David Silvas New Kickstarter: Articulated Dinosaur TOYS

[Faelrin]

Here's the juvenile Troodon painted up, from the FB page:


So there's my favorite of the bunch, the one based off of the snowy owl, and from the mountain pack. I just read up that juvenile snowy owls have more black feathers then the adults. Interesting. I wonder if that scheme was intentionally picked since this Troodon is meant to be a juvenile? Also is it just me or does the Microraptor look darker? Perhaps it was not quite finished yet or the lighting was playing with the colors? I guess I'll have to see more images of it to know for sure.

[copper]

Also is it just me or does the Microraptor look darker? Perhaps it was not quite finished yet or the lighting was playing with the colors? I guess I'll have to see more images of it to know for sure.

I'd guess it's the lighting on the photo. Or that's what I think, seems the contrast between light and shadow is quite high and the Microraptor's underside doesn't catch any light.

Anyway, these models look astounding and I really hope I can get them when they're up for grabs.

[Sim]

I like the painted Microraptor a lot more in this photo than the one from yesterday.  It looks darker to me too, but the Buitreraptor and Mononykus also look darker in this photo which makes me think it's probably just the lighting.  As for the Troodon, it feels weird to have a juvenile without an adult.

[Victoria's Cantina]

These juvenile raptors look OK, but I decided to pass. I went ahead and submitted my Backer Kit survey. I changed it up a couple times but ultimately pledged toward Tsaagan during the campaign and added on Velociraptor o., Dromaeosaurus a., Linheraptor, and Saurinotholestes l. fan's choice. I think it's a well-rounded set of raptors, and these are the ones I wanted most. I only had to pay a $5 fee on top of what I had paid during the campaign. If he sells extras sometime next year maybe I'll get more, but for now I think I'm good.

[Flaffy]

New image of accessory packs

[Sim]

New Kickstarter update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/creativebeast/beasts-of-the-mesozoic-raptor-series-action-figure/posts/1715048

[Faelrin]

There's a bunch of new images of the Microraptor on the FB page. This has really helped me to decide that I do in fact want it now (and will get it if the funds allow for it). Link here for those that want to see them: https://www.facebook.com/113487525333128/photos/pcb.1506271509388049/1506251486056718/?type=3&theater

[Flaffy]

Well, it certainly looks better and less blue than previous shots... But that still doesn't fix the underfluffiness of the microraptor.
The neck is the most distracting for some reason.

[Shadowknight1]

Well, it certainly looks better and less blue than previous shots... But that still doesn't fix the underfluffiness of the microraptor.
The neck is the most distracting for some reason.

It was "underfluffed" in the earliest stages.  I don't see why everyone concerned about that didn't flood David with messages saying, "Hey this is inaccurate or wrong, fix it".  I'm personally happy I picked this little sucker.

[Daspletotyrannus]

The Mircoraptor looks good. But I'm still going with the desert set. Hope we get a Protoceratops when they do the ceratopsian next.

[scdinosaurs]

That is pretty cool,love it!

[Flaffy]

Protoceratops skull
"Here is the 1/6 Protoceratops skull sculpt from the Beasts of the Mesozoic Desert Accessory Pack. Sort of a preview of what's to come in the next series..."

[stargatedalek]

The bite marks bother me, shouldn't they look more worn and chewed looking as opposed to punctured? These animals weren't exactly built for bone puncturing.

Other than that, this is a very nice piece. If he were to sell these accessory pieces standalone I'd grab up most of them in a heartbeat, but I'm really not liking the smaller animals from the sets.

[Daspletotyrannus]

Cool Protoceratops skull, but shouldn't the nasal opening be see through? I still like it though.

[Derek.McManus]

The skull is impressive I for one would really like to see the entire creature!

[DinoLord]

Cool Protoceratops skull, but shouldn't the nasal opening be see through? I still like it though.

Maybe it would've been too fragile to sculpt at that scale?

[Faelrin]

I really like how its turning out to be so far (the skull and the rest of the desert pack), and I'm really excited for the possible 1/6 Protoceratops for the ceratopsian line. Anyways, new image of the WIP sculpt for the desert pack, shared on the FB page earlier:



While I know its a bit too early for this, I also left a lengthy comment on the kickstarter page, regarding the possibility of quills on the ceratopsians in the ceratopsian series, from what I've seen mentioned in the FB comments. I'm not sure where the scientific consensus is right now in regards to the current evidence on giving them the Psittacosaurus specimen's tail integument, or not, but I did bring up the unpublished Lane impressions, and that I've seen it mentioned (in both regards to Saurian's Triceratops design, and on Mark Witton's blog) that Triceratops might not have had them. Thoughts on this?

[Sim]

I've come across an article about Zhenyuanlong in which Stephen Brusatte (one of the palaeontologists who named and described Zhenyuanlong) says this about Zhenyuanlong and then Velociraptor: "It's a dinosaur with huge wings made up of quill pen feathers, just like an eagle or a vulture. The movies have it wrong — this is what Velociraptor would have looked like too."  This is the article: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/velociraptor-cousin/

What Stephen Brusatte says about Velociraptor also having huge wings to me seems consistent with Velociraptor mongoliensis being known to have quill knobs - meaning it at least had huge secondaries.  I've let David know about this in the main comments section on Kickstarter, where I went into more detail about my thoughts and said I respect that he doesn't want to explore the Velociraptor having larger secondaries for this production run.

[Flaffy]

I hope David will redo tibias, secondaries and primaries for certain 'raptors' on the second production run.
I would love to see a long tibia-ed zhenyuanlong with massive secondaries.

[Faelrin]

@Sim Hopefully we won't give David a headache from reading our long posts back to back, eh? I kind of feel bad for dumping so much stuff there earlier, but I felt I had to get all that ceratopsian stuff off my chest, before I forgot. You did make a good point about the quill knobs thing though. Would this apply to other dromaeosaurids as well, or would this only apply to those with quill knobs, like Velociraptor? Are the primaries too small as well? This may also count for any figure that's sharing that part, like the Dromaeosaurus I think. At least in regards to the secondaries, at least the two Dromaeosaurus figures and Balaur figure are getting the larger Zhenyuanlong secondaries come production time, from what I recall.

Anyways, I'm sure I've shared which ones I want a dozen times now. Though now I'm not sure if I will have the extra funds come the 7th, to cover getting all of the ones I wanted, so I might need to drop the plans I had for getting the Zhenyuanlong and Microraptor, though I also really want those. I will try to get the other things I want, and if need be I'll drop the print just to afford the extra cost to cover the rest, aside from the earlier $170 I dropped down. A darn shame for me, but I hope it will work out. If not I'll just have to try to get them later (store or second production run). Perhaps I can pick up the Balaur as well then, and any others I like but can't plan for now.