The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[SBell]

Just the possibility of another project like this makes me excited. Hopefully focusing on the Carboniferous and more.

Agreed. Her work is phenomenal.

Plus, the game is pretty good as well!

[Halichoeres]

Arthropods of the Cambrian!


Nol Corporation Goticaris
Scale: 20× life size
Released: 2021
Late Cambrian
Etymology: Gr. "shrimp of the Gutes [a Swedish tribe, one of the progenitors of modern Swedes]"
This figure is one of the most surprising releases since I've been collecting. Some in the series were crane game prizes, but this one was embedded in a tiny capsule inside of a bath bomb sold in Japan. It's based on a series of books called "Extinct for a Reason" by Takashi Maruyama, distributed by a publisher called Diamond. Nol Corp makes a lot of personal care goods, and I'm crediting them with the toy's manufacture, but the reality is I'm not really sure who made it. Although I think Oumcraft's version has an edge when it comes to accuracy, this one is closer to the format I prefer, namely toys. So I'll probably replace it (which just means that the Oumcraft one will go into the small box of the ones I don't have on display).


With my other much-larger-than-life arthropods.


Oumcraft Jianfengia
Scale: about 1:1
Released: 2022
Middle Cambrian
Etymology: Perhaps after someone named Jian Feng?
Hard to find information about this animal in particular, as it was described in a Chinese journal that I can't access. But it's a little easier to find general information on megacheiran ("big-handed") arthropods, predatory animals with raptorial (grabby) appendages. This has a relatively modest set of prey-snatchers compared to some of its relatives.


Oumcraft Yohoia
Scale: About 1:1
Released: 2022
Middle Cambrian
Etymology: After the Yoho River in BC, Canada
A Canadian cousin of the Chinese Jianfengia. It had appendages analogous to the ones of dragonfly nymphs, except paired instead of a single midline structure. Surely terrifying to even tinier animals. The red color of this one makes it look like it was cooked!


Bugs are so great.


Oumcraft Urokodia
Scale: 1:1 - 1:2
Released: 2022
Middle Cambrian
Etymology: I'm not sure, maybe named after a person?
Described in 1989 in the same Chinese journal as Jianfengia, so again hard to find information, but what I can tell you is that it's from the Maotianshan shales and looks a little like a marine millipede. I love Oumcraft for even going to the trouble of making understated animals like this one into figures.


Oumcraft Haikoucaris
Scale: 1:2
Released: 2022
Middle Cambrian
Etymology: Gr./Chinese "shrimp from Haikou [Kunming, China]"
Another megacheiran, larger, and shaped a little differently. These guys were pretty diverse in the Cambrian, but then seem to have disappeared. I guess it could turn out they're related to some later group, but to my knowledge a descendant lineage hasn't been identified.


With Safari's Sidneyia.


Oumcraft Parapeytoia
Scale: 1:10
Released: 2022
Middle Cambrian
Etymology: Gr. "alongside Peytoia"
The megacheiran that looks like a radiodont? Well, maybe, but I think the appearance here reflects early impressions that it was actually related to radiodonts. I don't think the back half is well preserved, so in the Palaeopedia Tumblr blog, Anthony Pain reconstructed it with a very Anomalocaris-like rear end. Oammararak replicated it here, although as a megacheiran it's more likely that it had a pointed telson.


Crinoids like this didn't show up till later, but I just don't have much from the Cambrian at this scale.

[ceratopsian]

All the Maotianshan genera from this group are covered, with photographs of fossils, in "The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China: The flowering of animal life", by Hou Xian-Guang et al.  (I have 2nd ed.) But no information on the derivation of the name Jianfengia!

[triceratops83]

Hey Halichoeres, have you got a bottle of champagne put aside for when you post the last of your Oumcraft minis?

[Halichoeres]

All the Maotianshan genera from this group are covered, with photographs of fossils, in "The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China: The flowering of animal life", by Hou Xian-Guang et al.  (I have 2nd ed.) But no information on the derivation of the name Jianfengia!

Well, thanks for checking! Hou is one of the authors on both Jianfengia and Urokodia and clearly in a position to know, so kind of a bummer he didn't include that information!

Hey Halichoeres, have you got a bottle of champagne put aside for when you post the last of your Oumcraft minis?

No, but that's an excellent idea. I figure there's another few months of posts left to catalogue them all, so I have time to pick a nice bottle. But my next post will be dinosaurs sensu stricto.

[ceratopsian]

Yes I assumed it was the same Hou. I blame the editor for not suggesting the derivation should be elucidated!

[Concavenator]

@triceratops83 IIRC, @Halichoeres mentioned there might be plans for further stuff from them...

