Beasts of the Mesozoic Accuracy Check

[Thylacosmilus]

Go to the link below:

https://beasts-of-the-mesozoic-raptor-series-action-figure.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

I believe he will close the "pre-orders" in 09/09.

[Flaffy]

I've somehow managed to completely miss this whole thing! As I'm late to the party, is there any chance that I might get a figure which is NOT a resin kit but a nice, robust plastic model? As many have said, these are by light years the best Dromaeosaurid figures on the market and I would love to be able to own one.

FYI these are super articulated action figures.

[Sim]

I've somehow managed to completely miss this whole thing! As I'm late to the party, is there any chance that I might get a figure which is NOT a resin kit but a nice, robust plastic model? As many have said, these are by light years the best Dromaeosaurid figures on the market and I would love to be able to own one.

Go to the link below:

https://beasts-of-the-mesozoic-raptor-series-action-figure.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

I believe he will close the "pre-orders" in 09/09.

The link Thylacosmilus provided is the place figures can be pre-ordered if you didn't back the Kickstarter.  Although pre-orders actually close on 6 September!  I explained a little more about this that may be of interest in Reply #660 in the main thread: http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=3573.msg142872#msg142872

[Silvanusaurus]

The thing is, bearded vultures are naturally black and white, but they gain their orangey coloration from the dust in their environment staining their feathers, which leads to a wide range of colors for the birds, from very pale, to orange like the Velociraptor figure, to a greyish red.

I just want to pick up on that point as it's very interesting. Do other animals living in that same environment also become stained with colour? I like the idea of an animal taking on an aspect of it's own landscape. Is it purely accidental or is it some kind of camouflage technique?

From what I read, they purposely spread the clay on themselves to seem attractive to the opposite sex.

Oh, that's even more interesting than I had imagined... I'll have to read about them a bit more myself.

[btb300]

The thing is, bearded vultures are naturally black and white, but they gain their orangey coloration from the dust in their environment staining their feathers, which leads to a wide range of colors for the birds, from very pale, to orange like the Velociraptor figure, to a greyish red.

I just want to pick up on that point as it's very interesting. Do other animals living in that same environment also become stained with colour? I like the idea of an animal taking on an aspect of it's own landscape. Is it purely accidental or is it some kind of camouflage technique?

From what I read, they purposely spread the clay on themselves to seem attractive to the opposite sex.

Oh, that's even more interesting than I had imagined... I'll have to read about them a bit more myself.

Another interesting thing is that carotenoids responsible for producing bright yellows and some related colors cannot be synthesized by the birds without having the necessary precursors supplied in their diet. So applying such colors should be in accordance with the proposed lifestyle and diet of the reconstructed species.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2394316

[Tyto_Theropod]

Another interesting thing is that carotenoids responsible for producing bright yellows and some related colors cannot be synthesized by the birds without having the necessary precursors supplied in their diet. So applying such colors should be in accordance with the proposed lifestyle and diet of the reconstructed species.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2394316

This is a very interesting point, and it does indeed apply to many birds, a notable example being flamingos - they will lose their pink colour if they don't get enough carotenoids, and in fact it might be linked to mate selection. From Wikipedia:

"[...] Adults range from light pink to bright red due to aqueous bacteria and beta-Carotene obtained from their food supply. A well-fed, healthy flamingo is more vibrantly colored and thus a more desirable mate; a white or pale flamingo, however, is usually unhealthy or malnourished. Captive flamingos are a notable exception; many turn a pale pink as they are not fed carotene at levels comparable to the wild."

As to my point of view on giving a dinosaur the colour scheme of an extant animal, for me it would depend on the individual instance and how well it is executed. For the most part I'm not a fan myself, but I certainly don't condemn it either. I can see others might like 'copy-pasted' markings and I've seen some gorgeous examples myself - the one I can remember is a Parasaurolophus drawing with the colours of a grey-crowned crane. I agree that a huge factor for me is plausibility - I like copy-pasted colour schemes much better if they aren;t just randomly slapped on, but rather when the artist has out genuine thought into the dinosaur's environment, diets and habits.

