Scale Across Models

[Panicsaurolophus]

Hello,

I've been reading through the forum for a little while now and decided to register because I had a few questions I couldn't find the answer to yet. I'm looking to start a collection of a wide variety of dinosaur toys and my main goal is to have a good selection of realistic looking dinosaurs that are to scale with one another.

So far my research has shown that 1:40 scale is the most common, and that CollectA and the Safari Ltd. Carnegie line are the easiest models to find at that scale. Reading through here it seems like individual lines come down to personal taste but my goal is by selecting a scale and sticking to it I could buy across different lines and still maintain the consistency I'm going for. With that being said, of the two I seem to prefer the CollectA line in general based on looks, but does anyone have an opinion on which are the most realistic between the two, at 1:40 scale?

The species I'm looking to purchase currently are Anklyosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Therizinosaurus or Deinocheirus. I also want at least one sauropod at 1:40 scale but haven't made up my mind which one yet. I'd appreciate any recommendations for favorites there. My goal is to get the most famous and iconic dinosaurs first with a good representation across different types, and then add in others that are just really cool even if they are similar species to what I already have.

The questions I have so far are:
Is 1:40 scale really the most common and easy to find the widest variety of species?
Is there a good resource for documenting the scale of dinosaur models?
Are there good lines other than CollectA and Carnegie that have models at that scale that are attainable?
Is one of those two lines more realistic than the other for the species above?
Does any company make 1:40 scale of any of the smaller species? Most seem to be at 1:15 from what I've seen so far.

I'm also particularly interested in accurately representing feathered dinosaurs so I'd appreciate any recommendations there.

Sorry for asking so many questions right from the start, and thank you in advance for any responses. This forum has already been really valuable while I've been looking into this. Thanks everyone.

[DinoToyCollector]

Well, being far from completed, but being a good start would be this:
http://dinotoycollector.com/BrowseAll.php

Small (and interesting) species are really small in 1:40 scale and (still) rare. There are a few old ones from the Carnegie Collection: Deinonychus and Protoceratops.

In addition to CollectA and Safari, Schleich had also made figures in 1:40 scale with his Replicasaurus series. Although these figures are slightly outdated, they have a certain charm on me.

With the given link you will also find a few figures of companies and series that are not designed to 1:40 scale. Furthermore, I would like to point out that under certain circumstances you can also take figures in 1:35 or 1:45. Species do not have the one fixed size and there is always travel up or down. For example, a Giganotosaurus in 1:35 can be a very big Giganotosaurus for your 1:40 collection ;-)

If you want to collect smaller species, I would advise you at the moment to go to another scale. I think 1:20 or 1:15 are just fine. But that depends on your personal taste and the offer.

I'm also particularly interested in accurately representing feathered dinosaurs so I'd appreciate any recommendations there.

If the action-figure part does not scare you off, I'd definitely recommend the Beasts of the Mesozoic line from Creative Beast Studio. There is a very large selection.

[Panicsaurolophus]

Thank you for the response, DinoToyCollector. I discovered your site right after posting and it's really quite amazing. Thank you for all of the hard work you're putting into it! I'm not sure how I missed it in my research earlier, but I will definitely be using it for my reference since it's helping me make sense of all of this.

I take your point about size variations within species and similar scales working. Looking at the results on your website though it looks like 1:40 is the most common as I thought so I should be able to find a lot of good options at that scale, except for the smaller ones. Browsing the results at 1:20 it seems like my choices for some of the larger species would be more limited. I'm not sure yet but I may be best sticking to the 1:40/1:35 range and not buying smaller species, or buy them and have them displayed elsewhere.

Thank you for the advice and the amazing site!

[Fenestra]

I started collecting the same way. 
The scale 1:40 / 1:35 seems to be the favourite scale of most toy companies.
And since CollectA, Safari ltd, Mojo, Papo, Schleich all have their gems, finding a "Anklyosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Therizinosaurus or Deinocheirus" up to your taste won't be a problem.
The real challenge will be finding the smaller dinosaurs, like Protoceratops and all kinds of raptors in 1:40/1:35 scale to compensate those massive figures on your shelves.
You will have to start looking into Kaiyodo and toobs for the a little ones. Or have them hand made.
Good luck!

[Panicsaurolophus]

Thanks, Fenestra. How did you like this approach to starting your collection? Have you been able to stay consistent on scale? Did it remain a concern of yours, or something you moved on from? Do you have any tips for someone also starting out this way or certain pitfalls to avoid?

