The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Libraraptor]

I already posted this information in the prehistoric turtles section, but unfortunately the tubes were no longer available in any ALDI market I visited. Sorry. Next step is I´ll directly contact them at ALDI.

[Halichoeres]

Not to worry, very kind of you to keep me informed, thank you! I'm sure they'll turn up somewhere.

[Halichoeres]

Today, total-group chordates of the Paleozoic. (There was no more concise way to say that, because most of these belong controversially to some stem group or another.)


From the Royal Ontario Museum's "Primeval Predators" set, Pikaia. The original description (Walcott 1911) interpreted Pikaia as having eyes, but according to Conway Morris and Caron (2012, Biol. Reviews 87: 480), there is no evidence for them. I think Simon Conway Morris is wildly misguided about the teleology of evolution (in that he thinks that any exists), but I trust him on anatomy. Even if Pikaia did have eyes, I don't know why they would point downward. Nevertheless, I still like this one better than the Cog Ltd version, which it replaced. About 1.7:1 (that is, slightly larger than life-sized).


Yujin Haikouella from the Yujin NHK "Miracle Planet" set, given to me by forum member Chad. Haikouella might have had eyes--there are little pigment spots on most specimens that could be eyes similar to those on a lancelet or lamprey. Correctly oriented and beautifully made. About 1:1.


Kaiyodo Bothriolepis (Dinotales 1.2). Much nicer than version 1, with pectoral fins that stay put all on their own. And what a paint job! About 1:4.


Starlux Drepanaspis. This one is almost as old as I am. Somehow nobody else has made a toy version in the intervening decades (or if they have, I haven't heard about it). One of the rarest pieces in my collection, and about 1:3.


This one is probably the rarest non-custom figure I own: the Starlux Cephalaspis. If these two were of equal quality but made by a contemporary company, I might repaint the eyes. But if someone else (Safari? Kaiyodo?) makes these species someday, I want to be able to resell these, so I'll leave them alone. About 1:2.5.


If these were to scale, Bothriolepis would be just a little bigger.


Pikaia is a little too big, but other than that these are all pretty close to the same scale. The "Groenlandaspis" really resembles an antiarch, unfortunately, much more so than the arthrodire it purports to be. I've said it before and I'll say it again: we need an Age of Fishes Toob from Safari!

[SBell]

Today, total-group chordates of the Paleozoic. (There was no more concise way to say that, because most of these belong controversially to some stem group or another.)


Pikaia is a little too big, but other than that these are all pretty close to the same scale. The "Groenlandaspis" really resembles an antiarch, unfortunately, much more so than the arthrodire it purports to be. I've said it before and I'll say it again: we need an Age of Fishes Toob from Safari!

The Groenlandaspis from Yowies might be closer to correct; I agree that the COG looks like a different species altogether.

I'm not sure how much I can say here but...you will be waiting for at least one more year for the Age of Fishes toob. Or pterosaurs toob. Or a decent prehistoric toob at all...

Also, one more 'stem chordate' thing:

Myllokunmingia as a porcelain Feves figure!

[RobinGoodfellow]

I'm happy that you finally found the rare Starlux Cephalaspis !    Congrats.

[Halichoeres]

The Groenlandaspis from Yowies might be closer to correct; I agree that the COG looks like a different species altogether.

I'm not sure how much I can say here but...you will be waiting for at least one more year for the Age of Fishes toob. Or pterosaurs toob. Or a decent prehistoric toob at all...

Also, one more 'stem chordate' thing:

Myllokunmingia as a porcelain Feves figure!

I have that Groenlandaspis, too, I just forgot to take a picture! It's pretty cartoony, but does actually suggest the animal it's supposed to be.

Bummer about the toobs--I take it from the qualifier "decent" that there will be something silly like a dinosaur babies toob.

On Myllokunmingia: that's a pretty cool figure, but as a porcelain piece falls outside my collection parameters. But then again, so did Yowies once upon a time...if I'm going to expand, it's going to be to include things like that. Also, I would argue it's a crown-group chordate, but probably a stem vertebrate (that is, I think it's closer to us than it is to a sea squirt or a lancelet).

I'm happy that you finally found the rare Starlux Cephalaspis !    Congrats.

Thanks! I was able to get it from ebay.fr (a seller you linked me to, but a different listing), and a French member of STS forum bought it on my behalf. So thanks for your help!

[Sim]

Congratulations on getting those figures, Tim!

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Yowie Timimus. This one ought to have had feathers too, but I'm willing to give Yowies a lot of leeway. I like that it's painted like a cheetah. Slightly better fossils for this guy, so I'm more confident saying it's approximately 1:30.

I've been wondering, what do you think of the name Timimus? 

[Halichoeres]

Ha ha, I like to pretend it's named after me. I honestly have a mild distaste for honorifics; I prefer descriptive binomials when possible. But I'm sure if I were the child of the Vickers-Rich team, I'd be pretty stoked.

[SBell]

I threw in the word 'decent' but I could just have easily said 'real'...

[Halichoeres]

::silently weeping::

[Halichoeres]

Gnathostomes of the Paleozoic!

It's been a good year for Dunkleosteus!

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First this skull from Kaiyodo (Great Leaps in Vertebrate Evolution exhibit). Presumably meant to call attention to the evolution of jaws, which is a pretty big deal. This is a shade smaller than the Dinotales version, and has this nice little stand. In the neighborhood of 1:40.


