The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Sim]

I'm glad you managed to get those figures by Hirokazu Tokugawa.

[Megalosaurus]

Nice figures.
But how do you manage to get original Tokugawa casts? Do you contacted him? How much did they cost?

[Halichoeres]

I'm glad you managed to get those figures by Hirokazu Tokugawa.

Nice figures.
But how do you manage to get original Tokugawa casts? Do you contacted him? How much did they cost?

Thanks! They were a bit pricey (roughly $30 apiece plus shipping), but worth it in my view. You can get them at Tokugawa's web site: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/fragi/ragi/e.shop.html

You just email him (he appears to speak English, or is just very careful with Google Translate) and work it out from there. I had to email him twice, for what it's worth. He also has large fully painted Psephoderma statues, but they're way too expensive for me.

[BlueKrono]

Nice figures.
But how do you manage to get original Tokugawa casts? Do you contacted him? How much did they cost?

I sent him an email that was on his website; I think it was [email protected]. He responded very promptly to me and the transaction went through without a hitch.

[Megalosaurus]

Thank you Halichoeres and BlueKrono.

[Halichoeres]

Nice figures.
But how do you manage to get original Tokugawa casts? Do you contacted him? How much did they cost?

I sent him an email that was on his website; I think it was [email protected]. He responded very promptly to me and the transaction went through without a hitch.

I should say, the second time I wrote him he responded right away. Maybe the first time I just caught him traveling or something.

[Halichoeres]

Deuterostomes (mostly?) of the Paleozoic!


Play Visions Crassigyrinus from the Carboniferous coal swamps of Scotland. Crassigyrinus is on the tetrapod stem, one of the many dead-ends on the bushy family tree that by its time had already produced very reptile-like animals. 1:20.


Paleocasts Tullimonstrum by an artist named Patrick May. You can find his work on Etsy, and occasionally on eBay. I bought this one on Etsy because I hate giving eBay any more money than I absolutely have to. This model is about life-size if it represents a very large individual, so it's about twice the length of Jetoar's model. It's obviously based on the same 2016 reconstruction, which depicted it as a lamprey, complete with gill pores and a single median nostril. Some of you may have seen the 2017 paper that argued that Tullimonstrum is not a stem-lamprey, but I continue to think it's the best guess so far. [Edit 23 Oct: I actually think the 2016 reconstruction might be right in most respects, but I now believe that the argument for it being a lamprey, or any vertebrate, is pretty weak. It's weird enough that it's hard to reject any possibility, but I think it's probably some sort of protostome.]


It came with all these cool accessories! I'm still figuring out what they are, not deuterostomes though. Pretty sure the trilobite-esque horseshoe crab is either Bellinurus or Euproops. The actual trilobites have little motors and rubber legs, so they move around on the floor if you flip a switch. Fantastic little bonus figures.


Paleozoo Remigolepis from the Devonian. My only antiarch aside from the Kaiyodo Bothriolepis figures. Not many considering they lasted over 50 million years. This 3D-printed beauty is about 1:2.


Paleozoo Tiktaalik, a Devonian stem-tetrapod. Considering how much press it's gotten, it's surprising there aren't more versions of Tiktaalik out there. My shelf is grateful to Paleozoo, but my wallet isn't. This is about 1:10 if it's based on a very large individual.


Kaiyodo Pleurocystites, an asymmetrical benthic echinoderm of the Ordovician. The Ambulacraria are a huge, diverse clade of marine organisms that originated in the Cambrian and has living representatives: the echinoderms and the hemichordates. Their past diversity is even greater, including weirdos like graptolites. Yet somehow, this is the only toy anybody has ever made, as far as I know. About 1:2-1:3.


Diramix Dinichthys, a Devonian contemporary of Dunkleosteus. For a long time, in fact, they were considered the same animal, and the knowledge that most Dinichthys reconstructions were based on Dunkleosteus specimens gradually percolated through the paleo-enthusiast world. What is maybe less known is that Dinichthys remains a valid taxon, but known from very fragmentary remains. Based on those fragments, this hideous creature is about 1:18. It replaced the smaller version by the same company because at least it has thoracic armor. Damn shame that they painted the plates to look like teeth, though.

