Author: Marc Vincent

My name’s Marc Vincent although I go by ‘Horridus’ on the forums. My interests include current affairs, dinosaurs (naturally!) and drinking myself to an early grave. Being a shameless populist my favourite extinct dinosaur is Tyrannosaurus; out of those extant it is surely the European magpie, Pica pica. I collect figures in a vain attempt to fill the awful, aching void in my soul and also because, you know, they’re cool to look at, and I find extinct animals fascinating – dinosaurs in particular

All reviews by this author

Review: Parasaurolophus (skeleton) (Dino Horizons by COG Ltd)

4.5 (4 votes)

Now here’s a company whose products have yet to experience the nerdy scrutiny of the Dinosaur Toy Blog. COG Ltd, manufacturers of educational toys, produce a line of dinosaur-themed gubbins named ‘Dino Horizons‘ (beware: site contains horribly inaccurate life restorations and the phrase “T-Rex”. And loads of Flash).

Review: Styracosaurus (Papo)

3.6 (20 votes)

Last year’s Papo releases were rather mixed in terms of quality – while they all displayed the usual high production standards, only the Pachyrhinosaurus was truly great, the Oviraptor emerging as a scaly basketball player and the Plesiosaurus as a Nessie aberration.

Review: Brachiosaurus (Museum Line by Bullyland)

4.3 (6 votes)

More Bullyland – and this time it’s their 2005 resculpt of the giant African brachiosaur Giraffatitan (still known at the time as “Brachiosaurus” brancai. And yes, I am going to refer to it as Giraffatitan throughout the review, to annoy you all and because it’s only correct, so there).

Review: Triceratops (Desktop model by Favorite Co. Ltd.)

4.8 (6 votes)

This year Favorite have released this resculpt of their ‘Desktop’ Triceratops, and from an anatomical perspective it’s a huge improvement. The ‘Desktop’ models are freestanding resin statues that also come with a wooden plinth to look all grown-up like. Since the plinth isn’t attached you are free to discard it and display them alongside your less worthy plastic toys, for consistency’s sake.

Review: Tyrannosaurus rex (original) (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd.)

4.6 (29 votes)

As an illustration of how far the Carnegie line has advanced in 20 years, you can’t do much better than the original Tyrannosaurus. Many people in their early 20s will remember owning one of these as a child. They’ll probably also remember it gathering dust in a dark corner of the cupboard under the stairs when the Jurassic Park toyline came along and made everything else seem a bit rubbish.

Review: Stegosaurus (The Lost World: Jurassic Park by Kenner)

4.5 (23 votes)

Kenner’s first attempt at a Stegosaurus for the Jurassic Park line – released back in 1993 – turned out a little, well, ugly. The Lost World saw Stegosaurus‘ debut in the film franchise, and fortunately Kenner had a much, much better sculpt lined up, one that resembled closely the creatures as they appeared on screen.

Review: Apatosaurus (UKRD)

2.8 (5 votes)

The mysterious early 1990s UKRD dinosaurs, then. Although clearly cheapo Chinasaurs, they were somehow a cut above – some people have referred to them as ‘semi-serious‘ while others have described them as ‘sub-museum‘. Good descriptions both, I think. Although clearly meant to be played with by children and with no pretentions to being a ‘museum-endorsed’ line whatsoever, they generally at least resembled the animal in question, even if in a slightly outdated fashion.

Review: Dimetrodon (Invicta)

4.9 (15 votes)

Ah, Dimetrodon – where would any dinosaur toy line be without this oddly anachronistic sail-backed pelycosaur? And where would I be if I didn’t drop names that I semi-understand? In similar places, one would imagine. Almost every dino toy company has churned one out, from Carnegie (ugly) to Bullyland to UKRD to Carnegie (better) to Inpro.

Review: Ankylosaurus (Inpro)

3 (7 votes)

Ankylosaurus has been an enduring presence in dinosaur toy lines over the years, in spite of the fact that other ankylosaurs (like Euoplocephalus) are known from more extensive remains. It’s probably the animal’s sheer size, and the fact that it lived alongside some famous giant theropod or other, that have made it such a pop culture fixture.

Review: Baryonyx (Dinosauria by Wild Republic)

2.6 (9 votes)

Wild Republic (or K&M International) have collaborated with the Natural History Museum in London to release a line of small, cheap plastic dinosaur toys with the tagline “When dinosaurs ruled the earth”, which I feel could do with an exclamation mark – mainly because it reminds me of a cheesy old Hammer flick (there was also a little tribute in…that movie).

Review: Tyrannosaurus (skeleton) (Dinotales Series 1 by Kaiyodo)

3.5 (4 votes)

The Dinotales series is well-known for high-fidelity detail at a preposterously small scale and low price. Even so, I must admit to having been sceptical as to Kaiyodo’s ability to successfully recreate highly complex dinosaur skeletons – such as this Tyrannosaurus – at the same minute size as their fleshed out reconstructions.

Review: Triceratops (skull) (Favorite Co. Ltd.)

5 (3 votes)

I would love a Triceratops skull cast for my living room. Unfortunately, while such things look magnificent and provide a wonderful talking point for any bemused people one might have dragged in off the street, they also tend to cost a small fortune and occupy a rather large amount of space.

Review: Diplodocus (Invicta)

4.9 (18 votes)

Can you believe we haven’t covered this figure yet? One of the first truly lo-o-ong dinosaur toys, the Invicta Diplodocus dates back to 1974. It was a simpler time, when sauropods were kind enough to drag their tails around for allosaurs to snack on at their convenience, and some of our more aged forum members were yet to become the embittered, black-hearted old cranks that they are today.

Review: Pachycephalosaurus (Papo)

3.4 (16 votes)

Papo are much-loved for their highly detailed, Jurassic Park resemblin’ line of prehistoric creature figures; any number of them are perfect lookalikes of their movie counterparts, right down to the smallest inaccuracy. So it is too with this little marginocephalian fella, the Papo Pachycephalosaurus, perhaps one of the most overlooked members of the line.

Review: Deinonychus (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd.)

3.1 (21 votes)

Now here’s a figure I know some of you will recognise from your childhood – the Carnegie Deinonychus trio. Remember your childhood? Those halcyon, carefree days that were spent frolicking through flowery fields and dawbing awful dinosaurs using wax crayons? Well, those days are gone – GONE – and you can’t have them back.

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