The Shonisaurus collection

[Shonisaurus]

As promised to U K and at his request I publish only in writing and not for images my collection to thus make an inventory of all the dinosaurs I have from each toy dinosaur company. I do not know the number (I think I must have 500 or 600 dinosaurs and prehistoric animals in total). Sincerely I dont know.

Why do not I post photos? Although it is for the members of the forum something shocking since what interests the members of the forum are the pictures of toy dinosaurs I do not have a camera and can be witnessed by forum members such as UK, Robin or Monsterhouse, for one simple reason .

I make an economy of war and I only live for the dinosaurs and as I mentioned I even sacrifice my economy because of my interest in my collection and in books (including dinosaurs) in the most insignificant things in life, as well as in a sandwich for people to You can make an idea.

Getting to the point, I will comment on my collection and I will give details of all the acquisitions I have obtained in my last thirty years. I hope that leaves my silence settled in the non-publication of dinosaurs and prehistoric toy animals. 

[Shonisaurus]

My first figures in my collection apart from miniature figures of which I have an indelible and emotional memory were the dinosaurs of Invicta Plastics.

My collection was the following dinosaurs was the year 1988 and I found them in a store and with my savings by then I was finishing the baccalaureate I bought
the megalosaurus, muttaburrasaurus, liopleurodon, blue whale (comes with a plastic base), tyrannosaurus rex, iguanodon, troodon, elasmosaurus, megalosaurus, glyptodon and mammoth primigenius.

All of them were presented in a plastic bag and for me it was something exciting, I had never had dinosaurs of a major importance so far. Now with Invicta Plastics I started the collection that I now have and I value greatly.

The dinosaurs go with traditional muttaburrasaurus colors of salmon orange, tyrannosaurus of red color, iguanodon of yellow color, troodon goes with a base like the dinosaurs of Favorite and in general theropods of Japanese and Chinese companies with holes where the piece.

The blue whale is gray, elasmosaurus of blue sea color, megalosaurus of color mint, liopleurodon of light green color and the glyptodon of light beige color and mammoth of dark brown color.

I mention it because these figures have had several versions, but what I have as you can hear the members of the forum are monochrome and traditional colors.

Tomorrow if the forum and DTF members allow this post I will continue explaining at UK's request each of my acquisitions and although the figures for almost all are well known and the important thing is the photos I will at least illustrate them with my comments.

[UK]

Great start Manuel, we watch the story of your collection unfold. 30 years makes you a very experienced and discerning collector.

[Lanthanotus]

Hello Manuel,

nice start for a collection thread and I'll follow is eagerly. I find it kind of thrilling to have a collection unfold just by words, not pictures

[Shonisaurus]

I appreciate your words UK but I can consider myself an "amateur" collector in the sense that despite my experience I only collect figures from certain brands I am not a supporter in my case to collect figures from other companies apart from economic issues due to space issues . Then my shelves would not fit or they would be saturated. That's one of the reasons. 

Thank you for your words Lanthanotus I hope to be entertaining in my exhibitions regarding dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, both toy and resin.

[ceratopsian]

Thirty years makes yours a mature collection. I look forward to reading more.

[Jose S.M.]

I'm very excited to know more about your collection, Shonisaurus!

[Shonisaurus]

I have to admit that in that bag that I bought in 1988 was the famous scelidosaurus of Invicta too, so I forgot that figure by the way nice although small in dark blue tone.

The months passed and with my savings I was about to enter the University (with my weekly allowance) I made another big effort, I bought the light yellow mamenchisaurus, the blue purple cetiosaurus and the whitish gray apatosaurus of Invicta. He had money but he preferred to stop buying that company for a while.

After the months, he located in the toy store (almost all the toys were made of trains and collectible figures like lead figures), the spinach green brachiosaurus and the gray leaden diplodocus of Invicta.

Already in my first year of University course 1990-1991 I bought the famous triceratops of Invicta and the ambitious tyrannosaurus rex of Invicta red wine or red coffee.

Many years had to pass until in the year 2000 approximately (I honestly do not remember the date) and already working years ago in the Science Museum Store bought the ichthyosaurus of Invicta with base and the tiny cream-colored dimetrodon.

