Today we’re looking at Mattel’s latest fragmentary dinosaur that you’ve never heard of, Minqaria, a late Cretaceous lambeosaur. Until the announcement of this toy I had never heard of this dinosaur. Mattel’s odd assortment of obscure animals has introduced me to a lot of things I’ve never heard of, and I’m thankful for it! Although only known from a partial...
One of the most famous large theropod dinosaurs is also the most enigmatic. As one can see from the title, it is none other than Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. While first named in 1915 by Ernst Stromer, it was initially discovered in 1912 by Richard Markgraf in the Bahariya Formation, of Egypt. While it was not the first spinosaurid material discovered (that...
I’m not normally interested in the Mattel Jurassic World mini figures, preferring instead to focus on the Captivz line, but every once in a while, they release something that grabs my attention. Such was the case here with the “mini” Dreadnoughtus, by far the largest figure in the minis line. Even though I have Mattel’s gigantic mainline Dreadnoughtus, I had...
Hailing from the Early Cretaceous of Niger, is one of my favorite theropod dinosaurs, the spinosaurid Suchomimus. Mattel released a wonderful figure of this animal earlier this year, in the short lived Jurassic World Chaos Theory line (which was like a filler line until the Rebirth toys released in the summer). It is based on one of several color variants...
Described in 2021, Ceratosuchops is an early Cretaceous spinosaur known from the UK’s Wessex Formation. It’s only known from some fragmentary bits of skull, including a nearly complete braincase, and some tail vertebrae. Despite these scant remains two toys now exist of this genus, one from CollectA and another from Mattel. Today we’re looking at Mattel’s, which I waffled back-and-forth...
With the release of Jurassic World: Rebirth this past summer, Toy Monster released an entirely new product in their Captivz line: dioramas! Three of them were released, featuring a Captivz figurine and a buildable diorama depicting the scene in the movie that the animal was featured in. Diorama sets were made for the T. rex, Mosasaurus, and Quetzalcoatlus scenes. After...
When it comes to pterosaur toys the companies that make them have two options; make it in a flying pose or make it in a standing pose. Since kids play with them, most pterosaurs are in flying poses, but there have been many standing pterosaurs over the years going all the way back to Marx in the 1950’s with their...
After our dear fellow reviewer EmperorDinobot’s (Luis Perez) untimely passing back in late July, there’s been a gap left behind with reviews he planned to do when he was still with us, but unfortunately never got to finish, and now sadly he never will. Some of the regular reviewers here have already graciously stepped up and finished some of these...
Over the many years since Mattel has had the Jurassic World license, the toy line has seen its fair share of ceratopsians (with a total of 18 genera at the moment), despite a handful featuring in the films (including the new Aquilops). Last year finally introduced one of my favorites, the Chasmosaurus. It’s not the first time Chamosaurus has popped...
Although this is not a figure our dear fellow reviewer EmperorDinobot (Luis Perez) had planned to review while he was still with us, I’d still like to dedicate this one to him, as this is the first review I’ve started up since his untimely passing on the 21st of July. Over the past few years, and shortly prior to his...
Although never featured in any Jurassic Park or Jurassic World film, Utahraptor has had ties to the franchise since the beginning. Remains of Utahraptor were first discovered in 1975 but it wouldn’t generate much attention until the discovery of a claw and additional remains in 1991. It was described in 1993, the same year that Jurassic Park was released. According...
I generally don’t have favorable opinions about the Jurassic World trilogy, but I’ll give them credit for one thing: reinstating Mosasaurus as the A-List paleo-media star it deserves to be. Mosasaurus has been a staple of Mesozoic media since its discovery two centuries ago now; but thanks to its prominent appearances in the Jurassic World films, the mighty quasi-lizard of...
