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....
A new Jurassic World movie is on the horizon and regardless of how you feel about the Jurassic franchise it means we’ll be getting a new lineup of toys to accompany it. And what a lineup it is! The Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Mosasaurus have all been given a fresh makeover. We’re getting a Quetzalcoatlus with foldable wings, a JP3 Hammond...
Out of all the exciting releases unveiled by Haolonggood in 2023, there were few I anticipated more than the nodosaur Edmontonia, which began arriving to vendors in June. Named after the Edmonton (Horseshoe Canyon) Formation in Canada where the type species was discovered, Edmontonia isn’t one of the most famous dinosaurs, nor even necessarily one of my own favorites; yet...
In these days when dinosaur toys only get more and more hyperrealistic, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when they could be inaccurate not just by following outdated science, but also due to complete disregard for any kind of scientific considerations. One of the prime examples of this is the Imperial line of dinosaur figures from the...
Gastonia was discovered in the Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, USA. It lived during the Early Cretaceous period from 139 to 134.6 million years ago and is one of the very best known nodosaurids. Its name honours Robert Gaston, an American paleontologist and the CEO of Gaston Design, Inc., which makes and sells skeletal replicas of various dinosaurs and other...
The very first time I laid eyes on the Early Cretaceous ankylosaurian known as Polacanthus was at a birthday party when I was only four or five years old. I can’t rightly recall if it was my own or some other child’s, but I’ll never forget that wrapping paper. Someone had brought a gift done up in dinosaur-themed paper. And...
Back in 2017, one of the best preserved fossils discovered was making the rounds. It was named Borealopelta markmitchelli, “Mark Mitchell’s northern shield”, honoring the man who spent more than 7,000 hours carefully preparing the fossil material, and slowly carving it out from the rock it rested in. It was first discovered in March of 2011 in the oil sands...
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...
Before we begin the review, I would like to extend my gratitude towards Happy Hen Toys for sending this figure along as a review sample. Happy Hen Toys is a U.S. distributor of figures by Safari, Papo, CollectA, Schleich, and other similar companies. In the case of CollectA they’re often the only place that sells their products at a reasonable...
Alas, nodosaurids will probably never be as famous and popular as their cousins the ankylosaurids, undoubtedly due to their narrower, less intimidating heads and their lack of bone-breaking tail clubs. Still, almost all of the major dinosaur toy companies have produced at least one nodosaurid over the years, and these have generally ranged from being pretty good to truly magnificent....
This set of reissued figurines offers an updated, good-quality variety of animals for collectors who might have missed earlier releases. Kaiyodo’s miniature dinosaur lines might be among the very best in the market, even with more and more high-end companies entering the scene in recent years. It’s a shame that acquiring Kaiyodo’s figurines hasn’t gotten any easier for collectors outside...
Leaves rustle softly in the wind, while a young Acrocanthosaurus is snoring in the cool shade of a tree fern. Unnoticed by the sleeping predator the quiet is slowly disturbed. Dried leaves and small twigs crackle in the distance, the sound crawls nearer, slow, but steady. The thick undergrowth hides something massive approaching. Something unyielding scrapes along the trunks on...
