Dinosaur Toy Blog changes

[indohyus]

There are more than 50 Yowie reviews, although some are from the Forgotten Friends series and I think destined for the Animal Toy Blog.

Those reviews have already been migrated to the Animal Toy Blog. I migrated them with the intention of deleting them from the Dinosaur Toy Blog but Sirenia ( @indohyus ) was unhappy with this when the time came to delete them, see the discussion here: http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=3001.40. So I've left the duplicates on the DTB for now, even though those reviews obviously don't belong there, out of respect for Sirenia's wishes. I'm hoping Sirenia will come around in time and see it makes sense to complete the migration properly.

For future reviews, maybe, we will see. Will see about the ones done already, but not as yet, especially with the one I did for my 100th.

[suspsy]

I just noticed that we still don't have a Nanmu category.

[DinoToyForum]

There are more than 50 Yowie reviews, although some are from the Forgotten Friends series and I think destined for the Animal Toy Blog.

Those reviews have already been migrated to the Animal Toy Blog. I migrated them with the intention of deleting them from the Dinosaur Toy Blog but Sirenia ( @indohyus ) was unhappy with this when the time came to delete them, see the discussion here: http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=3001.40. So I've left the duplicates on the DTB for now, even though those reviews obviously don't belong there, out of respect for Sirenia's wishes. I'm hoping Sirenia will come around in time and see it makes sense to complete the migration properly.

For future reviews, maybe, we will see. Will see about the ones done already, but not as yet, especially with the one I did for my 100th.

What do you mean, are you planning to post future reviews on both blogs? Or recently extinct animals just on the Dinosaur Toy Blog? If so, please don't. The appropriate blog for prehistoric animals is the Dinosaur Toy Blog, and the appropriate blog for recent animals is the Animal Toy Blog, the extinction cut off point being the year 1000CE. This is the case going forward and has been applied retrospectively to everyone's reviews except for yours, which are unnecessarily duplicated on both blogs. I don't want duplicate reviews because it is bad practice that can negatively affect search engine rankings for both sites. I'll be frank, the only reason I'm not deleting your duplicate reviews from the DTB is because I don't want to upset you – they simply don't belong there any more.

[DinoToyForum]

I just noticed that we still don't have a Nanmu category.

The category does exist (http://dinotoyblog.com/category/nanmu/) but no reviews have been allocated to it yet. I'll do a quick search and allocation now but let me know if I miss any. Edit - I only found two Nanmu reviews, I think that's right.

[triceratops83]

Wrong thread. Sorry.

[suspsy]

For some strange reason I'm only seeing Bokisaurus' profile on the Authors page. Anyone else experiencing the same?

[Fembrogon]

Yep, I'm getting it too. That's a weird new glitch.

[Faelrin]

Just checked. Same here as well.

[DinoToyForum]

Ah. I updated some plugins at the weekend, including the 'List Category Posts' plugin responsible for that authors list. The update must have stuffed something up, I'll fix it when I can...

Edit. I notice the same has happened to the lists of reviews on the individual author pages. It's a problem with the thumbnails so for now I will just remove them.

[DinoToyForum]

I fixed it! After a bit of digging I discovered an incompatibility with a setting in a different plugin (Jetpack).

[Fembrogon]

What's this "AIOSEO" thing popping up in the reviewers dashboard on new post drafts? Anyone else seeing this?

[DinoToyForum]

It stands for All In One Search Engine Optimization. It's a plugin to help the site appear in Google and other search engine results. You can ignore all those fields.

[bmathison1972]

It stands for All In One Search Engine Optimization. It's a plugin to help the site appear in Google and other search engine results. You can ignore all those fields.

Wonder if that's what's been mucking me up haha. probably not, but I had to say 

[DinoToyForum]

It stands for All In One Search Engine Optimization. It's a plugin to help the site appear in Google and other search engine results. You can ignore all those fields.

Wonder if that's what's been mucking me up haha. probably not, but I had to say 

Worth checking, I'll disable it on the ATB now, let me know if it does anything...

[suspsy]

Isn't it long past time there was a new banner for the blog? The BotM T. rex and the CollectA Koolasuchus could make for a cool 2023 pairing.

[DinoToyForum]

Isn't it long past time there was a new banner for the blog? The BotM T. rex and the CollectA Koolasuchus could make for a cool 2023 pairing.

Indeed. I'm planning to work up an updated banner soon. I'm not sure about Koolasuchus, though, I think a more iconic and obviously extinct creature, ideally a dinosaur, would be better.  I'm open to suggestions. It's also important that the colour and shape of the figure works alongside the red banner text. That's why I liked the Bullyland Lambeosaurus in particular, with its striking head crest.

[Fembrogon]

I would agree that sticking to dinosaurs would be ideal for the banner, if only for the technicality of the title (maybe I'm overthinking that, since we obviously cover more than dinos here). Personally, I'm in favor of having one saurischian and one ornithischian for the banner. Do we want strictly "Modern", accurate figures for the banner, or could more classic or stylized figures be nominated too?
Here are a few figures I'd nominate:

• Invicta Brachiosaurus (hey, it's in the browser thumbnail!)
• BotM Tyrannosaurus (one of the fans' choice versions, if we want to compliment the banner text)
• PNSO Lambeosaurus
• Eofauna Atlasaurus
• Safari ltd Triceratops (2018)
• Battat Styracosaurus
• Papo Allosaurus

[Gwangi]

I think it would be neat to have a modern figure paired with a vintage one. Like, the Invicta or Marx T. rex and the BoTM or PNSO one. They don't have to be the same animal either. You could have the Invicta Stegosaurus and Eofauna Triceratops, as an example. Or, a figure that's quite clearly a toy paired with a proper model. Like a goofy open-mouth Cheaposaur or Kenner toy paired with...take your pick, you get the idea.

[DinoToyForum]

I like the idea of having a Marx or Invicta vintage toy on one side, and a modern PNSO or Safari Ltd toy on the other side.

What I need is a good profile view photo of each toy on a white background. It doesn't need to be perfectly white, but white enough that I can clean it up easily.

I can source Safari Ltd or PNSO stock photos easily enough but not the vintage toys. So, if anyone can help?

[Sim]

I too think the figures in the banner should be dinosaurs.  However, I would like them to be two good accurate figures, not an unpainted figure (I find them uninteresting) and not something from JP (I think that franchise is associated with some of the worst aspects of prehistory - yes it's done good too, that isn't my point).

The banner has been fine with two ornithischians for a long time now, I don't mind it having two theropods for a change, or a theropod and a sauropodomorph.  I would prefer the non-fan's choice BotM Tyrannosaurus over either of the fan's choice versions as... how can I put this delicately... I don't like the copying of other people's work that the fan's choice colourations for the Tyrannosaurus are.

It would be a bit strange to have a Lambeosaurus in the banner again (PNSO's) but I'm not against it.  It's a great figure and could work well.  I would suggest against the banner having a Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops simultaneously, as those two together has become boring to me.

Personally I would like one of these in the banner:
- Safari 2017 Velociraptor
- Safari 2020 Deinonychus
- BotM 1:18 Velociraptor
- BotM 1:18 Linheraptor
It could be nice to have a feathered species and a scaly species together in the banner.