Colorata New for 2017

[Ravonium]

What's with this obsession of Olenoides?

I'm guessing it's because Olenoides specimens are quite common and well preserved. It could be also to do with it coexisting with other famous Cambrian invertebrates.


However, I definitely agree that someone should make a trilobite that isn't Olenoides.

[bmathison1972]

What's with this obsession of Olenoides?

I'm guessing it's because Olenoides specimens are quite common and well preserved. It could be also to do with it coexisting with other famous Cambrian invertebrates.


However, I definitely agree that someone should make a trilobite that isn't Olenoides.

I agree totally based on it being common and found with other familiar Cambrian critters.

So this Olenoides trend is a recent thing. For years, the ROM material was the only one. Now in 2016 and 2017 we have three more (Favorite, CollectA, and now Colorata). I have 23 trilobite figures and only 3 are Olenoides  My 23 figures are within 13 genera (keep in mind several are from Pay May at Paleocasts...)

[BlueKrono]

Oh. My. Gah! Love them! Especially the Anom. That pose is actually really dynamic, probably my favorite one made yet.

[bmathison1972]

By the way, I will be buying this set, and only interested in the three arthropods, so the two fish and the cephalapod will be avail for sale/trade

[Faelrin]

I'm glad to see this set is finally seeing the day of light. I think I might just have to make do with CollectA's prehistoric marine set and upcoming Dunkleosteus though, because of price, availability, those kind of things.

[ZoPteryx]

Better late than never!  Interesting line up.  Imho, the Dunkleosteus and the trilobite are pretty uninspired, but the others are nice.

[Joey]

Honestly, this set is not a bad set, so here are my opinions:
Dunkleosteus: This is the biggest let down of the set in my opinion (and I'm not even talking about accuracy here, we all know about the tail). The color scheme is very drab, the paint job on the teeth is not good looking and the way it opens its jaw is slightly unrealistic.
Cephalaspis: This is a nice looking figure! I like the sculpt and overall color choices. Honestly from the stock photos alone I would this guy an 8/10.
Acutiramus: Since the toy market seems to not like Eurypterids as much as other prehistoric animals, this is a nice figure. The color choice isn't bad (I would like a blue or gray coloration better personally) but what really makes this guy very nice is the sculpt, which is very detailed and nice.
Cameroceras: Okay I'm going to say this right now, this figure is my favorite of the set. It is much better than the Collecta tube figure in all aspects. The paint job and application is very good and reminds me of the modern day Nautilus. This figure would deserve a 9.5/10.
Olenoides: This figure is just mediocre honestly, the color scheme is slightly boring however the sculpt is nice.
Anomalocaris: This figure has a nice sculpt, but the colors are just bad. These color choices just don't fit an aquatic animal like Anomalocaris.

[RobinGoodfellow]

Anomalocaris: This figure has a nice sculpt, but the colors are just bad. These color choices just don't fit an aquatic animal like Anomalocaris.

[Joey]

Anomalocaris: This figure has a nice sculpt, but the colors are just bad. These color choices just don't fit an aquatic animal like Anomalocaris.

Yeah you got me there. I did kind of make a broad statement there.

[stargatedalek]

I disagree, spiny lobsters are brightly coloured for defensive purposes, it wards off predators and hides them among reefs on the seafloor. Anomalocaris hunted in the open water, it needed to be able to approach prey from above with some degree of stealth.

[bmathison1972]

I disagree, spiny lobsters are brightly coloured for defensive purposes, it wards off predators and hides them among reefs on the seafloor. Anomalocaris hunted in the open water, it needed to be able to approach prey from above with some degree of stealth.

As such, it probably would have had a dark dorsum and a pale venter.

However...without a complete understanding of the habitat in which Anomalocaris lived (the fossil record is probably far from complete), who knows what colors it might have had to hind among various substrates. Honestly we don't even know entirely for sure how Anomalocaris fed and what it ate (hard-bodied invertebrates vs. softer-bodied). For all we know, those impressive anterior appendages may have been for mating purposes.

[Halichoeres]

Anomalocaris does get reconstructed in red a lot, I wonder if people think of a cooked lobster when they hear "giant prehistoric crustacean-type thing."

I do wish that we could get some other trilobites besides Olenoides. The COG Ltd "Earliest Life" set trilobite is probably also an Olenoides, since the figure has cerci, and every other species in the set is also from the Burgess Shale. If you exclude resin models, every toy trilobite currently in production is an Olenoides, now that the Safari Cambrian Toob is discontinued, and with it the Tricrepicephalus. If you want some trilobite diversity, you have to hunt down out-of-production Kaiyodos (though they're very much worth it).

As for the Cephalaspis, it looks very accurate at first glance. I'm glad it's C. lyelli, since all the other species are likely to be assigned to new genera eventually.

I'm with you, Joey, this Cameroceras is one of the highlights of the set. I think it'll be about 1:40, so it'll look nice next to some of my other sea monsters.

The Dunk is kinda ho-hum.

The Acutiramus is cool, but as bmathison pointed out it's pretty similar to Pterygotus, to the extent that I think there have been species switched between the two genera. A Jaekelopterus or Slimonia would have been even cooler, presenting a stronger morphological contrast to existing eurypterid figures.

All in all, this is already my favorite set that Colorata has made (which I'm sure will surprise no-one).

[Faelrin]

I like Olenoides, but I would like to see more figures of Phacops, if partly because it is my current living residence state's fossil. I also like how round it is. It has also been found rolled up into a ball. Honestly that would make for an interesting figure too, although I'm not sure if it just does that when it dies only.

As much as I love Dunkleosteus and Anomalocaris, my favorites from what I'm seeing have to be the sea scorpion, and the Cameroceras. I'm actually a little surprised there aren't more sea scorpion figures around. I thought they were one of the more popular Paleozoic creatures?

[Patrx]

I was just on eBay and spotted something interesting; it looks like Colorata's Cretaceous set (Vol. 2) has been updated with a new Spinosaurus!





The others in the set all look the same as before.

[DinoToyForum]

Patrx, you're right. Well spotted! The original is standing by a shoreline (I have it).

[MLMjp]

So....
They update the Spinosaurus figure but they dont give a tail fluke to the mosasaur and that dromaeosaurid is scaly and has pronated hands...Good job Colorata....

[stargatedalek]

Probably just because Spinosaurus is the centerpiece of the set. Colorata has done a few of these sorts of tweaks before with their modern animal sets where they swap out an animal or two at a time.