I'm working on a dinosaur exhibition!

[Brontozaurus]

Back in 2012, Taronga Zoo in Sydney had an exhibition of robot dinosaurs. I volunteered there and subsequently got a paid role. Earlier this year, we found out that the dinosaurs were coming back for the summer. I wanted to find out more, and if I could help, and long story short I'm now the dinosaur expert on the team putting the exhibition together.

We're hiring them from Billings Productions again (You can see some of the dinosaurs that we're getting in this LTC post), and like last time each dinosaur is going to be paired with an endangered animal to raise awareness of conservation issues.

We'll be recruiting volunteers for this exhibition so if you're in Sydney and want to hang out at the zoo chatting to guests about dinosaurs, keep an eye on the zoo's website!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Awesome! Always wanted to work at one of the Dinamation robotic dino shows..though now I'm grown our local museums rarely do them.

Have fun and take more pics!

[docronnie]

Love to see the photos too or much better in action on YouTube!

[Brontozaurus]

I'll get pics when the dinosaurs arrive. All of Billings' dinosaurs can be seen on their website, and there you can also see a showreel of the last time that Taronga had dinosaurs. Which ones are coming to the zoo is something I'm going to keep mostly under wraps, though four of them can be seen in the LTC post linked above, and four of the ones we had last time will be returning.

If there's anything you want to know about what it's like to work on this, feel free to ask!

[Gwangi]

What an awesome opportunity. Must feel great to work with dinosaurs in such a capacity, especially to get paid for it too. I volunteer at my local museum which is rewarding but a paying gig would be a dream come true.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I have a couple questions I've always been curious about.  How well do they hold up outdoors ?  I've seen pics of them with snow on them and not even covered..must be a great material to be so versatile...from what I could tell in my own experience it was just a latex skin over foam and latex usually doesn't last well in the sun.

My other query is does Billings send staff along with each exhibit in case of repairs and such? Do they put them up in hotels for the duration of the exhibit or just fly them back and forth? 

[Brontozaurus]

Billing's dinosaurs are made to be outdoors and as such they hold up very well. I've seen them keep working right through heavy rain. Given their durability it's probably not just latex but something a bit stronger.

Their staff come over every few weeks to do maintenance on the dinosaurs. I think they also come out if one of the dinosaurs breaks down (the Brachiosaurus in particular was notorious for doing this last time).

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I was able to see and touch samples of it many years ago, it was mainly foam..maybe a latex foam. but it had a thin skin of actual latex on the very outside that held the details.  It was durable but did wear out.

Any idea if they have strip the whole frame when it does wear through?

Ah so they don't stick around the whole time then.  Really? The Brachiosaurus seems to have little movement to it...it certainly didn't look complex  in the video I saw...you wouldn't think it break down so much..but I know my raptors tend to get " stuck " and they only have a swinging neck motion.

[Cammy]

Wow, you're so lucky to have the opportunity to work on an exhibition, I'm so envious! I hope I can organise a trip to Sydney to check it out, I'm up on the NSW/QLD border but I get two free return trips on the coach and train each year so I might use one up for this!

[Brontozaurus]

The dinosaurs didn't have that much wear. The Edmontonia got some small holes in it once but it just got patched up and painted over so you couldn't even tell it had worn in the first place.

And yeah, you'd think that the Brachiosaurus would be nearly indestructible because it's so simple (FYI it just swings its head and tail, and moves it mouth when it makes sounds), but more often than not it would just stop moving for a few hours. We were never sure why.