The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

Congrats that is again a beautiful collection of Cerapods. The Olorotitan is one of my favourites.
That Koreaceratops appears to be another hidden gem.
I have passed on all the Wave 3 Ceratopsians because they're just all far too big. In fact I've already decided the Wendiceratops which I really like is already too big and that is smaller than most if not all of these.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks, everyone, for the comments and holiday wishes!

- The Olorotitan might have the best color scheme and pose out of all PNSO ornithopods, really like the pose as well.

- Koreaceratops with a tail sail/fluke instead of the usuall quills looks kinda strange, shame since the rest of the model look really nice.

- 2022 might be a great year for Wild Past, although im looking forward to the finished, painted  Scutosaurus & Kotlassia even more.

- Shame about the shipping damage, but thats a risk you always have to take when ordering online. At least the other ones are OK.

I feel so conflicted about the entire BoTM lines. The models and bold colors are extraordinarily good and the articulations offer so many pose option, but on the other hand the articulation naturally also breaks the shape up quite a bit and the 1:18 (1:6 for the raptors) is way too big for my regular collections size. Maybe I will bite the bullet and get some for my "off-scale" collection in my living room cabinet.

Agreed on the Olorotitan, their finest hadrosaur.

The tail on the Koreaceratops is definitely odd, but seems to be designed after this painting by Julius Csotonyi: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/koreaceratops-hwaseongensis-julius-csotonyi.html?product=canvas-print
Evidently the animal actually had very tall neural spines, but doesn't preserve Psittacosaurus type bristles (absence of evidence, of course, not evidence of absence). I don't know whether that suggests a display structure or just a very heavily muscled tail.

I too am most looking forward to the Scutosaurus/Kotlassia! Such a rare treat to get a Permian figure.

I know what you mean on the BotM figures--in general I don't prefer action figures, but I am pretty committed to the every-genus gimmick, and in any event I like supporting creators who make lesser-known genera, even if they're a byproduct of the latest Triceratops.

What a shame about the Torosaurus. I'm conflicted on ordering that one as it's so blue. The Utahceratops looks quite amazing. And as always, your photography skills enhance the models.

Thanks very much! I actually really like the blue on the Toro, but I can see why that wouldn't be universally appealing. What I tell myself with blue dinosaurs is that, since blue colors in scales are typically structural rather than pigment-based, they are not necessarily costly to maintain.

That said, if the rumored PNSO Torosaurus actually proves to exist, I might swap, because 1:16 is a frankly ludicrous scale for an animal this size.

Great figures as always. I've already tracked down Toyway's Torosaurus, so I'm staying with that one. In terms of a figures coloration, I try to be as open minded as possible, but some things still have a hard time getting by me

That's a very good figure, the best in that size range. Safari's Field Museum Torosaurus is excellent, but smaller than I prefer.

Merry Christmas, and good haul! That Achelousaurus is an odd one, no doubt, and it's a shame about that Torosaurus. Hope it gets fixed. I hope I can pick up the Utahceratops somewhere down the line. The adult Triceratops was recently delivered to me, though since I am not in the country at the moment, I cannot see it 
Honestly, the Torosaurus is divisive for me. While it has a phenomenal sculpt, the bright blue color-scheme, and the apocryphal keratinous face really don't do it for me. Not really sure why that hypothesis gained as much traction as it did. Also I like having all my organs  Can't wait for the rumoured PNSO one.

Thank you! Obviously I ordered the BotM one long before there was any rumor of a PNSO version, but if it's released I'll have a decision ahead of me. As expensive as those sometimes are, this was definitely more so.

Another great round of additions! The Koreaceratops and Achelousaurus are interesting. Will the Koreaceratops coexist in your collection with the CollectA family?
I'm partial to my Sega vinyl Achelousaurus, though it is the only one of the species I own. I'd love to see it enter the Beasts of the Mesozoic Ceratopsian series. And speaking of BOTM, it's always a treat seeing those figures (even if some have suffered accidents.) I still have no idea which figures of Wave 3 to get, they all look so good! I suppose your criteria for collecting makes it an easier decision.
Happy holidays!

Yeah, I'll keep both. The CollectA does a great job of showing how small an animal it was next to contemporaries, but this size is more appropriate for getting an idea of what it looked like. Unfortunately, my copy has a very crooked jaw.

I'd forgotten about the Sega version! I briefly owned it and traded it away. For now I'm hanging on to the CollectA version, as it takes a truly excellent action figure (read: BotM) to impel me to swap out a static figure.

Hi Tim, I noticed Suchodus isn't on your reference list.

Yeah, that one isn't an oversight. I waffle on that one because it was originally sold as Metriorhynchus and has that name stamped on it. I suppose that, given its fairly clear resemblance to Dmitry Bogdanov's 2008 illustration of M./S. durobrivensis, this one can be unequivocally considered a Suchodus, so maybe I'll add it to the list.

