Lanthanotus goes by the name Dennis in analogue life and lives with his small family in Germany. His serious interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures began in early primary school when he either got a dinosaur book for birthday or found some dinosaur book in the school library – whatever came first. As with a lot of things that caught one’s attention during childhood or youth, the interest slumbered for many years before coming back with force. Lanthanotus joined the Dinosaur Toy Forum in 2015 and ever since enjoyed catching up with recent scientific findings and collecting and reviewing toy figures. Outside the computer Dennis works as an educator and frequently travels the world with his family to contribute to his other passion: herpetology. He published several articles and holds lectures on monitor lizard biology.
Time has eventually come, for one of the most impressive CollectA figures of 2020 to hit the European continent. And fittingly, it represents a European species.
In 2006 paleontologists Jerzy Dzik, Tomasz Sulej and Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki discovered large bones in a clay pit in Poland. What was initially considered to be sauropodomorph dinosaur, was later recognized to be a massive dicynodont synapsid.
With more and more Marx figures dropping in, I want to add something vintage from a German line that also calls for being completed on the blog. The history of Kleinwelka figures has been thoroughly told at least as far as my knowledge goes, so let`s get straight to the figure.
Papercrafts are not the usual type of collectible models, nevertheless there`s quite a number of models out there made from that versatile but often underestimated material. A few already have reviews here on the blog and it`s about time for a new one.
Forum member Dinoreplicas recently provided a free template to make your own Dimorphodon.
This may be the first review of peweter figures on this blog and if those peculiar kind of figures are really toys may be a point to discuss – not least because of their lead content – but they are indeed models and so here we are.
Today I`d like to review a figure that is a quite uncommon in several ways. First of all, it technically already has a review on this blog as part of a box set, but I felt it deserves its own entry.
Secondly, it is a Placerias, a species that, despite its certain popularity for appearing in the BBC series “Walking with Dinosaurs” is neglected by almost any toy company you can name.
Science counts around 25 species of recent crocodile species and all – maybe with the exception of the African Dwarf Crocodile – live an aquatic life and use the land mainly to bask and nest. In their long history the group we accept as “crocodiles” has seen quite a variety of crocodilian forms, not few of them terrestrial more than aquatic, a trait that showed off in their morphology.
Travelling through the wonderful world of Oz (as the Aussies tend to call their country) one sure plans some things before starting. I deceided to cramp a few toy figures into a box to take on the chance to shoot some of them in their “natural environment” – at least kind of, Australia sure changed a fair bit since most of the represented animals went extinct.
The pungent stench of masuclinity crawls along the edge of the forest. Leaves rustling softly as a vicious looking creatures ambles through the undergrowth. The young Deinotherium male looks up and hesitates as the potential adversary strides onto the grassy clearing. Much advanced in age and experience, the rival is much smaller then the young male, but also much bulkier.
Right to begin with, yes, three figures by Linde are already thoroughly represented on this blog, the Tyrannosaurus, Sphenacodon and Dimetrodon. But for the sake of completeness I include those three in this review aswell.
“Linde” is a brand name for a coffee surrogate produced from grain and chicory.
EU government could still not agree on aborting the change to summer time, so this very day is an hour longer and so gives me some time to wirte another review after quite a long break…..
Today we gonna take a look on a probably not very popular figure, though the species is known by anyone who ever had a look into a dinosaur book.
Since PNSO found its way back to business, they keep on exciting the dinosaur collector community. I’d dare say each and every of their prehistoric models finds a warm welcome amongst our blog and beyond.
As a collector, 2019 is a harsh year, there’s just so many worthy models to obtain, but ressources need to be spread out.
The long wait has ended,… 12 years it’s been since the Bullyland Edaphosaurus was discontinued and despite its renown toy companies all over the planet refrain from producing figures of that enigmatic permian synapsid. It may be because of the overwhelming popularity and superficial similarity of its kin Dimetrodon, which in contrast is often repeated by all the companies.
Given that I counted correctly, this here will be my 50th review for the DTB. On the search for a worthy entry for that occasion, I deceided to add some figures to my collection that will provide the chance to combine the jubilee with a premiere cause to my big surprise I found that the American company Marx, despite its significance for our hobby, has not a single entry on the blog as of yet….
Few figure of the 2019 line up have been as eagerly awaited as Eofauna’s first attempt on a true dinosaur. With the release of two stunning proboscidae Eofauna showed its potential and after my 2nd review on a Giganotosaurus figure last autumn, it’s now time for the follow up…
The coarse leaves of the araucarian trees are rustling in the hot and steady breeze.
Since its appearance in the JP Franchise as the ultimate antagonist of all the world’s most beloved dinosaur T. rex, Spinosaurus gained a certain popularity that at least made it appear in almost every dinosaur toyline that existed since. Most depictions were more or less oriented on the JP design and no wonder so, the scientific knowledge of the species was not backed by too much of fossil material and a design made after a successful franchise… what could possibly be wrong with it?