Also @Halichoeres if you could only have 1 Anomalocaris figure, which one would it be? I recall you said both F-Toys' and Takara Tomy's are decent, but I also saw you mentioned you'd still hold on to Kaiyodo's. I guess that makes Kaiyodo's > Takara Tomy's in accuracy? If so, which one would you say it's more accurate, Kaiyodo's or F-Toys'?

According to the DTC site, Kaiyodo's is retired, but is the F-Toys' one retired as well?

Also, feels weird to see myself (and other people) in purple, but not you!  Well, you got your own special category, so I don't think you're too disappointed!

[SBell]

@triceratops83 IIRC, @Halichoeres mentioned there might be plans for further stuff from them...

Also @Halichoeres if you could only have 1 Anomalocaris figure, which one would it be? I recall you said both F-Toys' and Takara Tomy's are decent, but I also saw you mentioned you'd still hold on to Kaiyodo's. I guess that makes Kaiyodo's > Takara Tomy's in accuracy? If so, which one would you say it's more accurate, Kaiyodo's or F-Toys'?

According to the DTC site, Kaiyodo's is retired, but is the F-Toys' one retired as well?

Also, feels weird to see myself (and other people) in purple, but not you!  Well, you got your own special category, so I don't think you're too disappointed!

Kaiyodo figures don't really retire, they're just limited to begin with. And there are two from them, a Dinotales one and a Capsule Museum one; not sure which @Halichoeres has

[bmathison1972]

@Concavenator   Takara's is more accurate, but Kaiyodo's is more aesthetically pleasing (and Tim's Kaiyodo is the more recent Great Leaps in Evolution, or whatever it's called).

When I reviewed CollectA's on the Blog, I included a table that compares F-toys and Takara: https://dinotoyblog.com/anomalocaris-collecta/

later in the review I placed, in order of accuracy:
1. Takara
2. F-toys
3. Kaiyodo (Great Leaps)

[triceratops83]

@triceratops83 IIRC, @Halichoeres mentioned there might be plans for further stuff from them...

That'd just be a good excuse for another bottle of champagne.

[Concavenator]

@SBell Thank you for the info, certainly helpful to a Kaiyodo newbie like me.

B @bmathison1972 Thank you! That comparison is super helpful. I've also seen that you reviewed the Takara one. I'm wondering, why did you say this in Takara's Anomalocaris' review?

If you are more selective about the representative of Anomalocaris in your collection, consider one of the figures by Kaiyodo, or possibly the mini model by Colorata.

Did you mean it by an aesthetics' standpoint, then?

[bmathison1972]

@SBell Thank you for the info, certainly helpful to a Kaiyodo newbie like me.

B @bmathison1972 Thank you! That comparison is super helpful. I've also seen that you reviewed the Takara one. I'm wondering, why did you say this in Takara's Anomalocaris' review?

If you are more selective about the representative of Anomalocaris in your collection, consider one of the figures by Kaiyodo, or possibly the mini model by Colorata.

Did you mean it by an aesthetics' standpoint, then?

I am not sure what I was thinking, it's been a while, but I was probably meaning something smaller and not articulated.

[Concavenator]

B @bmathison1972 Oh okay, thank you anyways. 

[Halichoeres]

Also, feels weird to see myself (and other people) in purple, but not you!  Well, you got your own special category, so I don't think you're too disappointed!

[in my best Ryan Gosling impression] Baby, I'm just Halichoeres!

Also @Halichoeres if you could only have 1 Anomalocaris figure, which one would it be? I recall you said both F-Toys' and Takara Tomy's are decent, but I also saw you mentioned you'd still hold on to Kaiyodo's. I guess that makes Kaiyodo's > Takara Tomy's in accuracy? If so, which one would you say it's more accurate, Kaiyodo's or F-Toys'?

According to the DTC site, Kaiyodo's is retired, but is the F-Toys' one retired as well?

I'm realizing I still have the Kaiyodo listed on page 1, but I have retired it in favor of the F-Toys version. I still have the less-accurate large Favorite version because I like having a larger-scale version of the genus to menace my Oumcraft figures. I based my decision in part on Blaine's very helpful breakdown. I still think the Kaiyodo is the prettiest:

I find Takara Tomy's just a bit too stylized. I would prefer the F-Toys didn't have articulation, but other than that it looks, I dunno, more polished than Tomy's? As SBell said, these were all available on a pretty limited basis, so you could say they're retired. They don't seem to be especially hard to find, although the Kaiyodo Great Leaps version has definitely gotten a bit expensive. Hope that helps!

@triceratops83 IIRC, @Halichoeres mentioned there might be plans for further stuff from them...

That'd just be a good excuse for another bottle of champagne.

This is exactly my thinking!

[Concavenator]

@Halichoeres Thank you! Added Takara's to my wishlist. I don't mind it being stylized, accuracy is more important to me. I think it looks pretty nice, but of course Kaiyodo is Kaiyodo. 

