Choices when choosing new species to make

[Sim]

Good luck waiting for a PNSO or HLG Atlasaurus, you'll need it!   

no rush, allows time for my shelves and wallet to breath lol

Ha ha yeah, first they have to make Oxalaia and Siamraptor.

If they released those as minor retools of the Spinosaurus and Mapusaurus that would easily be the funniest thing PNSO could do

I was reading the above conversation and thought it would be interesting to discuss it further outside of B.'s thread.  So here we are!  First, I have to say I can't tell if Halichoeres was joking or not, since PNSO did make that "Sinopliosaurus".  I also hope PNSO doesn't get to a point where they exhaust the well-known species of the groups they like making and then start making very fragmentary stuff from those groups like Oxalaia...  But how do people feel about this?  And I wonder if PNSO is already doing this somewhat by making species such as Tyrannotitan and Wuerhosaurus.
I don't see PNSO retooling figures to represent new species, for example their five carcharodontosaurines all have unique sculpts as far as I can tell.  But could it not be good to retool sculpts to represent new species if the choice is between that and not making a species at all?  I think it could be good, Creative Beast Studio does it in a way, but I would be against doing it to represent very fragmentary species.

[crazy8wizard]

In all fairness I was being facetious about the company retooling figures. I was just making a joke about how similar the two fragmentary genera are represented as nearly identical to their more complete relatives

[Faelrin]

Here's my criteria for what I would be interested in getting a figure of:

-Is it some other animal outside Dinosauria and Reptilia?
-Does it have good skeletal remains?
-Does it have numerous specimens (even young)?
-Does it have integument?
-Does it have some indication of coloration (such as melanosomes)?
-Does it have distinctive features (like ceratopsian frills for example)?

From what I've seen in my years of collecting and managing the DTC site, companies largely make figures of large predatory theropods, and sometimes armored herbivores (ceratopsians and thyreophorans) and sauropods. Rarely anything outside of Dinosauria, let alone Reptilia.

Haolonggood seems to be one of the few to deviate from that so far, particularly in the past two years. They've been very bold in selling a good bulk of herbivores, with 4 ornithopods, 7 ceratopsians, 4 sauropods, and 8 thyreophorans, with more still on the way. They only sold 6 theropods last year, and 0 so far this year. CollectA is another as they've put out a fantastic number of invertebrates, mammals, and other non reptile animals in recent years.

If starting from PNSO's rebirth of sorts in late 2020 then they've done 7 ceratopsians, 7 ornithopods, Pachycephalosaurus, 4 sauropodomorphs, and 8 thyreophorans, and about 29 (if I didn't miscount) theropods. About 28 if counting the Saurophaganax as an Allosaurus (as the sculpt mostly resembles A. fragilis). This excludes repaints of their pre-2020 sculpts.

Dinosaur groups that are frequently neglected include:

-Sauropodomorphs (excluding Sauropoda)
-Ornithischians outside clade Thyreophora and Family Ceratopsidae
-Theropods outside of Carcharodontosauridae, Spinosauridae, and Tyrannosauridae, with a few notable exceptions (such as Carnotaurus, Dilophosaurus, etc)

Here's every genus of theropod made by CollectA, Eofauna, Favorite (Soft Models only), Papo, PNSO, Rebor, and Safari in the past five years (2020-2024). Action figures such as those from Creative Beast Studio, Mattel's Jurassic World line, Takara Tomy, and small figures such as from Kaiyodo, are not included. Neither are one-offs (such as the Dino Hazard Irritator, etc).

