Duna's collection (Ikea cabinet and more) "updated feb"

[Halichoeres]

That's a wonderful display space!

By coincidence, I only learned about the Cafe Boca mini Starlux figures earlier this week. I wasn't aware the Saltoposuchus came in this format, though--that's the one I find most tempting. I love the Triassic, and nobody has made a Saltoposuchus figure in more than 40 years! I think I'll have to content myself with the full-size version.

[Abobo]

superb display!
The light system is top notch!

[Duna]

Now I would like to present you day by day for a week some of the Starlux prehistoric figures (which is one of my most loved collections). Please visit everyday, you'll enjoy it!

First, I must say I knew nothing about Starlux dinosaurs until February of this year (2021). I saw a picture of the Saltoposuchus and it was so freak and charming at the same time, that I fall in love with it. Yeah, it's not a good figure, in fact is one of the less accurate representations. It's soo freak, with its upright posture and "high heels" it looks like it is ready for a dance. It's striking cyan and green colour adds more "charm" to the figure.





So I started looking for Starlux collection and as I was in a "freak style" mode, I just said "Woow" when I found the pictures of the light pink with dots Megalosaurus, the joker-smile Shantungosaurus (Trachodon) and the whitish styracosaurus. White? Truly?! It's incredibly original (although the pink Megalosaurus I think goes more to freak than to originality). I just needed to get some of these cool figures!




These weren't the first ones I purchased, though, because I got the oportunity to buy three lots (about 20 figures) from a German seller I had just bought some Invicta figures from. In fact this is the best way to collect Starlux. Just start from a lot, specially larger ones, because they are expensive to get one by one.
The second time I bought figures I got sure to include my desired freaky ones. It's a fact -probably all Starlux collectors agree with- that if you get one Starlux figure you are screwed.  I didn't know until I had the first bunch in my hands, I couldn't stop looking at them and handling. The touch, the paint, the look ... they are irresistible. They are so different from other collections that that's what makes them so special. Some figures of the collection are meh in design or paint, but others are superb. Specially the non-dinosaurs and mammals, and those overwhelm the rest.

Probably most collectors know about the French Starlux, but for those that don't, here's a small introduction. Starlux is best known for its incredibly vast series of military figures and others, including animals. The prehistoric collection called "Starlux La Prehistoire" started in 1968 and added new figures each year until 1984, though it was still in production until the 90s. The series is one of the most vast and diverse of the dinosaur collecting history, and the largest vintage before Jurassic Park. It consists in 98 figures (100 counting the two retired models of mammoth and diplodocus), including 13 prehistoric men.
The rarest and most expensive figures today are usually the last to get into production (the 1984 figures, specially the least appealing ones as the trilobite, spirifer, deinonychus and the cephalaspis). The material is very special too, as it is a hard inflexible and brittle plastic, which replicates perfectly the most exquisite details without warping or oversizing, but is quite fragile so horns, tails and tongues tend to break if mistreated. The spirifer, the trilobite and the tusks of the mammooths are made in a different kind of plastic (not brittle, just like the soft plastic we use to know).
One of the things that make this collection so desirable is the size of the figures (no scale here), because they are larger than most monochrome plastic figures but not too large, so don't need much space. And unlike most figures from the 70s-80s they are brighly painted. They display incredibly well in cabinets. All Starlux are hand painted, but unfortunately, not much care was put in this so most fine details are sloppily painted, specially the eyes, mouths and in case of the prehistoric men, makes them look quite cartoony.

Most figures are faithfull depictions of retro styles and inspired in the paleoartists of the time, specially Zdenek Burian.

Let's go back to the Saltoposuchus. It's obviously inspired in Burian's drawing, and it's faithful to it. In fact it's a very good model of that reproduction:



As the sculpture in Kleinwelka Saurierpark, too:




The Shantungosaure was called Trachodon when it was released in 1972, but then renamed to Shantungosaure in 1987. Trachodon seemed to be a classic genera in those times, depicted by other companies, too (Marx, Inpro, Sinclair, Nabisco ...). In spite of the "joker" smile (accentuated by the sloppy paint), I think the posture is quite good. There are two colour schemes, one blue and green and other one grey.

The white creamy Styracosaure is one of the best dinosaur figures. Inacurate, but very well sculpted. The first version was grey, with the spikes in white, but they nicely decided to repaint it later (and so it stayed like that) in this lovely cream colour with the frill spikes in dark brown, with touches of light brown on feet and nose. It's one of my favourite figures of the collection. The eyes are painted in black (there are other figures that have them painted that way).

And then ... the "pink" Megalosaure. I have no words for this freak just say it's hecking cute weird. For it wasn't enough, it has orange polka dots all over the body. I really admire the sculptor Maurice Massat to feel so confident and full of originality to commit that occurrence.  I have a white one, too, with the same orange polka dots. I haven't seen any more like it.


Tomorrow more figures to show. Hope you like it!

[Crackington]

They're lovely figures @Duna and thanks for sharing. Good detective work on linking the Saltoposuchus to Burian too, I hadn't made that connection at all.

I only have a few Starlux unfortunately, though know what you mean about wanting more! They are such charming figures and very French! Mrs Crackington was so taken with the Diplodocus that I had to present it to her as a gift.

I look forward to seeing more.

[Duna]

Thank you @Crackington !

Diplodocus is one of the best figures, but the first version has a very fragile paint because it's very smooth. The grey version is incredibly well done, probably resembling Invicta and the later version of Burian.

Here are the ones selected for today:



Bradysaurus, scutosaurus and edaphosaurus are ones of the best figures of the collection. They are very well sculpted (edaphosaurus doesn't drag the tail or the belly and has a beautiful head). Euparkeria (in green) is a very good and dinamic figure too. On the other hand, dimetrodon is smaller and has an unimpresive sail.
Ornitosuchus, "cynognatus" and saltoposuchus have quite weird sculpts and poses.

