Plush Dinosaurs

[Fembrogon]

Somehow I'm not surprised they're on Aliexpress; it's a shame there doesn't seem to be clearer information about the original manufacturer.
I take it you've tried looking into this company before?

[DinoGlows]

Hi all! New member here and I'm very happy to have found a plush dino section of the forum! My girlfriend has designed a new plush dino toy that she's Kickstarting and she could really use your feedback and support! Of course, I think it is awesome. She has a triceratops, stegosaurus, and tyrannosaurus rex in that she's designed out. She's thinking of going ankylosaurus or slightly non-dino with a pterodactyl next, but would love all your thoughts! Thanks in advance and please check it out!

DinoGlows: dinosaur plushies that flip inside-out to reveal glow-in-the-dark fossils!

[Reuben03]

Hi all! New member here and I'm very happy to have found a plush dino section of the forum! My girlfriend has designed a new plush dino toy that she's Kickstarting and she could really use your feedback and support! Of course, I think it is awesome. She has a triceratops, stegosaurus, and tyrannosaurus rex in that she's designed out. She's thinking of going ankylosaurus or slightly non-dino with a pterodactyl next, but would love all your thoughts! Thanks in advance and please check it out!

DinoGlows: dinosaur plushies that flip inside-out to reveal glow-in-the-dark fossils!

hey! awesome stuff. you guys interested in any scientific advice? to make a more scientifically accurate depiction of these animals?

[DinoGlows]

For sure! There's always a balancing when trying to make a plushy scientifically accurate for 3 year olds , but she's absolutely wanting this to be something educational for kids. Never hurts to learn!

[Reuben03]

For sure! There's always a balancing when trying to make a plushy scientifically accurate for 3 year olds , but she's absolutely wanting this to be something educational for kids. Never hurts to learn!

awesome! any chance we could see all the current designs? you seem to be mentioning all well known species, so designing them as up to date as possible would be super straightforward..

[Fembrogon]

Based on the illustrations provided on the Kickstarter page, the plushies don't really look like they're designed with scientific accuracy at all - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as they do look very cute as-is. Still, if these are meant to double for education, there might be a need to revise the designs.

[DinoGlows]

Hi all! Here are the dinos she's considering:
- triceratops
- stegosaurus
- tyrannosaurus
- ankylosaurus
- pterodactyl (by popular demand, even if not a dino!)

As to the scientific accuracy, it always helps to get more opinions and if you have any good reference photos that are 'up to date' that's super helpful. These are aimed at teaching 3 to 5 year olds about the concept of fossils, so the main idea is to get that across while not being terribly inaccurate. The fossil skeletons she uses are from reputable sources, but clearly taken down in complexity. Thanks all!

[Fembrogon]

Those are some good, reliable genera to start with. What skeletal references does she use? Scott Hartman's Skeletal Drawing website is a great source if she hasn't used it already.
In regards to the "pterodactyl", does she have a specific genus in mind? The term is often (mis)used as a catch-all for pterosaurs, but there is a genuine Pterodactylus genus, as well as a particular suborder known as the pterodactyloidea. Personally, I'd be delighted if she did a Pterodactylus proper; that genus doesn't get much attention in toy form, despite the popularity of its name.

Spoiler

https://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/pterodactylus.html

[close]

[Grimbeard]

D @DinoGlows

I would suggest in order to take full advantage of the glowing skeleton concept, species that both are have interesting skeletall features and children are somewhat familiar with would be great additional choices. Prime candidates in would be:

- Spinosaurs, the sail-back would work really nicely and would be a great opportunity to promote the more aquatic, squated view instead of the JP inspired one
- Parasaurolophus, the head crest  would pop even more with the glow feature
- Diplodocus or Brachiosaurus, would emphesis the long skull and/or tails even more
- as for a pterosaur, Pteranodon or Nyctosaurus would work great because of their head crest,

[Fembrogon]

It's been a while since we heard from D @DinoGlows and Womple Studios, but I've still been getting updates from their Kickstarter campaign (I wasn't able to back, sadly). The campaign successfully funded Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Tyrannosaurus, and they've been working on shipping the rewards to backers.

From March 30:

Your long wait is (almost) over! We've just received confirmation that the Kickstarter first editions of our Stegosaurus and Triceratops DinoGlows have arrived in port after their arduous sea journey. Next step is to get them off the boat and heading towards a warehouse where they'll be sorted and then shipped off to you. In sum: we're still on schedule for April deliveries!

Our T. Rex DinoGlow (that's him above!) is running a little behind the others. Looking fabulous after a number of rawr-some improvements, T. Rex is in production and it is looking like it'll be about a month behind the others. If you've ordered a Triceratops and/or Stegosaurus DinoGlow in addition to a T. Rex, we'll ship out your rewards as we receive them. So, your DinoGlows might come in 2 shipments. We'll cover any extra shipping cost.