[Flaffy]

Are there 2 versions of the Diramix Dinichthys? Or are my eyes deceiving me?
And where do you acquire Diramix products? 

[RobinGoodfellow]

Are there 2 versions of the Diramix Dinichthys? Or are my eyes deceiving me?
And where do you acquire Diramix products?

Yes, there are 2 versions: a small and a big one.
Diramix is an italian company with an office relatively close to my home.
I bought the Diramix Dinichthys and Livyatan (from the Mega Abissi line) for Halichoeres.
Honestly I can't suggest to anyone to buy Diramix in my Country because the international postal service is much more expensive than the figure's price itself..

[Megalosaurus]

Nice adquisitions. Specially the Crassigyrinus and the accesories for the Tullimostrum.

[Halichoeres]

Are there 2 versions of the Diramix Dinichthys? Or are my eyes deceiving me?
And where do you acquire Diramix products?

Yup, two versions:


The larger one is from the Mega Abissi line, as RobinGoodfellow points out. The smaller one is sold in the United States in blind bags under the name "ZooWorld." Ordering from Italy might make sense if you want an entire set or a large number of figures, but it is pretty expensive for just one or two figures. I found out when Robingoodfellows was kind enough to order some for me that Diramix only has one or two lines available at a time, so for example the Antichi Abissi line, to which the small Dinichthys belongs, is now more easily available in the States!

Nice adquisitions. Specially the Crassigyrinus and the accesories for the Tullimostrum.

Thank you!

[Halichoeres]

Protostomes of the Paleozoic! (Plus one poriferan.)

First, I got some IDs on the Tullimonstrum accessory animals. Most, but not all, are from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek formation, and they're all pretty close to life-size.

Harpes: top left trilobite with the big, possibly filter-feeding brim around its cephalon.
Calymene Hollardops: the trilobite with the bug eyes.
Paleolimulus: the standard-looking horseshoe crab. I got three of them and two have magnets inside!
Euproops: the trilobite-looking horseshoe crab. I got three of these also.
Dithyrocaris: the armored shrimp.
The egg cases are Palaeoxyris, an ootaxon that might pertain to Bandringa.


Ottoia from Safari Ltd's Cambrian life Toob, although the genus persisted until the Silurian. Other priapulids are still lying around on ocean floors. About life-size.


Safari Vauxia (same Toob), another survivor, making up parts of reefs well into the Silurian. The only fossil sponge figure I know of. It adds some welcome variety to my Paleozoic shelf. Sizes vary, but this is plausibly life-size.


Royal Ontario Museum Peytoia (=Laggania) (Primeval Predators kit). I've said it before, but I wish ROM would have made more of these sets from other time periods. About life-size.


Takara Tomy Michelinoceras (Dinosaur Train). These are named "Max & Mitch," and don't come apart. Orthocerids are another one of those lineages that lasted forever and were really diverse, but for which we have very few toys. Colorata will help remedy that later this year, though! This particular genus lasted from the Ordovician to the Devonian. The toy is about 1:8.


Yowie Kettneraspis (the "Devonian Trilobite" from Lost Kingdoms Series A). Doesn't look as spiny as the real thing, but pretty damned good for a Yowie. About 1.6× life size.


Favorite Wiwaxia, one of the weirder Cambrian animals. Probably a stem-mollusk, with scaly non-mineralized armor and no shell. About 2.5× life size.

[Halichoeres]

As part of the great Photobucket purge, I'm replacing all my old photos, which is maybe just as well, since I was a pretty lousy photographer when I first started here. Thanks to advice on this forum, especially from RobinGoodfellow and postsaurischian, I've managed to milk every drop of utility out of my smartphone camera.

So starting on this page I'm going to go backward through time through my collection, including some photos that haven't been shown on this thread before (though they're all in my browse-able Flickr album). Starting with the late Cretaceous (because the Cenozoic is boring), and starting with pterosaurs:


Colorata Quetzalcoatlus (World's Largest Pterosaurs exhibition)
Scale: 1:40
Released: 2008


CollectA Hatzegopteryx
Scale: 1:45
Released: 2011


Takara Tomy Zhejiangopterus (Dinosaur Train)
Scale: 1:25
Released: 2010


Yowie (Lost Kingdoms B) unnamed Queensland azhdarchid ("Giralia Pterosaur")
Scale: 1:50
Released: 2001


