The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Halichoeres]

Ha ha yeah, one of the ghouls from a Lego medieval fantasy set. Before they got the LotR license, they made all these sets that were like, "this is definitely not a Lord of the Rings set, for legal purposes." He's on that shelf to represent The Great Dying. Maybe I should look for a 1:20 grim reaper figure.

[BlueKrono]

The Great Dying... haha. Brilliant.

[CrypticPrism]

Ha ha yeah, one of the ghouls from a Lego medieval fantasy set. Before they got the LotR license, they made all these sets that were like, "this is definitely not a Lord of the Rings set, for legal purposes." He's on that shelf to represent The Great Dying. Maybe I should look for a 1:20 grim reaper figure.

[Halichoeres]

I wonder if these longer spine-like feathers of Beipiaosaurus had a defensive function, and how many therizinosaurs had them.  I don't think there are any therizinosaur figures that have these feathers.  I think a therizinosaur figure with these spine-like feathers would be very interesting and unique.

This one has a little tuft right behind the shoulders, I wonder if that was meant to represent what you're talking about. It looks different from the growth pattern on Beipiaosaurus, but 30 million years and a couple of thousand kilograms later, who knows what they'd look like.

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks Halichoeres, looks great.

[Sim]

That's interesting about the spiny feathers of Beipiaosaurus, I remembered reading about the extra long feathers but had forgotten. It's easy to imagine them working like tarantula hairs, maybe they were hollow in part to house some urticating fluid.

What I had been thinking was that if the spine-like feathers of Beipiaosaurus had a sharp end, they could have made it more difficult for predators to attack Beipiaosaurus, due to the possibility of a predator having its skin pierced by those feathers.  I hadn't thought about them containing urticating fluid, and I have no idea how likely that could be, but it's an interesting idea!  I have great difficulty imagining Beipiaosaurus firing its spine-like feathers though.

I wonder if these longer spine-like feathers of Beipiaosaurus had a defensive function, and how many therizinosaurs had them.  I don't think there are any therizinosaur figures that have these feathers.  I think a therizinosaur figure with these spine-like feathers would be very interesting and unique.

This one has a little tuft right behind the shoulders, I wonder if that was meant to represent what you're talking about. It looks different from the growth pattern on Beipiaosaurus, but 30 million years and a couple of thousand kilograms later, who knows what they'd look like.

To me it seems the only thing they share with the spine-like feathers of Beipiaosaurus is rising out of the main feather covering.  They appear to lack the other features that make those spiny feathers of Beipiaosaurus distinctive: being a stiffened filament that is distinct from surrounding feathers (those ones on the CollectA figure look fuzzy and flexible) and being spread over a large portion of the animal.

[Halichoeres]

That's interesting about the spiny feathers of Beipiaosaurus, I remembered reading about the extra long feathers but had forgotten. It's easy to imagine them working like tarantula hairs, maybe they were hollow in part to house some urticating fluid.

What I had been thinking was that if the spine-like feathers of Beipiaosaurus had a sharp end, they could have made it more difficult for predators to attack Beipiaosaurus, due to the possibility of a predator having its skin pierced by those feathers.  I hadn't thought about them containing urticating fluid, and I have no idea how likely that could be, but it's an interesting idea! I have great difficulty imagining Beipiaosaurus firing its spine-like feathers though.

Yeah, for sure. Firing a hair that's 4 mm long is one thing, but 20 cm is quite another.

I wonder if these longer spine-like feathers of Beipiaosaurus had a defensive function, and how many therizinosaurs had them.  I don't think there are any therizinosaur figures that have these feathers.  I think a therizinosaur figure with these spine-like feathers would be very interesting and unique.

This one has a little tuft right behind the shoulders, I wonder if that was meant to represent what you're talking about. It looks different from the growth pattern on Beipiaosaurus, but 30 million years and a couple of thousand kilograms later, who knows what they'd look like.

To me it seems the only thing they share with the spine-like feathers of Beipiaosaurus is rising out of the main feather covering.  They appear to lack the other features that make those spiny feathers of Beipiaosaurus distinctive: being a stiffened filament that is distinct from surrounding feathers (those ones on the CollectA figure look fuzzy and flexible) and being spread over a large portion of the animal.

Right, they definitely don't look much like the preserved feathers of Beipiaosaurus, but a shoulder tuft is a peculiar thing to include in the first place. Not a lot of birds have a tuft right there. And it wouldn't be the first time CollectA took evidence from an early, pottentially basal member of a group, and extrapolated odd integument to much later, relatively distant relatives.

[Sim]

If the tuft on the CollectA Therizinosaurus is inspired by the spiny feathers of Beipiaosaurus, those feathers have been changed so much that they are no longer the spine-like therizinosaur feathers I mentioned being interested in seeing on a figure.  I appreciate the suggestion though!

[Halichoeres]

This thread will continue to depict the evolution of my collection, but I've finally compiled a browsable library on flickr. It won't be as useful as a brand-specific reference as, for example, RobinGoodFellow's albums, since I am sort of a brand dilettante. Still, I daresay it illustrates well the variety of species available.