The last figures (baryonyx mint green color and the very rare figure of lambeosaurus Invicta coffee red) I bought them in 2002 when I had the fortune to attend an exhibition in a Hotel in Madrid to an exhibition and sale of fossils and by chance they had those figures, just in case (because they are very small figures and tend to get lost) I bought another dimetrodon of Invicta and the luck that I had with that figure is that by an unfortunate circumstance with time I lost the initial reason why it did not come wrong to buy that new figure.

What impressed me the most was the brachiosaurus and also the rest of the sauropods. At last I had figures of dinosaurs of considerable size! in this case of Invicta) I was impressed to have a figure especially the size of the brachiosaurus a huge sauropod for that time, it was the year 1990 and I was very happy with my acquisition.

The lambeosaurus and the baryonyxy with fish apart from the fact that they were lost figures for my collection impressed me a lot, on that date I had never had a hadrosaur so rare as lambeosaurus (until now I had to settle for parasaurolophus and corythosaurus ) ... but the lambeosaurus for me was the no more.

The baryonyx despite the years is still one of the best figures that any company has done on that creature and that is already obsolete scientifically but for me it has as much charm as when I discovered it in that famous exhibition of fossils buying and selling , dried insects and minerals that, by the way, made me buy an ammonite and it was my first fossil that I collected. I put it in my main showcase since it was an animal that was contemporary with the dinosaurs and for me that meant a lot.

The truth is that in 2002 I had all my collection of dinosaurs Invicta without realizing that there are many versions in colors and painted and even coated with gold loaves. In this case I am not a completeist and I am satisfied with the fabulous reproductions of dinosaurs that I keep of this great brand of the British Museum of Natural History in London.


Tomorrow I will continue with my story.

On the other hand, I'm glad Jose and Cerapsian are interested in my story.   

[Nimravus]

Hi Shonisaurus, I think everyone is interested in your history of collecting dinos. Most of us are only collecting for less than 3 years!
Thanks for sharing!

[Ravonium]

Interesting idea for a collection thread. So far, a nice read. I'm interested to hear your perspectives, as a senior collector, on later companies.

[Bokisaurus]

I often wondered why you don't have a collection thread or post photos, now that answers that.
This would be an interesting read, looking forward to it.

[Shonisaurus]

Thanks to all Nimravus, Ravonium and Boki. I continue my story. 

Well, what was said was the year 1993 and I was finishing my university studies (it would end in 1994) and I had money saved, apart from that I was already working in temporary jobs in a downtown store in Madrid. I found by chance some dinosaurs that would change my life. ukrd dinosaurs had them in a toy and adult collectibles store.

There were three figures that caught my attention the protoceratops U.K.R.D and their pairs of U.K.R.D dimetrodon and allosaurus. I did not think about it anymore and I bought them. For me it was a valuable acquisition. Never before had I had a dimetrodon of that size and even less had such rare figures as protoceratops and allosaurus (it would be my first allosaurus and also based on a pictorial work by John Sibbick). I bought them was a money that made him sacrifice much then.

There were more dinosaurs in total twelve figures of U.K.R.D (pachycephalosaurus, edmontosaurus, protoceratops, ankylosaurus, dimetrodon, apatosaurus, tyrannosaurus, triceratops, brontosaurus, parasaurolophus, brachiosaurus and stegosaurus) commercialized by the company Simba.

Later and small doses I bought the ankylosaurus U.K.R.D., parasaurolophus U.K..R.D and pachycephalosaurus U.K.R.D the last two versions based on the work of John Sibbick.

Then I bought the famous edmontosaurus from U.K.R.D, another masterpiece based on the work of John Sibbick, as well as pointing out the protoceratops in a certain way.

I already had five dinosaurs from U.K..R.D. I still lacked dinosaurs, but I preferred to wait until the economic situation in my country was not good and I was working temporarily.

Later I bought the stegosaurus from U.K.R.D in another store and in the same store the small ankylosaurus from U.K.R.D had fascinated me metaphorically talking to him. I liked his orange color.

