Dan's Dinos

[danmalcolm]

I've always loved dinosaurs and been extremely interested in them. I don't think I would call myself a collector, but I do enjoy looking at good dinosaur models and having them around. Over the years I've managed to amass what I consider a largeish number of dinosaur toys (though I know loads of you guys on here have me beat!) and I thought I'd like to share them. I generally only have one figure for each species, and all my figures are in (roughly) the same scale of around 1:30-1:40. I don't really mind if some are a little bit off, as long as they are within a species size range.

This week I found a Papo "Utahraptor" at Mastermind, and I can't take my eyes off it:


Mine stands easily on its two feet, and doesn't need to lean on its arms. I love the colours, sculpt, everything. It's 20cm long snout to tail and 6cm tall at the hips, so 1:30 scale. Here he is with Dr. Spaceman for scale. Spaceman is 6cm tall, or would be, if he wasn't leaning into a jog.


I will post more soon! Took a lot of pictures today.

[danmalcolm]

Another one I got recently, Coelophysis. He's 10cm long and 2.5cm at the hip, so again, 1:30. Came with a cute lil' stand, too:


Again, awesome paint job, interesting pose, accurate sculpt. Crazy that the animal weighed less than 100lbs!

[DinoLord]

Nice pictures. The Dinotales Coelophysis is definitely a winner. I never realized how wide the Papo Velociraptor's jaws opened!

[Mamasaurus]

That coelophysis is gorgeous!  I absolutely love the sculpt and colors.  I haven't seen any pictures of the Papo raptor yet (not much of a Papo fan), but I've got to say I'm impressed with the paint job.

Your collection is already looking to be a nice one.

[danmalcolm]

Nice pictures. The Dinotales Coelophysis is definitely a winner. I never realized how wide the Papo Velociraptor's jaws opened!

I was surprised too! I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it sure looks sweet.

That coelophysis is gorgeous!  I absolutely love the sculpt and colors.  I haven't seen any pictures of the Papo raptor yet (not much of a Papo fan), but I've got to say I'm impressed with the paint job.

Your collection is already looking to be a nice one.

Thank you! Yes Kaiyodo hit a home run with that one. I really like a lot of Papo's figures (at the risk of losing interest, they make up at least half of my collection) but they've also made a lot of figures that I really don't like at all. They're very hit-and-miss. Fingers crossed for next years Iguanodon. Personally I'll go for a well-detailed, aesthetically pleasing model that's mildly inaccurate over a perfectly proportioned model that I don't find as nice to look at. What I really like about some of Papo's dinos is how they look so alive. Their Allosaurus is a real gem:


Allosaurus was an amazing animal, and this is one of the few toys I've seen that do it justice. 28cm snout to tail, 9cm at the hips. 1:30.


Their Carnotaurus is much the same. There are other good Carnotaurus toys out there, but Papo's is a great balance of accuracy,detail, lifelikeness, and at a smaller size than most others, matching it better scale-wise to most other dino toys.


It's 20cm long, 6cm at the hip. 1:30.

[danmalcolm]

Here's a herbivore: Pachycephalosaurus, from Shapeways, by Rarebreed. Great model.


It's a 3d printed model, so it came unpainted. I painted it (2nd attempt at painting dino models) with a giant day gecko's colour scheme in mind. I'm happy with how it turned out, but it does have a bit of a shiny texture that makes it not-quite fit in with the rest of my dinos, style-wise. If anybody has suggestions for what I could use to get more of a matte texture, that would be much appreciated. I used a can of matte varnish I got from wal-mart, but honestly it just made it shinier. 16cm long, 5cm at the hip. 1:30 scale.

[Jose S.M.]

Here's a herbivore: Pachycephalosaurus, from Shapeways, by Rarebreed. Great model.


It's a 3d printed model, so it came unpainted. I painted it (2nd attempt at painting dino models) with a giant day gecko's colour scheme in mind. I'm happy with how it turned out, but it does have a bit of a shiny texture that makes it not-quite fit in with the rest of my dinos, style-wise. If anybody has suggestions for what I could use to get more of a matte texture, that would be much appreciated. I used a can of matte varnish I got from wal-mart, but honestly it just made it shinier. 16cm long, 5cm at the hip. 1:30 scale.