Congrats that is again a beautiful collection of Cerapods. The Olorotitan is one of my favourites.
That Koreaceratops appears to be another hidden gem.
I have passed on all the Wave 3 Ceratopsians because they're just all far too big. In fact I've already decided the Wendiceratops which I really like is already too big and that is smaller than most if not all of these.

Yes, they really are huge. If I were stricter about scale I wouldn't even consider them. Although I still organize and display my figures by scale, I've given up trying to adhere to collecting only one or a few scales. For the moment I have the luxury of space to indulge that laxity...

And in case anyone is curious about other Happy Kin figures, here's the rest of the bycatch from the latest batch:

[Leyster]

The ornithomimosaur isn't half bad!

[Halichoeres]

The ornithomimosaur isn't half bad!

Agreed, quite good for an action figure at this price point.

---------------------------------------------------------------

2021 year in review!

I got 32 new releases from 12 companies (as well as quite a lot of older figures not shown below), but half came from just PNSO and Creative Beast.



Some observations:
• Excellent year for prehistoric fish, the best since at least 2011 when Safari released the Prehistoric Sharks Toob.
• (An excellent year for fish is still a year in which theropods outnumber fish despite their much shorter geological range and lower diversity)
• Aside from fish, kind of a weak year for non-dinosaurs: one mollusk, one ichthyosaur, one mosasaur
• The Cretaceous is 17% of the Phanerozoic but 75% of the new releases I bought in 2021. Since I am much more interested in the Triassic and Paleozoic, you can imagine that the imbalance is even greater when you consider the new releases I didn't buy.
• First Ty***nosaurus since 2017. I was surprised how many people on the "best PNSO" thread hated this figure--is it just because of what they called it? To me it doesn't matter as it wasn't ambiguous what animal they were attempting to represent, and evidence that large predators occupied mid-sized predator niches earlier in their development means it's a distinct part of its ecosystem. Still, probably be another few years before I buy another rex.
• I'm grateful to have my health and to have the luxury of indulging in this thoroughly silly hobby.

Here's to 2022. May those of us who survived 2020 and 2021 make the world better in the year to come.

[SBell]

I still need to find a way to get the Aquilamna.
I don't buy much but it feels like a must have. Just need to get the painted version!

[Sim]

Hi Tim, I'm getting the Prehistoric Sharks toob again and I have a few questions I'd like to ask you, since you're a fish expert!

1. You've listed the toob Sarcoprion as being 1:60 scale.  When I estimated the scales of the toob figures years ago I found it to be roughly 1:40 scale.  But now I can't find the length estimate I used to get that result.  I see Wikipedia has a length estimate of 6m for Sarcoprion which I'm pretty sure isn't what I saw when I calculated the scale of the toob figure.  Do you know what the most reliable measurement for Sarcoprion is?  Perhaps the length of its tooth whorl?

2. The toob Stethacanthus doesn't have the spines on the head and dorsal fin.  Do you know if there is a species of Stethacanthus or other fish that this figure could represent accurately?

[Faelrin]

Thanks for sharing that overview, and I hope things stay well for you into 2022, and so on. Hard question, but if you had to pick one (or two) favorites for the year, is there anything in particular that jumps out to you?

[Loon]

It is a little crazy how overly represented the cretaceous is. I mean, I bought quite a few Cretaceous species myself this year, but still. Strangely, cretaceous Sauropods receive so little of the love their contemporaries enjoy. If I were to guess dinosaur history by my own collection, you would think they went extinct during the early Cretaceous.

I really hope the next few years start becoming more diverse, because it's starting to become a bit of the spinosaurus/tyrannosaurus show and that's not that fun. I guess, even though I don't love all their figures, I can appreciate the relative diversity of the PNSO line, as they did give us the majority of the non-dinosaurs this year.

[Halichoeres]

I still need to find a way to get the Aquilamna.
I don't buy much but it feels like a must have. Just need to get the painted version!

The forum is replete with generous forum members living in Europe who have forwarded me many things over the years!

@Sim good question. The 1:60 figure is from the heady days when I was new to the hobby and picking up dozens of figures per month, so it's based on a hasty total length estimate of 6m. The whorl is probably a better way to go, since we don't have good postcranial remains for Sarcoprion as far as I know.


This is a page out of Palaeozoic Fishes by Moy-Thomas and Miles showing the jaw apparatus of S. edax. Using this scale bar I estimate that the Safari version is 1:32, which means it can scale with the PNSO Helicoprion! There may be larger whorls known, the book doesn't specify, but in any event I think we have far fewer specimens of Sarcoprion than of Helicoprion.

