What's your personal collecting style?

[tyrantqueen]

What kind of dinosaurs do you prefer to buy?
Do you buy anything and everything related to dinosaurs?
Do you buy only scientifically accurate toys?
Do you buy only highly detailed figures, regardless of accuracy?
Do you buy Chinasaurs? Jurassic Park merchandise?
Do you like vintage figures?

I tend to choose sculpt quality over accuracy. But I do enjoy scientifically accurate replicas. They're just not a high priority to me.
I not too keen on any movie branded toys, like Jurassic Park or Disney's Dinosaur. Don't get me wrong, I loved Jurassic Park, but I don't think of them as dinosaur toys, rather as movie tie-ins. I wouldn't display them with my dinosaur collection.

Sometimes I'll buy a Chinasaur if it is detailed or unusual. For example, I have the Waiphoon Styracosaurus which is a rip-off of the Battat Styracosaurus, and the Waiphoon Camarasaurus. I like really weird Chinasaurs that have two heads or some such.  And I like retro (tail dragging) figures too.

[Brontozaurus]

I tend to buy whatever I find interesting, which is often weird/obscure/Australian dinosaurs. The last one in particular is a little sub-collection within my larger dinosaur collection, because it's pretty rare for an Australian dinosaur to be immortalised in plastic, and when one is released my sense of national pride compels me to buy it.

[sepp]

I would prefer if the toys that companies produce were as scientifically accurate as they could manage, but that is likely not something that will happen anytime soon.
However, a toy doesn't need to be completely accurate for me to buy it - I just buy what I like. I am not really a completist, but if I like a majority of a toy line I will probably end up getting all of them. Such as with Kaiyodos - I don't love every single one, but in this case I like so many of them I probably will end up owning all of them someday!

Figures and toys have to be attractive for me to even consider buying them. I use the word attractive loosely... I just mean I can't think it looks awful. I usually do not buy chinasaurs, I do not usually like the Schleich dinosaurs either; though there are definitely exceptions!


My favourite toys are ones that are sculpted with care. Pretty paint helps, but is not needed to win me over!

[Patrx]

An interesting question! Personally, I'll buy any figure I feel I can display in one of two categories: paleontological reconstructions, or movie figures. Essentially, I'm looking for accuracy, either to a prehistoric creature, or to a movie creature. However, most figures I buy are also pretty detailed and carefully painted. I end up skipping most toy theropods, either due to a tripod pose, or the blobby, haphazardly-painted teeth they so often get stuck with. I also decided to skip the new running Papo rex. The pose is lovely, but it's too far removed from the JP animal, and the real one to really fit either category.

Thanks to these somewhat exacting standards, my collection is pretty small - ultimately good news for my wallet, and my shelf space As far as aesthetics, I like figures that portray dinosaurs in a natural way - like animals, not fantasy monsters. I don't mind aggressive poses, but exaggerated, demon-eyed death-beasts are not really my favorites. Also, one can never have too many feathered dinosaurs! Provided they're feathered correctly, of course 

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Hmmmm..tough call. I  guess like others I tend to buy only what I like really. I do love a LOT of detail too...never can have enough.

I have a lot of nostalgia tied up in some lines I've collected as well. Dino-Riders, Playskool, Carnegie, Jurassic Park, ect..if  I had a lot of love for it when I was little I still do.

I've been doing my best to make my collection more higher end pieces ..like statues and such..I'm sort of succeeding...but the temptation to pick up the odd piece at yard sales and such is VERY tempting.

[DinoLord]

My style is pretty simple. I buy what I like.

But of course that can encompass many different things. The main thing I look for is aesthetics (good sculpting, pose, and paint jobs are always a plus), and to a lesser extent, accuracy. For proper figures, accuracy is as important to me as aesthetics, but for something like Jurassic Park, it's not as important. Aesthetics can still save a lack of accuracy for me though. For example, I like many of the Papo figures, and the Invictas do have a certain charm to them.
Another thing I consider is nostalgic value. For me this is mainly with JP3 toys that I was denied as a kid (I remember the whole aisle of them at Walmart back in the day).
I also collect based on rarity, but not too much of an extent. If a figure is both rare and pleasing to my eye, then I'll want to have it, but if it's rare but ugly I probably won't get it (unless I intend to resell or trade it).

[Horridus]

I'm a bit like Dinolord. When buying new figures, I prefer to buy ones that are a good reflection of our current knowledge of the animal; however, aesthetic quality can override this. And yes, I am basically talking about Papo. Some things, though - like that Oviraptor - are beyond the pale. I won't stand for naked maniraptors unless they are genuinely vintage figures - they're just TOO glaringly, obviously wrong!

Speaking of vintage figures, I like those too. Hence I have most of the Invictas and even a handful of Inpros!

[Lio99]

Well i did try to buy everything that was a pliosaur, but then i looked back at my dinosaurs.
there was only two papos, three safari dinos, one wwd figure and one kaiyodo. So now i am collecting any nice looking dinosaur fig and i am pretty sure a few more safari dinos will make my collection colourful.

