Loon's Collection: PNSO Suchomimus (Jan 16, 2023)

[Loon]

It is covered in your banner at least and maybe that might be a bit awkward otherwise to some forum members, in addition to that the shirt is funny.
Personally a bit weird to me overall that it has to be censored, it's like seeing a chimpanzee or an orangutan at the zoo, I do have my limits however, the CollectA Megacerops I still regard as inappropriate as a children's toy even though such an ungulate display was a common sight to me during my childhood on the countryside but otherwise anatomical accuracy serves an educational purpose in my view.
Then again, my view on this is shaped by growing up in Europe where nudity is not always seen as sexualized and Schleich toys don't shy away from such detail either.

True, though in that case, that is a bit of the Horse lover story. Also, in pure advertising terms, it does make a good hook. "Why is that Australopithecus wearing a shirt?" is a question that could make a few people click. But, I definitely agree that it really doesn't need to be covered. 

[Shonisaurus]

@Loon Magnificent figure and my congratulations, although I am not enthusiastic in the figure of prehistoric men and in general ancestors of man, that does not mean that I collect them. That pink shirt has been very cool on that australophithecus. Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos.

[Leyster]

Oh wow, the Megaloceros truly looks nicer when repainted!

[Loon]

Thanks, @Shonisaurus and L @Leyster!

Well, it looks like I won't be sharing my updated display as soon as I'd have liked. But, oh well, in the meantime I have been modifying the current shelves and experimenting with how they look. Case in point, this shelf:

Forgive my horrid photography here. The LEDs on my shelves don't make for great pictures; so I have to turn them off and use flash, which doesn't look much better.

Known affectionately as "B1-2 Prehistoric Sea Life 2", aka all of my aquatic-adjacent animals from the Cretaceous period, this shelf is a bit of a weirdo as it features both marine and flying animals when those are mostly separated elsewhere in my display. But, it makes sense here, as these pterosaurs, at least Pteranodon, are known to have been the Mesozoic equivalent of seabirds. That, and the fact that my other Cretaceous shelves are already pretty packed.

For some time, they had been sitting on one of those bathroom trays that I tend to use, and I just thought it looked odd and and a bit ugly, tbh. So, I had the idea of giving them little rocks to stand on, like in this piece by Mark Witton.

Credit: Mark Witton

In order to help my poor Pterosaurs look good next to their marine reptile brethren with their fancy strings and their fancy stands, I went searching and found some rocks that I thought would work.


These are the Tamashii Nations Tamashii Effect Rock sets. They come in two colors, gray and beige. I bought both to see what they were like, and while they are very nice, I'd much rather have bought two sets of gray, as it has that sea rock vibe. They're $25 each on Amazon (gray and beige), and come with everything you see here. Well, almost everything, as I didn't photograph one of each of the smaller rocks that came with the sets.

These sets are made by some no-name company called "Bandai", and distributed in the US by Tamashii Nations, if you've ever been to the toy section of a Barnes & Noble, you should be familiar with them; they make S.H. Figuarts and all those other amazing action figures. Like this set, they also make some other effects parts, like fire, water, explosions, etc.

Credit: Entertainment Earth

None of which really suited my display needs, as most of them lean a bit too much into the anime direction. But, who knows? I'm sure someone could use fire effects in their Dinosaur displays.

Credit: TetZoo

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Each rock piece has two to four holes that allow these small pegs to connect them.

Each set comes with a little tool to help you remove the pegs, though I've never really found myself needing it.

Be careful with these pegs, they're Lego easy to lose. I lost one taking these pictures.

These pegs allow the rocks to connect in multiple ways, though there are limitations due to the sculpting. Here are the two sets in both official configurations.


Each set also comes with several smaller rock pieces on pegs, that can fill the holes on the outside of the rocks.


Also, the bottom side of each official combined rock has three holes that line up perfectly with each other, allowing you to create these boulder-like structures.


These things are pretty big and heavy, so watch out, as I'm sure you could probably kill somebody with one of these.

Well, I'm sure that little description was about as entertaining as actual rocks (no offense to any geologists who use the forum), so here are some pics of toys interacting with these things.




They're also great if you want to hide things.