So with these figures, some are way better than others to my eyes. The Velociraptor isn't a major offender at all, because a) i personally think it's one of the more subtle ones and it took me a while to realize which bird it was copying (in fact it reminded me of the colour scheme I often use for Velociraptor, which has a vague Pharaoh eagle owl vibe going on but isn't based off any particular species), and b) the colours are consistent with a desert dweller. Granted, the bearded vulture gets its colours from its environment, but that necesarily doesn't mean this Velociraptor is doing the same. Those colours could just as easily be pigments in the feathers:


By gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K (Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo)) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


By Almir Cândido de Almeida [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


By Ekem (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Of course the distribution of colours is different, and it's still highly unlikely that two distantly related maniraptorans would have exactly the same pattern, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief from that point of view, especially as this is such an attractive and accurate action figure.

On the other hand, the Linheraptor seems very unlikely to me. From a personal point of view, it screams "Bee eater!" as soon as I look at it, and there is no other bird that comes to mind with those exact shades of those exact colours. I'm sure there is one, but my point is that the colours, rather than being "too generic", aren't generic enough. I also find it hard to believe that a small carnivore that would likely need to conceal itself from both its prey and potential predators would sport such bold colours. It could be a breeding male showing off how healthy he is with his bright plumage, but there is always that trade-off to consider.

[Brontozaurus]

Yeah, as much as I like the Linheraptor colours, they just feel off for a desert animal. Same for the V. osmolskae; I appreciate that it's completely different colours from the V. mongoliensis, but something about them doesn't feel right.

I'm on the fence about Acheroraptor for the same reason, though it's mostly the card art's fault. The colours look much nicer in the prototype photos. But then there's the same problem that Tyto has with the Linheraptor, there's no way to look at it and not think 'oh, it's a blue-footed booby'.

Conversely, it's precisely because of the colour bases of some of the models that I'm interested in them. I love darters, so the Balaur being dressed up in anhinga colours really appeals to me. Same with the wedge-tail Pyroraptor and the emu-coloured Mononykus, though that might also be my national pride showing.

[Flaffy]

For me, the Liheraptor package art looked so much more natural than the actual figure. Same goes for the Tsaagan and the Saurornitholestes. The gracefulness of these three raptors shown in the package art is just not translated well to the actual figures.

[Silvanusaurus]

I have to say personally, all that matters to me concerning the colours on the Linheraptor is that it looks beautiful and it's pleasing to my eyes. Are the colours on it realistic? No, but neither is the fact that it fits in the palm of my hand. I get the issue with the bird colours from an academic perspective and all that, but ultimately that action figure is looking like one mighty fine bauble of feathery plastic right there. The only problem will be if it suffers from being mass produced, those colours could easily become too gaudy and flat without good paint-work.

[Sim]

The thing is, bearded vultures are naturally black and white, but they gain their orangey coloration from the dust in their environment staining their feathers, which leads to a wide range of colors for the birds, from very pale, to orange like the Velociraptor figure, to a greyish red.


That individual in particular is very close to the Velociraptor's colors. Beard or not, and regardless of the color of the feet, it's immediately obvious what bird the Velociraptor is supposed to be, which is off-putting.

Perhaps I wouldn't have minded so much if Silva had made Velociraptor orange, without the black wings and mask. Alternatively, just get rid of the mask and change the eye color (which I'll point out now is exactly the same as the eye color of bearded vultures) and I think the figure would be vastly improved even though the changes would be very minor.

I saw a range of colourations in the bearded vulture when I was comparing it to the figure, but I haven't see any that had both the red and the yellow of the Velociraptor figure at the same time.  And every bearded vulture seems to retain some white on its face feathers, while the Velociraptor doesn't seem to have any white on its face feathers.  I find the black eye bands works well on the Velociraptor.  As I mentioned earlier, they aren't shaped the same as they are on the bearded vulture, and there are a number of other animals that have a variation of it, like some bee-eaters, kestrels, foxes, cheetahs, raccoons and badgers.  It does appear the bird inspirations tend to inspire virtually all of the colouration of each figure, including the eye colour, but the Velociraptor's eye looks like it has more yellow than the bearded vulture's eye to me.

Anyway, since you brought it up, why do you think the coloration is a good match for Velociraptor? As far as I'm aware, there's evidence that Velociraptor was nocturnal, which would make bright colors and visual display features disadvantageous.

The suggestion that Velociraptor was nocturnal is based on comparison of its sclerotic rings to those of extant species.  Microraptor was suggested to be nocturnal for the same reason.  This is now viewed with doubt due to the discovery of iridescent plumage in Microraptor, as no modern birds that have iridescent plumage are known to be nocturnal.

