The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Strepsodus]

I needed to ask, what size estimates did you use for Argentinosaurus?

[Bokisaurus]

Yay, always fun to see a collage of yearly reviews and last year is fun! Wow you added a lot of ceratopsians 😃

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for visiting, everyone!

Now, if someone could just do a 1:30 to 1:40 scale Austroraptor...

I would buy that.

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? 

Perhaps? Winter Wilson is probably a shade more accurate than the Battat (my current unfeathered rex), and there are several more in the pipeline. I feel pretty meh about both PNSO figures and won't buy another rex unless there's one that's truly superlative. Same with Spinosaurus and Carnotaurus and a handful of other genera that I'm frankly kind of sick of seeing (and the news about Carnotaurus feature scales doesn't strike me as important enough to merit companies rushing to update their figures).

I needed to ask, what size estimates did you use for Argentinosaurus?

S @Strepsodus it's based on a total length of 25 meters. A lot of estimates are higher than that, but they assume different proportions from the CollectA figure. Relative to published estimates, CollectA's version is pretty leggy, but with a somewhat compressed axial skeleton, so you'd get a different estimate using total length than you would from limb proportions. If you use the holotype tibia and the referred femur, you end up with something in the neighborhood of 1:75.

Yay, always fun to see a collage of yearly reviews and last year is fun! Wow you added a lot of ceratopsians 😃

Yeah, big year for ceratopsians, literally, that Torosaurus is HUGE!

I realized that my previous collage gave short shrift to some of the older, sometimes rare, figures that I also picked up in 2021. Some of these were pretty exciting, and others were made by Imperial. To my everlasting chagrin, that bright green-and-yellow screamer is tied for the most-liked figure photo on my Flickr account.




This also reminds me I have some painting to do!

[Strepsodus]

S @Strepsodus it's based on a total length of 25 meters. A lot of estimates are higher than that, but they assume different proportions from the CollectA figure. Relative to published estimates, CollectA's version is pretty leggy, but with a somewhat compressed axial skeleton, so you'd get a different estimate using total length than you would from limb proportions. If you use the holotype tibia and the referred femur, you end up with something in the neighborhood of 1:75.

Thanks, and a length of 25 meters seems more realistic than the estimates of 35+ meters I've seen.

To my everlasting chagrin, that bright green-and-yellow screamer is tied for the most-liked figure photo on my Flickr account.

LOL, maybe it's nostalgia from the old screamer dinosaurs.

[Sim]

Favorite Zhuchengtyrannus (Fukui Museum)
Scale: 1:50
Sculptor: Kazunari Araki
Released: 2016


Favorite Tarbosaurus (Osaka Museum, Fukui Museum)
Scale: 1:40
Sculptor: Hirokazu Tokugawa
Released: 2012

Hi Tim, have you considered replacing the Favorite Tarbosaurus with the PNSO Tarbosaurus?  The Favorite one suffers from teeth that are all the same size, its scales look too big and its feathering looks unconvincing.  I think the PNSO Tarbosaurus is better than it.  Additionally I wonder if the PNSO version would scale better with most of what you have?  Also, are you planning to get the PNSO Zhuchengtyrannus?

[Halichoeres]

Hi Tim, have you considered replacing the Favorite Tarbosaurus with the PNSO Tarbosaurus?  The Favorite one suffers from teeth that are all the same size, its scales look too big and its feathering looks unconvincing.  I think the PNSO Tarbosaurus is better than it.  Additionally I wonder if the PNSO version would scale better with most of what you have?  Also, are you planning to get the PNSO Zhuchengtyrannus?

There are a few things about the PNSO Tarbosaurus that I find a bit off-putting. The skin texture and tooth sizes are probably better than Tokugawa's model, but Tokugawa's feels more alive to me, it has adequate soft tissue around the edge of the mouth, and it fits my scale preferences better. Considering that we've had half a dozen new Tarbosaurus figures in as many years (with some being admittedly quite cartoony), I imagine there will eventually be one that is more accurate than the Favorite 2014 version that doesn't have the aspects of PNSO's that put me off. So I think I'll stick with the one I have for now, but feel free to change my mind. I do plan to buy the new Zhuchengtyrannus; it's a better scale match than the Favorite version by Araki, and is less gaunt. In general, I'm trying to be very sparing with my PNSO theropod purchases because they're the clade I'm least excited about (subject to change if they make some therizinosaurs, ornithomimosaurs, or basal birds).

