Controversial opinions on dinosaur toys

[Gwangi]

I only have two (FC/roadrunner Saurornitholestes and Psittacosaurus).

I've fiddled with them both a lot and actively played with the raptor a bit, and fragility doesn't seem to be a concern. Whereas I've had Neca things break from dropping them while still in their boxes. They're just made in a much softer plastic where that isn't very likely to happen, though it is certainly less detailed as a result than Neca let alone McFarlane.

The softer plastic also causes some quality control issues, but nothing we don't see on other lines done in similar materials.

I would equate BOTM more to Star Wars Black Series or even to Figma than to Neca. Neca and McFarlane toys are more "low end statues with articulation features" while BOTM are "high end action figures/toys with sculpting detail, paint, and conceptual work/presentation above what action figures usually entail".

Good to know, although I still won't be collecting BotM. I've read a few horror stories about the BotM figures breaking but that's not really my main reason for not collecting them, my reasons are varied and many.

[stargatedalek]

Yah they definitely have a high risk of breakage when fresh out of the package. That soft plastic and paint leads to parts fusing which means trying to force them can break them pretty easily. Once separated and moving they seem pretty durable but they are the exact sort of thing that is super easy to break when first moving it after taking it out of the box. For anyone concerned, if a joint is stiff use hot water on it first, then gently move it, don't try to force it.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

I guess I own a few BotM figures, though not as many as some.

Raptor Series: I own Atrociraptor, Fans' Choice Pyroraptor, Blue Velociraptor, Mononykus Desert Pack, Western 2-Pack, and the gray nestlings

Ceratopsian Series: I own Zuniceratops, Dino-Riders tribute "Monoclonius", and Kosmoceratops

As for the Tyrannosaurs, I still haven't committed but am planning to back the Bistahieversor, Teratophoneus, and Suskityrannus, to give my ceratopsians some proper temporal adversaries and create some awesome displays!

I haven't had any issues with breakage, but the boxes are stamped "adult collectible ages 15+" for a reason.

For me, I've always dreamt of something like this series since I was a kid, and now that they're here, I'm very pleased, plus the presentation is excellent. I've got one shelf dedicated to BotM now, with a mix of boxed and unboxed figures on display that I rotate and/or change around their poses. Of course, I've opened and played with them all, but they display nicely when put back in the box, too.

It's also just cool to me that Mr. Silva is also part of this community and as such caters these figures toward people like us while being happy to take feedback and retool his sculpts along the way as we comment on them. He really seems to care, and it shows. Plus I think the tribute Monoclonius and T. rex with their Dino-Riders colors (and the WWD-colored rex) are cool connections to other aspects of past popular dino media.

But of course, if someone can't get past the visible points of articulation on these figures, I can see how they'd maybe be hard to appreciate. But, their articulation is part of what makes the series stand out as BotM.

[Duck]

I'm planning on getting one of each BotM line. Chasmosaurus, Velociraptor, and I have backed the Bistahieversor. I may get the Guanlong in the future though.

[Faelrin]

I will admit several of my raptor figures had production quality issues. Some of which I was able to resolve from advice from David (such as warped jaws on both Dromaeosaurus and Mononykus, and later on, one of the white nestlings). That said, issues aside, I've had some success with them as well. My Velociraptor has been able to stay posed in the tall jumping rod plugged into the desert base, that comes with any of the accessory packs, for straight up years, despite the numerous times I've taken it out to pose it, dust it off, etc. I've only had two things break in the time I've own them as well. One was the peg on the log from the Microraptor/forest set, getting stuck/breaking off inside the Microraptor's foot, and another one of the foot pegs broke inside the Buitreraptor I own. Some of the jaws also have issues with closing fully, but it seems David has worked on improving this going forward with the ceratopsians, and seems like the T. rex figures as well hopefully. I'm curious how the smaller 1/18th versions of the raptors, Protoceratops, and Psittacosaurus will go as well, since I would like to pick up all or most of those.

Now I'm not terribly sure how the ceratopsians have fared in comparison, but time will tell once I have them in hand. I don't think I've seen too many issues brought up with those thankfully.