I'm not an expert on colouration.  The thoughts I have though are that the Velociraptor figure's colouration looks like it would work well for it whether it was diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular or cathemeral.  The colouration looks like it could help it blend in to its environment when needed.  The arrangement of dark colouration among lighter colouration, for example the wings and the black bands across the eyes, looks like it could help break up its outline.  The black bands across the eyes of the Velociraptor could reduce glare and enhance its vision, which is a suggested function for use both during the day (in cheetahs) and night (in raccoons).  I think the Velociraptor figure has a versatile colouration that's a good fit for the arid environment dweller the animal was.

The fox also has a grey face, vertical stripe on its muzzle, black stripe down its back, white underside, and brown eyes. The colors are the same, but the patterning is different, as is the ratio between the colors. The patterns and color ratios on the Velociraptor are far more similar to that of the bearded vulture than to that of the grey fox.

Some photos of bearded vultures show individuals with a white underside.  Both the grey fox and bearded vulture have black bands across the eyes, white-ish faces, black/grey/white on their backs in a similar pattern, and orange and white on most of the rest of their body in a somewhat similar distribution.  It's a bit of a paradox, the grey fox and bearded vulture's colouration is noticeably different, but at the same time can look surprisingly similar overall.  Although, due to the range of colouration in bearded vultures, I'd say the grey fox's colouration is only similar in some cases.  I do think the Velociraptor and bearded vulture have colouration that's more similar to each other's than to the grey fox's.  My point is that the grey fox's colouration can be similar to that of the bearded vulture, which I find surprising since one is a mammal and the other is a bird and the colouration is in a fairly complex arrangement.  Therefore, I think it's a possibility that there were prehistoric animals with colourations similar to those of extant animals that I wouldn't be expecting.

[Flaffy]

Since the new zhenyuanlong is released, along with the Saurornitholestes langstoni, could someone do a accuracy check of the two?
Thanks 

[Dinoguy2]

Since the new zhenyuanlong is released, along with the Saurornitholestes langstoni, could someone do a accuracy check of the two?
Thanks 

Just compare them with the previously posted "corrected" versions on page 1. Saurornitholestes still has problems like the long snout compared with the unpublished mummy, Zhenyuanlong's head is still too big and legs way too short. New wings are much better if not quite big enough and the secondaries in particular are about half the length they should be. But hey, it's better than it was before.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

This whole thread seriously bugs the crap out of me.

Who are any of you to try and make all of these "corrections" to Mr. Silva's work and advise him that he could do better by "checking accuracy"? What is your background in this? Where are your credentials? Do you confer with anyone else when making these photoshopped pics or is this all just one or two people's opinions of what Mr. Silva's models "should" look like?

Now that we are seeing all the finished prototypes, I feel like a lot of the community here is bringing out their more ungrateful side. Mr. Silva didn't have to do any of this, but he has worked very hard, and these figures are like something we have never quite seen before. Don't get me wrong, I'm a picky dude, but these are stellar in my opinion and very accurate. Of course they aren't all perfect. That being said, none of the little imperfections warrant a thread like this.

I'm not saying critiquing is a bad thing, but I guess I don't understand what there is to critique here? I think people just like to throw their weight around with their perceived expertise in this field. Of course the proportions of the Zhenyuanlong will be a bit off. Part of the point of this series is that the figures are MODULAR and reuse a lot of the same parts. We all knew that was the case going into this, right? I definitely did, so I can give things like that an easy pass.

Don't get me started on how nit-picky everyone seems to have gotten over the color patterns, too. We've known that was happening for a long while, so is there really anything to complain about now? I'm just happy to have nicely applied, attractive colors on each figure. They may not be entirely plausible colors for each of these animals in life, but in the end I think they look great and we will only ever be able to infer their natural coloration. Anyone care to disagree with that?

I don't know what Mr. Silva's reaction to some of this criticism has been like, but deep down I'd be unhappy if it were me, having so many people turn their noses up at trivial little details in my otherwise good work that I am proud of. I think folks need to think more before they type. I actually read someone in this thread refer to his work on these as "lazy". Are you kidding me!? I think Beasts of the Mesozoic deserves a bit more respect than to be picked apart by you guys. You know most of you have got a Backerkit survey going right now anyway, with probably at least two of these figures listed on it. Just be excited for these like I am.

Can't wait for this thread to be buried.