In this last case I did not complete the collection I arrived too late to buy the tyrannosaurus, triceratops, brontosaurus and brachiosaurus from U.K.R.D and I still do not have that collection complete. I honestly bought the ones that had the most impact on me. The sauropods did not convince me although now I think they are not all bad but the opposite and despite being the tyrannosaurus and great triceratops I was left with the desire, especially being solid plastic. It was a big mistake of mine.

Now I could buy those figures, and they would come out even as cheap or more than those I bought more than twenty-five years ago, but for now I prefer to wait. They are usually found on eBay but as I say my preferences are others.

I still have the promotional catalog of Simba where the twelve dinosaurs were listed, I have to point out that I usually keep the catalogs and the records of the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals I buy. In fact I have all the figures of Hans from the Humbold Museum and the human figures of Collecta for example, in this case I am a bit meticulous when it comes to collecting figures. I like to keep all the information related to the product.

Of the twelve I have eight figures.

The protoceratops of U.K.R.D due to its antiquity lacks a little plastic part of the hozico.

While all dinosaurs are in perfect condition, the only one that suffers abrasions in his hozico is the edmontosaurus that for me was a great find was a hadrosaur not lambeosaurio and was the first in my collection.

Apart from that what I value most from that collection is its solid plastic.

The one that perhaps less convinces me is the ankylosaurus U.K.R.D is the least realistic is the dinosaur of U.K.R.D worse made from my point of view. Tomorrow I will continue telling how I bought the Dromaeosaurus of this company and apart from that with an unimaginable size it is immense! is on top of one of my showcases is still for me one of my favorites.

[Shonisaurus]

I also remember with great affection the Vintage 1989 uintatherium of Yolanda de España that I bought in 1993. I found it by chance in the above-mentioned store where the dinosaurs sold U.K.R.D. and the sellers themselves believed that it was a kind of giraffe.

I know he is not a very successful uintatherium figure compared to other companies such as Safari, Collecta and Play Visions but for me he supposed a lot since he was a prehistoric mammal figure, one of the first ones I had in my collection and the most important was solid and it was one of my favorite prehistoric mammals! It's imperfect, but for me it was a great acquisition. It was nice and cheap, maybe it was not good but it did not matter! I liked and I like it and sincerely I leave the question settled.

On the other hand, although I take a leap in time and go to 1997 when I was in the Shop of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, and I was earning my own money years ago. The owner of the store told me that dinosaurs of a brand had come out in this case was the immense AAA brand among those who were the dromaeosaurus and the dimetrodon among other figures. I looked at the catalog and sincerely I liked the figure of the dromaeosaurus and for that I am going to be a hypocrite even though it did not look bad for space reasons I did not ask them to reserve me in case the AAA dimetrodon reached them.

Spent approximately a month sincerely I do not remember very well but it was around this time and they got the famous dromaeosaurus of the AAA brand expected it was much better to see it in figure than in promotional photos and most importantly although hollow was very resistant and for example parts of the Body like the arms and raptor dinosaur claws were solid. I bought it and that was a great economic cost but I did not regret it and in fact I keep it in the same showcase where I placed it the first time and it is for me one of the best figures I have bought in years, apart from that it is immense and rivals in size with the great figures of sauropods that I have is even much older.

Even my relatives still consider that figure as one of the best I have in my collection and I think I'm not exaggerating. It is as well preserved as the first day I bought it. Without abrasions, it remains on its two legs and for me it is one of my biggest acquisitions made in my collection of toy dinosaurs.

The next day I will continue with my stories.

[UK]

Great stuff Shonisaurus, who needs camera when your words paint a picture of your collecting passion

[Shonisaurus]

I will continue with my story of my collection. I will explain how I made the Carnegie collection little by little (it was a matter of years). Then I'll tell you about Safari.

The first Carnegie dinosaurs that I bought and which by the way seemed to me quite insufficient, taking into account that those of Invicta were much better I bought them in an adult collection store still exists in the street Santísima Trinidad in Madrid since they moved from another street from Madrid, Fuencarral, (they sell trains, military figures) and by chance I asked if they had any dinosaurs. They told me yes and they showed me a box where they had collectible figures. I chose because at that time I was a simple student tylosaurus, maiasaura and pteranodon.