PNSO Nyctosaurus
Scale: 1:10
Sculptor: Zhao Chuang
Released: 2016


Schleich Pteranodon longiceps (Replicasaurus)
Scale: 1:30
Released: 2000


Kaiyodo Pteranodon longiceps (Dinotales 4)
Scale: 1:35-1:40
Sculptor: Ataru Sugaya
Released: 2003


Favorite Pteranodon sternbergi (Soft Model Series 2)
Scale: 1:40
Sculptor: Kazunari Araki
Released: 2013

And for good measure, some ornithomimosaurs:


CollectA Deluxe Deinocheirus
Scale: 1:35
Released: 2017


Kaiyodo Struthiomimus (Dinotales 2)
Scale: 1:40
Sculptor: Seiji Yamamoto
Released: 2001
Once I had the CollectA Struthiomimus in hand, I realized I still preferred this one, so I sold the CollectA.


AAA Gallimimus
Scale: 1:25


Geoworld Ornithomimus
Scale: 1:20
Released: 2012

[Sim]

I hadn't realised how bad that Geoworld Ornithomimus is.  It has teeth?!  And dewclaws.

[Halichoeres]

Yep, it's pretty terrible. I was a brand new collector when Sean was liquidating his stock of GeoWorld figures, and I bought all the unique ones at one go, before I knew the sort of company they are. I wish the CollectA Struthiomimus had been an Ornithomimus, or that I were a less neurotic collector, the kind that can allow close-enough stand-ins.

More from the Late Cretaceous today, including some new acquisitions. First, therizinosaurs:


CollectA Nothronychus
Scale: 1:40
Released: 2008


Battat Nanshiungosaurus
Scale: 1:30
Sculptor: Dan LoRusso
Released: 2014


CollectA Therizinosaurus
Scale: 1:55
Released: 2012


Safari Therizinosaurus (Great Dinosaurs)
Scale: 1:30

And some oviraptorosaurs:


I believe this Avimimus was made by Soldier Bear, but it might be a knock-off. In either event it's pretty poorly made. The right foot is deformed such that it can't stand unaided, which might suggest a cheap re-mold. It's also obviously quite inaccurate. Probably released in 2006, and about 1:8 scale.


Safari "Baby Louie," now named Beibeilong, made for the Indianapolis Children's Museum in 2004. I kind of like it when figures are made to represent specific specimens, if for no other reason than that when the genera erected for those specimens are subsumed into existing taxa there won't be any mystery about where it goes. Maybe an update is in order, since this sculpt doesn't actually look very much like a caenagnathid in ovo, but like a generic theropod with a mix of embryonic and post-hatch traits. About 1:3.


CollectA Gigantoraptor, which I can't wait to replace with the PNSO or Battat version, whichever comes out first.
Scale: 1:60
Released: 2009


Safari Oviraptor (Carnegie Collection)
Scale: 1:12
Sculptor: Forest Rogers
Released: 2006


Kaiyodo Oviraptor (Dinotales 5)
Scale: 1:20
Scultor: Ataru Sugaya
Released: 2004


Kanna Dinosaur Center Citipati
Scale: 1:15
Released: 2015?


Takara Tomy Chirostenotes (Dinosaur Train)
Scale: 1:25
Released: 2010

[Sim]

I kind of like it when figures are made to represent specific specimens, if for no other reason than that when the genera erected for those specimens are subsumed into existing taxa there won't be any mystery about where it goes.

Well, speaking of figures representing specific specimens...  The Carnegie Collection Oviraptor, Kaiyodo Oviraptor and Kanna Dinosaur Center Citipati all represent the unnamed 100/42 oviraptorosaur specimen.  It's the distinctive unnamed specimen that has been thought to be an Oviraptor or Citipati, but actually hasn't been demonstrated to belong to any named oviraptorosaur species.  It's thought to possibly represent a new species or genus.  It really needs to be given a name, it's been so well-known for so long, and there's been a lot of confusion with regards to its identity.  This Theropod Database blog post describes both how funny and really bad the situation has become: http://theropoddatabase.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/citipati-or-igm-10042.html

The image below has a comparison of Oviraptor philoceratops, Citipati osmolskae, and the 100/42 oviraptorosaur.  It also shows why people should stop making figures of Oviraptor - Oviraptor's known remains are too fragmentary to reliably reconstruct it (notice how the area where a crest could be in Oviraptor isn't known) and there are lots of oviraptorosaurs known from good remains that don't have any good figure version.  Also, Oviraptor has a terrible name.

