Recent Acquisitions

[Fembrogon]

Yowzers, that's a lot of big beasties! If those don't entice your son, probably nothing will. :laugh:

[Shonisaurus]

My congratulations, nice additions to your collection and destined for your child, dinosaurs stimulate the intelligence of the little ones from what I have read in internet articles, so the best educational toy for a child is a dinosaur.

[Carnoking]

Here are my two recent notable acquisitions, the Nanmu Giganotosaurus Blue variant and Toyway WWD Utahraptor.

I kind of cut the Toyway dinosaurs out of my collection recently, but I saw this guy pop up on eBay for fairly cheap and here in the US so I jumped on it.







Unfortunately it had plenty of spots of paint wear, but since it's a pretty rudimentary paint job and colorscheme, it was pretty easy to touch up.



He's basically good as new!



I also typically deny myself paint variants of Nanmu's products given how large they are and the fact that they are a bit pricey. Still, I flip-flopped between color schemes so much with their Giganotosaurus that when I saw the blue one on sale on Aliexpress, I decided I was okay springing for it.







I'm very glad I did, as it's a very mesmerizing, almost haunting palette. I do stand by my original choice in the orange, but still think the blue variant is a gorgeous option.

I'm still expecting some other packages from Aliexpress, but this one got here super quick I feel like, so had to share it right away!

[Fembrogon]

Nice selection, @Carnoking; the Nanmu Giga's skull always looks a little funny to me, but it's an impressive-looking piece regardless. The Toways are always cool to see, too!

I had another box arrive today - an oversized box for an oversized box, that is. Seriously, Amazon put this in a package twice its size. Why???
Oh, well, whatever. Amazon was listing the Papo deluxe Spino for 40 USD, which is probably the lowest price I've ever seen for it, so I took the bait. This is just a quick shot I set up while I had a moment. The figure is looking cool already, but... Papo, why such a stupidly big box?



*edit* Here are some nicer photos, plus one posing with its predecessor:

[SidB]

Very nice indeed, @Fembrogon , and IMO a strong indication that with products like this in their inventory, Papo will continue in the dinosaur market.

[Bread]

Very nice acquisitions everyone!

Alright, bare with me, large haul these last few days.

Six PNSO figures all ordered during the November 11th sale. A majority of these I bought as to take advantage of the sale, plus some of these I was a little turned away from purchasing at full price.
- PNSO Pachyrhinosaurus, beautiful figure, honestly disappointed in myself that this hasn't landed in my collection since its release.
- PNSO Tuojiangosaurus, beautiful figure, again disappointed I never acquired this since its release.
- PNSO Sauropelta, was against getting this but I wanted more Nodosaurids, plus it looks better in hand so I am glad I acquired it.
- PNSO Yutyrannus, was slightly put off on its pose, felt its front half was too close to the ground for my personal liking; however, I love the figure
   and its so much better in person! Its my favorite out of this haul.
- PNSO Cretoxyrhina, beautiful shark, and its something different than a Megalodon! I really recommend this to anyone who loves prehistoric sharks
    or sharks in general. My only nitpick is its bent fins, but this may just be my variant.
- PNSO Eurhinosaurus, another beauty I've been missing in my collection.

CollectA Mamenchisaurus and Xiphactinus are both beautiful figures, ordered from Minizoo. Nothing much to say as its already been said by others.

Incoming, some knockoffs have been acquired...... Yeah I had to acquire these two knockoffs of Favorite Co. Cephalaspis and Anomalocaris. I really liked the real models, but I couldn't justify paying the price of the actual models, plus tracking them down was going to be a task. I forget where exactly I was told about these. Sorry for the individual who referred me to these.

[Shonisaurus]

@Carnoking  My compliments on the WWD utahraptor and Nanmu giganotosaurus blue, honestly the variant Nanmu giganotosaurus specimen is my favorite in my collection.
@Fembrogon  Welcome to Papo's spinosaurus limited collector's club without a doubt it's my favorite spinosaurus which is why I swapped my ID photo for the head of that cool theropod. My congratulations.

@Bread  What a batch of top quality figures you have acquired! My congratulations, especially the figure that interests me the most is the cretoxyrhina, sincerely there is life beyond the magnificent megalodon shark but in the variety of prehistoric sharks there is excellence. Enjoy them in good health!

[Fembrogon]

S @SidB yeah, I doubt Papo is going anywhere yet, even if their new releases end up slowing down. Love 'em or hate 'em, they've got shelf presence!
@Shonisaurus thanks, it definitely is an impressive figure in-hand; it's JUST big enough to stand out from the other giant spinos in my collection. I wish the tail were a little more substantial; besides just looking better, it would help the figure stand out even more from its contemporaries in size.

@Bread that's a nice, healthy haul there! All of your picks look splendid. The knockoffs are a regrettable reality sometimes in this hobby; if only the Japanese brands were a little more accessible internationally, or at least if more companies would cover these Paleozoic genera.

[Bread]

Thanks everyone. Probably be my last purchases/acquisitions of the year.

