Faras' Collection (Mainly PNSO)

[ceratopsian]

Thank you @ Faras for an interesting and informative read on my favourite group of dinosaurs. Seeing the vinyl release reminds me of the excitement of the early days of PNSO. I especially enjoyed your rundown on the various versions of the Old Triceratops. I ended up with two of these (one a gift) but sadly not the 10th Anniversary edition. I really like the colours and have fancied one since pictures became available. Maybe I should resort to a repaint! 

My Torosaurus and baby arrived a couple of days ago. I agree, it's a wonderful model. By the way, does the baby's name Dabei carry any meaning in Mandarin?

[Faras]

Thanks everyone! Partial corona lockdown in my city atm, so perhaps I'll post more soon (hope it won't affect Lingwulong delivery...).

@SRF Aye the torosaurus is such a gem in my display I'll write about tyrannosaurs next then Marine display is too messy so I sort of don't wanna start on them...

@ceratopsian Yeah iirc forums "exploded" when they released vinyl figures in 2016. I did run into last few pcs of anniversary Trike while choosing my first proper dino figure in mid 2020 and decided to get something else instead...

Baby's name Dabei 大贝 literally means "big" + "seashell" in Mandarin, though characters like da 大 (big), xiao 小 (small), zi 子 (son/desendent), a 阿 (tone word) are usually used in childhood names without carrying actual meanings. Bei 贝 (precious or beautiful seashell when used in names, since such seashells were used as currency) is gender neutral character, coincidentally one of my cousin's childhood name is Beibei 贝贝

Here are my understandings of PNSO figures' Chinese names (might be different from what PNSO staffs had in mind, of course):

Chungkingosaurus Xiaobei 小北: literally small (xiao 小) + north (bei 北), note different characters with similar pronunciations (贝 bèi, 北 běi).

Yangchuanosaurus Dayong 大勇: big (da 大) + bravery (yong 勇), imo they chose antonyms here to empathise on size differences and create antithesis.

Mamenchisaurus Er-Ma 尔玛: possibly comes from how Qiang people refers to themselves: Rma/Rrmea in Qiangic, translate into er 尔 ma 玛 in Mandarin.

Himalayasaurus Tucson 图桑: 图桑 is Mandarin form of a masculine Tibetan name, no idea how it turned into Tucson (the city Tucson is translated to Tusen 图森).

Microraptor Gaoyuan 高远: tall/high (gao 高) + far (yuan 远). 高远 in a name usually implies "aim for the highest" 志存高远.

Tuojiangosaurus Qichuan 奇川: Tuojiang is Mandarin Pinyin of Tuo river. Chuan 川 is river (or river valley, floodplain), qi 奇 usually means marvelous/wondrous in combination with landscape.

Sinoceratops A-Qi 阿齐: Shandong province is often referred to as "the land of Qi-Lu" as it was home to two major states, Qi 齐 and Lu 鲁 during Zhou dynasty. The name A-Qi indicates it was discovered in Shandong.

Zhuchengtyrannus Luxiong 鲁雄: lu 鲁 from Shandong, xiong 雄 is highly masculine character meaning male/powerful/majestic/magnificent.

Tsingtaosaurus Xiaoqin 小琴: small (xiao 小) + qin (instrument, qin 琴) Tsingtao (also spelled Qingdao 青岛, azure island) city has several other names, one of them is Qindao 琴岛 (qin island, from an island with shape of guqin).

Qianzhousaurus A-Shu 阿殊: I think shu 殊 means special/unique here.

Yutyrannus Yinqi 银器: silver (yin 银) + ware (qi 器), sounds like the initial paint design was silver-white.

Tarbosaurus Chuanzi 川子: literally floodplain (chuan 川) + descendent (zi 子), though zi 子 is usually used as tone word without actual meanings in names.

Sinraptor Xinchuan 新川: xin 新 for Xinjiang province 新疆 (Sinraptor dongi), chuan for Sichuan province 四川 (Sinraptor hepingensis).

Lingwulong Chuanchuan 川川: Lingwu city sits on the bank of the Yellow River and is under administration of Yinchuan city, so double river (chuan 川).

Small Huayangosaurus Luxi 露夕: dew (lu 露) + dusk (xi 夕). Interestingly the name sounds exactly same as Mandarin translation of Lucy 露西.

Small Microraptor Shanshan 姗姗: lithe + lithe, 姗 is strongly feminine (with female radical 女) and commonly used in girl names.

Small Tsingtaosaurus Cuiyu 翠玉: emerald (cui 翠) + jade (yu 玉).


Some minis have slightly different names in Mandarin.

Himalayasaurus Zomba 宗巴: masculine Tibetan name.

Glyphoderma Kel 壳壳 (Keke): shell (ke 壳) x2.