I don't have any suggestions for eliminate the shiny look,  but I love how you painted it! Very colorful but I find it very natural,  if there was a Pachy mass produced toy with that look I would get it for certain.  Very good job.

[danmalcolm]

I don't have any suggestions for eliminate the shiny look,  but I love how you painted it! Very colorful but I find it very natural,  if there was a Pachy mass produced toy with that look I would get it for certain.  Very good job.

Thanks! I've always liked day geckos.

Here are my ceratopsians, starting with  Triceratops:


I didn't like the original look of the horns, so I painted them. Otherwise I really like this model, it's nice and chunky (as it should be) and even though the pose isn't dynamic, it gets the impression across that this animal could mess you up if it had a mind to. 28cm snout to tail, 10cm at the hip, 1:30 scale.


Styracosaurus, this is one of my favourites. Pose, sculpt, colours, all excellent. A masterpiece.


I'm constantly floored by how these animals genuinely used to exist. We will never really know what they looked like, but it's fun to try. Styraco is 17cm long, 7cm at the hip, making it 1:30 scale. I generally consider my dinos to be around 1cm=1foot. Makes it simple.


And here's a cutie, Protoceratops. Again, an excellent sculpt and paint job by Kaiyodo.


I always thought of Protoceratops and Velociraptor as being the same size, but found out recently Proto was significantly larger. 7cm long, 2cm high, a largeish specimen at 1:30.

[Halichoeres]

You have good taste!

[danmalcolm]

Here are my thyreophoreans!

Stegosaurus - I think I might like the bullyland stego a bit better, but I've had this guy for a while so I don't think I'll be replacing him anytime soon:


Even with the stumpy tail I'm pretty fond of him. 26cm long, 9cm at the hip, 1:30.


Kentrosaurus - In my opinion the coolest looking stegosaur. Was completely surprised by how much I loved Schleich's rendition.


Schleich is really easy to get where I live, but I don't like many of their dinosaurs, so this is the only one I have by them. Pose is dynamic, colour scheme is vibrant and believable, and at 17cm long and 6cm high it's juuuuust small enough to be a huge bull male of his species in 1:30 scale.


Euoplocephalus - marketed as  "Ankylosaurus" you all know what this one really is. This was my first dinosaur, my friend gave it to me as a christmas gift 3 years ago. It was closely followed by the Allosaurus once I stopped in at Mastermind to see what other dinos they had.


I was blown away by the detail, and how alive it looks for what it is (a toy). Very cool dinosaur. 16cm long, 6cm at the hip, 1:30 scale.

[Libraraptor]

Nice collection!

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

Pretty cool! The pachycephalosaur's coloration reminds me of the old Schleich velociraptor. It looks more like a stegoceras or prenocephale to me, but a still nice figure.

[danmalcolm]

@pachyrhinosaurus: RareBreed has it listed as a Stegoceras, but it's a pachycephalosaur.

Here are a few others:

My biggest, Papo Brachiosaurus. One of my first, and one of my favourites. Just a nice, big, detailed figure.


At 1:30 it would represent an individual 32 feet tall and about 50 feet long, a full grown animal would make it more like 1:45 scale, but it's still "a significant hunk of plastic".  Dr. Spaceman looks tiny next to him. Even a subadult Brach is an awesome creature, this figure makes me appreciate the sheer scale of some of the dinosaurs.


And here are my smallest! Krentz "Dromeosaurs". Came in a 4 pack of shapeways, I think of them as Velociraptors.


I really like the look of them, and painted them in patterns inspired by yardbirds. I know they're very different from birds, but I like the look they came out with. They are about 5cm long, and 2cm at the hip. 1:30 - 1:35 scale.

[danmalcolm]

My Tyrannosaurs are both Papos, which is pretty generic I guees, but I really like them both. Originally I planned on having only the Green Running Tyrannosaurus, but while I was working in Banff I came across the original Rex in a local gift shop, and I liked it so much my wife bought it for me. It wouldn't fit in my bag on the way home, so I carried it in my hand through the airport, and got a lot of comments! The pose may be inaccurate, but its still one of my fav figures. I'm sure most people know pretty well what these guys look like, but here are my photos anyway:


Honestly my biggest pet peeve with this one is the teeth. I don't understand the sculptor's reasoning behind making them so jagged, as we have many tyrannosaur skulls and none of the dentition looks anything like that. I don't mind any of the other inaccuracies, and I still think this is the best mass produced T. Rex toy on the market. Large, detailed, believable pose, and successfully portrays the power the living animal must have had. This one is 35cm from nose to tail, and 12cm at the hips, so somewhere between 1:30 and 1:35.


