Hailing from the Elrhaz Formation of Niger, Africa, Lurdusaurus, the “heavy lizard,” is one of the more unusual members of the iguanodont family. While it did possess the signature thumb spikes, it also had a rather long neck and a very chunky build. Paleontologist Thomas Holtz has suggested that it was the Early Cretaceous equivalent of a hippopotamus, ambling along...
If my research is correct, it has been 13 years since Safari Ltd. released a prehistoric animal TOOB. Their last was the Cambrian Life TOOB, released in 2013 and retired from production 4 short years later. And in fact, all of the best Safari prehistoric animal TOOBs were retired in 2017, including the Prehistoric Sharks, Crocodiles, and Sea Life TOOBs....
Although I’ve been collecting toy dinosaurs for over 15 years my only representatives of the second dinosaur described by science have been the 1961 Marx, 1980 Invicta, and 1992 Carnegie Collection Iguanodon figures. It’s a somewhat embarrassing confession but let me explain myself. Shortly after its release I very nearly bought the Safari Iguanodon. I had it in-hand in a...
Back in early April, a commercial for the new Jurassic World Rebirth toys gave us our first taste of things to come, at least as far as the smaller Frenzy Pack figure assortment goes. One of those revealed was a small ornithopod, which immediately caught my interest. It turned out to be Iani, a small rhabdodontomorph that was only named...
I initially wasn’t planning on acquiring either the Mattel Iguanodon or Skorpiovenator for my children’s dinosaur collection, but back in February 2024, Amazon Canada put the Roarin’ Battle Pack on sale for $26.94, which in this country is three dollars less than the retail price of a single toy in the Roarivores/Roar Strikers/Wild Roar size category....
This is my first review as an author rather than guest reviewer at this blog, so I’ll start out with a classic figure, the UKRD Iguanodon from 1992. Iguanodon of course has the distinction of being the second named dinosaur genus (after Megalosaurus), and has remained relatively famous for a non-American dinosaur, even being the protagonist of a film, Disney’s...
What set of “ultimate dinosaurs” wouldn’t include the second dinosaur described by science? Although hardly obscure I wouldn’t exactly call Iguanodon popular either so any new figures of it should warrant some attention and a time to shine on the Dinosaur Toy Blog. Don’t worry though, a figure like this doesn’t require much discussion so we’ll keep things brief. This...
“How do you do, fellow dinosaur lovers? Dr. Bella Bricking and Beth Buildit here once again, wishing you all both a happy National Dinosaur Day and a happy Pride Month! Are you ready for yet another dive deep into the exciting world of prehistoric LEGO sets?” *sigh* “Why are we wearing these getups, Doc? I’m cooking in here!” “Why, we...
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. In fact, this is probably my first review of these particular types of figures. 2023...
It has been 27 years since the release of the undisputed best figure of Ouranosaurus ever made, the Battat Ouranosaurus, produced in 1996 for the Boston Museum of Science. And although other Ouranosaurus figures have come along over those 27 years none of them came close to matching the craftsmanship, accuracy, and paintwork of that figure. But with the Battat...
Can you detect the tiny ear conches? A firm from the German Democratic Republic, VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb) Plaho, released a series of highly collectable die casting plastic dinosaur figures in 1967. They were sold in the Museum of Sena in Thuringia, Germany, until the mid-1980s. The follower firm to Plaho, Marolin, re-released them in 1990. Plaho / Marolin did...
In 1978 (the same year I was born), the fossil remains of a hadrosauriform dinosaur were discovered at Brighstone Bay on the Isle of Wight. The remains were sent to the British Museum of Natural History (now the Natural History Museum) in London and declared to be those of the famous Iguanodon. Subsequently, however, they were determined to belong to...
