Poster Check Lists - A Visual Guide for Collectors

[Ikessauro]

Hey folks, I have a little project I am doing for myself, but I figured you guys might enjoy too.

I am a kind of a completist collector in some cases and also a very "visual person', so I don't really like to use spreadsheets as a way to keep track of my collection. I wanted a more visual and fast way to do so, and came up with this method.

Creating a poster showing all the models released for a certain brand or collection/line in which I can check the ones I already have.

I started with CollectA, because it is a nice Collection to catalog, since there is quite complete documentation of their products online. The poster might be missing a few variants, if so, let me know which one and I'll add them. Any questions or suggestions are welcome.
The clean poster

My Collection

[DinoToyForum]

Great idea!

[postsaurischian]

   Great idea & great implementing!

[Faelrin]

Definitely a great idea and it looks cool too. Must have been a lot of work to do that. I would like to gladly contribute as soon as I have net access on my laptop again. Would be cool to see something like this for Safari (Carnegie too), PNSO, etc.

I know there's a guy I follow on instagram that does these for Mattel's stuff every year, in the style of their official Dino Rivals checklist they did. I'll add a link once I find him.

[Ikessauro]

Definitely a great idea and it looks cool too. Must have been a lot of work to do that. I would like to gladly contribute as soon as I have net access on my laptop again. Would be cool to see something like this for Safari (Carnegie too), PNSO, etc.

I know there's a guy I follow on instagram that does these for Mattel's stuff every year, in the style of their official Dino Rivals checklist they did. I'll add a link once I find him.

Thanks! I think I know who he is. I have his Mattel check lists, they are quite well done! I intend to keep making these, one for each brand and when necessary, for each line, if the brand has too many lines/collections.

[postsaurischian]

 Here's mine

[Ikessauro]

Just completed another poster! Papo's collection looks small compared to CollectA's 

The Clean Poster Checklist

My Collection

[Ikessauro]

This weekend I had a little time to work on more check lists and realized my layout design/strategy might not be the best for all brands. Some of them might have colors like bright red (i.e. PNSO, Mattel) or several brands might use the same colors in their logo.

My thinking when I made the CollectA one, was to use the brand's logo as a style guide, using its colors in the background and border. Then I did Papo's, which kinda worked.

But then I decided to tackle Toyway's WWD Collection. Problem is, the color of Toyway's Logo on the wwd figures package is almost the same as Battat's and Papo's. So I decided to try and be more creative. I had this other version of their logo, which is darker, so I used that one for a clean poster style, like the previous ones.

Then, I noticed that the BBC color scheme resembles the sunset colors in a WWD VHS cover, so I tried that as background, but I have to say, the result did not please me much. Maybe it is too bright.

Next I decided to try and recreate the toy package style. Used dark green as background and orange as borders, since these are the main colors in the package cards. White didn't work very well. Also did one version with a fern forest pattern in the background, to imitate the toy blisters. I liked the forest look, but the orange borders stand out too much in my opinion and are way too different than the background.

So I made one more version, that is green with forest pattern and blue borders. I have to say, I'm really on the fence here, if I should continue with the clean design or allow myself to experiment more with colors and textures.

I'd appreciate any suggestions/opinions you guys can offer.

[DinoToyForum]

They are all really good but if I had to choose I slightly prefer option 3, which matches the packaging most closely, but still the figure pictures are very clear and stand out well.

You'll have to remind me what is the difference between the two T. rex versions and whether the second counts as an official rerelease. There will be lots of similar cases when you get to the Safari Ltd Carnegie line up.

I also wondered about the CollectA poster, were you able to find stock images without watermarks (scans from catalogues, maybe), or did you remove the watermarks yourself? I'm aware that CollectA stock images have watermarks that overlap the toy from my many years creating forum banners...

[Ikessauro]

They are all really good but if I had to choose I slightly prefer option 3, which matches the packaging most closely, but still the figure pictures are very clear and stand out well.

You'll have to remind me what is the difference between the two T. rex versions and whether the second counts as an official rerelease. There will be lots of similar cases when you get to the Safari Ltd Carnegie line up.

I also wondered about the CollectA poster, were you able to find stock images without watermarks (scans from catalogues, maybe), or did you remove the watermarks yourself? I'm aware that CollectA stock images have watermarks that overlap the toy from my many years creating forum banners...

Thanks, appreciate your opinion @DinoToyForum

About the CollectA images, the ones which I didn't find without watermaks I did remove them myself on Photoshop. For example, the new 2023 models all have pics with watermarks, so those were edited out. When the result of removing a watermark is not very good, I try and use a picture of my own models, if I have them.