[Halichoeres]

Sarcopterygians of the Cretaceous!


Creative Beast Moros
Scale: 1:15
Sculptors: David Silva & Raul Ramos
Released: 2024
Cenomanian of North America
Etymology: After the Greek personification of impending doom
Every scale estimate in this post should be taken in a pretty relaxed way, because all four of these taxa are known from pretty scanty remains. The three tyrannosaurs work fine with the rest of the BotM line, scale-wise. This figure is pretty attractive and well put together, with the tips of the jaws lined up nicely. The best part of an articulated jaw is that you can close the mouth, and this one facilitates that nicely. A big upgrade from the Mattel Moros.


Creative Beast Alectrosaurus
Scale: 1:17
Sculptors: Jake Baardse & David Silva
Released: 2024
Cenomanian of Eurasia
Etymology: Wikipedia says "unmarried lizard" or "alone lizard," but the original description doesn't specify and I think Gr. "rooster lizard" is at least as plausible.
This one was definitely larger than I was expecting. I'd been thinking of Alectrosaurus as one of the smaller tyrannosauroids, but it definitely had long legs (though we know almost nothing about the rest of it). This figure shows it as a generally lanky animal, reminiscent of an alioramin. The paint job is really striking; I like it.


Creative Beast Eotyrannus
Scale: 1:20
Sculptors: David Silva & Raul Ramos
Released: 2024
Barremian of Eurasia
Etymology: Gr. "dawn tyrant"
This one has worse quality control than the Moros, possibly the worst underbite of any of my BotM figures. Even with the mouth open it's quite obvious. Even so, it's a huge improvement over the CollectA Eotyrannus, a figure so ugly that I once considered replacing with the TS Toys WWD Ornitholestes, merely because it was mislabeled as Eotyrannus.


The new guys with one of their betters.


3d-printed Retodus
Scale: 1:55
Designer: forum member Perotorum
Cenomanian - Maastrichtian
Etymology: L./Gr. "net tooth"
This is an especially uncertain scale estimate, since this lungfish genus is known only from toothplates. My friend recently got a 3d printer, so I went over to his place last week with my paints, and he and I sat around painting fish for a while. His kid joined in too, but he was in a big hurry as kids often are. In the time it took me to sand, trim, and prime two fish prints, he had painted all of these:


Luckily my friend can always print more.


It's almost to scale with Bandai's Mawsonia.

As always, happy to take additional comparison photos on request, assuming I have the requested figures.

[Faelrin]

That BotM Moros was much needed. The toy is far from what the Dominion film design went with too (probably designed much earlier).

[ceratopsian]

Alectrosaurus: the form of the first element isn't right for rooster - but of course palaeontologists are not classicists!  However, I found this snippet on the Alectrosaurus entry at:

https://dinosaurdictionary.com/alectrosaurus/

"The name Alectrosaurus means "unmarried lizard" in Greek, and was chosen by Charles W. Gilmore when he described the genus in 1933. Gilmore believed that he had found a fossil of a female dinosaur that had not yet mated. The specific name olseni is in honor of George Olsen, who discovered the first specimens."

Of course I have no idea how reliable that is!

[thomasw100]

Alectrosaurus: the form of the first element isn't right for rooster - but of course palaeontologists are not classicists!  However, I found this snippet on the Alectrosaurus entry at:

https://dinosaurdictionary.com/alectrosaurus/

"The name Alectrosaurus means "unmarried lizard" in Greek, and was chosen by Charles W. Gilmore when he described the genus in 1933. Gilmore believed that he had found a fossil of a female dinosaur that had not yet mated. The specific name olseni is in honor of George Olsen, who discovered the first specimens."

Of course I have no idea how reliable that is!

I was not aware of this dinosaurdictionary site. As you say, it is difficult to evaluate how reliable the information is. But what casts some doubt already is the fact that in one of their articles they introduce 7 types of dinosaurs and in that text they call pterosaurs dinosaurs and introduce them as one of these 7 types.

[thomasw100]

Alectrosaurus: the form of the first element isn't right for rooster - but of course palaeontologists are not classicists!  However, I found this snippet on the Alectrosaurus entry at:

https://dinosaurdictionary.com/alectrosaurus/

"The name Alectrosaurus means "unmarried lizard" in Greek, and was chosen by Charles W. Gilmore when he described the genus in 1933. Gilmore believed that he had found a fossil of a female dinosaur that had not yet mated. The specific name olseni is in honor of George Olsen, who discovered the first specimens."

Of course I have no idea how reliable that is!

There is a German website which has quite reasonable information. Unfortunately it is in German, but it could be still useful: https://dinodata.de/animals/dinosaurs/pages_a/alectrosaurus.php