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.
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?
Time for another journey to the world of true minatures, and smaller they rarely get. German forum member MIXVS MINIMAX currently works on his interpretation of Giraffatitan, here however I want to introduce you to two of his smaller creations. The Velociraptor and Protoceratops regarded here are not two pieces in one set but are sold seperately.
In 1972 the Dry Mesa Quarry in Colorado relvealed an enormous scapula to the paleontologist James A. Jensen. Official description took its time and was published more than a decade later in 1985. While not undisputed over time, Supersaurus is currently accepted as a sovereign diplodocid species growing to tremendous size.
Even amongst collectors Yowie isn’t a well known company I dare say, so here’s a short introduction… Yowie is an Australian publishing brand that developed the mythical Yowie kingdom with stories and toys concentrating mostly on the Australian fauna. In the mid 90’s Yowie approached the British confectionery company Cadbury with the idea to market the toys with sweets as a vehicle.
Just half a year back German company Schleich, infamous amongst collectors for their often awful dinosaur depictions, surprisingly released a bunch of figures that made some collector’s hearts beat faster. Amongst them was a somewhat inaccurate, but nevertheless impressive Tyrannosaurus, rated by some as the best T.
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.
The murky pond lays silently in the riparian forest of the Late Devonian, 365 mya. Dragonfly like insects soar and hunt for smaller airborne relatives, their quiet buzzing is the only sound disturbing the lethargic scene. A pair of those hunters engages is their distinct mating ritual, the “heart”.
If you’d ask a random person to name a theropod, most would probably be puzzled and not be able to come up with an answer, though anyone who have ever heard of dinosaurs could at least come up with one name: T. rex. The more enthusiast dinosaur fans could easily name some more, like Allosaurus, Carnotaurus, Velociraptor or Giganotosaurus.
Ever since it’s discovery by Othniel Charles Marsh during the infamous Bone Wars, Stegosaurus gained a lot of attention and became one of the most popular dinosaur world wide.
Time has come to introduce you to another gorgeous (and gory) model by our forum member MIXVS MINIMAX, the all time favorite Triassic theropod Coelophysis. As with all of the models in this line, the figures are scaled to 1:72, rendering this comparably small dinosaur a tiny gem that could fit onto a stamp.
Kaiyodo Dinotales – despite their significance and popularity amongst collectors, the famous Japanese series still lacks a lot of reviews on the blog. I myself own several figures still to be reviewed, but my collection is far from being complete. If you have not seen a Dinotales model in person yet, go get one of your choice and let yourself be hooked up on that magnificent series.
