Review and photos by Faelrin, edited by Suspsy
Being a heavy collector of the Mattel Jurassic World line, it’s not often I give attention to their fantastic line of minis despite having collected a good portion of them ever since the line’s launch in 2018.
One of the positive outcomes from the release of Jurassic World: Dominion was its launching of the generally obscure Lystrosaurus to stardom. Although relegated to what was basically a cameo appearance in the film it was enough to give the little synapsid far more public attention than it would have otherwise received.
Review and photos by Faelrin, edited by Suspsy
In 2022, the last of the Jurassic World films was released, ending the trilogy that started back in 2015, for better or worse. While I didn’t enjoy the film overall, I did enjoy some aspects of it, one of those being the batch of new creatures.
The late Triassic Herrerasaurus is one of the oldest dinosaurs known from the fossil record. So old and primitive is Herrerasaurus that there is still debate about where it fits in the dinosaur family tree. At various times it has been proposed that Herrerasaurus was a basal theropod, a basal sauropodomorph, a basal saurischian, or not a dinosaur at all.
Nothosaurus is a genus of Triassic marine reptile that belongs to the Sauropterygia clade, along with other weirdos like placodonts and plesiosaurs. Aside from the plesiosaurs all members of the clade would go extinct by the end of the Triassic. Looking at Nothosaurus it is easy to see the relationship between it and plesiosaurs but nothosaurs were a distinct group with their own unique features and did not give rise to plesiosaurs.
Review and images by Kikimalou, edited by Suspsy
This is the very first time I’ve submitted a review for DTB and I thought that the new 2023 CollectA Shastasaurus would do the trick. What attracted me to this new ichthyosaur is the black and white interpretation.
As a person of Polish decent with a love for Triassic fauna I was elated to see that CollectA was producing a figure of Smok wawelski, a Triassic archosaur found near Lisowice village in Poland. And hot on the heels of their excellent Lisowicia too, another Triassic animal from the same fossil site.
Review and photos by EmperorDinobot, edited by Suspsy
I, Emperor Dinobot, was not very surprised to hear that Mattel would make a Tanystropheus figure. They had already done genera such as Scutosaurus and Postosuchus, along with numerous other non-dinosaur figures.
Guest starring Libraraptor
Indohyus: Hello and welcome to this review! When discussing reviewing this figure, the talk led to the idea of having multiple reviewers giving their opinions on it (for reasons you will see later). So joining me for this review, we have reviewer and Forum legend Libraraptor!
For many years, the Triassic period has been the most overlooked part of the Mesozoic in toy form, usually Coelophysis or Postosuchus. More recently, however, more and more species are coming to the forefront and being made available in plastic.
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 Middle Triassic began a mere five million years after the end-Permian extinction. On land, forests had finally staggered back from the destruction. Insects, mammal relatives, and sauropsids started to diversify into new–or sometimes rediscovered–morphologies. In the oceans, ray-finned fishes and coelacanths thrived, and some sauropsids returned to the sea.
