It has gotten to the point where I wince a little whenever Mattel announces a new giant sauropod toy. It wasn’t that long ago that the Legacy Brachiosaurus was released, and I naively thought that such an enormous toy was a one-off release.
Classification: Diplodocoid
Review: Apatosaurus (1992)(UKRD)
3.7 (3 votes)
Other reviewers seem to have stopped covering UKRD figures years ago, but there are still a lot of them left to go, so I guess that’s my lot in life. While they may seem like mass-produced dreck to most people, I find them interesting and charming because they often reflect outdated or downright bizarre ideas and vintage palaoart, usually (with some notable exceptions) based on John Sibbick’s paintings from the 1985 book Enyclopaedia of Dinosaurs by David Norman.
Review: Nigersaurus (Jurassic World Dino Trackers, Wild Roar by Mattel)
3.2 (29 votes)
Nigersaurus is a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod that was discovered in the Elrhaz Formation in Niger, Africa. It lived during the middle Cretaceous and is notable for its small size (by sauropod standards), short neck, and bizarrely shaped broad muzzle packed with over 500 teeth.
Review: Dino Trackers Minis (Jurassic World by Mattel)
3.8 (28 votes)
Review and photos by Faelrin, edited by Suspsy
Being a heavy collector of the Mattel Jurassic World line, it’s not often I give attention to their fantastic line of minis despite having collected a good portion of them ever since the line’s launch in 2018.
Review: 3D Dinosaur Pictorial Book (The Access)
3.3 (55 votes)
Japan has a prolific industry for collectibles and merchandise, although it is a fairly insular market that western collectors might find tricky to break into. There are always new surprises to uncover from riches of new releases each year. One such item which caught my attention in 2022 was a set of minifigures produced by The Access, a company dedicated to planning, manufacturing, and wholesaling a variety of in-house products for multiple age ranges.
Review: Dinosaurs III (Authentics Habitat Collection by Safari ltd.)
3.7 (15 votes)
The final set of Safari’s first forays into dinosaur miniatures features a charming blend of aesthetics, and also serves in retrospect as a tribute to a dawning hobby and its burgeoning artists.
In 1994, Battat was commissioned by the Boston Museum to produce what would become one of the most praised toy lines in dinosaur collecting.
Review: Lingwulong (PNSO)
4.4 (36 votes)
Sauropods are well known group of dinosaurs for good reasons: they are the largest land animals to roam the planet and their long necks and tails make them easily recognizable. But not all sauropods are created equal, some are small and don’t have the long necks that have defined the group.
Review: Brontosaurus (MPC)
2.8 (14 votes)
This classic little sauropod is best viewed today as a relic, a curious piece of memorabilia nestled between more interesting figures which came before and after it.
If you were to ask a veteran toy collector about vintage dinosaurs, you’d probably hear Marx cited first.
Review: Dinosaurs I (Authentics Habitat Collection by Safari ltd.)
2.8 (15 votes)
These six little dinos, sculpted by the Carnegie Collection’s own Forest Rogers, may look pretty dated today; but they manage to blend old and new aspects of science to produce a charming set as a whole.
Safari ltd. stands as one of the giants of educational, scientifically accurate dinosaur & animal toys today; but it’s easy to forget the company didn’t start out this way.
Review: Bendable Dinosaur Playset (Dorda)
1.8 (16 votes)
Review and photos by Emperor Dinobot, edited by Suspsy
Hello everyone! Welcome to yet another EmperorDinobot(TM) dinosaur review! Today we are going to give a look at these quirky bendable dinosaurs from Dorda! Made in 1987 (I think I would have to lift up their skirts to make sure it was ’87 or ’88), these dinosaurs look a wee bit like the Playskool Definitely Dinosaur figures from the late 80s, but definitely have their own aesthetic and gimmick in order to keep kids and strange adult dinosaur toy collectors entertained for hours!
Review: Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Museum Collection, Series 2 (Larami Corp)
2.5 (15 votes)
Larami’s Museum set is looking pretty dated now, but it’s a charming playset all the same and one of the more memorable imitators out there.
It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; by that metric the dinosaur toy industry has been incredibly generous towards the leading toy brands.
Review: Diplodocus (Eofauna)
4.9 (47 votes)
Diplodocus is without question one of the most famous dinosaur species, not least because its history goes a fair way back in the science of paleontology. In 1877 Samuel Wendell Wilson in company of his mentor Benjamin Franklin Mudge led an expidition for Othniel Charles Marsh (this name may ring a bell with a much wider range of people) and discovered first fossils of Diplodocus.