My name is Arthur but I go by Gwangi on the blogs and forums, as homage to the old dinosaur and monster movies I love so much. In addition to writing about and collecting toy animals (extinct and extant) I also share my home with a variety of living animals, mostly reptiles but a little bit of everything. I have a lifelong interest in all things nature and natural history and most of my hobbies can be linked to those things in some way. I currently live in Maryland with my wife and daughters. In addition to writing on here I also write magazine articles, typically about local wildlife and aquarium fishes.
Before we begin the review, I would like to thank the generous folks over at ToyMonster for reaching out and sending me a large selection of Captivz figures. Your generosity is much appreciated!
Today we’re looking at another highly anticipated new sculpt from the ToyMonster Captivz line, the Monolophosaurus, part of the Dino-Trackers series.
There is no shortage of Pachyrhinosaurus toys. As ceratopsian toys go it is only outnumbered by Triceratops and Styracosaurus, which have been more popular for far longer than Pachyrhinosaurus. But here’s the thing, all those Pachyrhinosaurus toys represent the same species, P.
Before we begin the review, I would like to thank the generous folks over at ToyMonster for reaching out and sending me a large selection of Captivz figures. Although I was told that I don’t have to review them all I’m going to do my best to get through them anyway, so prepare yourselves for a lot of Captivz reviews in the coming months!
Before I begin the review, I would like to thank long time member and friend of the blog, Dan of Dan’s Dinosaurs, for supplying this figure for review. You can purchase this Tyrannosaurus and all Eofauna models on his site, here.
Finally! The wait is over!
Opinions about Jurassic World: Dominion and its Giganotosaurus design aside, if you wanted a decent action figure of this animal upon the film’s release, you were SOL. Mattel only released one Giganotosaurus in the mainline and although it had some cool action features it resembled the animal in the movie about as much as the movie animal resembled the real Giganotosaurus.
Stegouros (roofed tail) is a genus of late Cretaceous ankylosaur from Chile’s Dorotea Formation. It was described in 2021and has already proven to be a fairly popular dinosaur with three mass produced toys to its name. One from CollectA, another from Mattel, and this one from Safari Ltd.
Now here’s a new one for the blog, and another dinosaur I had never heard of until Mattel made a toy of one… Guaibasaurus. Guaibasaurus is a genus of basal saurischian from the Late Triassic Caturrita Formation, in southern Brazil. It was described in 1999 by José Bonaparte and was classified as a basal theropod.
Ever since Mattel started making Jurassic World toys collectors have been vocal about wanting a large-scale Triceratops. Of course they would, Triceratops was the largest ceratopsian to ever exist and yet, Mattel’s various Triceratops toys were all woefully undersized.
Thanks to my handy clicker-counter and the DinoToyCollector website I was able to tally up 114 Velociraptor toys by Mattel. This includes various repaints, repacks, and toys outside the mainline but not the minis (I forgot them). It’s a rough estimate but it still gives you an idea of how many raptors Mattel has put out there.
Jurassic North America was home to an astonishingly diverse assemblage of sauropod dinosaurs, roughly 20 species have been recovered from the Morrison Formation, including iconic genera such as Brontosaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, and Brachiosaurus.
Despite being the most popular of all dinosaurs, with multiple figures to its name released per year, everyone is still on the hunt for what they consider the “definitive” T. rex. Companies have tried to deliver it with mixed success. At various points over the last several years the title has been held by Safari, PNSO, Rebor, Beasts of the Mesozoic, PNSO again, and this year we have the long awaited Eofauna Tyrannosaurus hitting the scene.
Haolonggood has once again given us another high demand dinosaur that’s been mostly ignored by other toy companies. In doing so, they’ve helped me complete my decade long quest to own my favorite ceratopsids: Pachyrhinosaurus, Nasutoceratops, Einiosaurus, Centrosaurus, Pentaceratops and now finally, Chasmosaurus.
It’s Blue the Velociraptor, as you’ve never seen her before! Mattel has taken the sleek, aerodynamic, and menacing Jurassic World Velociraptor design and flipped it on its head. What we have here is a version of Blue that has embraced domestication and spends her days lounging around Owen’s cabin, chowing down on dino-kibble.
Mattel really likes the Shaximiao Formation, a middle to late Jurassic formation located in China. They’ve released many dinosaurs known from the Shaximiao, including Chialingosaurus, Gigantspinosaurus, Mamenchisaurus, Gasosaurus, and Yangchuanosaurus. Today we’re looking at their latest addition to this assortment, the Tuojiangosaurus, part of Mattel’s Epic Evolution line.
Without much fanfare, late 2023 saw the release of a whole new line of Jurassic World products from Mattel. Dubbed Bite Club (Get it? Like Fight Club?), these figures are sculpted in the chibi style that is common in anime and manga. The chibi art style originates in Japan.
