifically correct. In the original skeleton, the back declines more than the Bullyland version reveals.

The reconstructions of the animal vary from rather slender to really fat and hippo – style. Bullyland took the golden middle – massive legs and feet on the one side, obvious ribs on the other. The ears are a matter of discussion, too. Were they as big as the ears of an elephant or were they smaller? The Bullylands version tries a compromise that is not that good: The ears do not really seem to fit to the rest of the overall look of the figure. Sorry, they remind me of the ears of an aardvark. But this is the only downer, really. Maybe the feet are a little too massive, too.

Unfortunately Bullyland paint uses to wear off quite quickly. My Deinotherium probably had a long slumber in a toy chest and has been moved very often while the child looked for other toys, and collided with other figures, toys or even sharp objects.
Some collectors thus decided to do fantastic repaints. You find those in our forum. As for me, I love the worn-off style of my own copy, showing it had a life before my cabinet episode. The toy chests and children who underestimate the value of the figure are the chance for collectors. Sometimes Bullyland Deinotherium shows up in lots with other animals, also recent ones. People then seem to consider it an elephant.
I bought mine on ebay, where a seller wrote “Dinotherium”. It was a snip compared to the value this great figure seems to have.

German company Bullyand seem to be slipping off the radar a little bit in recent years but still continue to provide new releases every twelve months for their Museum Line, although in rather small quantities. 2011 saw two new figures released by Bullyland, both resculpts of previously produced species. The first, a controversial feathered Dilophosaurus, is one we should review soon and will no doubt generate some…interesting discussions. The second is that most popular of pelycosaurs, the sail-backed Dimetrodon.

The previous Bullyland incarnation of Dimetrodon seems to have been produced in two paint versions, a rather plain green-grey version, and a more striking deep green with a red sail. The 2011 paint scheme is almost identical to the latter, with a stunning blood-red sail and deep green hues with yellow and gold highlights. Beautiful as it is, it shows a little lack of adventure by picking both a species and a colour scheme visited before.

Overall there isn’t that much difference between the old and new versions, the main one being the more upright posture in the 2011 figure. Where the old one was resting lazily on his tummy (I’ll presume it was a ‘he’), the new one is performing impressive push-ups. Despite retaining a sprawling limb posture the new figure is entirely raised up off the ground in a much more active posture.

The second major difference is the articulated mandible. This play-feature works well in this figure, but has been a bit hit-and-miss in other Bullyland dinosaurs (I’m thinking of the hip-hop Iguanodon).

The sculpt is typically and recognisably Bullyland, whatever that means. It has a softness to its appearance that imparts a cartoonish feel, and although visually pleasing from a distance, the textural details are quite crudely rendered for such a large figure. The figure is 18cm long, so pretty big. I’ll point out the ‘blobby’ teeth here. On an anatomical note, the skull lacks the notch in the jawline, that is so distinctive for this species. In its favour, there are depressions behind the skull that represent the ears, and there are five digits in each hand and foot, spot on.

Placed alongside today’s immaculately produced Carnegie, Wild Safari and Papo figures (maybe even CollectA figures in recent months), the ‘Bullyland look’ is starting to look a little old and out of place. As of yet, there is no news on what Bullyland have in store for 2012, but it would be exciting to see Bullyland produce new species rather than ‘play it safe’ with resculpts of old favorites. Let’s watch this space…

I picked up my Dimetrodon in a small museum on a recent trip to Germany. The Bullyland lines can be difficult to find in the shops outside of Germany. Luckily for us, however, this new representation of the sail-backed Dimetrodon is widely available online (e.g. here)

Review and Photos by Dinodinkies

Kelenken is an extinct bird belonging to the Phorusrhacidae Family. It lived in the Miocene and was discovered in Argentinia, where it caused terror to the animals living there. The bird was probably 3m high, which makes it the largest terrorbird. New company Paleomaster released a Kelenken figure this year, and what a beauty it is. It is smaller than the CollectA Kelenken but bigger than the Kaiyodo terrorbird, from head to tail it is 11.5 cm, and it is 7.5cm high.


I love the colours on this Kelenken, figure they are brown, blue and a dark form of pink. The colouration and the figure itself looks a little vulture-like. A bald head and feathers on top. A supporting base makes it a stable figure, this is green and contains a few rocks and two twigs. The model is a true must-have for terrorbird fans. It is 1:24 scale and if you want you can build and paint it up yourself, as it can come in four pieces. However, It can be ordered preassembled and painted, which is what I did – I feared I would mess up its beauty.


This figure has realistic paint and has a pose full of action. And finally a European company that makes dinosaurs and prehistoric animals like they should. Everything is there on the Kelenken, the long beak, the little wings and tail, and the powerful running legs.


This is the first in the series, a Therizinosaurus is anticipated to be the next to come, and I am considering painting it myself. Altough the ready-painted version looks great and colourful. I can’t wait to see more from them.

Megatherium is one of the most famous prehistoric mammals. The last Megatherium died somewhere at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, only 10000 years ago. Even hair and feces of this 6m long giant sloth have been found in caves in South America.
As a toy or figure, Megatherium is depicted quite often. For example Schleich has made a decent version, Starlux from France, too. Miller released both a small and a big version in the 1950s. And of course Marx, the grandfathers of all museum lines.
Our VEB Plaho / Marolin (I still can´t tell. The Plahos are older, release began in the 1960s, Marolin rereleased them in the 1990s, but I don´t have an idea how to tell them, maybe someone of you does.) Megatherium stands upright, browsing an imaginate tree, holding a branch. In Cain´s and Frederick´s dinosaur collectibles book you can see such a tree, reminding at a palm.

The figure is 9 cm tall and 5,5 cm long, which is funny, because on pictures the figures always seem to be bigger due to their nostalgic, clumsy look.
Yet another feature of the Megatherium contributes to the nostalgic feel of the figure: Its golden patina that covers the grey basic sculpt like powder. I´m not sure if the figure was completly golden and wore off over the decades, or if the company did that on puropse. The other color the figure shows up is red for the opened mouth. The eyes are yellow with a black pupil.

VEB Plaho / Marolin prehistoric animal figures have their very own look and feel and one likes it or not. For me this isn´t difficult, for I like figures that represent the flavor of their time. My Megatherium showed up in a lot with Chinsaurs at a flea market, where I bought it for 50 cents, but this only happens to you in Germany – when you are very, very lucky. At September 18th I saw a “buy it now” – offer of the Marolin one (I could tell that because it was offered in its original packaging.) for 165€ (noone bought it there). In all other countries you must be very lucky to get one on ebay. Good luck!