The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Newt]

@Faelrin - PA also has the Conemaugh Group (latest Pennsylvanian) and Monangahela Group (earliest Permian) with critters related to those of the similar-aged, more famous Texas redbeds and Ohio/Illinois coal measures - "pelycosaurs", diadectomorphs, temnospondyls, microsaurs, diplocaulids, lysorophians, cochliodontid and petalodontid chondrichthyans, late-surviving trilobites, lycophyte and early coniferous trees - you know, good stuff!  

@Halichoeres - Those Harpagofututor are beautiful! I look forward to seeing future Bear Gulch beasties in your collection.

[Flaffy]

Ah... I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Turrisaspis, along with at least one phyllolepid.

Looking back there's quite a few LIFE figures that I skipped on that I really wish I hadn't. Shipping costs are prohibitive unfortunately so I can't justify starting a new order for only a few figures. Maybe when O @Oammararak decides to continue the LIFE line, I'll pick up the Paleozoic fauna I missed.

[SBell]

Ah... I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Turrisaspis, along with at least one phyllolepid.

Looking back there's quite a few LIFE figures that I skipped on that I really wish I hadn't. Shipping costs are prohibitive unfortunately so I can't justify starting a new order for only a few figures. Maybe when O @Oammararak decides to continue the LIFE line, I'll pick up the Paleozoic fauna I missed.

Agreed. I decided to limit myself... although I did purchase some add ons since some of my original figures were sent in a separate shipment.
But seeing Tim's run through everything really makes me wonder if I bought enough (although I don't need too many inverts).
If opportunity arises again, I might need to splurge on some favorites in painted form

[Halichoeres]

@5aurophaganax Certainly a Titanichthys would be something new for a change, and as a very early bulk suspension feeder it's interesting from an ecological standpoint. I'm not aware of fin material for Titanichthys. The 2017 paper describes a significant majority of the head and thoracic armor, but doesn't include any fin material as far as I can tell. I think reconstructions with long pectoral fins are inferring based on its apparent lifestyle, since animals like humpback whales and whale sharks have long pectorals/flippers.

And yeah, I'm familiar with the state of affairs for the larger carcharodontosaurids. Leyster told me something similar when I first posted that pair of images last year:

Carcharodontosaurids mostly look the same to me. If I just had their skeletons laid out before me, I don't think I could tell you which was which for a million dollars.

Sadly, Carcharodontosaurinae are quite incomplete, and it doesn't help that companies do not research before sculpting (Collecta Mapusaurus, in example, has a completely wrong skull, Mapusaurus is known basically from its discovery for having a more rounded snout than other Carcharodontosauridae). Carcharodontosaurus itself is an animal that should not have been made in figure form, at least not with the frequency it appears: a few years ago at least we could say it had a fairly complete skull, but Ibrahim et al. 2020 shows that the skull is waaaay worse than Sereno pretends (and you can rearrange the bits to have it look more similar to Giganotosaurus, too). That the other remains have been reduced to dust doesn't help, either.
The only Carcharodontosauridae based on both relatively complete and well described remains are Acrocanthosaurus (of whom we still lack a good version, with the better ones being still the Kaiyodo and the Battat) and Concavenator (which at least has decent versions).

I guess the way I think about it is like this. If a time traveler went to the past and took photos of Mapusaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Shaochilong, Tyrannotitan, and Meraxes, but then mixed up the photos, I doubt even experts on carcharodontosaurids would be able to tell which was which.

I suppose that is at least a pro of living here. I really ought to do some more research on this at some point. I'm familiar with some of our Cambrian period fauna, and of course I'm familiar with Devonian Hynerpeton and Hyneria being from here, and I believe some Dunkleosteus specimens were also found here as well, but that was the bulk of it.

If you're ever looking for some fun, you might check out https://paleobiodb.org/navigator/. This is what I got when I clicked "Paleozoic" and zoomed in on PA:

More than 4,800 data points, and it's worth remembering a lot of occurrences, especially older ones, aren't even included in this database. Paleozoic PA is no joke! I guess one good effect of two hundred years of coal mining.

@Halichoeres - Those Harpagofututor are beautiful! I look forward to seeing future Bear Gulch beasties in your collection.

Thanks! So many weirdoes, so little time...

@Flaffy and @SBell glad I could foster some FOMO. I have to say I have no regrets about pledging the highest level, even though I ended up with some figures I don't really need. Of course, if I'd been pickier, the Kickstarter would probably have failed. I hope there's a Carboniferous/Permian/Triassic expansion one day.

