Review and photos by Charles Peckham, edited by Suspsy
I don’t own all the Xtractaurs, and I’m not sure if anyone does, but I feel I’ve been able to amass enough to give a decent overview of the series. Anyone who wants to review an individual Xtractaur for the Dinosaur Toy Blog, included in this review or otherwise, has my blessing.
I, Emperor Dinobot, recently posited a question around, and it was the following: Could Mattel be designing dinosaur figures and naming them afterwards? We already have an example: Roarivores Sinoceratops is actually a Pachyrhinosaurus, but it got a name change due to the fact that Universal wanted to market Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to the massive Chinese audience, and Pachyrhinosaurus was substituted by Sinoceratops, a dinosaur which represented China.
When companies add dinosaurs to a franchise, be it a game, show or book, they often want to make them as bright and eye catching as possible so that people will buy the merchandise. This often ignores any colouring that may be what they actually looked like, as it would be too subdued.
Yangchuanosaurus is a genus of metriacanthosaurid that lived during the middle and late Jurassic in China. In appearance it would have looked very much like Allosaurus. Yangchaunosaurus shows up in the collectable market periodically and several figures represent the species, including the Safari Dinosaurs of China figure and a recent model by PNSO.
Review and photos by Bokisaurus
An air of nervousness engulfs the once serine scene at the forest edge. Herds of herbivores that just minutes ago were busy playing, eating, and calling to each other now stood silently still, on high alert. Their sudden change in behavior is warranted.
A relic of toy trends from the 2000s, these cheap assembled models make for a decent little novelty item, as long as you’re delicate with them.
I’ve never been much of a “card” collector, so I’ve never followed the hobby closely, but I do recall a time in the early 2000s when 3D card models like Z-Cardz and Star Wars Pocketmodels became all the rage, at least within my own friend circles.
The second set of dinosaurs in the Z-Cardz line reveals some surprising, if questionable, choices going on in the lineup for these little collectibles.
Constructible strategy games are a concept typically involving 3D punch-out card minifigures, which can be collected and utilized for play in large-scale games between players.
The models in this set are a nice set of famous or classic prehistoric genera, but they definitely leave a lot to be desired as interesting renditions of said animals.
Welcome to the third entry of the Z-Cardz review series! Z-Cardz were a constructible card game line by California Creations, which predated the more prolific game lines by companies like WizKids, who officially coined the term for this style of toy.