And now, some Cretaceous gnathostomes:


PNSO Tylosaurus
Scale:1:30 - 1:35
Sculptor: Zhao Chuang or someone in his workshop
Released: 2021
Turonian - Maastrichtian
I bought this because the coloration looked more plausible than that on the Safari Tylosaurus (we have melanosome data on T. proriger), and the size meant it would fit better with my other Upper Cretaceous sea creatures. But it has an odd feature I didn't notice right away: it lacks the prow on its rostrum. Its very name means "prow-bearing knob lizard," so it's a hell of a thing to leave out. Moreover, the artwork from the "marine museum" banner on PNSO's web site shows a tylosaurine head that correctly has the toothless rostrum:



This design is identical in every other way, down to the gape angle and the placement of the teeth that are supposed to be there. It didn't even occur to me that PNSO might leave the most distinctive feature of the genus out, so I didn't look for it before I pulled the trigger and ordered it. Anyway, I don't think I'll keep this one, intead sticking with the Safari version for now. I'd rather have a Tylosaurus  with too-bright pajamas than one that doesn't look like Tylosaurus. I don't know, maybe I'm expecting a more obvious rostrum than I should,  any marine reptile experts care to weigh in? Maybe PNSO's figure actually works better as Plotosaurus or something like it.


Speaking of Plotosaurus, here's another mosasaur I won't keep. It's a "meeple" from a board game called Dinosaur World. This game turned up on Kickstarter shortly after the skin-of-the-teeth campaign for the Life... game, and seeing a Plotosaurus miniature in the marine animal expansion pack I pledged for said pack. I didn't read too closely and seeing how tiny it was just slew me. I don't know what I was expecting, but not this. Anyway, maybe someday somebody will make respectable versions of mosasaurs other than Mosasaurus and Tylosaurus. (Whither the Vitae Kaikaifilu and Plioplatecarpus)?


It's so tiny!


Creative Beast Torosaurus latus
Scale: 1:16
Sculptor: Jake Baardse
Released: 2021
Maastrichtian of North America
My Torosaurus is now intact after Mr. Silva sent me a replacement leg and detailed instructions for installing it. The figure is quite vibrant, and I wouldn't want every figure I own to be this bright, but I like having a few like this interspersed. I think our imagination is biased by living in a world where the largest land animals only see two colors. In a world where they saw three or four instead, who knows? Surely not every species would be bright, just as not every parrot is especially bright. But every lineage that has three-color vision has at least some members where the visual system has been a little bit hijacked by sexual selection or some other color-based signaling--including the only trichromat mammal lineage, the primates! There are no ungulates with mandrill colors, but if ungulates could SEE mandrill colors, there probably would be.


I like this figure, but if the rumored PNSO version comes to pass, it will probably fit better with my existing ceratopsians and I might trade it in.

And the best of my recent figures:


PNSO Cretoxyrhina
Scale: 1:30 - 1:35
Sculptor: Zhao Chuang or someone in his workshop
Released: 2021
Cenomanian - Campanian
I was very surprised, and delighted, to see PNSO drop this figure last year. If you were to plot Cretoxyrhina in extant shark morphospace, it would not be a particular outlier. Nevertheless, it's distinctive, known from fairly complete skeletons, and was an important part of the continental marine ecosystem preserved on the plains of North America. Its head is well-sculpted and gives it a different look from a great white despite a similar palette. And I'm so glad they didn't give it a hinged jaw like their rather homely megalodon figure. As a new study points out, there is no evidence-based way to confidently reconstruct Otodus beyond the features common to all large pelagic sharks other than filter feeders, so I couldn't be more pleased that an extinct shark whose appearance can be reasonably inferred has been given the PNSO treatment.


Some very large predators mobbing an extremely large predator.

[Leyster]

Great acquisitions!

What did you scale Cretoxyrhina on? As far as I remember, female sharks tend to be bigger than males, and the PNSO figure looks like it has claspers

[paintingdinos]

I respect your dedication to finding even the most abstract representations of critters for your collection... the Plotosaurus game piece is honestly hilarious and charming for what it is.

I'll be keeping an eye out to see if you decide to sell the PNSO Tylosaurus I think its a neat model, warts and all, but I think I'd preference picking it up 2nd hand.

[SBell]

I appreciate the take on the Cretoxyrhina. I've hemmed and hawed about it but just haven't been sure.
I also appreciate the lack of a hinged jaw.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for visiting, everyone!

What did you scale Cretoxyrhina on? As far as I remember, female sharks tend to be bigger than males, and the PNSO figure looks like it has claspers

It's based on a total length of 6 - 7 meters (based on articulated but incomplete specimens found by Mike Everhart). It could be as large as 1:25 for a 5-m individual. You're right that this figure has claspers, so I guess it should be near the larger end of that scale range, although I think it's pretty likely that Cretoxyrhina got bigger than the handful of known articulated skeletons.

