The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Halichoeres]

Nice again!
the zuniceratops doesn't look bad at all, i'll add it to my wish list.
Regarding the Penta: considering it a titanoceratops, what scale would it be?

Yeah, there are some decent Jurassic Hunters out there, for sure. A few are still on my wish list, like the Troodon.

Never thought of that using the Penta as a Titano! It would be about 1:30-1:32.

[Ezikot]

Yeah, there are some decent Jurassic Hunters out there, for sure. A few are still on my wish list, like the Troodon.

Never thought of that using the Penta as a Titano! It would be about 1:30-1:32.

Thank you very much!

[Uroplatus]

Great collection you already have , i like that it expanded so rapidly.
I also find the scale with each figure very helpfull.., thanks for that.

[SBell]

I really love your collection!
Really nice photos
...and a lot of useful infos (especially about scales)!

Thanks! Glad it could be useful. Figure I should add something, given that my collection doesn't really have anything people haven't seen before.

Interestingly, out of all of the information I maintain in my database for my collection (yes, it exists, and yes, it is huge and sprawling) I have no info on either sizes or scales. I could fix that, but now the situation is incredibly out of hand...!

That's funny that that's the missing thing. I'll admit I have a spreadsheet, but it's pretty simple: name, make, measurements, and time/place that the organism lived. With this thread, I guess now I have photos of most of them too.

It was one of those things--I just didn't start out hunting all the size details down (either in the 'taxon' table or the linked 'figure' table). It would be easy to do, although some of it may have to do with the issues inherent in fossil taxa dimensions--they can be all over the place, or non-existent. But with over 4200 different figures, through almost 1700 different taxa, it's not really something I want to spend a lot of time on...I'm too busy detailing out the Yujin freshwater fishes, one by one, on the Animal Toy Forum right now, which is way more fun.

[Halichoeres]

@Ezikot: No sweat!

@Uroplatus: Thank you! The rapidity sort of surprised me too. And my friends--when they come over or when they stop by my office they say things like, "Well, that has...advanced."

@SBell: Good point about fossil dimensions. 70% of the measurements here should be taken with a grain of salt. I assume 4200 includes your extant stuff? Just out of curiosity, and I think I know the answer already, but have I shown anything here that you don't already own?

[SBell]

@SBell: Good point about fossil dimensions. 70% of the measurements here should be taken with a grain of salt. I assume 4200 includes your extant stuff? Just out of curiosity, and I think I know the answer already, but have I shown anything here that you don't already own?

Yeah, that includes extant. About 2300 extant, 2100 Prehistoric, and under 50 'recently extinct' (which, sadly, often feels like it's going to grow at the expense of the Extant ones).

There's actually quite a bit that you've shown that I don't have--I pretty much won't buy Schleich anymore, for example, and there are plenty of Yowies I never chased down. Even with the Japanese figures, I've often skipped many mostly because I don't always feel the need to get more Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor (I'm more about the taxon diversity) unless it's a version I like. I'm more likely to chase down novel species, even if they're not perfect, than more of the same!

[Halichoeres]

@SBell: Good point about fossil dimensions. 70% of the measurements here should be taken with a grain of salt. I assume 4200 includes your extant stuff? Just out of curiosity, and I think I know the answer already, but have I shown anything here that you don't already own?

Yeah, that includes extant. About 2300 extant, 2100 Prehistoric, and under 50 'recently extinct' (which, sadly, often feels like it's going to grow at the expense of the Extant ones).

There's actually quite a bit that you've shown that I don't have--I pretty much won't buy Schleich anymore, for example, and there are plenty of Yowies I never chased down. Even with the Japanese figures, I've often skipped many mostly because I don't always feel the need to get more Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor (I'm more about the taxon diversity) unless it's a version I like. I'm more likely to chase down novel species, even if they're not perfect, than more of the same!

I'm similar in that I'm much more focused on taxonomic diversity and completely uninterested in completing any lines or sets. There is no single genus that has more than 3 representatives in my collection. The standbys you mention are poorly represented: I have 1 each of Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus, and 2 Velociraptor at 2 different scales (well, unless you count the stuff I'm trying to trade away, which almost certainly outnumbers my actual collection at the moment).

[Halichoeres]

Inspired by Robin Goodfellows's thread on photography, I tried the light box at work with my office dinos (usually the light box just has dead fish in it). But the camera is still my cell phone--heresy, I know. Here in a light box, some theropods of the Jurassic!


±1:40


Papo Allosaurus. They should steal all of Todd Marshall's artwork. About 1:40-1:45.


Battat Cryolophosaurus. Vacillates between three postures: tripod with tail, non-tripod, tripod with forelimb. Here it's captured in a fleeting non-tripod. 1:40 About 1:30.


