Of all the product lines offered by stalwart manufacturer Safari Ltd, the “Toob®” line gives them the freest rein to explore unusual taxa. I’m personally fondest of the Toobs that furnish small versions of small animals that might scale well with Safari’s full-size figurines. We’ve reviewed some of their most interesting Toobs featuring “alive” animals here, here, here, here, and here.
Classification: Fish
Review: Axelrodichthys (Dinotales Series 1 by Kaiyodo)
5 (6 votes)
When you hear the term “living fossil,” one of the first examples you’re likely to think of is the coelacanth. Fossil coelacanths were first described over 160 years ago, and their fossil record spans the Mesozoic, even reaching back to the Devonian. That means coelacanths have been on Earth for more than twice as long as mammals, but there are no fossils known from later than the Cretaceous.
Review: Bothriolepis (Kaiyodo)
5 (10 votes)
Review and photographs by Tim Sosa
Some of the commonest vertebrates on earth during the Devonian period were the antiarchs, a group of armored fishes that lived all over the world while the ancestors of you, me, and Triceratops were just barely starting to crawl out of the water.
Some of the commonest vertebrates on earth during the Devonian period were the antiarchs, a group of armored fishes that lived all over the world while the ancestors of you, me, and Triceratops were just barely starting to crawl out of the water.
Review: Bothriolepis (Paleozoo)
4.2 (5 votes)
The Dinosaur Toy Blog is more active than it has ever been. This year, to date, we’re averaging a review every day – January 2016 was our most prolific month ever with 30 reviews in as many days. For this I can take no credit but must instead extend my sincerest gratitude to the many blog authors and guest reviewers who have kept the blog full of life, as events in my own life (work and more work) make it increasingly difficult to find the time to contribute reviews myself.
Review: Cephalaspis (Starlux)
4.8 (11 votes)
The earliest vertebrates didn’t have jaws, but once true jaws evolved the animals that had them quickly became more numerous and diverse. These days, the only jawless fishes left are a few dozen species of lampreys and hagfishes, but in the Early Devonian most fishes lacked jaws.
Review: Cladoselache (Kaiyodo series 1)
4.4 (14 votes)
Edited by Dinotoyblog, photos by Halichoeres
Ah, Cladoselache. The first shark! How exciting. Up for review today is the first rendition of the first shark, made by Kaiyodo.
Ah, Cladoselache. The first shark! How exciting. Up for review today is the first rendition of the first shark, made by Kaiyodo.
Cladoselache is believed to be a very agile and swift predator – this is very well represented in this replica.
Review: Coelacanth (Wild Safari Prehistoric World by Safari Ltd)
4.9 (15 votes)
This review has moved to the Animal Toy Blog https://animaltoyforum.com/blog/coelacanth-wild-safari-by-safari-ltd/ Although the figure is a modern animal, it is part of the ‘Prehistoric World’ line by Safari Ltd, so I’ll leave this link here on the Dinosaur Toy Blog in perpetuity.
Review: Coiled-Toothed Shark/Helicoprion (Lost Kingdoms Series B by Yowie)
3.4 (5 votes)
Evolution has thrown out some wonderful oddities across time life has existed on earth. The shark family has shown some incredible adaptations leaning towards the bizarre. From early examples like Stethacanthus, to the modern species, like the Hammerhead and Saw shark. One of the more bizarre sharks known from the fossil record, found Asia, Australia, North America and Eastern Europe: Helicoprion, with it’s weird tooth whorls.
Review: Cretoxyrhina (Aidan) (Prehistoric Animal Models by PNSO)
4.8 (30 votes)
Jaws author Peter Benchley once stated in an interview that “every young man in the world is fascinated with either sharks or dinosaurs”. With that in mind, you would think that the sharks that lived alongside the dinosaurs would be doubly fascinating.
Review: Dinosaur Advent Calendar 2016 (Schleich)
3.8 (6 votes)
Review and photos by Tim Sosa
This year Schleich followed in the footsteps of companies like Lego and Playmobil in offering an advent calendar, but this one is dinosaur-themed! 24 days of dinosaur goodies sounds pretty attractive, so I bit the bullet and picked one up. I opened it long before Christmas, so that maybe this review can help you decide whether to buy one yourself.
This year Schleich followed in the footsteps of companies like Lego and Playmobil in offering an advent calendar, but this one is dinosaur-themed! 24 days of dinosaur goodies sounds pretty attractive, so I bit the bullet and picked one up. I opened it long before Christmas, so that maybe this review can help you decide whether to buy one yourself.
Review: Dinosaur Advent Calendar 2020 (Schleich)
3.3 (8 votes)
Well, the holiday season is nearly upon us. No matter what this time means to you and what holiday you celebrate, it is a time to spread joy. This year certainly seems to need some, with everything that happened. It is now the time when many will choose a calendar to count down the days til the 25th.
Review: Ducabrook Rhizodont (Yowie)
4.2 (6 votes)
Review and photographs by Tim Sosa
Yowie is a Perth-based company that markets nature-themed toys in little chocolate eggs. These days they have some extant animals that you can buy at places like World Market (at least in the United States), but around a decade ago they had an Australia-only line of prehistoric figures called Lost Kingdoms.
Yowie is a Perth-based company that markets nature-themed toys in little chocolate eggs. These days they have some extant animals that you can buy at places like World Market (at least in the United States), but around a decade ago they had an Australia-only line of prehistoric figures called Lost Kingdoms.
Review: Dunkleosteus (Chap Mei)
3.6 (11 votes)
In the past few years we’ve seen an explosion of Dunkleosteus figures from all kinds of companies, from masterpieces like Favorite Co’s rendition to worthy-but-flawed efforts like CollectA’s to fairly bad ones like the subject of today’s review. It’s the most popular prehistoric fish in plastic, eclipsing the huge but otherwise utterly boring C.
Review: Dunkleosteus (Deluxe by CollectA)
4.6 (22 votes)
Throughout Earth’s lengthy history, there have been many horrifying sea monsters. Titanic sharks. Nightmare whales. Bloodthirsty mosasaurs. Savage plesiosaurs. But long before any of those brutes evolved, there was the dreaded Dunkleosteus. Measuring at least six metres long, weighing over a ton, and equipped with bone-slicing jaws, this ginormous placoderm ranged throughout the waters of the Late Devonian and fed on other armoured fish, early sharks, ammonites, and pretty much anything else it wanted.
Review: Dunkleosteus (Favorite Co. Ltd)
5 (8 votes)
Review and photographs by Tim Sosa
In the Devonian period, the largest animals were arthrodires, huge armored fish informally referred to as placoderms. ‘Arthrodire’ means “joint-necked,” referring to the fact that there was a hinge in their armor between the thorax and the back of the head.
In the Devonian period, the largest animals were arthrodires, huge armored fish informally referred to as placoderms. ‘Arthrodire’ means “joint-necked,” referring to the fact that there was a hinge in their armor between the thorax and the back of the head.