I respect your dedication to finding even the most abstract representations of critters for your collection... the Plotosaurus game piece is honestly hilarious and charming for what it is.

I'll be keeping an eye out to see if you decide to sell the PNSO Tylosaurus I think its a neat model, warts and all, but I think I'd preference picking it up 2nd hand.

Thanks! Some people definitely seem to disapprove of my approach, but I'm having fun so who gives a fig.

I agree the PNSO Tylo is a nice sculpt despite my gripes, but I do think I'll sell it. If you'd be willing to let me keep the little clear stands for use with other figures, I'd give you a pretty deep discount.

I appreciate the take on the Cretoxyrhina. I've hemmed and hawed about it but just haven't been sure.
I also appreciate the lack of a hinged jaw.

The way I figure it, the more people buy the Cretoxyrhina, the more likely it is that they'll make more fish in the future. It's not terribly large, I swear you can find room!

[paintingdinos]

Thanks! Some people definitely seem to disapprove of my approach, but I'm having fun so who gives a fig.

I agree the PNSO Tylo is a nice sculpt despite my gripes, but I do think I'll sell it. If you'd be willing to let me keep the little clear stands for use with other figures, I'd give you a pretty deep discount.

Yes, I think I'll take you up on that deal. Sending a PM!

[Faelrin]

I really like that setup with the Tylosaurus, Cretoxyrhina, and Xiphactinus. Nice seeing how all these display together size wise, and that all three of those dropped last year.

[SBell]

I really like that setup with the Tylosaurus, Cretoxyrhina, and Xiphactinus. Nice seeing how all these display together size wise, and that all three of those dropped last year.

I think that's the photo that made up my mind to that I need the Cretoxyrhina. The size is more appropriate for my shelves!

[Bokisaurus]

Very nice additions to your collection.
Wow, that torosaurus is huge!

[Shonisaurus]

My congratulations for all your new acquisitions that are very up-to-date, the BoTM torosaruus is extraordinary and leaves the Eofauna triceratops at the scale of a Lilliputinian.

But the ones I like the most are the PNSO cretoxyrhina, it's nice that this company focuses on rare figures in the toy market and the one I like the most is the tylosaurus that figure is extremely tempting for my pocket by the way no Tylosaurus and Cretoxyrhina seem to the naked eye to be a large figure compared with Collecta's Xiphactinus. Could it be an optical illusion of the photograph?

[JimoAi]

Hi Tim, have you considered replacing the Favorite Tarbosaurus with the PNSO Tarbosaurus?  The Favorite one suffers from teeth that are all the same size, its scales look too big and its feathering looks unconvincing.  I think the PNSO Tarbosaurus is better than it.  Additionally I wonder if the PNSO version would scale better with most of what you have?  Also, are you planning to get the PNSO Zhuchengtyrannus?

There are a few things about the PNSO Tarbosaurus that I find a bit off-putting. The skin texture and tooth sizes are probably better than Tokugawa's model, but Tokugawa's feels more alive to me, it has adequate soft tissue around the edge of the mouth, and it fits my scale preferences better. Considering that we've had half a dozen new Tarbosaurus figures in as many years (with some being admittedly quite cartoony), I imagine there will eventually be one that is more accurate than the Favorite 2014 version that doesn't have the aspects of PNSO's that put me off. So I think I'll stick with the one I have for now, but feel free to change my mind. I do plan to buy the new Zhuchengtyrannus; it's a better scale match than the Favorite version by Araki, and is less gaunt. In general, I'm trying to be very sparing with my PNSO theropod purchases because they're the clade I'm least excited about (subject to change if they make some therizinosaurs, ornithomimosaurs, or basal birds).

And now, some Cretaceous gnathostomes:


PNSO Tylosaurus
Scale:1:30 - 1:35
Sculptor: Zhao Chuang or someone in his workshop
Released: 2021
Turonian - Maastrichtian
I bought this because the coloration looked more plausible than that on the Safari Tylosaurus (we have melanosome data on T. proriger), and the size meant it would fit better with my other Upper Cretaceous sea creatures. But it has an odd feature I didn't notice right away: it lacks the prow on its rostrum. Its very name means "prow-bearing knob lizard," so it's a hell of a thing to leave out. Moreover, the artwork from the "marine museum" banner on PNSO's web site shows a tylosaurine head that correctly has the toothless rostrum:



This design is identical in every other way, down to the gape angle and the placement of the teeth that are supposed to be there. It didn't even occur to me that PNSO might leave the most distinctive feature of the genus out, so I didn't look for it before I pulled the trigger and ordered it. Anyway, I don't think I'll keep this one, intead sticking with the Safari version for now. I'd rather have a Tylosaurus  with too-bright pajamas than one that doesn't look like Tylosaurus. I don't know, maybe I'm expecting a more obvious rostrum than I should,  any marine reptile experts care to weigh in? Maybe PNSO's figure actually works better as Plotosaurus or something like it.