Carnegie Sinraptor. A non-tripod! Possibly the plainest Carnegie paint scheme. 1:40.


Safari Yangchuanosaurus (Dinosaurs of China). The paint job on the teeth makes it look like its mouth is stitched shut. Like if Tim Burton made a dinosaur movie. 1:40 About 1:35.


CollectA Lourinhanosaurus. Right on the crest of CollectA's shift from abysmal to consistently good. About 1:50-1:55.

[RobinGoodfellow]

I'm happy you liked my thread.
Thank you. 

P.S I shoot the image of the Dilophosaurus into the Light Box with my iPad too; and it's dark like your pictures; that's because iPad and cell phone read the scene's exposure making an average between low and high lights; and the final result is not correct... with a digital camera you can select the correct exposure and the pictures are perfect.
If your cell is an iPhone, I have a tips for you about increasing the quality of the pictures almost like a pro camera; PM if you are interested in.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for stopping by! This particular light box is designed for overhead photography, so I have no overhead light, which is another problem. My phone is an Android, but I just checked and there is definitely an exposure setting more appropriate for this light regime; I had just never bothered to check because I usually do photographs next to a north-facing window where the light is already bright but diffuse. Thank you for pointing out the fix!

[Halichoeres]

Sauropods of the Jurassic. They do not fit in the light box.


I used the HDR feature of my cell phone for some of these. I think that I notice a difference but I want to be sure that I'm not experiencing confirmation bias, so I'm curious to see whether you guys can tell which photos use HDR.


Bullyland Spinophorosaurus. I actually like this figure, though it has some problems: the sculpt is crude, the texturing looks more like healed lacerations (or grill marks--bronto burgers anyone?), and it is tiny: about 1:70.


CollectA Jobaria: one of CollectA's first good sauropods. Marketed as 1:40, but I think it's closer to 1:45-1:50.


Carnegie Brachiosaurus. Love this figure. Like most Carnegies, some of the excellence of the sculpt is obscured by the paint job, but there's nothing actually bad about it. 1:50.


Carnegie Camarasaurus. I bought this brand new and it came with a bunch of paint rubs, which is a pity, but it's still a very nice model. 1:40.


Carnegie Diplodocus. The last of the triumvirate of beautiful giant Carnegie sauropods. Shame that they never got around to re-sculpting the Apatosaurus to match. Not sure if you can tell in this photo, but the paint job on this one has a brown wash that gives the impression that it has been in a body of muddy water and then emerged, so that a fine layer of silt has dried on its sides. 1:40.


CollectA Rhoetosaurus. Known from pretty fragmentary remains, but still not as bad as other Jurassic Australian sauropods. This figure is firmly "okay" but likely to be the only Rhoetosaurus for the foreseeable future. About 1:50-1:55.

[dead image]
CollectA Shunosaurus. This is pretty bad. If you go by nose-to-tail-tip length, this is 1:40, but the proportions are incredibly skewed (Shunosaurus was short-necked and short-tailed), so if you go by estimated mass or forelimb height, it comes out to more like 1:50-1:60. I think Safari could and should do a beautiful rendition of this animal.


Invicta Cetiosaurus. I had the CollectA Cetiosaurus and replaced it with the unpainted Invicta, but it looked so out of place that I replaced that with this painted version. It's now the only Invicta in my collection and I don't have any plans to acquire more. It has its flaws, but it has held up better than many Invictas. 1:45-1:50.


Papo Brachiosaurus (=Giraffatitan, which while I accept it as a valid genus, has an incredibly stupid name). Easily the heaviest animal in my collection. The way I usually have it displayed, you don't see the feet, and what's left is really well done. About 1:45.

[dead image]
Safari Apatosaurus (2010 edition). Really nice sculpt, and I love the tail. Homer Simpson for scale, so you can see that this is just a little on the small side, about 1:50.

[RobinGoodfellow]

HDR from smartphone need to be processed otherwise it's a little bit poor..
Try to load your HDR images into the Android app SNAPSEED using the HDR function.
You'll say "wow!" 

[Halichoeres]

Thank you, I'll try that!

[Halichoeres]

Apologies to whoever is reading this for inflicting all my experimentation on you. I tried the light box again today with a longer exposure--I do think it's an improvement. I also played with the doors of the box to reduce the backlit effect. The fortunate thing for you, dear reader, is that I will soon run out of office dinosaurs to do this on, and the light box at work is decidedly not portable.

Anyway, here are some ornithischians of the Jurassic (±1:20).

There is still just a little too much blue in it, which I'm sure I could fix in two minutes in Photoshop if I went to the trouble.