Here it is:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/137381464@N07/collections/72157663343052556/

You can browse by brand, by time period, by taxonomic group, and by sculptor. I only know the sculptor for about 1/3 of them, but if anybody can enlighten me on the others, I'd be grateful for the information!

[ZoPteryx]

This will be a great reference, thanks for making it! 

[RobinGoodfellow]

I've just a question about your Paleozoo Remigolepis: Did you buy it directly from Bruce or by Shapeways ?
I did my Paleozoo orders directly to Bruce in Australia but Customs price is quite high in my Country so I'm thinking about ordering from Shapeways...
Regards


p.s I REALLY like your Flickr albums

[Halichoeres]

This will be a great reference, thanks for making it! 

My pleasure, believe me!

I've just a question about your Paleozoo Remigolepis: Did you buy it directly from Bruce or by Shapeways ?
I did my Paleozoo orders directly to Bruce in Australia but Customs price is quite high in my Country so I'm thinking about ordering from Shapeways...
Regards


p.s I REALLY like your Flickr albums

Thanks very much!

As for the Remigolepis, I bought it from Bruce directly. I actually didn't know they were available on Shapeways! Since they also ship from New York, that might make more sense for future orders than paying for shipping from Australia. As you probably know, for the moment US residents don't pay customs fees on most packages, but if our government adopts a more protectionist stance, we might be in the same boat as Europeans before long.

[Halichoeres]

Terrestrial eukaryotes of the (mostly Lower) Cretaceous!


Rebor Deinonychus. Replaced the Colorata, after consultation with an ornithologist friend of mine who liked how birdlike the Rebor version is. I do wish they had actually been 1:35; instead they're about 1:25.


Papo Polacanthus. OK, I defended it initially, but the head is actually pretty weird. Apart from the ceratopsian-esque frill at the back, it sort of looks like a Panoplosaurus head, which would be fine given that the skull of Polacanthus isn't known. Despite the odd noggin, I think this figure is an improvement on the Toyway version that it replaced. Still, the Toyway was the best around for 18 years! The Papo is about 1:25.


It doesn't scale well with the Papo Baryonyx, unfortunately (Baryonyx is much too large), but it looks pretty good next to the Safari Sauropelta.


Papo Acrocanthosaurus. With congratulations to the Battat that it replaced, which stood as the finest Acrocanthosaurus at this scale for two decades (the Safari is also excellent, but much smaller of course). This one has really nice paint work. If I were more of a Papo collector, I might be rankled by the similarity to the last couple of tyrannosaurs, but since those aren't on my shelves this Acro stands out quite nicely. About 1:35.


Cog Ltd Tropeognathus. Probably the rarest of the Cog pterosaurs, since it was apparently not included in any of the re-releases. About 1:40 based on the head, but it's smaller by wingspan estimates. The head is actually known, unlike the wing elements, so that's what I'm going with.


Hayakawa Alxasaurus. This tiny figure is part of a set of 9 relatively recent but super-retro dinosaurs sold in Japan. There are two such sets, actually, with the same 9 species in different poses (I prefer this Alxasaurus to the version that is looking over its shoulder). It looks more like an ornithomimid than a basal therizinosaur, but the common ancestor of both probably wasn't too different from this. In fact, Joe DeMarco's Dinosauriana lists this figure as a Gallimimus, but the package very clearly states that it is Alxasaurus. Anyway, this will do until someone makes a good one--at least it has hints of feathers. About 1:45.


Astrodon from a Transformers knockoff line called "Dinosaur Corps." No idea who made these, but they were produced in Hong Kong in the 1980s. It's the only thing called "Astrodon" that I know of. I don't collect Transformers and I'm not terribly familiar with them, but, like the Alxasaurus, I learned of this figure in Dinosauriana, and found it on eBay shortly after. Once I got it, I looked through DeMarco's Transformers articles and realized that this is a very precise re-cast of a Transformers figure, with green skin rather than gray. I don't like recasts (for example, I've never bought one of those "Tuojiangosaurus" figures you see that are just Carnegie Miragaia re-casts, or the Papo Brachiosaurus knockoffs sold as every macronarian sauropod under the sun). So I probably won't hang on to this one, and honestly it won't even break my heart if nobody makes an Astrodon in the future, as there are better-known sauropods that should be seen to first. 


Conifers, cf. Araucaria, part of the Favorite Cretaceous Forest Georama. This is the most interesting Georama, in my opinion, because of the variety of plants. I wish they'd made a Carboniferous coal swamp! The diorama is mostly resin, including these trees.


Tree ferns, cf. Cyathea, based on the bipinnate leaves, scaly bark, and the upright apical frond. These are PVC leaves glued onto resin boles. The trunk of each tree in the diorama has a unique shape, to fit a unique slot in the base, so there's not a lot of customization potential.