[Edited to add: the only other animal I know with roughly the same shape as Stethacanthus is Akmonistion, but it too had denticles on the snout and anvil-fin. Having denticles without the anvil is more probable than the anvil without denticles, I'm afraid. The Stethacanthus by Cog Ltd has some texture to indicate denticles, but unfortunately also a pointy snout, rather than the rounded profile Stethacanthus actually had. There's a nice little model by Neko Works but it comes unpainted.]

Thanks for sharing that overview, and I hope things stay well for you into 2022, and so on. Hard question, but if you had to pick one (or two) favorites for the year, is there anything in particular that jumps out to you?

Thank you! That's tough, but I would surely pick one of the fishes. The Cretoxyrhina is the most perfect of the prehistoric fish released this year, but I think Helicoprion is my favorite because it's pretty damned good and ALSO one of only two Paleozoic creatures!

It is a little crazy how overly represented the cretaceous is. I mean, I bought quite a few Cretaceous species myself this year, but still. Strangely, cretaceous Sauropods receive so little of the love their contemporaries enjoy. If I were to guess dinosaur history by my own collection, you would think they went extinct during the early Cretaceous.

I really hope the next few years start becoming more diverse, because it's starting to become a bit of the spinosaurus/tyrannosaurus show and that's not that fun. I guess, even though I don't love all their figures, I can appreciate the relative diversity of the PNSO line, as they did give us the majority of the non-dinosaurs this year.

Yeah, on the dinotoycollector site, there are more Cretaceous entries than all other periods COMBINED. I'm happy when any company acknowledges that other periods happened. The Cretaceous had the largest theropods, the largest ornithopods, the largest marginocephalians, the largest thyreophorans, the largest pterosaurs, the largest squamates, and probably the largest plesiosaurs, so I think because so much of surface-level paleo discourse is 'WhO wOuLd WiN iN a FiGht,' those record-setters get disproportionate attention. Meanwhile, sauropods' largest exemplars were mostly Jurassic, so....

PNSO is definitely a company to keep an eye on when it comes to more taxonomic variety, and I'm over the moon that CollectA has broken out of their decade long streak of virtually all-Cretaceous, all-sauropsid releases.

[Sim]

Thanks for your reply Tim!   I think I'll treat the toob Sarcoprion as being 1:32 scale.  As for the Stethacanthus I might just have to accept the lack of spines as an inaccuracy of an otherwise great figure, like the paired small fins of the Xenacanthus and Orthacanthus.  I find them all still good figures unlike the toob Edestus with its totally messed up mouth.  I hope PNSO will release an Edestus one day!

[Halichoeres]

My pleasure, of course! I'm always glad to see some interest in Paleozoic fish. The Safari Edestus is kind of the same category of error as the extra fins on the Orthacanthus and Stethacanthus, in that it seems the sculptor looked at a lateral view and assumed a paired structure where there was actually a midline one. I don't know how else you make Edestus with a whole bunch of marginal teeth instead of symphyseal teeth like it ought to have. I'd love to see PNSO make one, and I'd prefer they make it with no articulations, because it's hard to imagine they could simultaneously make it mimic the real jaw action and also look good.



The quadrate (labeled QU) rotates in a parasagittal plane at both ends, a very strange jaw articulation for a fish! Hard to imagine doing this justice in plastic.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On another note, I looked back at my 2020-year-in-review post, which had a lot of blank spots because so many 2020 releases were in shipping limbo in various countries. It was a bigger year for me than 2021 was:







Still missing the Happy Kin Abelisaurus.

[Strepsodus]

When are we going to see your PNSO Cretoxyrhina & Tylosaurus?

[CarnotaurusKing]

The ornithomimosaur isn't half bad!

Agreed, quite good for an action figure at this price point.

---------------------------------------------------------------

2021 year in review!

I got 32 new releases from 12 companies (as well as quite a lot of older figures not shown below), but half came from just PNSO and Creative Beast.



Some observations:
• Excellent year for prehistoric fish, the best since at least 2011 when Safari released the Prehistoric Sharks Toob.
• (An excellent year for fish is still a year in which theropods outnumber fish despite their much shorter geological range and lower diversity)
• Aside from fish, kind of a weak year for non-dinosaurs: one mollusk, one ichthyosaur, one mosasaur
• The Cretaceous is 17% of the Phanerozoic but 75% of the new releases I bought in 2021. Since I am much more interested in the Triassic and Paleozoic, you can imagine that the imbalance is even greater when you consider the new releases I didn't buy.
• First Ty***nosaurus since 2017. I was surprised how many people on the "best PNSO" thread hated this figure--is it just because of what they called it? To me it doesn't matter as it wasn't ambiguous what animal they were attempting to represent, and evidence that large predators occupied mid-sized predator niches earlier in their development means it's a distinct part of its ecosystem. Still, probably be another few years before I buy another rex.
• I'm grateful to have my health and to have the luxury of indulging in this thoroughly silly hobby.