Here you can see the inspiration on some of Burian's drawings:







Euparkeria and protosuchus


Same head, smile, wrinkles in the flanks, pose. And "hairs".

[Shonisaurus]

How lucky that you have these beautiful vintage figures, Starlux is a company of mythical prehistoric dinosaurs and animals, they are based on Burian's paintings and they bring back fond memories of my childhood. It was a very complete company in prehistoric animals and I believe that to date there is no dinosaur company that has made such diverse figures of Paleozoic and Triassic vertebrates. Thanks for sharing the photo credit.

[Roselaar]

Oooh, I love your comparison of Starlux figures with paleoart source material! I knew Starlux was inspired on many occasions, but some of these insights are new to me.
I had no idea the Saltoposuchus was based on a Burian piece. That explains the odd posture!

And I fully agree on the Megalosaurus' colours, it's just adorable.

[Libraraptor]

Very cool stuff!

[Duna]

I'm glad you all like! 

A few more today, non-dinosaurs, too:



It's quite weird the sculptor made two nothosauruses, one in 1972 (with the upright neck) and other 9 years after, in 1981, which depicts an "eely" tail and a lower head and neck. On the contrary of what happened with the diplodocus and the mammooth, whose first versions were substituted by the newer ones, in this case both nothosauruses remained in the collection.
A similar thing happened with the Tanystropheus, the first made in 1974 had a shorter neck and stripes of scutes on the body (there are two versions, one with red, the other with yellow scutes). The second made in 1982 has an appropiate thinner and longer neck (it's very fragile) and it's one of the best figures in the collection.
Plesiosaurus has a classic pose with a swam neck.
All these figures seem to be inspired in the classic depictions of that time, but I've spotted the obvious exact ressemblance of Burian's tylosaurus, itchyosaurus and protosuchus:

[Crackington]

Excellent work again @Duna - when you see them with the Burian art they are actually very well made figures aren't they?

[Duna]

Excellent work again @Duna - when you see them with the Burian art they are actually very well made figures aren't they?

Sure, if someone tried to replicate those drawings in a tiny figure, he couldn't have done better.

[Duna]

Today's selection includes some dinosaurs ...

We have to say that the dinosaurs are the least accurate, and most of them are based in the outdated reproductions and drawings of that time ...



Again, lets hunt again for the inspiring drawings by Burian:


Tyrannosaurus has inspiration on the colours mostly. And the anatosaure, too.


Iguanodon could be a mix of inspiration, as most Iguanodon of that time look much like the same, but in this case, it shares the red head. The idea of the protuding tongue comes from the beggining of the century, when paleontologist Louis Dollo, noticing a small break in the lower jaw of a fossil misunderstood it as a gap to stick the tongue out.


This classic ouranosaurus from Bernard Long has a similar tail, pose, sail and head.


UPDATE: Thanks to Lanthanotus    we have found another vast source for the inspiration of Starlux models, drawn by Giovanni Caselli in 1975. Here is the exact Acanthopholis.


Same source for the quadrupedal spinosaurus.

It's very surprising that he made the ouranosaure bipedal and the spinosaurus quadrupedal ...

[Halichoeres]

Agreed, the non-dinosaurs have generally held up better. I'll always have a soft spot for this line because of the sheer variety in it, but perhaps I have Burian to thank for that!

[Bokisaurus]

Wow, I'm so jealous of your Starlux collection! Not only do you have all of them in good conditions, but those vintage artwork really ties everything together into an impressive display 😃!

I once tried to collect them but gave up due to how difficult it was to acquire them.
I did at one point got a complete set of the humans but I eventually traded them with another collector who really appreciated them.
Great job on these!😃

[Lanthanotus]

Very impressive Starlux collection. I really like the line, though I only own two figures yet.
The Megalosaurus is inspired by this image I think

by Giovanni Caselli, published in Halstead's book of 1975 (thats also where the quadruped Spinosaurus comes from)

[Duna]

You hit the jackpot!  The very same pose, sculpt, pink color and even the orange dots! I'm very happy to know where his inspiration copy came from. It looks like the Polacanthus is the same model, too.
Do you recognise any of the other figures of the collection in that book? That sounds very interesting. Take a look here for the rest: https://toyanimal.info/wiki/Starlux_Prehistoric

Oh my! I searched for images from that book and I also found the pachycephalosaurus with its orange body and blue head and tail, just like the Starlux ...




And there are the exact Acanthopholis model and the scolosaurus, ankylosaurus and polacanthus. They are so exact that he even copied the facial expresion and the colors!:

[Libraraptor]

It is quite interesting how you investigate the patterns of those Starlux models. I have that very book. Those times of paleoart style still fascinate me.

[Grimbeard]

That book was only of my favorites as a child and was FILLED with some really wacky (and very outdated) reconstructions and theories, Caselli is a really underrated retro-paleoartist.

Make me wonder how Starlux Compsognathus would have looked like if they would have ever made one , maybe they would have gone for the  flipper-handed "compsognathus corallestris" look:

[CarnotaurusKing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2LBIFQEr2M
Whut th h*eck famy guy dinusawr???
Also, Merry Christmas!

[Duna]

That book was only of my favorites as a child and was FILLED with some really wacky (and very outdated) reconstructions and theories, Caselli is a really underrated retro-paleoartist.

Make me wonder how Starlux Compsognathus would have looked like if they would have ever made one , maybe they would have gone for the  flipper-handed "compsognathus corallestris" look:

I also loved "Compsognathus corallestris" as a child. It was also mentioned in Norman's Encyclopaedia (but that time I thought it was just impossible but freaking original).