Spoiler

Acrocanthosaurus (2022 PNSO)
Albertosaurus (2022 Safari, 2023 PNSO)
Allosaurus (2020 CollectA, 2021 PNSO, 2023 Haolonggood)
Baryonyx (2020 CollectA, 2021 Safari, 2023, Haolonggood, 2024 PNSO)
Carnotaurus (2020 Favorite, 2021 PNSO, 2023 Haolonggood)
Carcharodontosaurus (2021 Haolonggood, 2021 PNSO)
Ceratosuchops (2023 CollectA)
Concavenator (2020 Safari, 2023 Papo)
Cryolophosaurus (2022 Safari)
Daspletosaurus (2021 Safari, 2023 Haolonggood, 2023 PNSO)
Deinocheirus (2022 PNSO, 2023 Favorite)
Deinonychus (2020 Safari)
Dilophosaurus (2020 Safari, 2021 CollectA, 2022 Favorite, 2023 Haolonggood)
Giganotosaurus (2020 Papo, 2021 Favorite, 2023 PNSO)
Gorgosaurus (2023 PNSO)
Lythronax (2023 PNSO)
Majungasaurus (2023 Safari)
Mapusaurus (2020 CollectA, 2023 PNSO)
Megalosaurus (2021 CollectA, 2023 PNSO)
Megaraptor (2023 Haolonggood)
Meraxes (2023 PNSO)
Microraptor (2020 CollectA, 2020 PNSO)
Nanuqsaurus (2024 CollectA)
Neovenator (2021 CollectA)
Qianzhousaurus (2020 PNSO, 2020 Safari)
Saltriovenator (2020 CollectA)
Saurophaganax (2022 Rebor, 2023 PNSO)
Sinraptor (2022 PNSO)
Suchomimus (2022 PNSO, 2024 Papo)
Spinosaurus (2020 Haolonggood, 2020 PNSO, 2021 Safari, 2022 CollectA, 2023 PNSO)
Tarbosaurus (2020 Favorite, 2021 PNSO)
Therizinosaurus (2022 Favorite, 2022 Haolonggood, 2022 PNSO, 2023 Safari)
Torvosaurus (2021 PNSO)
Tyrannosaurus (2020 PNSO, 2021 PNSO, 2020 Rebor, 2022 Haolonggood, 2022 Rebor, 2023 PNSO, 2024 Eofauna)
Tyrannotitan (2024 PNSO)
Utahraptor (2023 Safari)
Velociraptor (2020 Papo, 2024 CollectA)
Yangchuanosaurus (2023 PNSO)
Yutyrannus (2021 PNSO)
Zhuchengtyrannus (2022 PNSO)

[close]

Edit: It is getting really late now, but I will try to include ornithischians, sauropodomorphs, and non dinosaurs tomorrow.

[Concavenator]

@Sim @Halichoeres ' statement could come off as a joke, but frankly I wouldn't be surprised if for PNSO taxa like Oxalaia or Siamraptor really took priority over a well-known taxon like Atlasaurus.  Though in turn, and oddly, I would also deem an Atlasaurus more likely to come from them than a Velociraptor, on a basis of scale alone. Not that I expect PNSO (or HLG) to release an Atlasaurus, and I don't think they could improve anything on Eofauna's stellar version, either.

When it comes to species' choices, I easily prefer HLG over PNSO. Just take a look at how many requested species HLG has released in a little amount of time: Apatosaurus, Ouranosaurus, Megaraptor, Edmontonia, Dilophosaurus, etc, etc. Most of the time they release a certain species, I think it's a good choice. PNSO, on the other hand, sometimes deliver models of species that also are requested, like Suchomimus, Acrocanthosaurus, Centrosaurus, etc (but at the end of the day, it was a matter of time for those to be released, because they belong to popular groups of dinosaurs; last year I said this):

I'd say it's more likely that we get a good figure of overdue hadrosaurids like Maiasaura, Brachylophosaurus, or Saurolophus than we do of overdue dromaeosaurids like Austroraptor, Zhenyuanlong, or Halszkaraptor.

While I don't consider HLG's Maiasaura to be an accurate depiction of the creature, it's been released ever since I wrote that post, but not a single figure of the aforementioned dromaeosaurids, which basically proves my point.

Continuing with my previous idea, yeah, PNSO sometimes make very good choices for figures, like the aforementioned Suchomimus, Acrocanthosaurus, Centrosaurus, but also Zuul, Lufengosaurus, Yutyrannus, Edmontosaurus, etc. But then they have quite a portfolio of pointless scrappy taxa like Zhuchengtyrannus, Tyrannotitan, etc, which I find quite irritating. Like, PNSO, has completed Giganotosaurini, but if there was another member of the clade that was known from half a vertebra and which they hadn't released a figure of, I'm totally convinced they would make a figure of it. That would have probably happened by now, meaning it would have indeed taken priority over animals like Dilophosaurus (or Sinosaurus), Gallimimus or Velociraptor. You'll probably notice I always mention these genera, but I find these omissions to be egregious, especially considering they've released stuff like "Sinopliosaurus", Saurophaganax, etc.

As an example, before the Tyrannotitan was revealed, I was expecting the next PNSO release would be Sinosaurus or a ceratopsid. And then they announce a Tyrannotitan. Only for me to think afterwards: "oh yeah, they had plans for one. Another scrappy carnivorous megatheropod to tick off the list, I guess we can move on to something different now". Back then, I wasn't expecting to see a Saurophaganax or a Mapusaurus from them, either, and the thought I had upon seeing them was also this:

"Another scrappy megatheropod to tick off the list, I guess we can move on to something different now."

