Takara Tomy is a brand stretching a wide range across toy production, from miniature cars to blockbuster IP tie-ins, to wildlife and extinct life replicas. Beginning in the early 2010s, Tomy began releasing the ANIA “Animal Adventure” series, a line of palm-sized action figures featuring extant and extinct animal life. The ANIA line is primarily split under small (AS) and...
This small outdated ankylosaur model was sold by the Early Learning Centre in the UK in the 1990s. It doesn’t have any brand markings, but I’m reasonably confident it’s an AAA model based on the style and knowing the strong relationship the Early Learning Centre had with AAA. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know. We’ve already reviewed an...
Review and photos by Torvosaurus, edited by Suspsy Howdy from wonderful, windy Wyoming! Today we’ll take a look at the Honorable Lead Boiler Suit (HLBS) Stegosaurus. Stegosaurus, with the large plates on its back, is probably one of the most recognizable dinosaurs along with Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Brontosaurus. The model is approximately 5-1/2 inches (14 cm), placing it at 1/48...
Review and photos by Torvosaurus, edited by Suspsy Howdy from wonderful, windy Wyoming! Today we’ll take a look at the Honourable Lead Boiler Suit (HLBS) Allosaurus. This model is okay until you get to the head, which will be analyzed below. It isn’t one of HLBS’s best models, but not quite the worst either. I suppose eventually I’ll get to...
Review and Photos by BlueKrono and DinoToyBlog. Struthiomimus, the ‘ostrich mimic’, was named in 1917 for a species (S. altus) originally referred in 1903 to the closely related genus Ornithomimus. Despite the history of ornithomimosaurs spanning back to the late 1800s, they are relatively rarely made as toys. This was true for all small theropods prior to Jurassic Park making...
Although only known from 35 bones and some teeth from a single specimen, Hadrosaurus is more significant than its fragmentary remains would suggest. Hadrosaurus foulkii was first described by Joseph Leidy in 1858 from remains found in New Jersey’s Woodbury Formation. It is the first dinosaur ever discovered in the United States and the first dinosaur skeleton to ever be...
Confession time. I like ugly sauropods. In fact, my favorite sauropod is widely regarded as one of the ugliest, Camarasaurus. And I’m one of the few collectors that likes the Schleich Barapasaurus, which I reviewed for the blog upon its release. Most folks like their sauropods elegant and graceful, and so do I, but I also like the big ugly...
Time will tell if some of Araki’s artistic license proves true, but there are still definite issues with the design which may turn off more serious-minded collectors. While long-established companies like Safari Ltd. and Schleich have been going steady, and rising stars like Rebor and PNSO have been conquering the collecting market worldwide, Japanese companies like Favorite have been...
With each new discovery, the mystery of this predator’s appearance and behavior only deepens, and PNSO’s latest iteration is a figure so distinct from its predecessors that it’s almost as unrecognizable as the real creature. Indeed, I’m almost starting to wonder if Spinosaurus is an elaborate prank being played out on us by the powers that be. First...
This is an overall pleasing and recognizable figure of the famous dinosaur, but it does have some setbacks in design for a 2020 rendition. Iguanodon isn’t as flashy of a dinosaur as Tyrannosaurus or Triceratops, but its place in the roots of dinosaur history keep the genus as a staple in dino iconography. As a result,...
This is no mere great white copy; Patton the Megalodon is a grade-A movie monster, a hulking brute with commanding shelf presence. Let’s face it: people love apex predators. We’re scared of them, sure, but we also admire them and get excited by them. Sharks are one group of predators we humans seem particularly drawn to, and their fossil...
Despite the figure’s small size, there are plenty of fine details to appreciate on this release from Kinto/Favorite’s earlier days. Favorite Co. Ltd is among the better dinosaur toy producers currently in the market, even though many of their figures are either out of production or exclusive to Japan. While their main Soft Model line tends to focus on the...