[Flaffy]

Well then you just revived it, congratulations.
You see, we all very much appreciate that David is doing all these wonderful figures. After all it's the first of it's kind. No company has ever been brave enough to make hyper-articulated feathered raptor/bird figures before. But since scientific accuracy is a big selling point of this line, and I think that they should be reviewed like any other dinosaur figure. The photoshopped pics are just rough estimates on how they could be more accurate according to fossil evidence. I agree that some points are just very nit picky, but others like the old zhenyuanlong are clearly very different from fossil evidence. There are just some things that i can't look past. The legs too short? It's ok. Wing shape not too plausible? It's ok. But when there is clear evidence of the entire wing shape and head size available and the figure is pretty far off, then I start giving suggestions and reviewing the accuracy of the figure. I personally don't mind the colours that much, as long as they aren't poorly translated onto the figures then I'll be fine with them, but to a person who studies birds a lot, I can understand how they feel about the colour scheme of the figures.

[Halichoeres]

I don't know what Mr. Silva's reaction to some of this criticism has been like, but deep down I'd be unhappy if it were me, having so many people turn their noses up at trivial little details in my otherwise good work that I am proud of. I think folks need to think more before they type.

I obviously can't speak to his private thoughts, but in public fora he has been incredibly gracious.

[Dinoguy2]

This whole thread seriously bugs the crap out of me.

Who are any of you to try and make all of these "corrections" to Mr. Silva's work and advise him that he could do better by "checking accuracy"? What is your background in this? Where are your credentials? Do you confer with anyone else when making these photoshopped pics or is this all just one or two people's opinions of what Mr. Silva's models "should" look like?

Now that we are seeing all the finished prototypes, I feel like a lot of the community here is bringing out their more ungrateful side. Mr. Silva didn't have to do any of this, but he has worked very hard, and these figures are like something we have never quite seen before. Don't get me wrong, I'm a picky dude, but these are stellar in my opinion and very accurate. Of course they aren't all perfect. That being said, none of the little imperfections warrant a thread like this.

I'm not saying critiquing is a bad thing, but I guess I don't understand what there is to critique here? I think people just like to throw their weight around with their perceived expertise in this field. Of course the proportions of the Zhenyuanlong will be a bit off. Part of the point of this series is that the figures are MODULAR and reuse a lot of the same parts. We all knew that was the case going into this, right? I definitely did, so I can give things like that an easy pass.

Don't get me started on how nit-picky everyone seems to have gotten over the color patterns, too. We've known that was happening for a long while, so is there really anything to complain about now? I'm just happy to have nicely applied, attractive colors on each figure. They may not be entirely plausible colors for each of these animals in life, but in the end I think they look great and we will only ever be able to infer their natural coloration. Anyone care to disagree with that?

I don't know what Mr. Silva's reaction to some of this criticism has been like, but deep down I'd be unhappy if it were me, having so many people turn their noses up at trivial little details in my otherwise good work that I am proud of. I think folks need to think more before they type. I actually read someone in this thread refer to his work on these as "lazy". Are you kidding me!? I think Beasts of the Mesozoic deserves a bit more respect than to be picked apart by you guys. You know most of you have got a Backerkit survey going right now anyway, with probably at least two of these figures listed on it. Just be excited for these like I am.

Can't wait for this thread to be buried.

What are my credentials? How about access to Google and photos of the actual bones? That's all you need to make the figures proportions accurate. Pictures of the fossils. The end. Anybody can do it. It's not that hard.

"noses up at trivial little details in my otherwise good work that I am proud of."

As I said numerous times even in the original post, I'm sure there are practical reasons for many of the inaccuracies I found. David Silva has access to Google same as me and can easily check his own work. So if the goal is accuracy (and maybe it isn't the primary goal), and the figure is not accurate when you compare it to a fossil (like the wrong proportions of Zhenyuanlong that are obviously wrong just by looking at photos and are still wrong following a re-sculpt), then there's nothing to feel bad about. You did what you could. If accuracy was the primary goal and was possible in a figure of this kind, and the figure is still wrong, well... How is that not laziness?