While I mainly have history as an action figure collector, that became a dinosaur collector, and so obviously fit into the niche for these, in any case what keeps bringing me back personally, despite the issues I had encountered above is just how receptive and helpful David has been with me over the years. Had he not been transparent, or had been unkind, or was unwelcome to feedback/constructive criticism, etc, I may have given up with this line a long time ago. I think getting to meet him in person, not only once, but twice, and got to have fun casual chats has helped too. Instead I am glad to have been able to support each of these lines, from the very start as far back as 2016. Short of other things that may or may not have released yet in the hobby, the long production times of these give me something to look forward to years out, something I truly needed to have with how long I've been battling depression.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

I'm planning on getting one of each BotM line. Chasmosaurus, Velociraptor, and I have backed the Bistahieversor. I may get the Guanlong in the future though.

Cool, I hope you have a good experience with your figures!

[paleochris]

On the raptor series, the joints don't disturb me strangely, maybe because the animals have feathers and the joints look more "natural". Also the flashy colors are appropriate.
On the other hand, I wouldn't collect the ceratopsians and tyranosaurids I think, because the joints look too toy-like and the colors of the ceratopsians were really not natural.

[CityRaptor]

Actually, the colors are all natural:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/botm/images/0/06/Color_Inspiration.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20191118190149
Expect the Monoclonius, I guess, although that one still looks close to the Centrosaurus colors...

[paleochris]

So I wanted to say that putting bright colors of actual lizards on ceratopsians did not work for me. I prefer more neutral colors (except on the crests).

[dinodamage]

not to be contrarian to the above posts but I would like MORE dinosaur figures with accurate sculpts to have bright colors or bold patterning, considering they had excellent color vision and likely the ability to see UV light. It's all speculative, but sexual dimorphism isn't out of the question and a lot of bird/reptile communication is done through color and display.

When you're a colossally huge animal with an array of built-in weapons, you can't exactly camouflage so why not have bright colors that scream "don't f*** with me." Sauropods really get the short end of the stick in that regard.

I feel too many figures "play it safe" with browns/grey/olives and maybeee some light striping. It can look nice but it gets monotonous IMO. I see a lot of incredible sculpts but the color and/or patterning is very bland and forgettable.

Even if keeping to more natural tones for predatory species, there are many ways to make it more eye catching than doing generic brown countershading with some dorsal/tail stripes.

[stargatedalek]

^^^ All of that, so much all of that. More colour, more patterns, and if you're going to add spines or crests or flaps make them bold.

[GojiraGuy1954]

I think baby sauropods would need dark colours to survive

[Carnoking]

Wasn't there something about how bird eyes detect colors differently than humans? And would this affect how colorful (or not colorful) we would perceive dinosaurs as opposed to how they would see each other?
Not saying I don't agree, I love me some vibrant colors as long as it's aesthetically pleasing to the eye (even if our ideas of aesthetics aren't something nature takes into consideration)

[dinodamage]

Wasn't there something about how bird eyes detect colors differently than humans? And would this affect how colorful (or not colorful) we would perceive dinosaurs as opposed to how they would see each other?
Not saying I don't agree, I love me some vibrant colors as long as it's aesthetically pleasing to the eye (even if our ideas of aesthetics aren't something nature takes into consideration)

Yes! Bird eyes have four cones vs our three, and therefore can detect a wider spectrum of colors, including UV. This is why some birds that appear more plain to us actually have some very crazy markings when viewed under UV light which they use to distinguish sex and communicate to eachother.

Some reptiles have this as well, or adaptations that utilize the UV spectrum- for example it's thought that the blue tongue skinks characteristic tongue reflects UV light to communicate to other skinks (who are generally very aggressive towards eachother) or surprise/scare predators like birds.

There's also a enzyme-encoding gene that both birds and turtles posses that converts yellow pigments in their diet to red, which allows them to detect more shades of red than we can.

Some really cool stuff!

[stargatedalek]

The bigger thing is less dinosaurs relative to us, and more so dinosaurs relative to most mammals. Our degree of colour vision is already very unusual and most mammals have significantly poorer colour vision than us, let alone birds. The colours of animals in our world are heavily dictated by most mammals colourblindness.

As for baby sauropods, it's hard to say. If they were completely abandoned by the adults than they may have relied on remaining hidden, but it's also possible while not being directly raised that baby sauropods stayed with their adults. Their physiology is extremely different, and most show evidence of being omnivorous and potentially even bipedal, so they may have fed on insects and small animals disturbed by the larger adults while relying on them for vague protection.