His leg was a bit warped, so what I did was cut the end off a clear push pin and glue it under one of his toes, now he stands no problems at all:


Here's my other Tyrannosaurus:


I remember seeing this toy in the store when it came out (I was about 12 at the time) and being simultaneously floored by its detail, and saddened by its (then unattainable) $25 price. I'm very blessed to have one today It measures 36cm nose to tail, and 12cm at the hips. That makes this big girl roughly to the same scale as her mate.

[danmalcolm]

Here are the rest of my dinosaurs (for now)

Papo Parasaurolophus


I thought the original colour scheme was extremely boring, so I shamefully attempted to duplicate one I saw on a Lambeosaurus somewhere on the forum one of Copper's paint jobs that I really liked. It came out quite glossy, even with the matte varnish I used. If anybody has any tips to make the finish a bit less shiny and glossy, they would be hugely appreciated. The figure is 26cm long, and 10cm at the hip. At 1:30 scale it represents a smaller individual.


Papo Dilophosaurus. The tail was ridiculous so I did what I could to change the pose a bit, without a doubt the best Dilopho toy on the market.


20cm long and 7cm at the hip, 1:30 scale.


Papo "Young Apatosaurus". When this model came out, I had mixed feelings. The sculpt is amazing, detailed and properly proportioned (to my eye, at least) and easily the most lifelike sauropod toy around. However the colouring is natural at best, horribly bland if I'm being honest, and its muuuch smaller than I would have liked. This is one of the few dinos I have right now that may be replaced eventually. I really like it but the size is a turn-off for me, I guess. I might repaint it at some point. As with the Dilophosaurus, I tried to straighten out the tail.


It is 56cm long (which is actually respectable) but only 9cm at the hip, making it noticeably smaller than the Tyrannosaurs. Representing a fully grown adult would make this figure about 1:45 scale. At 1:30, it represents exactly what Papo describes, a young specimen. I guess I'm alright with that for now


Aaand, here is my Deinonychus, a "Velociraptor" by RareBreed on shapeways.


As with all the other shapeways dinos, it came unpainted. I went for a pretty simple paint job, and I like imagining Deinonychus in black. It didn't come with a stand, and wouldn't stand on its own, so I had to make one with some clay. I really like this one, good ~1:30 scale raptors are hard to find, and this is one of the best. It was a challenge to paint because of its size. It measures 9cm long, and 2.5cm at the hip, so it is a not-quite-fully-grown individual at 1:30.


Thanks to everyone for reading!

[Halichoeres]

I'm enjoying the trademark setting, with the ferns in the background!

[Paleona]

Great job repainting the Papo Para- it actually looks like something I would buy now, haha.
The little "backyard" dromies are really cute, too! They remind me of small plastic toy birds I had as a kid.

Lovely collection!

[Jose S.M.]

The dromaeosaurus remind me of the chickens that we had in my house a couple years ago, specially in the pic where they are gathering around Dr.  Spaceman,  the chickens surrounded me like that when it was feeding time. Very cute little figures!

[danmalcolm]

Got my hands on a few more dinosaurs! My wife has been giving me one every so often, and I'm rapidly approaching her 26 model limit! The house rules may need to be renegotiated...

Here's one, collecta Struthiomimus. Great dino for how dirt cheap it is. I didn't mind the paint job but found it a little bland, so I changed it:


The model is 12cm nose to tail and 5cm at the hip, just about perfect 1:30 scale. Here it is with a 3d printed Gandalf for scale:


And now I must confess to being a member of the Safari Sauropelta fan club. What a great model.


I'd love to see one of these in real life. Those shoulder spikes would be as imposing as anything. The model's 18cm long and 5cm at the hip, so 1:30 again. I really like having all my dinos to scale with each other.

[danmalcolm]

Apologies for the poor photos. I'm not a photographer, these were taken indoors with my cell phone at night. At some point I may take better ones.