There were other figures that I discarded because of monetary issues such as dimetrodon, protoceratops and sauropods (from the protoceratops I would regret a long time since it was very difficult to get one, in fact I bought it from an eBay store, with that I mention how difficult it was for me find that figure, the same can I say about allosaurus.

Sincerely they were figures that belonged to the obscure time of Carnegie and were not as sensational as other later figures like the ichyosaurus, tylosaurus, giganotosaurus, kaprosuchus, inostracevia or miragaia to give some examples.

After the years in 1993 a relative told me that there was a store where he sold dinosaurs gave me the address and found the following dinosaurs (at that time I was working in a temporary job and was finishing my studies so it was an opportunity for me unfortunately) and I bought the famous Carnegie smilodon. All of them I keep in perfect condition and I even keep their labels, I mean the mosaurus, pteranodon and tylosaurus that were very different from the modern era of Carnegie. They are large labels with the drawing of the dinosaur or prehistoric animal with a golden gum.

In that store (now unfortunately gone) I went back to buy a whopping twenty years later more Carnegie dinosaur figures. For now I leave my story and tomorrow I will comment on how I was increasing my collection.

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks for sharing this collection story of yours, Manuel.

[Roselaar]

Sounds like you already have a very diverse collection containing many wonderful figures. Keep it up!

[Shonisaurus]

Lanthanotus, Roselaar and UK thank you for liking my story.


I continue my story about Carnegie. The fact is that he had collected very few figures of Carnegie at that time and unfortunately the distributor of Carnegie abandoned the project of selling these figures. So I spent several years with drought of acquisition of new figures of this exceptional brand.

In 1996 by chance going to an aquarium to buy animals (they sell fish, tarantulas, scorpions, guinea pigs, rats and even poisonous snakes) I found the Carnegie diplodocus that without thinking twice (since I did not have enough money) owner from the shop that kept it, the fact is that they had it (although it was for sale) of mere adornment since nobody at that time bought it. After a week I bought it from the store and I was able to get the Carnegie Diplodocus. This store is located in the Gran Vía of Madrid and has a permanent exhibition of fish, spiders (in fact there were many black widow spiders whose news reached the televisions of Spain), scorpions, scorpions, snakes and a turtle that at that time I lived (the last time I visited this aquarium was in the year 2000) and whose antiquity dates from the end of the beginning of the XX century at least, it was huge. Moving on, I continue with my story.

A few months ago I had known the store of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and they told me that they were going to receive from a distributor of the dinosaurs of Carnegie and Safari (I did not think about it anymore and decided to collect savings and buy these figures) although I had to wait for a whopping year of 1999 to collect these dinosaurs, the dinosaurs that I bought little by little since they were kept in the store because I told them that they could not buy them were the following, elasmosaurus with the soft neck as I call it since has a very different neck from the rigid plastic neck elasmosaurus that was known in his last years, triceratops, plateosaurus, adult apatosaurus and brood, baryonyx, brachiosaurus, corythosaurus, deinosuchus (this last prehistoric crocodile figure excited me), the African deltradromeus as I call him. The diplodocus (I bought one in the store Gran Vía  but this looked magnificent, in fact the store was missing part of the tail and had a flat head The last was given to the nephew and I kept the one from the Museum store, kronosaurus, of which I was totally impressed by how beautiful it was despite being a hollow figure and hard plastic, maiasaurusa with its nest with pups (which differs from the original maiasaura), quetzalcoatlus (my first quetzalcoatlus in my collection, I had no longer the pteranodon), saltasaurus, spinosaurus 1992 and the stegosaurus that was the initial version.

He was full of joy although for example the allosaurus, protoceratops with nest, dimetrodon and dilophosaurus pair did not have that distributor. Tomorrow I will continue with my story.

[Nimravus]

No doubt the Carnegie's were benchmarks for the other sellers, they draw a line in the sand. The Carnegie Diplodocus latest version is a remarkable piece and really nice.

[Shonisaurus]

Thanks Nimravus for your comments. 