[SBell]

I think a lot of us hope O @Oammararak does those time periods. It looks like it's a tonne of work, but it's incredible.

The game design was also excellent.

[Faelrin]

@Halichoeres Oh wow thanks for sharing that site. Never came across it before. What an incredible resource though.

[Strepsodus]

Do you have Safari's Monolophosaurus? It's not on the reference list and I wanted to know your thoughts on it.

[bmathison1972]

Do you have Safari's Monolophosaurus? It's not on the reference list and I wanted to know your thoughts on it.

Halichoeres can better describe the accuracies of the morphology, but I can tell you my Safari Mono has decided it doesn't want to stand on its own anymore, after only about 2+ years

[Halichoeres]

Do you have Safari's Monolophosaurus? It's not on the reference list and I wanted to know your thoughts on it.

S @Strepsodus that was an oversight, thanks for catching it. I do own the Safari Monolophosaurus, and despite slapdash paint and some slightly oversize feet, I think it's easily the best available. Schleich's has awful proportions, and although Mattel's versions are actually among their better theropods, they're still not as good as the Safari in my estimation.

Do you have Safari's Monolophosaurus? It's not on the reference list and I wanted to know your thoughts on it.

Halichoeres can better describe the accuracies of the morphology, but I can tell you my Safari Mono has decided it doesn't want to stand on its own anymore, after only about 2+ years

Ah, that's a bummer. I guess Mono and fatigue go hand in hand, I don't blame it for needing rest. 

[bmathison1972]

Ah, that's a bummer. I guess Mono and fatigue go hand in hand, I don't blame it for needing rest. 

Hahahahaha. That was spectacular! Even more so to me as I am a clinical microbiologist ;-)

[Halichoeres]

2022 in review
I added more than 200 new releases to my collection this year, the most since my first year collecting. The overwhelming majority were from O @Oammararak; without the Life... game miniatures, I only added a little over 30 new figures. The collage below doesn't even show all the Oumcraft miniatures, I still have 100 or so left to photograph. 









There's a few blank spots for things I haven't bought yet, like PNSO's two latest. 

Some observations: 
• Aside from Oumcraft, PNSO added the largest number of figures to my collection. From a quality standpoint, PNSO is killing it, and some of this year's figures were gorgeous. Nevertheless, I found this year pretty boring on the PNSO front. Last year they had a nice mix of dinosaurs and non-dinosaurs, but this year they only had dinosaurs sensu stricto, so for me it was a real yawn-fest of a lineup taken all together!
• Mattel somehow came in third, but I have a feeling that for a lot of these figures their tenure in my collection will be short.
• Aside from Oumcraft, more than 75% of the new releases I bought (or plan to buy) represent Cretaceous animals, to say nothing of all the ones I passed over. I'm begging companies (and fellow collectors) to realize there are other periods.
• In light of the previous point, thank goodness for Oumcraft and for CollectA.

The list of older figures I'm after grows ever shorter, and I only added a few this year. But one at least was pretty noteworthy!


Anyway, happy new year, everyone! Looking forward to what 2023 brings.

[SidB]

Happy New Year, @Halichoeres , and may your quest for new figures and the satisfaction that you gain from them and the quest itself remain ever fresh, as you have and acquire them, but they never own you.

[bmathison1972]

Looks like I added 107 figures this year (figures released in 2022 that is), and there are about 8-10 more that released this month I haven't gotten yet. Of course some of these were sets of 4-10 small insects.
Also, in July I purged ~200 insects from my collection, so maybe it will all balance out LOL.
So far, with Papo and CollectA alone, 2023 will be a busy year for me; hoping the Japanese companies chill it with insects for a while LOL

[Dusty Wren]

Congrats on the massive jump in your collection. You'll probably never see growth like this again...unless, of course, Oumcraft releases an expansion pack

I didn't realize that PNSO only released dinosaurs this year. The figures themselves were fantastic, no argument there, but it would be nice to get some non-dinos in next year's mix.

[The Spinosaurus]

Congratulations on your collection!. My collection grew by 13, but considering my collection is currently 15, I think that's pretty impressive.

Do you plan on getting the Rebor Deinosuchus?

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

A beautiful selection over the year for the most part, very colourful too. The game of life very good for your species diversity as i assumed it would be.

[ceratopsian]

Not a year you (or we!) will forget - at least on the pterosaur front!  What a treasure trove the Game of Life turned out to be.  Glad to see it come to fruition in painted form.