CollectA Deluxe "1:40" Dacentrurus. Very nice figure, one of CollectA's best. About 1:25-1:30.


CollectA Deluxe "1:40" Scelidosaurus. Bears only a passing resemblance to Scelidosaurus, and is actually about 1:15 scale.


Carnegie Miragaia. Stunner. 1:30.


Everybody's favorite Schleich, the really outstanding Kentrosaurus. About 1:20-1:25.

[dead image]
Jakks Scanopedia Othnielosaurus (marketed as Othnielia but most reconstructions are actually based on Othnielosaurus). Modeled after the rendering from Walking with Dinosaurs, which aired on Discovery in the States.


Its left flank bears this unfortunate insignia so I'll never forget where it came from. Still not a bad little ornithopod, considering. About 1:15-1:20. Edit: it's a removable sticker! Now the figure just has an odd untextured circle, which is a lot easier to live with.

[RobinGoodfellow]

Really nice pictures. Congrats. 

[Halichoeres]

I learned from the best! 

[Halichoeres]

Ornithodirans of the Jurassic (±1:20)

I think I didn't set the light box quite right for these, because they came out just a little dark even with the long exposure.


Jurassic World blind bag Dimorphodon. (The other 14 in the bag someone else can have if they want them.) The only Hasbro figure in my collection, and doesn't look too bad, though the paint is pretty perfunctory--I guess if the unit price is $0.98, you get what you pay for. About 1:20.


Capcom Guanlong (Dino Expo 2009). Really nice, and they pulled out all the stops to make sure it stays bipedal (it's made of slightly pliable PVC rather than hard plastic or resin like Kaiyodo's Dino Expo figures). This one replaced the honestly-not-too-bad Safari version because, well, look at it. About 1:20.


Safari Monolophosaurus. I don't mind the feet, I think it's worth it for the stability. Nice figure, but a little sloppy on the tooth paint. About 1:20-1:25.


Papo Dilophosaurus. From this angle, you can barely tell that it's holding itself up on one arm. Nice sculpt, though not Papo's best. About 1:30.


Jurassic Hunters Eustreptospondylus. Considering that this is one of the better known European theropods, it's a puzzle that there aren't more figures of it. This one replaced the CollectA version in my collection because the CollectA version looks like a Muppet. About 1:30, according to both GeoWorld and my measuring tape.


CollectA Proceratosaurus. The legs, dear god, the legs. If it weren't for those weird legs, this wouldn't be a bad figure. About 1:17.

[joossa]

I like your newer shots. The lighter background definitely brings out the color and texture of the models better than your older shots.
Keep the scales coming too. I'm always surprised every couple posts you make about the scale of certain figures.

[Halichoeres]

I like your newer shots. The lighter background definitely brings out the color and texture of the models better than your older shots.
Keep the scales coming too. I'm always surprised every couple posts you make about the scale of certain figures.

Thanks! Too bad I don't have a light box at home--you only get shots like this for the stuff in my office

[Halichoeres]

More ornithodirans of the Jurassic (±1:10)!


Ornitholestes wreaks havoc! When I first set up this shot, I thought, "is this remotely plausible, scale-wise?" But it turns out that Ornitholestes was about the size of a small coyote, and all these other things were crow-sized, so yeah. Biogeographically, temporally, and ecologically implausible, but in terms of scale it's reasonable.


Kaiyodo JPIII Compsognathus. With the JW blind bag Dimorphodon, one of only two Jurassic Park themed figures in my collection. Made of a much more pliable plastic than Dinotales figures, but doesn't want for detail. About 1:12.


Takara Tomy Anchiornis (Dino Expo 2011). Doesn't fit quite right in its base, but it's a beauty. Incredible that there are animals whose feather colors can be reasonably inferred. About 1:7.


Kaiyodo Archaeopteryx. I love this figure, but I would actually just once like to see a figure of Archaeopteryx with its wings folded. Anybody know of any? About 1:7.


Cog Ltd/Tedco Dino Horizons Dimorphodon. Maybe not the most plausible stance, but looks good for a figure that retailed for just a couple of dollars. Honestly, at the price, it's impressive that these guys are even painted.


DinoWaurs Dorygnathus. Not as bad as some of the figures from that line, but its saving grace is that it is flexible enough to fit in the maw of my Ornitholestes, where it looks substantially better. About 1:12 based on the skull length.

[dead image]
Jurassic Hunters Ornitholestes. The nose horn is pretty speculative, and the color scheme is improbable, but it was this or the Chap Mei--not a lot of options with Ornitholestes. The sculpt isn't bad, really. The tail is much too short, so although by overall length this is 1:10, if you discount the tail it's more like 1:8 (that might not sound like much, but at large scales that starts to matter).