Beasts of the Mesozoic Hopes and Dreams

[Halichoeres]

Just can't wait until the tyrannosaurs are over so he can get back to an interesting clade.

[ZoPteryx]

I'm guessing/hoping his tyrannosaurs will probably be rather sparsely feathered, if they're feathered at all.  With that in mind, I personally think the color schemes of carnivorous or big-headed lizards would look really good, for example:

Eastern Water Dragon


Common Basilisk


Great basin Collared Lizard


Black-throated Monitor (juvenile)


Black-and-white Tegu (juvenile)


Boyd's Forest Dragon

[GojiraGuy1954]

I'd like to see a Spinosaurid series that uses crocodilians for colours

[stargatedalek]

Crocodilian Spinosaurs really is a trope I'd like to think we can rise above. Perhaps as a compromise Spinosaurs could be based on various aquatic life? One could be a crocodilian, another a diving bird, a sailfish, orca, maybe even a frog, etc.

As for the lizard Tyrannosaurs; I'd like to hope there will at least be feathered variants if no Tyrannosauroids, and I'm not sure how well these would translate. That or the theme wouldn't remain consistent between the Tyrannosaurs and Tyrannosauroids anymore. Feathers are weird, it's not hard to take patterns from them and apply them to skin or scales, but applying new patterns to feathers can be unpredictable, how they would overlap and change as the animal moved for example. They could end up looking nothing like the original. It's not that these are bad ideas, I'd love to have tegu patterned dinosaurs, but I'm just not sure how well it would work practically for this particular group.

Perhaps each Tyrannosaur could have a feathered and un-feathered/barely feathered variant based on two animals from the same area. IE a green iguana and a harpy eagle.

[Smilodon P.]

For the tyrannosauroids, I would choose colors based on big cats and other wild felines:

1/18 scale:

T-Rex (Featherd Version) = Lion
T-Rex (Unfeathered one) = Lioness
Zunchengtyrannus= Siberian Tiger
Alioramus Remotus= Cheetah
Yutyrannus = snow leopard
Albertosaurus= jaguar
Daspletosaurus= cougar
Labocania= Sand Cat
Teratophoneus=Sunda clouded Leopard
Gorgosaurus= (Black) Leopard
Lythronax = Andean Mountain  Ca
t
Tarbosaurus= Palas Cat
Nanuqsaurus= White tiger
Juvenile T-Rex = Leopon
Qianzhousaurus= Still Thinking

1/6 scale:
Guanlong= Caracal
Dilong = Jaguarundi
Santanaraptor= Ocelot
Proceratosaurus= Iberian lynx
suskityrannus  =Bobcat

In my opinion, the colors of certains poultry birds would look great in an oviraptosaurus series (everytime I see a drawing of  Cockatrice, automatically a Citipati image pops into my mind). Turkeys, chickens and others will fit perfectly in this toy line with only one exception:

Spoiler

[close]

[suspsy]

Given that lions are tawny brown all over, I honestly think that would be a rather boring choice for any dinosaur figure, let alone one in BotM. If we're going with big cats, then a tiger would be a more interesting and appropriate match for T. rex, what with both of them being the biggest representatives of their respective families.

[Killekor]

I like your suggestion of the big felines for the tyrannosaurs, Smilodon P.! I think that, as game birds, the resulting dinosaurs would turn out great! Plus, if Mr. Silva also makes baby Tyrannosaurs, he could base their color schemes on domestic cats!

Plus, I would like to see a feathered dinosaur or a psittacosaurus like dinosaur with a porcupine color scheme! It would be amazing!

Killekor

[suspsy]

As for the lizard Tyrannosaurs; I'd like to hope there will at least be feathered variants if no Tyrannosauroids, and I'm not sure how well these would translate. That or the theme wouldn't remain consistent between the Tyrannosaurs and Tyrannosauroids anymore. Feathers are weird, it's not hard to take patterns from them and apply them to skin or scales, but applying new patterns to feathers can be unpredictable, how they would overlap and change as the animal moved for example. They could end up looking nothing like the original. It's not that these are bad ideas, I'd love to have tegu patterned dinosaurs, but I'm just not sure how well it would work practically for this particular group.

Perhaps each Tyrannosaur could have a feathered and un-feathered/barely feathered variant based on two animals from the same area. IE a green iguana and a harpy eagle.

I've been a fan of fully feathered tyrannosaurids in the past, but I'm much more inclined nowadays to think that if the big ones possessed any plumage, it would indeed have been minimal. My current favourite interpretions are along the lines of these ones by Todd Marshall and Beth Zaiken respectively. If David does indeed intend to do feathered versions, I hope he follows suit.



It's Scotty!


The more I think about it, the more I feel that birds of prey would be my preferred influence for colour schemes. As you said yourself, feather patterns can easily be applied to scales and skin, so it would probably be easy to create a Tyrannosaurus rex reminiscent of the eagles I listed earlier.

Oh, and let's not forget owls in addition to eagles and hawks and vultures. A great horned owl would be a good match for T. rex. It's not even the biggest owl in North America, but it's definitely the fiercest and most powerful. It's been known to attack, kill, and consume red-tailed hawks like the one below and great grey owls that are even larger than itself.



And a snowy owl would probably work well for Nanuqsaurus.