Before we begin the review, I would like to extend my gratitude towards Happy Hen Toys for sending this figure along as a review sample. Check out their large selection of animal and dinosaur figures by clicking the banner below.
In 2011 my first review for the Dinosaur Toy Blog was posted, it was of the AAA woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis).
A few days ago, the first Columbian mammoth figure was reviewed at the blog, which reminded me how much I love mammoths, so I was inspired to review my oldest mammoth toy; the Dor Mei woolly mammoth. I can’t find much info about it online, other than that it’s supposedly from 1983 and part of a line called “Galaxy Fighters Warriors”, but I have no idea what that means or if it’s even correct.
About 1.5 million years ago, a population of steppe mammoths (Mammuthus trogontherii) entered North America from Siberia via the Bering Strait. As they migrated south into the warmer regions of the United States and Mexico, they soon gave rise to a new mammoth species, M.
Out on the prairie, a large male jaguar has brought down a fat young camel, which will satisfy his stomach for days. But here comes Nita now, all 495 kg of her, and she’s just as hungry. As she approaches the big cat, she lets out a warning huff.
Most prehistoric proboscideans followed the same basic body plan: a big body on big legs and a big head with big ears and a big nose. Even ones with comparatively small ears and noses like Deinotherium still had them bigger than any other group of mammals.
The very first Australian prehistoric mammal to be named and described (by Sir Richard Owen back in 1838), Diprotodon is by far the biggest marsupial that we know of. A mature male would have been over 4 metres long, 1.8 metres tall at the shoulders, and weighed at least 2800 kg, which is heavier than a male hippopotamus and rivalling a male white rhinoceros.
The majority of items in my prehistoric collection are purchased online. Schleich abounds at several brick and mortar stores in my neck of the woods, but I’m not a huge consumer of their wares. Safari Ltd. products are sold at Michael’s and the local natural history museum, but the assortment is always woefully limited.
Review and images by bmathison1972; edited by Suspsy
Prehistoric and primitive hominids are not rare in the animal toy market, but evolutionary sets of them are. The first, and probably the most popular, was called Evolution of Man, produced by Bullyland in 1999.
Review and photos by Kikimalou, edited by Suspsy
An emblematic figure of prehistory, almost as much as the Tyrannosaurus rex, the woolly mammoth has survived many extinctions in the toy world. The first versions are probably those cast in lead by CBG Mignot and in composition by Chilau.
“If MPC Ran the Zoo”…
Macrauchenia looked like it could have inspired some of the creatures in a Dr. Seuss book, if its history of paleoart is anything to go by. First described in 1838, the “long-necked llama” hasn’t achieved the same level of fame as some of its mammalian contemporaries from the Miocene and Pleistocene; however, its lanky legs, long neck, and peculiar trunk make for a very distinct image, and have earned the genus at least a few toys over the decades.
You’d think a creature like the dire wolf would have a few more toys to its name. Canis dirus (now reclassified as Aenocyon dirus) is almost unheard of on the prehistoric toy market, even though the genus made its introduction to paleo merchandise over fifty years ago.
Review and images by bmathison1972; edited by Suspsy
Signatustudio is a line of animal replicas made by artist J. Miguel Aparicio out of Spain. Most of his models are in the 1:20 scale and represent the fauna of Eurasia, including the Iberian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, Tibetan Plateau, and Euro-Siberian regions.
