The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Sim]

I didn't know you were interested in fish! (Besides megalodon and Edestus.)

I have some interest in fish.  Edestus is my favourite prehistoric fish, I do find it interesting!  I'm glad PNSO made Helicoprion but I hope they or someone else will make an accurate Edestus.  Megalodon I find slightly interesting.  I also have figures of Hybodus, Orthacanthus and Xenacanthus, all of which stand out to me among most prehistoric fish.  I'm interested in extant sharks as well, and I now have quite a number in figure form, as well as a sawfish figure and I've ordered some sets of marine fish figures.

[Halichoeres]

Tim, did you see these December Bandai releases: 

Please feel free to delete if you don't want pics that aren't yours in this thread.

Yep, I usually see new fish, but mainly because I'm waiting for someone to do prehistoric ones! If I collected extant ones more systematically, I think I'd probably exclude domestic strains of things like bettas and goldfish.

I would be interested in your opinions on extant animal figures if you collected them too!  Just imagine all the fish!

I have a very small extant fish collection, mainly centered on the clades I worked on for my dissertation (Characiformes + Cithariniformes). There are 1700+ species, of which maybe nine have been made as figures. A few years ago I did a walkaround on the Animal Toy Forum of the Bandai characin: https://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=2206.0 These days I don't visit the Animal Toy Forum often, mostly because I don't want to be tempted to expand into a hobby I don't have room for.

I didn't know you were interested in fish! (Besides megalodon and Edestus.) I'm happy to share my thoughts if you're curious about anything. Gwangi and SBell will probably also steer you right, and I think they're more active on ATF.

I mean...as active as on anything. But I do have some strong biased opinions on some fish, yes

Biased in favor of fresh waters, which is the correct bias.

I didn't know you were interested in fish! (Besides megalodon and Edestus.)

I have some interest in fish.  Edestus is my favourite prehistoric fish, I do find it interesting!  I'm glad PNSO made Helicoprion but I hope they or someone else will make an accurate Edestus.  Megalodon I find slightly interesting.  I also have figures of Hybodus, Orthacanthus and Xenacanthus, all of which stand out to me among most prehistoric fish.  I'm interested in extant sharks as well, and I now have quite a number in figure form, as well as a sawfish figure and I've ordered some sets of marine fish figures.

I'm sensing a cartilaginous theme! My expertise is more in actinopterygians, but the design coop I'm a (small) part of is in the middle of launching an anatomy learning kit for a dogfish skull. When it's ready for orders maybe I'll share it here. And of course, if you want an appraisal of any particular shark figure I'll gladly do what I can. That said, I'm not familiar enough with the market to, say, identify the most accurate great white figure.

[JimoAi]

I'm sensing a cartilaginous theme! My expertise is more in actinopterygians, but the design coop I'm a (small) part of is in the middle of launching an anatomy learning kit for a dogfish skull. When it's ready for orders maybe I'll share it here. And of course, if you want an appraisal of any particular shark figure I'll gladly do what I can. That said, I'm not familiar enough with the market to, say, identify the most accurate great white figure.
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The Schleich 2018 Great white, no contest

[Sim]

I'm sensing a cartilaginous theme!

That is how it started, although one of the marine fish set I've ordered for the billfish it contains!

[Concavenator]

Since the CollectA rumours from Paleofiguras appear to be true, I guess your Tyco Placerias' and Mattel Dreadnoughtus's days are numbered? 

Will you still be going for the Creative Beast Dilophosaurus now that Haolonggood has released theirs?

Also, will you be replacing Papo's Gorgosaurus with PNSO's? I have the feeling Safari will release one soon, considering they've released several tyrannosaurids in the last few years. That would be a bit funny, because Gorgosaurus and Albertosaurus are almost clones. But it would probably be nicer than PNSO's (or at least I prefer Watson's recent tyrannosaurids over their PNSO counterparts).

[Sim]

Inspired by @Concavenator's advice to me in the CollectA 2024 thread, I'd like to ask, Tim, have you considered not collecting poor prehistoric animal figures so you could have room for good extant animal figures?

[Sim]

I just noticed you haven't listed the scale of the Kaiyodo Plesiosaurus!

[Halichoeres]

Since the CollectA rumours from Paleofiguras appear to be true, I guess your Tyco Placerias' and Mattel Dreadnoughtus's days are numbered? 

Will you still be going for the Creative Beast Dilophosaurus now that Haolonggood has released theirs?

Also, will you be replacing Papo's Gorgosaurus with PNSO's? I have the feeling Safari will release one soon, considering they've released several tyrannosaurids in the last few years. That would be a bit funny, because Gorgosaurus and Albertosaurus are almost clones. But it would probably be nicer than PNSO's (or at least I prefer Watson's recent tyrannosaurids over their PNSO counterparts).