I'm sure it's not. So David has nothing to feel bad about. But my personal preference in collecting is accuracy, and I wanted to factor this into my decision of which raptors to buy. I know others are interested too, so I saved them the dribble if duplicating the work. But feel free to double check if you think I'm wrong. It takes about a minute to pull up a picture of s complete skeleton of Zhenyuanlong and see if the leg is long enough compared to the body (it's not) or if the head is too big compared to the body (it is) or if the secondaries are long enough compared to the length of the arm (they aren't). David has seen the fossil. He knows the proportions are wrong. So the fact they're wrong must be due to the limitations of an articulated figure with shared parts.

"Just be excited for these like I am."

Some people get excited by using their minds to think critically about the things we enjoy and, especially when they are this expensive, weighing the pros and cons of each purchase. I was going to buy Tsaagan and Zhen. Now I'm just getting Tsaagan unless the FC Zhen looks as nice as it's shaping up to be. I can't afford to spend $50 on a figure that I'm going to look at and say "wow, beautiful figure, it's a shame the proportions are all wrong to the point it's basically just generic dromie number 4 because there's nothing I can look at that tells me this is Zhen and not some other species." I stuck with a figure that I think looks area some AND has accurate proportions, and I saved myself some money. This isn't a charity. If David misses my extra $50 that much, maybe he'll figure out a way to avoid inaccuracies in the ceratopsian series

[The Atroxious]

This whole thread seriously bugs the crap out of me.

Who are any of you to try and make all of these "corrections" to Mr. Silva's work and advise him that he could do better by "checking accuracy"? What is your background in this? Where are your credentials? Do you confer with anyone else when making these photoshopped pics or is this all just one or two people's opinions of what Mr. Silva's models "should" look like?

Besides being a dinosaur enthusiast, you mean? One could ask the same of Silva for that matter. What credentials does he have that allows him to label his figures as "accurate"? You don't need credentials to critique something. It's like the old adage, "you don't need to know how to cook to know the soup tastes bad". Not saying that Silva's figures are bad (I may not like the chosen colors, but I do think the sculpting is on point) but it's a common phrase used in the art community to make a point that even if your critics don't have the same background as you, that's no reason to completely dismiss their thoughts on your work.

Additionally, we dinosaur enthusiasts are the primary targeted audience for these figures. By default, the targeted customer base has the credentials to critique a line of products in the making that are being advertised to them. We're the ones who are most likely to spend money on his figures, so we're the ones most qualified to say what aspects of said product line would make us more or less likely to make purchases.

Now that we are seeing all the finished prototypes, I feel like a lot of the community here is bringing out their more ungrateful side. Mr. Silva didn't have to do any of this, but he has worked very hard, and these figures are like something we have never quite seen before. Don't get me wrong, I'm a picky dude, but these are stellar in my opinion and very accurate. Of course they aren't all perfect. That being said, none of the little imperfections warrant a thread like this.

"In your opinion". That's perfectly fine. If you have no problem with these figures, more power to you. Not everyone is going to share your opinion, however, and that's fine too. I'm sure there are toys that you don't like for whatever reason that other people do. Differing opinions are not a bad thing.

I'm not saying critiquing is a bad thing, but I guess I don't understand what there is to critique here? I think people just like to throw their weight around with their perceived expertise in this field. Of course the proportions of the Zhenyuanlong will be a bit off. Part of the point of this series is that the figures are MODULAR and reuse a lot of the same parts. We all knew that was the case going into this, right? I definitely did, so I can give things like that an easy pass.

The inaccurate proportions didn't bother me personally, but I can understand where people were coming from, especially since so many of them seemed to have incredibly high expectations for Zhenyuanlong. Anytime you get that excited about something, and it doesn't deliver as you expected, there's going to be a bit of bitter disappointment.

Don't get me started on how nit-picky everyone seems to have gotten over the color patterns, too. We've known that was happening for a long while, so is there really anything to complain about now? I'm just happy to have nicely applied, attractive colors on each figure. They may not be entirely plausible colors for each of these animals in life, but in the end I think they look great and we will only ever be able to infer their natural coloration. Anyone care to disagree with that?