The difference between the Two T.rexes is the paint basically, one has a mouth and hands with blood splotches. I was thinking about how to handle variants. I think the easier route would be to only count the official sculpt variants and full repaints. In the CollectA poster I did left out a couple variants, like the re-sculpted Baryonyx, although I am tempted to add it. I know that some collections, like Carnegie, have so many variants that could make the task of cataloging them endless. Maybe i can create a "standard collection" only with main releases and a version with variants added at the end? Not sure yet.

[Halichoeres]

I like both 3 and 5 on the WWD posters.

[postsaurischian]

 I'd prefer No.1, just because it goes best with the other two poster check lists.

[Dinoguy2]

Great idea! Aa someone who has catalogued a lot of variants, my advice for a practical checklist would be to focus on major intentional sculpt differences and major intentional repaints only. So for example with the original Carnegie T. rex, I might include the first sculpt in the orange paint, light green with spots paint, and the classic pea green with dark stripes, then the third sculpt. It seem a bit redundant to count the second sculpt which only ever had the classic green color (repeated in both sculpt 1 and sculpt 3) because it would be hard to argue it was an "intentional" difference (they likely made it to increase production capacity and just did a really bad job copying the original, so it is a mold difference rather than a "sculpt"). The third sculpt, despite continuing the same classic green color, is clearly an intentional resculpt and therefore a new, different figure even though Safari didn't count it as one.

[Ikessauro]

Here you go guys, the WWD Toyway Poster. For now I'm sticking to the first model, simple, clean, easy. I decided to take a step back and hold off the more complex designs for the time being just for the sake of practicality. Since I started messing with more intricate designs I basically hit a road block on the project and it was not supposed to turn into something complicated.
Clean version

Of course, had to check my collection!  If there is one set I'm pround of having completed, it is this one!

[Ikessauro]

Next up, Battat

Check!

[Ikessauro]

I finally had to abandon the "single" color design and move to a more colorful one. I have to say, in this particular case I love the result. Using the blue color from Tubbz logo enhances the ducks and the yellow as borders offers a high contrast, but compliments the blue.

I finally completed this set today. Just ordered Dennis Nedry and together with the new 3 releases sent to me by Numskull Designs, I now only have look forward to more JP Tubbz to expand the set . Hope to have all of them soon to get a good picture of them all together.

[BlueKrono]

I kinda love the Dennis Nedry one, lol!

[DinoToyForum]

@Ikessauro It's so handy to have a quick overview of the entire line like this.

I've been wondering if checklists like this might make a useful addition to the Dinosaur Toy Blog archives somehow, if you'd be willing to let me use or adapt yours?

For example, the lists could potentially appear at the top of the company archives pages. Just for the purpose of demonstration I've temporarily and crudely dropped your Battat poster into the Battat archive, see: https://dinotoyblog.com/category/battat/

I could possibly make the small images link to the relevant reviews, but that would take a bit of effort.

Let me know what you think. Just to assure you, I'll remove the Battat poster from the blog once you've seen it, I don't want you to think I'm pinching it!

[Ikessauro]

@Ikessauro It's so handy to have a quick overview of the entire line like this.

I've been wondering if checklists like this might make a useful addition to the Dinosaur Toy Blog archives somehow, if you'd be willing to let me use or adapt yours?

For example, the lists could potentially appear at the top of the company archives pages. Just for the purpose of demonstration I've temporarily and crudely dropped your Battat poster into the Battat archive, see: https://dinotoyblog.com/category/battat/

I could possibly make the small images link to the relevant reviews, but that would take a bit of effort.

Let me know what you think. Just to assure you, I'll remove the Battat poster from the blog once you've seen it, I don't want you to think I'm pinching it!

That's a great idea. I wouldn't mind you using my posters if you keep my logos in them and give the credit, like "Poster Check list by Ikessauro" or something. I'd be happy to see them put to good use.

[DinoToyForum]

@Ikessauro It's so handy to have a quick overview of the entire line like this.

I've been wondering if checklists like this might make a useful addition to the Dinosaur Toy Blog archives somehow, if you'd be willing to let me use or adapt yours?

For example, the lists could potentially appear at the top of the company archives pages. Just for the purpose of demonstration I've temporarily and crudely dropped your Battat poster into the Battat archive, see: https://dinotoyblog.com/category/battat/

I could possibly make the small images link to the relevant reviews, but that would take a bit of effort.

Let me know what you think. Just to assure you, I'll remove the Battat poster from the blog once you've seen it, I don't want you to think I'm pinching it!

That's a great idea. I wouldn't mind you using my posters if you keep my logos in them and give the credit, like "Poster Check list by Ikessauro" or something. I'd be happy to see them put to good use.

Thanks for being so amenable, I'll look at options. I've removed the Battat poster now. Inspired by your posters It occurred to me that I may be able to achieve something similar with code, to make the process less labour-intensive, so I've mocked that up on the Battat page. It's not as pretty as your posters but kind of works. I'll keep you posted.