Confuciusornis mini Yoyo 悠悠 (Youyou): swing or leisurely (you 悠) x2.

Wuerhosaurus Xana 热娜 (Rena): Mandarin translation of common feminine Uyghur name.

Nyctosaurus Fan 风帆 (Fengfan): wind (feng 风) + sail (fan 帆).

Tuojiangosaurus Rahba 拉巴 (Laba): Mandarin translation of a. Qiangic word for flower; b. masculine Tibetan name.

Odontochelys Shelfy 小壳 (Xiaoke): small (xiao 小) + shell (ke 壳).

Alioramus Gala 嘎拉: Mongolian nickname.

Anchiornis Luffy 陆飞 (Lufei): land (lu 陆) + fly (fei 飞).

Liaoceratops Hehe 合合: I'm puzzled by this one, maybe the character 合 indicated cooperation (合作）between Chinese and American scientists.

Guidraco Yusen 渔生 (Yusheng): fishing (yu 渔) + born (sheng 生).

Yi Yiyi 一一: the character 一 means one, apparently it's used as homophonic to genus name Yi (wing 翼, a different character with same pronunciation).

Tianyulong Xiaoyu 小羽: small (xiao 小) + feather (yu 羽).

Sinosaurpteryx Yuyan 羽颜: feather (yu 羽) + colour/face (yan 颜, imo here it means colour).

Mei Maomao 毛毛: hair/fur (mao 毛) x2, common Mandarin nick for children and pet dogs

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks for those insights, @Faras

[SidB]

Yes, thanks @Faras , for all of your hard work.

[ceratopsian]

Thank you @Faras - that's absolutely fascinating and satisfies my linguistic curiosity. Some are really rather beautiful - I like Dew Dusk for instance for the Huayangosaurus. I had a (very) few lessons in Mandarin, mostly spoken and relying on Pinyin, but with a little introduction to characters, back in 2019 to prepare for a holiday in China (involving some visits to dinosaur museums), so I have a postage-stamp sized amount of knowledge!  I've already forgotten most of what I learned of course.

Bad luck on the decision not to buy the Anniversary Trike!  As we say here, you live and learn!

[Faras]

My pleasure *bows*

@ceratopsian Ooh I see, nice nice! Shame I'm terrible at translating, a few names lost their elegance during the process. We start by learning Pinyin in school too, guessing the correct meaning based on context when 100 completely different characters have same pronunciation was such a horrible experience... Learning to read characters was easier, but now I'd probably fail primary school dictation quiz after barely writing things down for years

Aye, opportunities often won't wait for indecisive minds!

[ceratopsian]

I imagine that technology and keyboards must have made a huge difference to you. I enjoyed dipping my toes in the waters - it gave me some small insight into how very different languages can be from Indo-European based ones. 

[Halichoeres]

Thanks, this is a very useful reference!

[Faras]

Sorry for not updating this thread, I wasn't in the mood during strict lockdown

Hmm I'll write about articulated jaws before starting on carnivores. Personally I prefer good moveable jaws over fixed jaws on PVC figures, as interactions with other figures often require different jaw positions, plus folks might have various opinions on what matches a particular species or pose better. PNSO's articulated jaws evolved several times over the years to satisfy popular demands and their own standards and it's what I love the most - they set the bar so high for themselves that they check comments/forums for suggestions, even going beyond to improve things few would notice.

*I used photos from Tieba posts and shopping sites comments.

Type I - simple slip locking: joints connected to throat piece or below back of the skull, masticatory muscles attacked to lower jaws and slips into sockets between jugal and mouth.
- Basilosaurus, Mosasaurus, Giganotosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus, old Spinosaurus, old T. rex, old and new Triceratops, Torosaurus.




This type is the best for presenting masticatory muscles and cutting production costs, jaw locking depends on tightness of joints and friction around muscle pieces. Lower skull results in shorter muscles and higher possibility of lock failure. Seems to work well on big ceratops so later Triceratops and Torosaurus still use it, reported fail rate is so high for the rest though that I didn't dare touching any of them. Separate throat pieces were used in all non ceratops (I guess it's not needed when jaws are long and narrow).

Variations of type I:

Dakosaurus: masticatory muscles attacked onto upper jaws, sockets located on lower jaws. Locking well.

Small Megalodon and Helicoprion: no socket, lower jaw piece slips into the mouth. Locking well.

Kronosaurus: masticatory muscles merged with throat, lower jaws slide on muscle-throat piece. End result is disastrous - giant gap, loose tongue and bad locking when mouth isn't fully opened/closed (did they simplified the structure to cut costs for crowdfunding? A decent big mouth needs seperate throat piece imo).