Well, personally speaking, there are two reasons I stared talking about it when I did. One was that I was hesitant to post on this forum for a long time because I have a small and very specialized collection, whereas many people who post here have dozens upon dozens of figures, so I wasn't sure I could contribute a lot directly regarding dinosaur toys compared to some of our members. That changed when I saw someone who had a very similar collection to mine post and receive quite a few positive responses. The second reason was that when I first noticed the copy-pasted colors I thought they were a done deal. I commented on my dislike of them in other venues in the past, in a conversational, rather than critiquing manner, but I thought the designs had already been finalized. When I noticed Silva had taken into account the critiques regarding Zhenyuanlong and Saurornitholestes, and made adjustments based on them, I thought my critique on coloration might actually be constructive if Silva saw it and decided to take it into consideration. If I just wanted to complain about the figures, I wouldn't have gone into such detail about what I disliked about the plumage. As it was, I thought it might help to make the figures more appealing to dinosaur enthusiasts who are also interested in living birds, rather than just appealing to collectors of extinct/nonavian dinosaurs.

I don't know what Mr. Silva's reaction to some of this criticism has been like, but deep down I'd be unhappy if it were me, having so many people turn their noses up at trivial little details in my otherwise good work that I am proud of. I think folks need to think more before they type. I actually read someone in this thread refer to his work on these as "lazy". Are you kidding me!? I think Beasts of the Mesozoic deserves a bit more respect than to be picked apart by you guys. You know most of you have got a Backerkit survey going right now anyway, with probably at least two of these figures listed on it. Just be excited for these like I am.

Can't wait for this thread to be buried.

Considering he's an artist, and moreover, an artist who's worked for huge toy corporations, I daresay he's used to it. "This isn't right. We don't like this. Change that," is par for the course when you're hired to create.

As for me, I never pledged to the Kickstarter campaign, in large part because I didn't like the copy-pasted colors. I want to see all the figures fully sculpted before I commit to any of them. I'd rather not pay $40 for a figure that doesn't have a fully sculpted prototype, on the chance that I decided I didn't like the colors once applied to a fully sculpted figure.

At any rate, I'm more interested in the Build-A-Raptor kits not available through a basic pledge than any of the pre-assembled figures I could get on Kickstarter.

[Dinoguy2]

I for one thought the modular thing would have allowed the figures to be more accurate, not less. One big problem with both the Dromaeosaurus and the Zhen is the lower leg is too short. I'd have thought since these are modular, there would be one or two different lengths of lower leg to choose from. There are different lower leg modules but the only difference between them is the feather sculpt, not the length. Seems like a missed opportunity.

[Patrx]

So far, the tone of this thread has been fairly civil, I implore everyone to maintain that moving forward.

I believe I understand where your concerns arise from, It'sTwentyBelow, but the others raise valid counterpoints. This thread is not about an artistic value-judgement, but about taking to task one of the primary selling-points of this new series, "accuracy". It is something that can be objectively assessed, and that is what we're seeing here. I have not seen any evidence to suggest that Mr. Silva has regarded such assessment as insulting. I also don't think anyone here is insisting or expecting that corrections be made, and certainly the final products will (and should) be that which the artist wishes them to be.

In any case, nitpicking the accuracy of dinosaur figures is kind of our primary function here, no? 

[Sim]

Throughout his work for Beasts of the Mesozoic, David has expressed appreciation to people when they've pointed out when something isn't right which he then adjusted.  Two examples of this are with the Balaur and Zhenyuanlong sculpts.


Balaur:

- David had originally placed Balaur's first toes too high, and some people brought this up with him. Here's David's reply where he explained how it happened, that he would be correcting it and appreciated the feedback (first comment): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/creativebeast/beasts-of-the-mesozoic-raptor-series-action-figure/comments?cursor=13483202#comment-13483201

- In this Kickstarter update he mentioned having made the adjustment and said, "thank you to those who called me out on that- I'm happy to admit a mistake if the figure will benefit": https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/creativebeast/beasts-of-the-mesozoic-raptor-series-action-figure/posts/1602526


Zhenyuanlong:

- A more recent example is the inaccurate proportions on the Zhenyuanlong being pointed out which led to the creation of this thread.  David responded with this Facebook post where he mentions agreeing that the Zhenyuanlong could be better, thanking those who pointed this out for their honesty, and that the Zhenyuanlong would be getting new improved head and wing parts: https://www.facebook.com/113487525333128/photos/a.1154970781184792.1073741847.113487525333128/1426232987391902/?type=3&theater

- In this Kickstarter update, David posted a comparison of the old and new Zhenyuanlong and shared a bit more of his thoughts about changing the Zheynuanlong parts: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/creativebeast/beasts-of-the-mesozoic-raptor-series-action-figure/posts/1659513


For the record, I've told David how very much I appreciate/like things he's done for this series many times.