Next the Favorite Dunkleosteus. Really gorgeous. As has been discussed elsewhere in the forum, the bifurcated tail fin is speculative, but makes biomechanical sense. Smaller relatives like Coccosteus have simple eel-like tails, but for them the functional viscosity of water is much, much higher, so the drag generated by vortices, and the pitch and yaw generated when beating the tail, would be much smaller than for Dunkleosteus. An animal several meters long should probably have a tail like this, but that doesn't necessarily mean it did--evolution only works with what it's got. About 1:40 based on the largest specimens.


With other ±1:40 Paleozoic fishes. I don't normally have three versions of a single animal, but all these Dunkleosteus figures are so excellent.


Eusthenopteron (Dinotales 6).

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In both colors. I'm still waiting on my CapsuleQ version, which comes with a stand like all fish should. These are pretty nice, though. About 1:25.


With Cladoselache. There was a time when aquatic sarcopterygians were bigger than sharks!


Neko Works Stethacanthus. The dorsal fin is probably a little too caudal, but it's a really nice model. I just need to sand off the flash and paint it. About 1:13.

[Halichoeres]

Incidentally, @Uroplatus and Georassic, I got another random Edaphosaurus in an eBay lot (kinda beat up, so I'm still glad for the one you hunted down for me). It's also stamped 1:30!

[Georassic]

Incidentally, @Uroplatus and Georassic, I got another random Edaphosaurus in an eBay lot (kinda beat up, so I'm still glad for the one you hunted down for me). It's also stamped 1:30!

Maybe your universe is in different scale than ours. 
At 1:30, is it still in acceptable range for known Edapho species?

[Halichoeres]

Incidentally, @Uroplatus and Georassic, I got another random Edaphosaurus in an eBay lot (kinda beat up, so I'm still glad for the one you hunted down for me). It's also stamped 1:30!

Maybe your universe is in different scale than ours. 
At 1:30, is it still in acceptable range for known Edapho species?

I think it would be a little bigger than the largest specimen (which would be about 1:26).

[Halichoeres]

I hope I'll be forgiven for a little diversion from the prehistoric. I mentioned in the first post that I collect places. I collect geography! For this purpose I use a couple of simple but generally effective sites. One is YourGMap.com, where you can pin whatever you like to a Google Maps base. Here's a screenshot of all the cities I've been to in the Northwestern quadrant of the globe (which is most of the places I've been, honestly!). The preceding link takes you to an interactive version.


To count a city, I use stringent criteria:
1) The urban area must contain at minimum 50,000 inhabitants. So even though I've been to Aruba, for example, it doesn't have any qualifying cities, so there's no pin there.
2) I must transgress the boundary of the principal city of the urban area (suburbs don't count). So Detroit isn't pinned, because I've only been to Dearborn.
3) I only count one principal city per urban area (Minneapolis counts, but not St. Paul, Dallas but not Fort Worth, New York but not Newark).

I also collect counties, which are the administrative subdivisions of almost all US states. For this I use mob-rule.com.

Obviously I've lived in Chicago a while...

[SBell]

Incidentally, @Uroplatus and Georassic, I got another random Edaphosaurus in an eBay lot (kinda beat up, so I'm still glad for the one you hunted down for me). It's also stamped 1:30!

Maybe your universe is in different scale than ours. 
At 1:30, is it still in acceptable range for known Edapho species?

I think it would be a little bigger than the largest specimen (which would be about 1:26).

Given how long this has been discussed, I just looked at mine (purchased when they first came out). The sacle is marked as 1:30. Perhaps they revised it in later releases?

[Halichoeres]

Been rounding out the hadrosaurs lately:


Safari Gryposaurus. Incredible, one of the best Safari has ever produced. The texturing! About 1:35-1:40.


Favorite Saurolophus (Gobi exhibition). Phenomenal, every hadrosaur deserves to be done this well. Replaced the Dino-Riders version in my collection. About 1:40.


CollectA Olorotitan. Surprisingly good for being from 2008. It would be years before CollectA made another figure this good, and it's probably still their best ornithopod. Its main flaw is that it's about 1:70.


Safari Hypacrosaurus. One of the better old-school Safaris. The paint job is, um, extremely subtle, but I can live with it. About 1:40-1:45.


Sega (Dinosaur King) Shantungosaurus. It's actually pretty large, but still falls short of being 1:40, the scale I think every hadrosaur should be in. The Kaiyodo was just too small. This one's about 1:60-1:65. Huge friggin' animal, Shantungosaurus.


Danone (Dannon) Bactrosaurus. Apparently a Spanish yogurt premium to promote Jurassic Park? Not clear on the details. About 1:50-1:55.


Joining the herd! That Tsintaosaurus ruins every goddamn family portrait.

[Shonisaurus]

It's a shame that this type of hadrosaur dinosaurs not be as successful as theropods and ceraptosidos reptiles.


These animals are very interesting for me. Certainly the saurolophus of favorite is outstanding. Pena companies that do not make toys like Collecta traditions, Papo Safari or a replica of this great creature.

[Halichoeres]

De acuerdo, lamento la falta de los hadrosaurios. With a lot of hunting, it's actually possible to assemble a pretty good herd, but the big 5 companies should definitely pay them more attention. A CollectA Deluxe Shantungosaurus would make me very happy. I also hope the repainted Battat Parasaurolophus and Maiasaura still see the light of day.

[Sim]

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Joining the herd! That Tsintaosaurus ruins every goddamn family portrait.

It looks like the Lambeosaurus is using it crest to tell the Tsintaosaurus to get out of the photo!