Larami’s Museum set is looking pretty dated now, but it’s a charming playset all the same and one of the more memorable imitators out there.
It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; by that metric the dinosaur toy industry has been incredibly generous towards the leading toy brands.
When the prologue (and later, trailer) for Jurassic World: Dominion dropped, it was met with a lot of grievances from our community. To be fair, there was a lot to gripe about, from anachronistic animals mingling together, to the sloppy anatomy typical of the franchise.
Over the years, despite having a large amount of fossil material behind it, Centrosaurus has very little in terms of figures that aren’t named Monoclonius. Fortunately, recent times have brought this near forgotten species to the forefront. Beasts of the Mesozoic leads this by creating three, two juveniles and an adult.
Once upon a time, there was a hadrosaur that was believed to have had a head crest that resembled that of the mythical unicorn. So unique was this head crest that it was affectionately dubbed the unicorn dinosaur and would be a source of inspiration for countless artist worldwide for decades.
Skorpiovenator is a genus of late Cretaceous abelisaurid known from the Huincul Formation in Argentina. It was described in 2008 and the genus name means “scorpion hunter” due to the abundance of scorpions dwelling around its dig site. The species name, bustingorryi, was given in honor of Manuel Bustingorry, whose farm the dig site was located on.
Approximately 73 million years ago, Shendong Province of China was a land of rich floodplains that abounded in dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes. These included the ankylosaur Sinankylosaurus, the titanosaur Zhuchengtitan, the diminutive leptoceratopsids Ischiceratops and Zhuchengceratops, and the larger ceratopsid Sinoceratops with its royal frill.
Mattel’s take on Jurassic World’s giant sea reptile is back as big and beautiful as ever, with a few new interesting quirks up its plastic sleeve.
When Mattel began announcing their upcoming releases in the wake of acquiring the Jurassic World license in 2018, one of the first and most exciting toys to catch my eye was the giant Mosasaurus, an impressive “real-feel” articulated toy that could eat Hasbro’s earlier attempts at the genus for lunch.
In the last two decades many new and exciting discoveries have been made that added an impressive number of new ceratopsians. It seems as if each of the new species discovered and named are trying to outdo the other with each new one looking more exotic than the last.Names such as Medusaceratops, Diabloceratops, Regaliceratops and so on, all have that catchy ring to them that conures up exotic looks.As outlandish as these new ones are they still have a lot of catching up to do in the popularity department especially mainstream recognition.And when it comes to ceratopsians, two icons stand out over the rest both in popularity and recognition: Triceratops and Styracosaurus.
Review by GiganotosaurusFan, edited by Suspsy
We take a different path today, not down a path of dinosaurs, but a dinosaur/robot. On September 17, 1984, lightning struck as one of the most popular children’s cartoon shows of all time debuted: The Transformers.
Overall this appears to be a fine representation of Quetzalcoatlus in many details, but when it comes to some of this animal’s most integral and challenging features the figurine actually falls short.
Having grown up familiar with the titanic pterosaur being featured in books and television programs, it’s sometimes surprising for me to remember that Quetzalcoatlus is a relatively recent discovery in the history of paleontology.
Since getting into this hobby over a decade ago I’ve been patiently waiting for a model of one of my favorite ceratopsians, Centrosaurus. It has been a long wait, one that with every passing year has ended in disappointment. Look, I get it, Centrosaurus seems kind of boring compared to the likes of Styracosaurus, Triceratops, Kosmoceratops or the myriad other ceratopsians with their impressive headgear.
What makes this particular release stand out is its coloration, which contrasts starkly with the plainer pattern of the figure’s first release.
The 1990s were a stirring time for big theropod news: the crocodile-snouted spinosaur Suchomimus from Niger was described in 1998, new fragments of the now-(in)famous Spinosaurus itself were discovered in 1996 and 1998, and the gigantic Giganotosaurus was officially named in 1995.