I do foresee the smaller dinos being a bit of a problem but I think it'd be really cool to see at least most of them to scale with one another. I could always just group the smaller ones at a larger scale together if I go that route later.

[Cretaceous Crab]

Instead of trying to find figures for EVERY genus in the same scale, I have mainly focused on specific epochs & habitats [Ex: late Cretaceous North America]. This helps a little with my desire to collect the obscure species along with the common ones. I have found most (not all) of the standard CollectA figures, especially the newer ones, are fairly consistence.

Also of note, the fossil record will always be incomplete, and while we do have a bit of curve for the multiple specimens of some genera, it is reasonable to presume that we may never have the largest, record-breaking specimen of a genus. Dinosaurs were animals, too; there were likely some locales that were larger than others, even within one genus. Individuals, of course, will vary as well. This helps "fudge" some figures to be in scale.....ish, with others.

[Fenestra]

Thanks, Fenestra. How did you like this approach to starting your collection? Have you been able to stay consistent on scale? Did it remain a concern of yours, or something you moved on from? Do you have any tips for someone also starting out this way or certain pitfalls to avoid?

I do foresee the smaller dinos being a bit of a problem but I think it'd be really cool to see at least most of them to scale with one another. I could always just group the smaller ones at a larger scale together if I go that route later.

No, I have not been able to stay consistent on scale. I tried for the longest time, but I gave up.
The smaller ones, like Kaiyodo, are very hard to get here in Europe. So I had to buy them from Ebay and shipping costs sucked all the fun out of collecting them.
And another thing: There are too many beautiful figures out there that are just not in 1:40 scale.
So I buy anything I really like these days now. And mix them up together.
It didn't kill me... 

[Panicsaurolophus]

Thanks for the replies, Fenestra and LeviRawl.

Instead of trying to find figures for EVERY genus in the same scale, I have mainly focused on specific epochs & habitats [Ex: late Cretaceous North America].

LeviRawl, are you saying that you try to stay to scale within the epochs or habitats, or just that you're trying to have a wide variety of species and not care about scale? I also think you make a good point with not knowing the exact range of dimensions of the animals.

[Cretaceous Crab]

LeviRawl, are you saying that you try to stay to scale within the epochs or habitats, or just that you're trying to have a wide variety of species and not care about scale? I also think you make a good point with not knowing the exact range of dimensions of the animals.

I try to stay to scale with certain epochs. But each epoch, the scale may be different, depending on the availability of a particular genus.

For example, I have a set for late Cretaceous North America (65 MYA), that includes Tyrannosaurus, the collectA dead Triceratops, CollectA Pachycephalosaurus & Struthiomimus. I'm using the mini Velociraptor from the Safari LTD Feathered Dino Toob set, as a stand-in for a Dakotaraptor (because of course, there are no existing Dakotaraptor figures I know of, or at least to match the scale).

For reference, this is a review of the dead Trike with the Safari LTD brown rex > http://dinotoyblog.com/2012/03/16/triceratops-dead-collecta/

I have another North American set (116-110 mya) that will include Acrocanthosaurus, Utahraptor, Iguanadon, etc. Now.....since there's not a lot of accurate Utahraptor toys I like, I'm ordering the Papo feathered raptor, the Safari LTD lg feathered Velociraptor and the CollectA Utahraptor. Depending on which one I like best, I will choose either the Papo Acro or the Battat Acro for the set, and likewise, use either the newest Safari LTD Iguanadon or the Carnegie Iguanadon.

And for kicks, I have the CollectA Alamosaurus, so I'm using Safari LTD minis (rex, Chasmosaurus, Ankylosaurus) for a mini set. Of course, there are no raptors that would be small enough to be in scale with those!

If it wasn't such a process to upload pics, I'd post some readily. I will try soon after the holidays. But does all that make sense?

[Panicsaurolophus]

Yes it does, LeviRawl. Thank you. Sorry for the late response, I got caught up with the holidays too. Thank you.

[Halichoeres]

I started as a 1:40 collector, but that didn't last long, maybe just a month or two. There was just too much out there in other scales that I would have missed out on. So now I collect in multiple scales, although I still prefer 1:40 for large animals. I measure everything in my collection myself and estimate the scale, but there are plenty of animals for which any estimate is little better than a wild guess.