They also may have just been so numerous that camouflage wasn't a relevant tactic, sticking together in large groups, or even utilizing dramatic colours or displays to discourage small predators and staying in heavily forested areas to avoid larger predators.

[Dinoguy2]

Actually, the colors are all natural:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/botm/images/0/06/Color_Inspiration.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20191118190149
Expect the Monoclonius, I guess, although that one still looks close to the Centrosaurus colors...

It's not really natural to take a group with thousands of species (lizards, birds), most basic drab color, but with a small percentage of memorable colors, and then cherry pick the memorable colors to make it seem like a different group (ceratopsids) with less than a hundred species, and apply the bright colors to a high percentage of them.

That being said I like the colors because a, they're toys and b, I only buy one or two of each so the oddity of having everything in a multi ton group of animals which all had basically the same ecology all have crazy diverse colors like tiny non analogous species doesn't stand out as much. Seriously, many of the ceratopsids featured may even form a couple of anagenic lineages or something close to that and might plausibly have only been slight color variants of each other. But if course you'd likely have the odd extreme example, like zebras among the horse family.

[Sim]

I find Papo figures tend to be overrated.  I've tried owning a couple and in the end I just don't like them.  The way I see it, they suffer from defects like figures from other brands, look dull, tend to be inaccurate, and their detail is mostly lines - Safari, PNSO and even Favorite do detail better.  I genuinely don't see what people are missing from Papo in these last three years of lackluster releases.  A final thing I will say is that in contrast to their prehistoric figures, I'm impressed by their extant animal figures, it's so good they're making that great magpie for 2022!

[Bread]

I find Papo figures tend to be overrated.  I've tried owning a couple and in the end I just don't like them.  The way I see it, they suffer from defects like figures from other brands, look dull, tend to be inaccurate, and their detail is mostly lines - Safari, PNSO and even Favorite do detail better.  I genuinely don't see what people are missing from Papo in these last three years of lackluster releases.  A final thing I will say is that in contrast to their prehistoric figures, I'm impressed by their extant animal figures, it's so good they're making that great magpie for 2022!

You're definitely not alone. I'd say Papo had a lot of opportunities lately but they seem to be missing them. I say their JP copies were their highlight for me. Yes you can argue Nanmu and Wdragon exist now, so what's the need for Papo to produce them? Well they are more affordable and abundant to have multiples for herds/diorama purposes (will discuss that below).

Shocked that they don't seem to be continuing their JP copies anymore. Their Compy was their last one, and there are numerous species left that I would definitely purchase if they were made/updated. Gallimimus, Corythosaurus, JP3 Brachiosaurus color scheme, original JP color scheme for the Velociraptor, and their Triceratops could use an update as well as for color upgrades. Gosh I've been wanting a JP Gallimimus forever now and a company still has yet to give me one to recreate that scene!

I have a few figures I'd like to acquire from their more original work, but nothing from the last 3 years has really interested me. Also, to add to @Sim's statement about their animal line, it seems that they give that more attention, which is excellent as those do appear to be their best sellers and just look absolutely amazing. I just personally don't collect extant animals. Few exceptions such as crocodilians though.

[GiganotosaurusFan]

I hate the battat toys, mainly because they are lackluster in skin texture and overall sculpt(ceratosaurus and amargasaurus come to mind)
Same for Safari. 2017 was their best year...and they dropped. The allosaurus is subpar. The qianzhousaurus doesn't have teeth. Simply put, PNSO makes better dinosaurs. Safari is more scientifically sound but other than that...
Feel free to disagree.

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

I hate the battat toys, mainly because they are lackluster in skin texture and overall sculpt(ceratosaurus and amargasaurus come to mind)
Same for Safari. 2017 was their best year...and they dropped. The allosaurus is subpar. The qianzhousaurus doesn't have teeth. Simply put, PNSO makes better dinosaurs. Safari is more scientifically sound but other than that...
Feel free to disagree.

The Battat Amargasaurus & Ceratosaurus were made in the 90s.

The Safari Qianzhousaurus does have teeth, but they are mostly hidden by lips, as they should be. The Allosaurus is the nicest Allosaurus made. Sure the PNSO is flashier but the Safari is nice and chunky. I do think 2017 and 2018 were the best years overall. Though the 2019 Camarasaurus is a masterpiece.