Review and photos by Skinny Davenport, edited by Suspsy
Wow. I saw this figure at Walmart the other day and after some of the comments I’ve received about Boley’s Nature World dinosaurs being “Chinasaurs,” I just had to review some of these new releases for 2018, which are MUCH more accurate.This is a marked improvement on the old Boley Allosaurus, which, although appealing, was riddled with inaccuracies.
In the world of paleoart and paleomerch, it’s very common to see artists and toymakers draw inspiration from the imagery of other creators. Often this can be a good thing and a chance to reinforce contemporary understanding – consider how many vintage toys drew from Charles R Knight and Rudolph Zallinger – but sometimes it ends up becoming flagrant theft of another’s hard work.
Discovered by the legendary paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope during the famous Bone Wars of the late 1800s’, Edaphosaurus was the herbivorous counterpart to Dimetrodon during the Early Permian. It can easily be distinguished from its deadly cousin by a much smaller head, a wider gut, and an array of supporting crossbars on its fin.
Venturing the sea of unlicensed “3rd-party” dinosaur toys can bring interesting results. Sometimes one can find hidden gold; other times one finds something like this Stegosaurus figure, which is certainly among the more unusual takes I’ve seen of the famous roofed reptile (albeit probably not intentionally so).
This derivative dinosaur toy draws its inspiration from a surprisingly modern and good-quality source; but like all knockoffs, the nature of that “inspiration” might leave a bad taste in one’s mouth.
Knockoffs are an ever-present element of the toy industry, and a persistent quandary for collectors.