  (image source)

[BlueKrono]

I love that Citipati by Kanna. The pose is awesome. Would work well for the Chirostenotes repaint I want do, and as long as it's less than $86 it would be more financially practicable than the Shapeways. Is it hard to come by?

[Halichoeres]

...people should stop making figures of Oviraptor - Oviraptor's known remains are too fragmentary to reliably reconstruct it (notice how the area where a crest could be in Oviraptor isn't known) and there are lots of oviraptorosaurs known from good remains that don't have any good figure version.  Also, Oviraptor has a terrible name.

Yeah, I'll happily rename my Oviraptor figures if and when that specimen is described. I also wouldn't mind seeing a Citipati with a more appropriate/modest crest. Do you dislike Oviraptor as a name just because it's such a misnomer? To be honest, I sort of like it because it shows how badly first impressions can mislead us. Like "phytosaur," the name is a little lesson in the history of science.

I love that Citipati by Kanna. The pose is awesome. Would work well for the Chirostenotes repaint I want do, and as long as it's less than $86 it would be more financially practicable than the Shapeways. Is it hard to come by?

It's not that hard to come by, and it's only 3024 yen:
http://www.dino-nakasato.jp/shopdetail/000000000311/ct14/page1/recommend/

You'll end up paying more to ship it, because I'm pretty sure Kanna still doesn't take direct orders from the States. I got my last Kanna shipment from JP Selection and it was quick and professional.

More from the Late Cretaceous. Almost 60% of my collection is stem-birds, but today it's just the most crownward stem-birds, the paravians:


Geoworld Saurornitholestes, soon to be supplanted by the BotM version. Can't come soon enough.
Scale: 1:8
Released: 2013


GeoWorld Dromaeosaurus, another one I can't wait to ditch.
Scale: 1:10
Released: 2012


Safari Velociraptor (Feathered Dinos Toob)
Scale: 1:20
Sculptor: Doug Watson
Released: 2009


Safari Velociraptor
Scale: 1:10
Sculptor: Doug Watson
Released: 2017


Vivid Hesperonychus (Walking with Dinosaurs blind bags)
Scale: 1:12
Released: 2013


GeoWorld Troodon, "inspired" by artwork by Gabriel Lio.
Scale: 1:10
Released: 2013


Vivid Troodon (Walking with Dinosaurs blind bags)
Scale: 1:30
Released: 2013


Xidi Saurornithoides (aka Lontic, Happy Kin, Happy King)
Scale: 1:15


Character Options Hesperornis (Primeval)
Scale: 1:14
Released: 2007


Vivid Alexornis (Walking with Dinosaurs blind bags)
Scale: 1:8
Released: 2013

[Halichoeres]

Today, Late Cretaceous tyrannosaurs. Most of these are updated photos (the old ones hosted on Photobucket weren't good enough to be worth saving), but there's one new acquisition among these:


PNSO Tyrannosaurus
Scale: 1:30
Sculptor: Zhao Chuang
Released: 2017


Safari Tyrannosaurus
Scale: 1:35
Sculptor: Doug Watson
Released: 2017


Planeta DeAgostini "Nanotyrannus"
Scale: 1:40


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


CollectA Lythronax
Scale: 1:40
Released: 2016


Favorite Bistahieversor (Fukui Museum)
Scale: 1:45
Sculptor: Kazunari Araki
Released: 2016


CollectA Daspletosaurus
Scale: 1:40
Released: 2013


Safari Albertosaurus (Carnegie Collection)
Scale: 1:40
Sculptor: Forest Rogers
Released: 2004


Golden Link Gorgosaurus/Nanuqsaurus (Walking with Dinosaurs cup topper)
Scale: 1:35 (as Nanuqsaurus)
Released: 2013?


Safari Gorgosaurus
Scale: 1:40
Released: 2004


CollectA Alioramus
Scale: 1:30
Released: 2009

[BlueKrono]

You have a truly stunning diversity of species. And that Vivid Troodon is pretty cool.