Thank you all, we're so looking forward to filling the world with DinoGlows!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/womplestudios/dinoglows/posts/3468721



Update from yesterday about some delays:

We're so close we can taste it!

While we'd hoped to have shipped out our first edition DinoGlows to you already, we haven't managed it. Our ship arrived in port at the end of March. But, between a big delay in unloading the ship and U.S. Customs holding our plushies for a random 2 week exam, we don't have them in our warehouse yet.

BUT WAIT! There's really good news, too. All DinoGlows plushies have been given the thumbs up by Customs and are now just days away from being in our hands. And once we have them, we're going to turn around and ship them to you, our awesome Kickstarter backers, as fast as humanly possible.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/womplestudios/dinoglows/posts/3491622?ref=ksr_email_backer_project_update_registered_users

[DinoGlows]

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for keeping up with us! Really appreciate the interest and the tips - @Fembrogon: Scott Hartman reference is super helpful and @Grimbeard those are spot-on ideas for taking advantage of the skeletal features. We've successfully built out and are now shipping the Triceratops and Stegosaurus toys, and we're about down with an updated T. Rex. The T. Rex was in high demand (as you can probably imagine) but required a lot more fine tuning down the stretch, so it was about a month behind the others. I think the final version she did a great job balancing the skeletal "accuracy" (I put it in quotes because she's really just going for general structural features rather than real specificity) with making it kid-friendly and look great. Stegosaurus for kicks:



Much appreciated for all your help!

[EmperorDinobot]

I really ought to dig up my dinosaur plushes. Now that I'm sober, I'm gonna add this to my list of items.

[Fembrogon]

Heads up: Paleo Pals is retiring... Sort of.

A message from the artist!

Paleo Pals® is, in essence my passion project that was in the works since I was seven years old.

In 2020, I found myself wanting to diversify my work under a single umbrella, which became Split Mountain Studios. As fans you may have noticed some pretty major changes to our website, which is now nested under SplitMountainStudios.com!

I will keep making Paleo Pals® items however, I will not be making plush toys for the foreseeable future. I am also planning to keep posting fossil fun on all of the Paleo Pals® social media pages! It's the end of an era, but it's been an amazing time so far.

If you want to see the greater range of my art outside of Paleo Pals®, please also check out my other Instagram @splitmountainstudios

From Instagram

I guess this means Andy the Anomalocaris 2.0 is cancelled, despite being discussed/planned for a while now. We won't be seeing any more of Dusty or Oakley, either, at least in plush form.

A fond fair well to Dusty the #Diplocaulus! Our last #plushtoy has been adopted and is off to its forever home!

Twitter

[Faelrin]

Sad to hear, but glad its because the creator is moving on to greener pastures, and not for something tragic.

At least we still have Paleozoic Pals (although the current situation has definitely slowed things down a ton). I think they held a poll a bit ago for the next plushies, and if I recall right I think Diplocaulus was one of those. Also digging into my email, I'm surprised it's almost been a year back since the last campaign went up. It's rough how much things have been delayed because of the situations going on this year.

[Halichoeres]

I have to imagine that plush makers that aren't doing every stitch themselves are having an absolute nightmare of a time with supply chains right now.

[Flaffy]

Just realised we haven't heard much from Paleozoic Pals. Any news from them for 2022?

Also, in-hand pics of the 2021 Pterygotus and Astrapis.

[Faelrin]

Last I heard was that the Pterygotus and Astraspis plushies were starting to ship out late last month. Still waiting to receive mine (and the Silurian book), but they did state it could take 2-3 months to sort out all the backers. The cargo shipping crisis and lockdown in China due to covid really did set things back quite a bit. Next campaign will be focusing on Diplocaulus and the Carboniferous period. If I had to guess the next campaign probably won't be until next year, since they did state they wanted to get all the plushies from this campaign shipped out first before getting that started. Updates with relevant info (but are backer only):

Shipping:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1591542039/pterygotus-sea-scorpion-plushie-a-new-paleozoic-pal/posts/3615472

Diplocaulus, and other info:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1591542039/pterygotus-sea-scorpion-plushie-a-new-paleozoic-pal/posts/3500285

[Fembrogon]

I can't see the posts since I wasn't a backer, but that looks like a pretty nice Diplocaulus concept. More boomerang newts are most welcome.

Are the Pterygotus and Astraspis planned to get wide release (eventually) after backer fulfillment? I've been thinking about ordering more from the line soon in the meantime.

[Faelrin]

@Fembrogon I would think so. They have all of their previous campaign plushies on their website after the backers get dealt with first, that go in and out of stock frequently. Something to keep an eye on. Worth mentioning they already have the Silurian book available though, for anyone that might be interested in picking that up.

[Flaffy]

Thanks for sharing! @Faelrin Guess this makes the third plush Diplocaulus, behind the PaleoPals version, and this other one from an unknown maker.