I continue my story after the acquisition of the dinosaurs Carnegie alluded to I bought the following year that is in psittacosaurus in the year 2000 and the allosaurus and tyrannosaurus relative to the tenth anniversary of Carnegie. And until then, I stayed because the distribution company for the umpteenth time went bankrupt and the Museum stopped selling these figures. I had to wait a whopping year of 2001 to buy the set of two figures that I lacked in my collection and that were the australophitecus and the original maiasaura, as I already had two, one a day to my nephew that he liked at the time. dinosaurs as a gift to visit a relative an aunt of mine and grandmother of my nephew who was convalescing from a cancer treatment and who would die in 2013, after overcoming several relapses in his fight against cancer in a brave way ended up dying as a result of its aftermath, but that's another story.

Leaving personal details had got the two australophitecus was for me a great acquisition and I had to wait much longer in my tireless quest to get more Carnegie dinosaurs.

In 2002 in a toy store in Conde Peñalber street in Madrid I got the camarasaurus. It was my first camarasaurus figure that I had and unfortunately the last one since I still do not have any other figure that I like for my collection that of Tiptoi although it is beautiful does not convince me for now for economic reasons.

Until 2010 I had not found any figure of Carnegie when it happens the rare chance (since my baryonyx Collecta standard figure had suffered a fall from the shelves and had broken a leg and unable to replace it by the Museum of Science Store Natives of Madrid, I called the toy store of the Ayala street store (it was just another perfume store) and what is my surprise that I am fortunate enough to contact the seller who tells me that Collecta's baryonyx was not available but I had the Carnegie company, my heart beat strongly and I asked hurriedly if I had more figures of Carnegie and Safari among other figures I remember I asked him if he had the famous amargasaurus to which he replied smiling yes.

I took money saved from the bank and went to the store and my surprise was huge they had the dinosaurs that I was missing from Carnegie. I bought the following, tanystropheus (whose neck is flexible), the fabulous triceratops of the year 2000, dimetrodon, acrocanthosaurus that is a mere caricature compared to the current one that Safari has sincerely spoken but that for me means a much loved figure for my collection, styracosaurus, woolly mammoth (a species also expected that has been second after the one of Eofauna), ankylosaurus of the year 2005, the feathered dinosaurs (beipiaosaurus, dilong, microraptor and caudipteryx), in this case I did not buy the repainted of 2007, diplodocus Y
Giganotosaurus apart from other Safari figures. The merchant gave me in deference a dimetrodon of 1989. It was another figure much sought after in my collections.

I bought that I was forgetting the pair of dilophosaurus of 1994 the euoplocephalus of 1989 and deinonychus 1990 and the elasmosaurus of rigid neck of Carnegie, albertosaurus, sinraptor and oviraptor of the year 2005.

In the following years I kept buying in that shop the dinosaurs of Carnegie successive tylosaurus, spinosaurus, ichyosaurus and cryolophosaurus but in 2011 I received the sad news that these figures could not be commercialized and with it their novelties because a distributor had taken it the marketing of the Safari company.

By chance in an existing company still www.tododinosaurios.com I was able to find the famous carnotaurus Carnegie by mere chance it remains despite the years my favorite.

We must bear in mind that this businessman from the disappeared "Mundo Mágico" store brought the figures on their own and in large quantities. A year passed what had to happen that the distributor failed according to that seller because they had believed that the company "the field was oregano" in the middle of economic crisis that would take ahead in this company in 2014 I had few expectations, although I advance events since this company began again to commercialize its products in 2013 just a year before its unfortunate closing happened "was the swan song" metaphorically speaking. I got the miragaia, giganotosaurus and concavenator.

I decided to shop online at the shop.modellpferdeversand.de and I achieved the long-awaited figures of the tyrannosaurus and the feathered velociraptor.

I still lacked figures on eBay I bought the protoceratops with nest and the allosaurus original version of 1989 and Dinolord (of which I am eternally grateful) I bought the oviraptor with hierarchy or as I call it oviraptor or blue.

In this way I completed another collection but not the repainted dinosaurs.

The next day I will continue.