That is mostly the reason behind me becoming tired of PNSO. That said, if they release a good figure of a species I'm interested in, I'll probably buy it, just like I have to catch up on some of their models.

Not that I have a problem with allosauroids, spinosaurids, or tyrannosauroids being made per se (even if I'm admittedly a bit tired of them always being the groups getting the attention), I just don't like that fragmentary members of the groups get made. I'm OK with genera like Acrocanthosaurus, Meraxes, Suchomimus or Gorgosaurus being made, for example (I'm interested in them), but I am not with Tyrannotitan, Mapusaurus, "Sinopliosaurus" or Zhuchengtyrannus.

I also don't have a problem with Baryonyx or Centrosaurus being made either. Those are two genera I'm not interested in, but I admit they're good choices. Similarly, I'm not interested in the Lufengosaurus, but I still applaud them for releasing it, because it's a great choice. So me assessing a species' choice as "good" or "bad" has nothing to do with my own personal interests.

@Faelrin those are very good points, yet it is also true that a small handful of non-dinosaurs, like O. megalodon, Dimetrodon, Pteranodon, Mosasaurus/Tylosaurus, etc., have it better than many dinosaurs (those you mentioned as "frequently neglected dinosaur groups", which I completely agree with). Not even prominent examples of those groups, like Gallimimus or Plateosaurus have up-to-date, modern figures... 

[Sim]

I have thought that if there was another carcharodontosaurine, known only from even more fragmentary remains than Tyrannotitan, PNSo would make a figure of it.  And people would be asking for it to be made.

[Elengassen]

I think there can be other reasons to make a genus than how complete its remains are. Tyrannotitan, for example, may be fragmentary but it lived alongside Patagotitan, so for someone like me who enjoys displaying coeval species together, it's still a figure worth making. A genus like Megalosaurus would also be worth a figure due to its historical importance, even as though it's not well-known. I agree however that genera like these shouldn't necessarily get priority over well-known genera that lack good figures.

[Halichoeres]

This is what you might call "kidding on the square." I would genuinely be unsurprised if PNSO actually did make Siamraptor and/or Oxalaia. I certainly hope they won't, there are few more useless taxa they could make.

As has been pointed out many times by many people, all these companies are driven by profit, so the way to make sure they don't make the same old crap is to not buy the same old crap. That's why I haven't bought a new Ty***nosaurus in 7 years, or a Spinosaurus in 5 years. I'm swearing off carcharodontosaurids for the most part, too. I can't do anything about what kids or their parents buy, but I can at least not make things worse myself.

Since you mention them, BotM was kind of a different animal from the figurine makers. The parts sharing and articulation made it more reasonable to make a lot of similar animals, and I was happy to support that for a fledgling company. I think they all at least had unique head sculpts. If a figurine maker repainted a Gorgosaurus and called it Albertosaurus, I'd find that pretty cynical, though. As for BotM, now that they've moved more toward making the most popular animals, I foresee myself buying fewer of their offerings.

Edit: I forgot, I actually have bought a couple of Spinosaurus figures in the last five years. I forgot about them because I was actually after the fish they came with, not the dinosaurs themselves.

[Shane]

This is what you might call "kidding on the square." I would genuinely be unsurprised if PNSO actually did make Siamraptor and/or Oxalaia. I certainly hope they won't, there are few more useless taxa they could make.

As has been pointed out many times by many people, all these companies are driven by profit, so the way to make sure they don't make the same old crap is to not buy the same old crap. That's why I haven't bought a new Ty***nosaurus in 7 years, or a Spinosaurus in 5 years. I'm swearing off carcharodontosaurids for the most part, too. I can't do anything about what kids or their parents buy, but I can at least not make things worse myself.

Since you mention them, BotM was kind of a different animal from the figurine makers. The parts sharing and articulation made it more reasonable to make a lot of similar animals, and I was happy to support that for a fledgling company. I think they all at least had unique head sculpts. If a figurine maker repainted a Gorgosaurus and called it Albertosaurus, I'd find that pretty cynical, though. As for BotM, now that they've moved more toward making the most popular animals, I foresee myself buying fewer of their offerings.

Beasts of the Mesozoic also does a lot of crowdfunding. It's easier to branch out into different species and genera if you have a guarantee that your cost and profit projections will be met before you even start production.

[Shane]

Here's every genus of theropod made by CollectA, Favorite (Soft Models only), Papo, PNSO, Rebor, and Safari in the past five years (2020-2024). Action figures such as those from Creative Beast Studio, Mattel's Jurassic World line, Takara Tomy, and small figures such as from Kaiyodo, are not included. Neither are one-offs (such as the Dino Hazard Irritator, etc).