Type II - attempt to fix locking: joints are hidden beneath what seems like pterygoid muscle. Majority of masticatory muscles are located on throat piece. Extra muscles on lower jaws that slide into sockets between throat piece muscles and jugal.
- New Spinosaurus.



This one solves loose jaws problem without breaking the overall shape of muscles, but jugal bones are extended too much. Bad idea for species with narrow skulls.

Type III - modified type II : massive ball joins hidden under extended quadratojugal. Majority of masticatory muscles are located on throat piece. Extra muscles on lower jaws that slide into sockets between throat piece muscles and jugal.
- New Wilson, Andrea, Zhuchengtyrannus.





Joints can only be seen from specific angles, extra muscles are hardly visible over 20cm, so masticatory muscles seem like uniformed pieces. Jugal bones are extended too much again, though it's okay for wide head tyrannosaurs.

Wilson's head was probably made a separate piece to get around assembling problem (inserted from back of the head?). Luckily they found a solution before releasing Andrea.



Type IV - attempt on locking without widened skull: extended articular in dent on quadratojugal, forming visible joints. Most of masticatory muscles are located on throat piece. Tiny pieces of masticatory muscles on lower jaws to fix the shape. Seems like easier assembling compared to type 2 and 3.
- Qianzhousaurus



It fixes wide skull problem, yet creating underbite problem when the mouth is opened then closed. Loads of buyers complained and asked about how to close the mouth, so this design was quickly discarded.

Type V - reverse joints to fix underbite: extended quadratojugal in dent on articular, forming visible joints. Most of masticatory muscles are located on throat piece. Small pieces of masticatory muscles on lower jaws to fix the shape (size varies). Sockets on upper jaws for extra lower jaw muscles. Easy assembling.
- Carnotaurus, Allosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Yutyrannus, Tarbosaurus, Torvosaurus, Nanotyrannus.



Honestly I don't like this one. I could always find a good looking angle and jaw position with type 1-4 but there's no way to hide those ugly gigantic joints up close. Luckily they are not too noticeable from a distance. Only front-most parts of masticatory muscles on lower jaw fixes overextending jugal, though they are not big enough on many figures, leaving a small gap when mouth is fully opened. Somehow most figures with this type has overbites.

Type VI - hybrid type II and V: joints are hidden beneath what seems like pterygoid muscle. Majority of masticatory muscles are located on throat piece. Small pieces of masticatory muscles on lower jaws to fix the shape. Sockets on upper jaws for extra lower jaw muscles.
- Acrocanthosaurus, Sinraptor.





Probably the best solution so far, only quadratojugal bones are widened to hide the joins. Seems both muscles on lower jaws and sockets on upper are designed to fit lock and prevent bite problem when mouth is closed (so long they use correct calculation for jaw length, some overbites are so bad that can't be caused by bad joints alone).

Articulated jaws could use some improvements still, like more natural blending between muscles on throat piece and lower jaws, though gotta say I'm quite satisfied with recent figures. PNSO keeps evolving, so I suppose it's safe to say the best release would be the next release

[SidB]

That's an astonishingly precise analysis and history of a top-flight effort to provide demanding consumers with the best possible product. Thank you for your heroic effort to track and explain this ongoing process.

[Faelrin]

Thanks for the detailed translation breakdown on the names, as well as the jaw articulation mechanisms. I wonder how the Dunkleosteus fits in with those? Granted its articulation is quite unique in that they managed to get both the upper and lower jaws to open like the real animal could do, which I was impressed by, especially as I had been wanting to see something like that made for years. Sadly I'm still behind on picking this one up. I imagine I'll get to it either later in the year, or early next year, same with the Acrocanthosaurus as well.

[Faras]

I was puzzled by why ceratops don't have throat piece, just realised the heads is separate piece... sockets are on body pieces, they put lower jaws in place before adding head (for other figures, jaws were probably added to throat piece then both added to the body-head).

S @SidB Aw thank, that's really kind of you

@Faelrin Oops thought I'd leave Dunkleosteus for the last and forgot completely Yeah it's a unique case with 4 (pairs of) joints and 3 moveable pieces.

Joint between back of the head (pink parts are also part of head piece) and body.



Lower jaws are attached to head from the inside, throat piece connected to lower jaws and body via joints.



When head is pulled, head joint rotates upward, both the joints and pink parts pushing back end of lower jaws out. Movement of lower jaws' front end is restricted by throat piece, so it turns downward and open throat. Throat piece inside of mouth locks hidden pink parts behind jaw joints and prevent them from slipping inward.

It's a effective design, though I wish they'd hide throat - body joints/seams better. Well luckily it's only so bothersome when I look at the figure from below.

[Halichoeres]

It's a pretty ingenious mechanism, but as is almost always the case, it would certainly have looked more attractive without any joints at all.