Sixty-six million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous, Madagascar had already been an island for about 20 million years. And just as today, the island would have boasted a unique assortment of organisms isolated from most of the outside world. Thanks to fossils preserved in the Maevarano Formation we know the region was home to Beelzebufo, the world’s largest known frog, the theropod Masiakasaurus with it’s strange, forward projecting teeth, the herbivorous crocodylomorph, Siamosuchus, and the 8-meter sauropod, Rapetosaurus.
Classification: Theropod
Review: Male Velociraptor (Jurassic Park III by Kaiyodo)
3.6 (8 votes)
The Jurassic Park movies are what led Velociraptor to its great fame and popularity in popular culture. This dinosaur has been represented many times in Jurassic Park memorabilia, collectibles, and toys. It is fitting that when Kaiyodo produced a set of 13 figures based on the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park 3, figures of both the male and female Velociraptors in the movie were produced.
Review: Mapusaurus (CollectA)
4.5 (26 votes)
From atop a hill, the view of the dry wind-swept plains below is obscured by what at first looks like a dust storm. Soon, it becomes clear that the dust that has engulfed the plain is not from a storm. Here, in what would be known today as Argentina, an epic battle between two of the largest animals that have ever walked the earth is about to reach its conclusion.
Review: Mapusaurus (CollectA)
Review: Mapusaurus (Deluxe by CollectA)
4.2 (19 votes)
Review and images by PhilSauria, edited by Suspsy
I have to admit to being a bit of a lapsed amateur paleontologist; I know the basics about a core group of the more well-known dinosaurs, so when CollectA released this one, I had to hit the reference books and online sources to find out what I was looking at.
I have to admit to being a bit of a lapsed amateur paleontologist; I know the basics about a core group of the more well-known dinosaurs, so when CollectA released this one, I had to hit the reference books and online sources to find out what I was looking at.
Review: Mapusaurus (Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, Epic Evolution Gigantic Trackers by Mattel)
3.2 (19 votes)
Mapusaurus is a carcharodontosaurid that lived in Argentina during the late Cretaceous and is also one of the largest theropods known. It was only slightly smaller than its close relative, Giganotosaurus, and the skeletal differences between them are minimal.
Review: Mapusaurus (Prehistoric Animal Models by PNSO)
4.5 (78 votes)
My sincere thanks to Happy Hen Toys for furnishing this review sample.
Several other companies have made Mapusaurus figures before, including Bandai, Playmates, and CollectA. So far, however, we’ve only reviewed CollectA’s four (!!!) versions on the blog. A brief re-introduction might be useful, then: Mapusaurus hails from the Huincul Formation (English approximation: “ween-COOL”) in Argentina, just like its recently described relative Meraxes and the famous Argentinosaurus.
Review: Masiakasaurus (Wild Safari by Safari Ltd.)
4.4 (17 votes)
Since its description in 2001, fans of the Madagascan abelisauroid known as Masiakasaurus have longed for an affordable yet accurate model of this obscure beast but no one would deliver, not even CollectA despite all their obscure critters. Now, 15 years later, we finally have one and who better to sculpt it than Paleo-artist Doug Watson for the Wild Safari collection.
Review: Megalosaurus (2021)(CollectA)
4.5 (42 votes)
No one knows when precisely humans first discovered the fossilized remains of dinosaurs. Indigenous North Americans probably came across them in places now called Alberta or South Dakota or Utah. In China, “dragon bones” were recorded as being discovered all the way back during the Western Jin Dynasty between 265 and 316 AD.
Review: Megalosaurus (Edward) (Prehistoric Animal Models by PNSO)
Review: Megalosaurus (Invicta)
Review: Megalosaurus (Natural History Museum by Toyway)
2.6 (10 votes)
History: 166 million years ago during the middle Jurassic a predator named Megalosaurus prowled England. In 1824 it became the first non-avian dinosaur to have a validly named genus. From there its popularity grew and became a widely known dinosaur celebrity. It received top billing at Crystal Palace Park where it was one of the three mascot dinosaurs.