Spoiler

Acrocanthosaurus (2022 PNSO)
Albertosaurus (2022 Safari, 2023 PNSO)
Allosaurus (2020 CollectA, 2021 PNSO, 2023 Haolonggood)
Baryonyx (2020 CollectA, 2021 Safari, 2023 Haolonggood, 2024 PNSO)
Carnotaurus (2020 Favorite, 2021 PNSO, 2023 Haolonggood)
Carcharodontosaurus (2021 Haolonggood, 2021 PNSO)
Ceratosuchops (2023 CollectA)
Concavenator (2020 Safari, 2023 Papo)
Cryolophosaurus (2022 Safari)
Daspletosaurus (2021 Safari, 2023 Haolonggood, 2023 PNSO)
Deinocheirus (2022 PNSO, 2023 Favorite)
Deinonychus (2020 Safari)
Dilophosaurus (2020 Safari, 2021 CollectA, 2022 Favorite, 2023 Haolonggood)
Giganotosaurus (2020 Papo, 2021 Favorite, 2023 PNSO)
Gorgosaurus (2023 PNSO)
Lythronax (2023 PNSO)
Majungasaurus (2023 PNSO)
Mapusaurus (2020 CollectA, 2023 PNSO)
Megalosaurus (2021 CollectA, 2023 PNSO)
Megaraptor (2023 Haolonggood)
Meraxes (2023 PNSO)
Microraptor (2020 CollectA, 2020 PNSO)
Nanuqsaurus (2024 CollectA)
Neovenator (2021 CollectA)
Qianzhousaurus (2020 PNSO, 2020 Safari)
Saltriovenator (2020 CollectA)
Saurophaganax (2022 Rebor, 2023 PNSO)
Sinraptor (2022 PNSO)
Suchomimus (2022 PNSO, 2024 Papo)
Spinosaurus (2020 Haolonggood, 2020 PNSO, 2021 Safari, 2022 CollectA, 2023 PNSO)
Tarbosaurus (2020 Favorite, 2021 PNSO)
Therizinosaurus (2022 Favorite, 2022 Haolonggood, 2022 PNSO, 2023 Safari)
Torvosaurus (2021 PNSO)
Tyrannosaurus (2020 PNSO, 2021 PNSO, 2020 Rebor, 2021 Safari, 2022 Haolonggood, 2022 Rebor, 2023 PNSO, 2024 Eofauna)
Tyrannotitan (2024 PNSO)
Utahraptor (2023 Safari)
Velociraptor (2020 Papo, 2024 CollectA)
Yangchuanosaurus (2023 PNSO)
Yutyrannus (2021 PNSO)
Zhuchengtyrannus (2022 PNSO)

[close]

Edit: It is getting really late now, but I will try to include ornithischians, sauropodomorphs, and non dinosaurs tomorrow.

Just a quick correction, you list PNSO as making a Majungasaurus, I believe you meant Safari there.

[Faelrin]

S @Shane Right you were. I did that pretty late at night so I'm not surprised I made a mistake. Good catch. I'll correct it.

Edit: Here's the rest I was planning to do. Same companies and years as the above post. Also excludes repaints of prior models. Something I did for the previous post but forgot to mention.

Spoiler

Sauropodomorpha:

Spoiler

Alamosaurus (2023 PNSO, 2024 Haolonggood)
Ampelosaurus (2023 Haolonggood, 2024 Papo)
Apatosaurus (2023 Haolonggood)
Bajadasaurus (2020 CollectA)
Brontosaurus (corpse, 2021 CollectA)
Dicraeosaurus (2021 Haolonggood)
Diplodocus (2020 Favorite, 2022 Eofauna, 2023 Rebor)
Dreadnoughtus (2024 CollectA)
Mamenchisaurus (2021 CollectA, 2021 PNSO, 2024 Haolonggood)
Lingwulong (2022 PNSO)
Lufengosaurus (2024 PNSO)
Patagotitan (2022 Safari)
Ruyangosaurus (2023 CollectA)

[close]

Ornithischia:

Spoiler

Chilesaurus? (2020 Papo)

Dacentrurus (2023 Haolonggood)
"Miragaia" (2020 PNSO)
Stegosaurus (2021 PNSO, 2024 Haolonggood)
Tuojiangosaurus (2020 PNSO)
Wuerhosaurus (2023 Haolonggood, 2024 PNSO)