Speaking of Plotosaurus, here's another mosasaur I won't keep. It's a "meeple" from a board game called Dinosaur World. This game turned up on Kickstarter shortly after the skin-of-the-teeth campaign for the Life... game, and seeing a Plotosaurus miniature in the marine animal expansion pack I pledged for said pack. I didn't read too closely and seeing how tiny it was just slew me. I don't know what I was expecting, but not this. Anyway, maybe someday somebody will make respectable versions of mosasaurs other than Mosasaurus and Tylosaurus. (Whither the Vitae Kaikaifilu  and Plioplatecarpus)?


It's so tiny!


Creative Beast Torosaurus latus
Scale: 1:16
Sculptor: Jake Baardse
Released: 2021
Maastrichtian of North America
My Torosaurus is now intact after Mr. Silva sent me a replacement leg and detailed instructions for installing it. The figure is quite vibrant, and I wouldn't want every figure I own to be this bright, but I like having a few like this interspersed. I think our imagination is biased by living in a world where the largest land animals only see two colors. In a world where they saw three or four instead, who knows? Surely not every species would be bright, just as not every parrot is especially bright. But every lineage that has three-color vision has at least some members where the visual system has been a little bit hijacked by sexual selection or some other color-based signaling--including the only trichromat primate lineage, the primates! There are no ungulates with mandrill colors, but if ungulates could SEE mandrill colors, there probably would be.


I like this figure, but if the rumored PNSO version comes to pass, it will probably fit better with my existing ceratopsians and I might trade it in.

And the best of my recent figures:


PNSO Cretoxyrhina
Scale: 1:30 - 1:35
Sculptor: Zhao Chuang or someone in his workshop
Released: 2021
Cenomanian - Campanian
I was very surprised, and delighted, to see PNSO drop this figure last year. If you were to plot Cretoxyrhina in extant shark morphospace, it would not be a particular outlier. Nevertheless, it's distinctive, known from fairly complete skeletons, and was an important part of the continental marine ecosystem preserved on the plains of North America. Its head is well-sculpted and gives it a different look from a great white despite a similar palette. And I'm so glad they didn't give it a hinged jaw like their rather homely megalodon figure. As a new study points out, there is no evidence-based way to confidently reconstruct Otodus beyond the features common to all large pelagic sharks other than filter feeders, so I couldn't be more pleased that an extinct shark whose appearance can be reasonably inferred has been given the PNSO treatment.


Some very large predators mobbing an extremely large predator.

Without the toothless prow on its rostrum, does it work as a mosasaurus?

[Halichoeres]

I really like that setup with the Tylosaurus, Cretoxyrhina, and Xiphactinus. Nice seeing how all these display together size wise, and that all three of those dropped last year.

I think that's the photo that made up my mind to that I need the Cretoxyrhina. The size is more appropriate for my shelves!

The scale match really is convenient! I don't think you'll be disappointed, Sean.

But the ones I like the most are the PNSO cretoxyrhina, it's nice that this company focuses on rare figures in the toy market and the one I like the most is the tylosaurus that figure is extremely tempting for my pocket by the way no Tylosaurus and Cretoxyrhina seem to the naked eye to be a large figure compared with Collecta's Xiphactinus. Could it be an optical illusion of the photograph?

The Cretoxyrhina is about four centimeters longer than the Xiphactinus. The Tylosaurus of course is substantially larger than either.

Very nice additions to your collection.
Wow, that torosaurus is huge!

Definitely my largest ceratopsian, and I own the Kaiyodo Dinoland Anchiceratops!

Without the toothless prow on its rostrum, does it work as a mosasaurus?

Hmm, I'm not an expert on mosasaurs, but I don't think so, no. I think the head and jaws are too narrow for Mosasaurus, which I think was a somewhat broader animal. If anyone more knowledgeable wishes to correct me, please do!

[Strepsodus]

Does this mean you'll be chasing down the Safari Tylosaurus now?

[Halichoeres]

Does this mean you'll be chasing down the Safari Tylosaurus now?

Well, I already had the Safari version. This just means that it will stay put instead of being replaced by the PNSO as I'd thought.

Updated list on page 1. Somehow I had failed to include Fukuititan.

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

It is so good to have those animals to scale with one another.

Cheesus the Torosaurus is huge