[need4swede]

Thanks everyone. Probably be my last purchases/acquisitions of the year.

Probably, but not certainly 

[Thialfi]

The eternal uncertainty of a prehistoria collector..

[Carnoking]

Box #2 from Aliexpress arrived today, this time it's a PNSO lot. You know they've got to be killing it if they're good enough to get me to break my largely "dinosaurs only" collecting style. That isn't to say I dismiss other extinct fauna as not being worth my time, but when it comes to shelf space and finances, I will always prioritize my first love. But even if I didn't want to pay full price for these figures for a couple of reasons, I still think they were really cool and welcome offerings that were hard to ignore. That's why when the opportunity arose to get them on sale, I decided to jump on board.



Now if you know anything about me, you know I have very rarely purchased an extinct mammal, let alone one in this price bracket. Still, if there is one prehistoric mammal that I am simply fascinated with, it's Livyatan. Keep your Megalodons, this to me, is the top dog, and when PNSO revealed they'd be producing one, I was so excited. The seams were a strong deterrent, especially with the price tag, but a slight sale was enough to sway me.



I do get my fair share of marine and flying reptiles, however, but they are much less common in my collection. But once again, PNSO's execution on this one got me to break my fast.



And would you believe I have only ever owned one Dunkleosteus in my life prior to this? Even with the saturation, I never found one I was particularly taken by (the schleich offering came closest, and that was a short lived member of the collection). But dang if PNSO didn't make something special with that jaw articulation...





And finally, I got the Helicoprion, another bizarre beast that always had my interest. Even if the scientific consensus has shifted away from my personal favorite interpretation, it's still a fascinatingly unique creature and one that more than deserved a decent model. (I'm trying to do the whole "unboxing only one at a time thing" to stretch out the joy of getting new figures, so I started with this one. We'll see how it goes.)

And that about brings me up to speed on PNSO, barring the Himilayasaurus and Cretoxythina, but I'll need an even bigger sale if I'm ever gonna bend to those two.

[Bread]

Congratulations @Carnoking on your latest haul! I also have never owned a Dunkleosteus until PNSO's. Like you, I never really saw anything exciting about or lifelike with the other models. Favorite Co's was a somewhat valid choice, but dang PNSO came along and made a beauty.

[Fembrogon]

This little fella arrived from eBay today; it's a bit worn around the edges, but I like it.



I do think it would be great for Safari to revisit Plateosaurus in the (near) future.

[Shonisaurus]

@Carnoking I once again emphasize my congratulations on your new acquisition, for me the most coveted figure would be the PNSO livyatan which despite the visible seams is for me a must-buy due to the beauty of its sculpture and especially the modeling of its teeth. Thanks for sharing.

@Fembrogon  My congratulations on your new acquisition. That discontinued figure was for me at the time a purchase that I have never regretted. Safari / Carnegie made good figures even in their early days, extraordinary and highly scientific considering the context of that time, they were among the best that existed on the market and in fact this plateosaurus is one of the best made to date.

[SidB]

This little fella arrived from eBay today; it's a bit worn around the edges, but I like it.



I do think it would be great for Safari to revisit Plateosaurus in the (near) future.

I keep one in my Safari diorama display - there's such a dearth of good Plateosaurus figures available. I have a couple of the Schleich figures too in storage, but they're in the outdated quad pose. Yes, I'm hoping that Safari will reveal one soon, when they get around to parting the curtain on their 2022's.

[UK]

Some great modern classics being acquired, congratulations everyone.

And now the opposite. Another Timpo T-REX to join the chorus line. A lovely rich chocolate brown.

It's almost like an evolutionary scale the way the colours are developing in the line up. Not sure what an intermediate colour between the brown and green would be? Maybe I need to rethink the order

[Fembrogon]

@UK those Timpos look splendid lined up together!

Another classic Carnegie arrived from eBay today. I found myself warming up to the old Stegosaurus model recently, with its retro charm. The newer color pattern does it a lot of favors, too - I think this is either the 1996 or 2000 version (no tag, sadly).
Of course, I can't help noticing this continues the pattern of orange/brown Safari ltd dinosaurs. Oh well, if it ain't broke, I guess... 

[Shonisaurus]

@UK @Fembrogon My congratulations to both of you for acquiring classics, it is good many times to prioritize buying the oldest figures from vintage as the classics and to finish buying more recent figures if one is a fan of dinosaur toy collecting. I'm happy for both of you.

[Carnoking]

The last two packages from the Aliexpress 11/11 sale arrived today, including the W-Dragon Allosaurus and PNSO's Kronosaurus "Jeff". I've been eyeing the W-Dragon allosaurus for a while now but could never seem to find it at a decent price until this sale. With them now focusing exclusively on Jurassic, I figured now was the time to buy.

As far as Jeff goes, I got lucky and was sent the "re-vamped" version that comes with all the beautiful artwork and posters like what we got with Er-ma (even though it wasn't announced until after the sale).







I've also unboxed 3/4 of the figures from my last PNSO haul, and whereas I don't think they'll ever centerpieces of my collection, I do think they are quite lovely!