Populated with some dinosaurs at a plausible scale (never mind the anachronism). You could stretch and call this a 1:40 or 1:50 diorama, but the trees would have to be fairly new growth. I'd call it more like 1:75-1:100. I didn't try to identify the small ferns on the ground, since there are 10,000 living species of ferns and I can identify maybe 3 that occur near me, so I have little hope of identifying fossil ones. Both tree genera still occur on Norfolk island, so maybe I should see what extant ferns also live there, but even that only narrows it down to three dozen species.

[Sim]

It's nice to see photos of a Favorite Georama!  I really like the idea of the Favorite Georamas.  The Cretaceous forest and the Jurassic Sea Georamas look very good from the little I've seen of them.  I can't say I'm a fan of the other two Georamas though.

I'm reminded of the Beasts of the Mesozic accessory packs.  I'm getting three of them, and one reason I'm looking forward to them is because they have environments designed for prehistoric animal figures to use, even though the environment bases don't look very big.  There was another type of environment I would've liked in an accessory pack for the raptor series.  I also think it could have been really great if in addition to the accessory packs David made, he also made larger environment bases similar to the Favorite Georamas.  Maybe as the BotM line progresses, David will make these.  I hope so!

Are you displaying anything on your Favorite Georama?

[BlueKrono]

That pink ankylosaur...

[SBell]

I remember those Georama bases--they were so cool, but so expensive!

And the marine one was a little weird--you had to put the plesiosaur (the only marine animal in the series) on top of the water. It didn't really work. The Pteranodon soaring over the water did, though.

[Halichoeres]

It's nice to see photos of a Favorite Georama!  I really like the idea of the Favorite Georamas.  The Cretaceous forest and the Jurassic Sea Georamas look very good from the little I've seen of them.  I can't say I'm a fan of the other two Georamas though.

I'm reminded of the Beasts of the Mesozic accessory packs.  I'm getting three of them, and one reason I'm looking forward to them is because they have environments designed for prehistoric animal figures to use, even though the environment bases don't look very big.  There was another type of environment I would've liked in an accessory pack for the raptor series.  I also think it could have been really great if in addition to the accessory packs David made, he also made larger environment bases similar to the Favorite Georamas.  Maybe as the BotM line progresses, David will make these.  I hope so!

Are you displaying anything on your Favorite Georama?

Yeah, I really like it. The Jurassic Forest Georama has one interesting fan-like fern, but the trees are all just dead stumps. That's an ex-forest, not a forest. This is the only one I'm remotely willing to shell out $200 to get. The Jurassic Sea one does look nice, but it doesn't add any life (a small perched pterosaur? some fish in the water?), and I agree with Sean above that forcing the marine animals to surf is not ideal. It does work for pterosaurs, but not much else. I think a good marine diorama would have had the water line up top, if it had to have it at all, and featured sessile organisms like clams, corals, sponges, etc.

I'm looking forward to the environment packs from the BotM line, also. What sort of environment would you want a large version of?

My Georama has the figures in the photo on it for now. A pan-Mesozoic hodgepodge of sauropods, hadrosaurs, and theropods that are too small for my 1:40 shelf.

That pink ankylosaur...

Hey, you never know--when all the big animals can see 3 or 4 colors rather than 2...

Also, it's Easter. Perfect time for pastels.

By the by, I looked at the ground plants again and they're not ferns at all. They're either very squat cycads or some sort of bennetitalean. These aren't sculpted at a large enough scale to be able to tell which--I can't see the reproductive structures or the stomata.

[Ravonium]

Papo Polacanthus. OK, I defended it initially, but the head is actually pretty weird. Apart from the ceratopsian-esque frill at the back, it sort of looks like a Panoplosaurus head, which would be fine given that the skull of Polacanthus isn't known. Despite the odd noggin, I think this figure is an improvement on the Toyway version that it replaced. Still, the Toyway was the best around for 18 years! The Papo is about 1:25.

That Polacanthus appears to be screaming, probably because of his weird head.

[Halichoeres]

Papo Polacanthus. OK, I defended it initially, but the head is actually pretty weird. Apart from the ceratopsian-esque frill at the back, it sort of looks like a Panoplosaurus head, which would be fine given that the skull of Polacanthus isn't known. Despite the odd noggin, I think this figure is an improvement on the Toyway version that it replaced. Still, the Toyway was the best around for 18 years! The Papo is about 1:25.

That Polacanthus appears to be screaming, probably because of his head.

I'd interpreted it as reaching for a tasty leaf, but now I won't be able to see anything but screaming in horror.

[Ravonium]

Papo Polacanthus. OK, I defended it initially, but the head is actually pretty weird. Apart from the ceratopsian-esque frill at the back, it sort of looks like a Panoplosaurus head, which would be fine given that the skull of Polacanthus isn't known. Despite the odd noggin, I think this figure is an improvement on the Toyway version that it replaced. Still, the Toyway was the best around for 18 years! The Papo is about 1:25.

That Polacanthus appears to be screaming, probably because of his head.

I'd interpreted it as reaching for a tasty leaf, but now I won't be able to see anything but screaming in horror.

Well, my weird interpretation worked (I usually refrain from putting emoticons/emojis in posts but I couldn't help it.)