If the rest of the rumors are true, then yes, I'll almost certainly swap out the Tyco Placerias and Mattel Dreadnoughtus. It's likely I'll also swap out the Golden Link Nanuqsaurus/Gorgosaurus from the WWD movie, and possibly the Toyway Polacanthus.

I haven't made up my mind on Dilophosaurus. I did pledge for the Creative Beast version, but by the time it actually ships we could easily have another two versions of the animal!

I've been holding off buying any PNSO until they change things up, so now that they've released the Zuul, I might finally place an order, which may include the Gorgosaurus. I do prefer theirs to Papo's. I hope Safari doesn't make one, they have so many already. Irrespective of my desires, they just retired the Qianzhousaurus, which might suggest the non-Tyrannosaurus ones don't sell that well.

Inspired by @Concavenator's advice to me in the CollectA 2024 thread, I'd like to ask, Tim, have you considered not collecting poor prehistoric animal figures so you could have room for good extant animal figures?

I haven't really considered launching an extant animal collection in earnest. My interests are broad enough that I know I do not have the space for it without giving up parts of hobbies that I'm more attached to. Giving up my Mattel figures, for example, wouldn't free up enough room for the fish and insects I would want in an extant collection. Moreover, many, many more companies make extant figures than prehistoric ones, so the hunt could conceivably be much broader and more expensive.

I just noticed you haven't listed the scale of the Kaiyodo Plesiosaurus!

Thanks for catching that! It's 1:35, maybe 1:40 for a largest-possible individual. I'll add it to the relevant post.

On a completely unrelated note, if you're into Lego you might know that they recently opened preorders for a natural history museum in their "modular building" line. This was bittersweet news for me, because while theirs is very nice, I had found that to be a big gap in my Lego town and made one of my own. I already owned the Bookshop set, but got another as a very generous Christmas gift. So I cannibalized some pieces from the second copy, along with some other bricks I had lying around, to make a museum of my own. I thought maybe a couple people here might enjoy it.



I used the skeletons from Dinosaur Fossils in their entirety. They are much too large for minifigure scale, so I used them as outdoor statuary.

Triceratops in an open space to the side of the building


Not the best shot of the Pteranodon, but minifigs can reach it from the door to the paleontologist's office. There's a telescope behind the HVAC material, but people have to scale the wall to use it!


Tyrannosaurus costume guy welcomes visitors. The next series of blind-box minifigs will include a person in a Triceratops costume, which is more my speed!

In the main hall is a mammoth, which is made from Nanoblocks. Once upon a time, Lego made a molded mammoth figure, but I already had this (a different Christmas gift!) so I went with it.


A dinosaur egg. The studs on the wall were intended for a mounted skeleton of something swimming or flying. I haven't figured out what yet, but it has to come from the un-built Tyrannosaurus skeleton from the Dinosaur Fossils set. The Pteranodon doesn't fit, I already tried.


A "taxidermied" bluebird


If you go upstairs there's an anthropology exhibit, with a model of a Cro-Magnon man, a skeleton, and some earthen artifact from an archaic culture.


The upper roof comes off to show the paleontologist's office. In this setting a real paleontologist would be in ordinary clothes, but here she's in field gear. But the coffee, that's true to life. Unfortunately the office can only be reached by ladder (included but not pictured).


A bus stop, because only a lunatic drives to a museum and parks there. The entire front of the building has bollards, planted or otherwise, because you can never trust motorists!


I ordered a few pieces to install bike racks, but they haven't arrived yet. That was the only thing I actually bought new for this build; everything you see here I already owned.


The back. The Ankylosaurus costume is from a different brand, I forget the name.




Anyway, that was my first attempt to make anything of this size. I'm reasonably pleased with how it turned out.

[Faelrin]

I haven't seriously played with Lego since I was a kid, so seeing this unlocked a few memories. Amazing work on that too, and thanks for sharing it.

[BlueKrono]

For the empty space on the wall I nominate a supersized sauropod femur, like Cope's Amphicoelius/ Maraapunisaurus.

[TooOldForDinosaurs]

Hey thats super awesome @Halichoeres ! 

[Leyster]

Wow, that's an amazing work!

[Halichoeres]

Thanks, everyone! I'll get back to the usual prehistoric fodder soon enough...

For the empty space on the wall I nominate a supersized sauropod femur, like Cope's Amphicoelius/ Maraapunisaurus.

That's an interesting idea. I think that would be challenging but it should be possible. I was thinking some kind of fish with lots of hemal and neural spines, but a big ol' femur could work too. By the way, I thought of you recently when I was looking at scans of old Lego magazines, one of which had instructions to build a Kronosaurus! https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=5983030

[BlueKrono]

@Halichoeres That is pretty baller! I've actually been planning on building a robins egg blue Marx Kronosaurus out of Lego for a while, but all the Lego planning programs are on PC rather than smart phones, and I haven't used a computer in years! 🙃

[Concavenator]

@Halichoeres Not so sure that those tyrannosaurs aren't good sellers! This post by Safari from August claims the Albertosaurus is one of their selling dinosaurs this year.