Borealopelta (2020 PNSO)
Edmontonia (2023 Haolonggood)
Euoplocephalus (2024 Haolonggood)
Gastonia (2024 Haolonggood)
Pinacosaurus (2021 PNSO)
Polacanthus (2024 CollectA)
Saichania (2024 Haolonggood)
Sauropelta (2020 PNSO)
Stegouros (2023 CollectA, 2023 Safari)
Tianzhenosaurus (2023 Haolonggood)
Zuul (2022 Safari, 2023 PNSO)

Pachycephalosaurus (2020 Favorite, 2020 Safari, 2021 PNSO)
"Stygimoloch" (2020 Papo, 2022 Safari)

Centrosaurus (2022 PNSO)
Chasmosaurus (2024 Haolonggood)
Diabloceratops (2024 Haolonggood)
Einiosaurus (2023 Papo)
Kosmoceratops (2023 Haolonggood)
Machairoceratops (2020 PNSO)
Nasutoceratops (2023 Haolonggood)
Pachyrhinosaurus (2020 PNSO, 2023 Haolonggood)
Pentaceratops (2023 Haolonggood)
Protoceratops (2020 CollectA, 2022 Papo)
Sinoceratops (2020 PNSO)
Styracosaurus (2022 PNSO)
Torosaurus (2022 PNSO)
Triceratops (2021 Eofauna, 2021 PNSO, 2022 CollectA, 2022 Rebor, 2023 CollectA)

Brighstoneus (2023 CollectA)
Corythosaurus (2020 PNSO, 2024 Papo)
Edmontosaurus (2020 Safari, 2022 CollectA, 2024 Haolonggood, 2024 PNSO)
Fukuisaurus (2020 CollectA)
Hadrosaurus (2023 CollectA)
Iguanodon (2020 Favorite, 2021 PNSO)
Kamuysaurus (2021 CollectA)
Lambeosaurus (2020 PNSO)
Maiasaura (2024 Haolonggood)
Olorotitan (2021 PNSO)
Ouranosaurus (2023 PNSO)
Parasaurolophus (2021 PNSO)
Tlatolophus (2023 Haolonggood)
Tsintaosaurus (2022 PNSO)

[close]

Pterosauria:

Spoiler

Caviramus (2020 CollectA)
Dearc (2024 CollectA)
Dimorphodon (2024 Favorite)
Pteranodon (2021 CollectA, 2022 CollectA)
Quetzalcoatlus (2020 Favorite)

[close]

Marine reptiles and other reptiles:

Spoiler

Atopodentatus (2020 PNSO)
Deinosuchus (2023 Rebor)
Elasmosaurus (2021 CollectA)
Himalayasaurus (2021 PNSO)
Ichthyosaurus (2020 Safari, 2023 Favorite)
Kronosaurus (2021 PNSO, 2023 Papo)
Mosasaurus (2023 CollectA, 2023 Papo)
Sarcosuchus (2020 Safari, 2023 Rebor)
Shastasaurus (2023 CollectA)
Shringasaurus (2020 Safari)
Smok (2022 CollectA)
Titanoboa (2020 Rebor, 2021 Rebor)
Tylosaurus (2021 PNSO)

[close]

Synapsida (includes mammals):

Spoiler

Aenocyon (2024 Rebor)
Diprotodon (2024 CollectA)
Doedicurus (2021 CollectA)
Estemmenosuchus (2023 Safari)
Konobelodon (2022 Eofauna)
Lisowicia (2020 CollectA)
Livyatan (2021 PNSO)
Megaloceros (2020 Papo)
Paraceratherium (2022 CollectA)
Placerias (2024 CollectA)
Smilodon (2021 Papo cub, 2021 Rebor)

[close]

Invertebrates:

Spoiler

Anomalocaris (2023 CollectA)
Belemnite (2020 CollectA)
Cooperoceras (2022 CollectA)
Orthoceras (2020 CollectA)
Pleuroceras (2020 CollectA)
Pravitoceras (2021 CollectA)
Redlichia (2020 CollectA)

[close]

Others:

Spoiler

Cretoxyrhina (2021 PNSO)
Dunkleosteus (2021 PNSO)
Helicoprion (2021 PNSO)
Koolasuchus (2023 CollectA)
Otodus (2020 CollectA, 2021 Papo)
Xiphactinus (2021 CollectA)

[close]

[close]

[Turkeysaurus]

Collecting scientifically accurate dinosaurs is basically what Joker said:

'I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one, you know, I just do...things."

Whether most well known or the least there won't be "real" animal in our collections. It's all about what scientist see plausible from the limited data they attain.

Most well known dinosaur T.rex probably has changed more than Tyrannotitan since last decade anyway.