[ZoPteryx]

I aim to collect as scientifically accurate figures as possible, while also trying to get a wide range of species.  However, good details are welcome, and I may settle for a slightly inaccurate figure if its detailing is far superior to the most accurate figure.

[Seijun]

I collect vintage figures, and any figure that I think is very accurate. I also like to collect complete sets from certain companies. I concentrate the most on my invicta, carnegie, and safari collections.

[JPEngineer]

I do only Carnegie, I like their styles and figure choices. I only collect certain ones though, I 'collect' the 1996 Releases. It is complete to me. I have a complete 2007 Re paints. Then all of the up to date figures, basically all of those past 2004.

[Dyscrasia]

As I am broke and since most of the dinosaur toys/models from the US and European companies never seem to make it into this crappy country, I focus on Sideshow Dinosauria statues (luckily, SS statues are imported here, although I sadly think that this particular line is nearly in it's demise), Kinto favorite desktop statues, and those lovely miniautures from various Japanese companies.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I usually collect from the main brands, Safari LTD more than any.

[Gwangi]

Accuracy is all well and good but a lot of figures just don't achieve it and what is considered accurate changes often. If a feathered Tyrannosaurus were found tomorrow it would make all toys of it obsolete so I cannot worry about accuracy(I'm interested if Marc would toss out his Tyrannosaur collection if this discovery were made). I'm mostly interested in well made figures, figures that look realistic even if in terms of accuracy they are not. Nostalgia is big too, I collect the JP toys and Tyco for example because that is what I had as a child. Likewise if it was once accurate but no longer is that appeals to me too, I'm very interested in how the public perception of dinosaurs changes and so I like collecting older pieces like the Invicta and again...the old Carnegies. For example, I have the new Carnegie Diplodocus and it is both beautiful and fairly accurate but that didn't stop me from wanting the older version because it too is beautiful and I know that at one time it was also fairly accurate. Those older dinosaurs were the ones I grew up with after all, even naked Dromaeosaurs don't offend me because something like the Wild Safari Velociraptor though inaccurate is exactly how I remember the animal looking in my mind growing up. I should note that I'm not a big spender, things like sculptures are beautiful but there is no way I can justify buying them with my current income, I cannot give up a week of hard labor for a statue. Maybe someday that will change. Until then you'll mostly find me bargain hunting on eBay.

[Horridus]

If a feathered Tyrannosaurus were found tomorrow it would make all toys of it obsolete so I cannot worry about accuracy(I'm interested if Marc would toss out his Tyrannosaur collection if this discovery were made).

Not at all, as they would all predate the discovery, and therefore be 'historic' if you like. I'm interested in scientifically obsolete figures but not if they are brand new and the result of a company just being lazy.

[Gwangi]

If a feathered Tyrannosaurus were found tomorrow it would make all toys of it obsolete so I cannot worry about accuracy(I'm interested if Marc would toss out his Tyrannosaur collection if this discovery were made).

Not at all, as they would all predate the discovery, and therefore be 'historic' if you like. I'm interested in scientifically obsolete figures but not if they are brand new and the result of a company just being lazy.

I guess you did specify that in your original post but I don't think laziness is the right word here. I doubt WS made their Velociraptor featherless because they were simply lazy. More likely I think they made it because that is what the general public (costumers) thinks of when they think of Velociraptor. Is that a good excuse? Probably not, but I will be the first to admit that the image of a featherless Velociraptor is a difficult thing to shake after putting up with it for oh so many decades. The entire reason I have the figure is because that is what for the majority of my life I thought the animal looked like and it is a beautiful sculpt regardless of accuracy. 

[Horridus]

I do collect some new, very inaccurate figures if they are pretty enough (like the Papo T. rex). But I just can't stand bald maniraptors. It's a personal pet peeve...

[Gwangi]

I do collect some new, very inaccurate figures if they are pretty enough (like the Papo T. rex). But I just can't stand bald maniraptors. It's a personal pet peeve...

I'm curious on why that is. I know you're about my age so the notion of a bald maniraptor shouldn't be that offensive. To each their own I guess.

[Horridus]

I'm curious on why that is. I know you're about my age so the notion of a bald maniraptor shouldn't be that offensive. To each their own I guess.

I dunno. They just look so birdlike, especially dromaeosaurs, that seeing them naked is just...offputting. It's fine for historic 1990s stuff but I don't feel any nostalgia for them.

[Patrx]

I'm with Horridus on this one. Although, I grew up with bald dromaeosaurs myself, and I don't mind the look of, say JP's raptors. What bothers me is that companies, even those who usually manage decent accuracy like Safari, continue to put out bald raptor figures. It's absurd that the idea of feathered, birdlike raptors is being stalled on its way to popular knowledge because sculptors don't think they look mean enough, or whatever it is that they're worried about. Besides, raptors look totally awesome with their feathers on.