There could have been several reasons behind the early retirement of the Qianzhousaurus. Maybe its name is hard to pronounce/remember and that affects it negatively?  Perhaps people are unfamiliar with it? Or that it's not a very recognizable animal, being one of the more unusual tyrannosaurs? Did the (shortly after it) release of the PNSO version affect it negatively? Hmm...

About Dilophosaurus, I take it you'd still rather have the Cyberzoic than the Haolonggood? I've been considering getting the Haolonggood, but after seeing it, I think I'll probably still be planning to get the BotM one after all, despite being bigger and more expensive. The lack of lips is the smallest deal imo, its proportions seem off. Its torso should be more elongated, its arms are too big, and maybe the tail is a taad too long?

Spoiler

Skeletal by TheSynopsis.

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And then it lacks feathering which for this animal I'd say probably makes sense, as Coelophysis is thought to have been feathered too. And finally it lacks lips. So yeah, going for the bigger and more expensive Creative Beast version probably makes sense in this case. What do you think?

And wow, that Lego buildup sure is impressive!

[Sim]

Thanks for sharing that Safari post @Concavenator!  I find it interesting how well figures sell.  The Albertosaurus and Majungasaurus might be selling well because they are new, the other three selling well might be because they are all-time good sellers and this shows the success of these three figures.  It's good to have official confirmation the Allosaurus, Deinonychus and Coelophysis sell well, I had noticed they were high up on the stores of Safari and Everything Dinosaur when figures were ordered by popularity.  I also find it interesting they are all theropods.

[Concavenator]

@Sim I'm particularly glad the Deinonychus is a good seller. Hopefully the Utahraptor will, too, sell really well and that will motivate Safari to make more dromaeosaurids.

[Halichoeres]

@Halichoeres That is pretty baller! I've actually been planning on building a robins egg blue Marx Kronosaurus out of Lego for a while, but all the Lego planning programs are on PC rather than smart phones, and I haven't used a computer in years! 🙃

I've never used any of the software; I just build with what I have lying around. But one can certainly dream bigger in Stud. io than with just a pile of bricks! It would be cool to see the Marx Krono rendered in Lego.

And wow, that Lego buildup sure is impressive!

Thank you!

I hadn't seen that post about Safari's best sellers. It kind of bums me out that they're all theropods, but it's not surprising with kids as the primary audience (although Coelophysis specifically is kind of a surprise). It sort of makes me want to stop buying theropods altogether, although I know eventually my shelves would feel incomplete without them. (But hey, in line with Sim's suggestion above, it would give me LOTS of room for extant animals ).

As for the Dilophosaurus, there are some aspects of Haolonggood's that I prefer, but they are mainly stylistic, such as the size, lack of articulation, and color scheme. The Creative Beast one is probably more accurate, although I haven't evaluated that in any systematic way and it's probably a pretty close contest. I might even be more inclined to get the HLG if it were sold singly rather than in a pair.

[Concavenator]

@Halichoeres Well, as @Sim said, the Albertosaurus and the Majungasaurus could probably be selling that well because they're newer figures. The other 3 are older. I imagine some non-theropods like Stegosaurus and Triceratops sell pretty well too. Hopefully those kids buying Coelophysis figures aren't the same that ask for Indominus and Indoraptor figures... (or maybe they are??  )

About the HLG Dilophosaurus one solution cold be displaying one individual and store/sell the other. That's what I would do in case I get it, display one and store the other (technically getting a pair already breaks the 1 figure/genus rule  ). I would sell one of the two, if it wasn't because that would hinder me when it comes to reselling the figure afterwards if needed. I'd also they'd rather just released one figure. There seems to be a tradition for releasing Dilophosaurus figures in pairs (Carnegie, Sideshow...). Same as Maiasaura/Protoceratops with a nest.

In any case, if the standing version starts having stability issues one could display the resting version instead. If PNSO releases a Dilophosaurus it would probably be the same price as the HLG pair (if not more expensive), since the HLG Dilophosaurus is currently 30 € on AliExpress and PNSO figures around that size (Pachycephalosaurus, Megalosaurus, subadult Yangchuanosaurus...) are ~ 37 €.

Also, it's probably time to say goodbye to your CollectA Alamosaurus I guess... and maybe Megaraptor too (Haolonggood)?

[Faelrin]

I'm really surprised to see the Coelophysis selling so well. Kind of a good thing since I'm so behind on ordering one. In fact the only one of those I do have is the Deinonychus so far.