[Faelrin]

The Life game figures were also the bulk of new additions to my collection this year. Other decent additions were the Kaiyodo and Eikoh figures, and of course some Mattel things (like the HC figures). There was also my long past due acquisition of the BotM ceratopsians earlier in the year, which I sadly didn't get any time to enjoy since they ended up in storage shortly afterwards.

[Concavenator]

@Halichoeres yeah, from your perspective I can see why last year's PNSO lineup bored you. I think Zhuchengtyrannus and the generic spinosaurid are quite pointless choices for figures too, literally anything else would've been better.

At least I'm glad you enjoyed The Life figures.

I wish you and everyone else a happy 2023 forward. 

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone!

Looks like I added 107 figures this year (figures released in 2022 that is), and there are about 8-10 more that released this month I haven't gotten yet. Of course some of these were sets of 4-10 small insects.
Also, in July I purged ~200 insects from my collection, so maybe it will all balance out LOL.
So far, with Papo and CollectA alone, 2023 will be a busy year for me; hoping the Japanese companies chill it with insects for a while LOL

That's a lot of additions, but also a lot of purges! Yeah, I've noticed that Bandai et al. have been making a lot of insects, very cool but a bit of a double-edged sword, isn't it?

Congrats on the massive jump in your collection. You'll probably never see growth like this again...unless, of course, Oumcraft releases an expansion pack

I didn't realize that PNSO only released dinosaurs this year. The figures themselves were fantastic, no argument there, but it would be nice to get some non-dinos in next year's mix.

A Carboniferous/Permian/Triassic expansion would mean a big increase, for sure! I hope that all this free advertising I'm doing makes that more likely.

Fingers crossed for some more variety from PNSO next year, too. I see them post things like this page from one of their books, and there's a lot of potential!

Congratulations on your collection!. My collection grew by 13, but considering my collection is currently 15, I think that's pretty impressive.

Do you plan on getting the Rebor Deinosuchus?

Thank you! If that means you went from 2 to 15, that is 650%, a very high rate of growth!

I do plan to get the Rebor Deinosuchus. I didn't initially, because I found their first prototype pretty unattractive, but they've made enough improvements that I think it has a place on my shelf. It still has some annoying and avoidable inaccuracies, but it's a pretty solid effort nevertheless. I haven't seen anybody actually get one yet, so I guess that means it's a 2023 release after all?

A beautiful selection over the year for the most part, very colourful too. The game of life very good for your species diversity as i assumed it would be.

Correct on both counts!

Not a year you (or we!) will forget - at least on the pterosaur front!  What a treasure trove the Game of Life turned out to be.  Glad to see it come to fruition in painted form.

I'm really so pleased with the game pieces. I am not generally a game piece collector, but so much of the history of life is packed into these little guys, how could I resist?

The Life game figures were also the bulk of new additions to my collection this year. Other decent additions were the Kaiyodo and Eikoh figures, and of course some Mattel things (like the HC figures). There was also my long past due acquisition of the BotM ceratopsians earlier in the year, which I sadly didn't get any time to enjoy since they ended up in storage shortly afterwards.

My Kaiyodos were lost in the mail, but I'm hoping to replace them soon. As for you, I hope you're able to enjoy your ceratopsians properly in the near future.

@Halichoeres yeah, from your perspective I can see why last year's PNSO lineup bored you. I think Zhuchengtyrannus and the generic spinosaurid are quite pointless choices for figures too, literally anything else would've been better.

At least I'm glad you enjoyed The Life figures.

I wish you and everyone else a happy 2023 forward. 

Thank you! I want to be clear that I don't have anything against dinosaurs in themselves. If every company made nothing but Devonian fish for a year, I'm sure I'd be thrilled. If they did it for a second year I would be less thrilled. The third year I'd probably start circulating petitions. I guess I just have a high appetite for variety. It's why I've never been a regular at a restaurant even if I lived next door or upstairs.

Here's a graph showing releases from major companies that tend to be popular among prehistoric collectors (I'm leaving out repaints, model kits, statues, and any company making mostly pop culture figures). Cambrian is at the top, the present is at the bottom. I squished the Neogene and Quaternary together because the Quaternary is so tiny. It's 39 Cretaceous animals (79 million years), and 15 for the entire rest of the Phanerozoic (462 million years). One can see why I was almost tempted to buy Schleich's Nothosaurus, despite its being very ugly. And one can see why I'm so grateful for Oumcraft and CollectA.