Here's to 2022. May those of us who survived 2020 and 2021 make the world better in the year to come.

Happy New Year!

2021 was a good year for the hobby. Still very Mesozoic-centric (not a problem for a guy like me) but a lot of fantastic releases. And this year looks even more promising with the Tyrannosaur series (though I think you'd disagree  ). Speaking of, are you planning on buying any from that line? Not T*rannosaurus itself I imagine, but any others?
While I was looking at that image of all your new figures, I got whiplash when I saw that pink thing next to the Irritator  The lengths you go for this hobby 

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for visiting, everyone!

When are we going to see your PNSO Cretoxyrhina & Tylosaurus?

Soon! Was hoping they would be joined by some pals soon.

Happy New Year!

2021 was a good year for the hobby. Still very Mesozoic-centric (not a problem for a guy like me) but a lot of fantastic releases. And this year looks even more promising with the Tyrannosaur series (though I think you'd disagree  ). Speaking of, are you planning on buying any from that line? Not T*rannosaurus itself I imagine, but any others?
While I was looking at that image of all your new figures, I got whiplash when I saw that pink thing next to the Irritator  The lengths you go for this hobby 

All told, yes, a good year, even against a bit of a grim background. I did pledge for several of the BotM tyrants, including Suskityrannus, Proceratosaurus, Eutyrannus, Teratophoneus, and Dryptosaurus. Certainly the smallest of my BotM pledges so far, but far from nothing!

Speaking of BotM, that awful pink Bambiraptor wouldn't be in my collection if the BotM Buitreraptor had been Bambiraptor instead as originally planned. If I recall correctly, Sim convinced Silva to change it because Buitreraptor is better known. So I have him to thank for this! 

[Sim]

I suggested to David to make Buitreraptor instead of Bambiraptor because I found Buitreraptor a more appealing choice and it was thought Bambiraptor might be a juvenile Saurornitholestes.  Sorry that means you have to have that cartoony Bambiraptor!  On the plus side though you have a nice Buitreraptor, right?  It's the only unenlagiid/unenlagiine toy to exist!

[Faelrin]

@Sim Well thank you because I absolutely love the Buitreraptor. I also remember you pointing out the teeth that got corrected as well. And stuff with the Microraptor.

[Halichoeres]

Ha ha @Sim don't worry, I'm not mad. I agree with @Faelrin that that change was for the better. It's good to have an unenlagiine, one of the more distinctive branches of the dromaeosaurs. The next closest thing is a robot version of Unenlagia itself by Zoids, but I draw the line at robots. I'm glad to have the Buitreraptor and its accompanying plant life, although I use the latter with different figures.

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

Your yearly overview is lovely again, excluding the pink thing of course.

Nice to know we have @Sim to thank for the Buitreraptor. That's one of my favourite figures, so thank you for suggesting it. Now, if someone could just do a 1:30 to 1:40 scale Austroraptor...

[CarnotaurusKing]

Thanks for visiting, everyone!

When are we going to see your PNSO Cretoxyrhina & Tylosaurus?

Soon! Was hoping they would be joined by some pals soon.

Happy New Year!

2021 was a good year for the hobby. Still very Mesozoic-centric (not a problem for a guy like me) but a lot of fantastic releases. And this year looks even more promising with the Tyrannosaur series (though I think you'd disagree  ). Speaking of, are you planning on buying any from that line? Not T*rannosaurus itself I imagine, but any others?
While I was looking at that image of all your new figures, I got whiplash when I saw that pink thing next to the Irritator  The lengths you go for this hobby 

All told, yes, a good year, even against a bit of a grim background. I did pledge for several of the BotM tyrants, including Suskityrannus, Proceratosaurus, Eutyrannus, Teratophoneus, and Dryptosaurus. Certainly the smallest of my BotM pledges so far, but far from nothing!

Speaking of BotM, that awful pink Bambiraptor wouldn't be in my collection if the BotM Buitreraptor had been Bambiraptor instead as originally planned. If I recall correctly, Sim convinced Silva to change it because Buitreraptor is better known. So I have him to thank for this! 

Yep. Oh no way, I pledged for the Teratophoneus and Dryptosaurus too! And I'm hoping to get the Eotyrannus further down the line.

Ah, fair enough. Hey, at least you have representatives of both genera now 

[Concavenator]

Nice 2021 wrap-up. Collecting wise, I think 2021 was amazing, though my group preferences are different than yours.

And very nice selection of BoTM tyrannosaurs. When it comes to an adult T*rannosaurus itself, don't you think any of the versions that came out after the Safari 2017 are sufficient improvements for you to consider upgrading?