Review and images by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
In 1967, Disney released a feature-length animated movie of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book series. One of the most iconic characters from that film was the singing and dancing orangutan, King Louie. Interestingly, Louie never appeared in any of Kipling’s original works.
The 70’s Glyptodon by Starlux is an interesting reproduction of an animal that had a curved and armored carapace which would have made nodosaurids and ankylosaurids proud. It is a strange toy. It has no articulation but it is able to be played with. It has some nice details but lacks finish.
One of the oldest toys of an iconic extinct mammal family still holds up pretty well, especialy alongside its more derivative contemproraries.
MPC (Multiple Products Corporations) toys are known in some circles as the “poor man’s Marx”; many of the prehistoric creatures represented in MPC’s lineup were lifted from the older Marx line, often sacrificing size and sculpt quality for bright colors and cheaper quantity.
Ancient horses really don’t get much love in the toy market. Aside from Starlux and Bullyland, no one has added to the herd of prehistoric equinids. That is until Geoworld brought out their rendition of Hipparion, one of the most successful horses ever, lasting 22 million years and covering almost every continent, before dying off in the Mid-Pleistocene, possibly being out competed by the modern horse.
The isolation of South America during much of the Cenozoic era resulted in the evolution of many odd and unique creatures, like the Liptotern Macrauchenia. This odd ungulate has fascinated many since it’s discovery by Charles Darwin, and has been the subject of many art peices and toys.
“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.
A Swiss company which produces outdoor clothing and equipment named itself „Mammut“ after the iconic Mammoth, probably because the prehistoric giants were as well equipped against cold and rainy weather conditions as you are supposed to be if you wear a Mammut product. The company even leads a black mammoth in their logo.
Interpreting fossils is never an easy task. Unless the animal was complete when found, or very well preserved, it can be hard to tell what an animal looked like. Prehistoric animals can be revised over and over as new information comes in about them. One animal that has been altered several times is Palorchestes, which was thought to be a kangaroo relative, then more tapir based as a result of the rostrum, and more recently, similar to a giant ground sloth.
Today I want you to introduce you to one of those creatures everybody knows, but knows almost nothing about, a jellyfish. Jellyfish are a very very old group of animals, they date back to the famous Ediacarian, more than 600 mya.