For example, this Sciurumimus is decently hidden amongst these rocks. But, I don't know... This shot doesn't really line up with my true creative vision. Luckily, with the power of rocks, I can fix that!

There we go! Those Jawas, I mean, uh, Alligatorium(?) will never spot him now!

But, these figures are not the intended companions of these rocky-bois, oh no. After a bit more futzing than I'd like, I've finally got the rocks into a decent configuration for my two Western Interior Seaway amigos.

I think they look pretty good like this overall. Sure, they lack the height that the bathroom tray offered, but they look far nicer. I think I'll grab a second set of gray sometime, as it fits the ocean theme far better than the more desert-looking beige rocks.

Here's another terrible image of the shelf, this time with 200% more rocks! Don't @ me on that calculation.


Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully, I managed to make fake rocks interesting, or at least bearable to read about.

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

At first i thought "Wat. Plastic Rocks." Thank you for this entertaining Post. I had to giggle here and there. I bet it works quite well with the LED Light and no flashy flashlight.

Also, i absolutely understand, why to use plastic Rocks instead of real ones. They look to real with plastic Figures. Same in Dioramas. I paint real rocks with Paint to have them look natural. Wat.

But i think 25 Dollerzz would be way too much for me, and i would hate the extraplastic... wich again is kind of a double standard, because i buy plastic Figures from China.

[Leyster]

Those rocks look really aesthetic and are great acessories for any diorama, it's a pity that I find really hard to spend moneys on acessories 

[Subduction]

"Well, I'm sure that little description was about as entertaining as actually rocks (no offense to any geologists who use the forum), so here are some pics of toys interacting with these things."



Those are some pretty cool rock dioramas though! I wonder if it's possible to stack them up even higher. But I think it was a good decision to display the 2 pterosaurs on rock platforms.

[Faelrin]

Nice find with those. They look great and look to have lots of potential.

[Loon]

Thanks everyone for the comments! I was surprised anyone actually replied as, you know, they're rocks.

Those are some pretty cool rock dioramas though! I wonder if it's possible to stack them up even higher. But I think it was a good decision to display the 2 pterosaurs on rock platforms.

Thank you! I have tried some stacking, since most of them have peg holes on the top, unfortunately, there's not enough flat surface space to work with. I also imagine that, even if it were possible, the Pterosaurs would have an even harder time planting their digits on a surface. In their current configuration, they still have some issue completely touching the ground.

[Loon]

Well, one order from Minizoo later...

Not to scale.

Yes, I am that impatient. Besides, Minizoo is always great, and shipping from Australia to California is not that expensive. So, here we are, the 2021 CollectA Megalosaurus.


Well, actually, it's "Megalosaurus – In Ambush." Regardless of the name, I can't say this was a figure that super excited me when it was first shown off. Like, I love a lipped Theropod, but something looked iffy. Then I found out it was super tiny, and that didn't make things any better. Despite the somewhat grim prospects, I went ahead and ordered it anyway. And, now that I have it in hand, I gotta say I really like it.


I was surprised to learn that Megalosaurus is known from pretty fragmentary remains; though, I believe the guy who told me this was exaggerating a bit. So, while slightly speculative, I think this figure is a pretty reasonable reconstruction.


The head has been the most controversial part, I know, but I think it turned out pretty alright. The lips look pretty good, and it doesn't have that bald head look that the photos made it have. Zooming in you can see a lot of the detail work; which, considering the size of this thing, is pretty impressive.


Now, the size... This thing is super tiny, but, as I was surprised to learn that's pretty appropriate for Megalosaurus. Based on Gregory Paul's estimate, Megalosaurus was around 20 ft. long. This would make the figure approximately 1:37 scale. Take my scale measurement with a grain of salt. Anyway, time for some size comparisons!

With CollectA's Deluxe Iguanodon. You know why.


With fellow Jurassic denizen, Eofauna's Atlasaurus.

So, all in all, I have to say I'm very happy I was wrong about this figure. For like $6, you're getting a really quality little model, and it's freaking Megalosaurus, Scrotum humanum itself! I think anyone with an interest in the history of Paleontology and, really, natural history as a whole should have a figure of it. I would say that it's the best, but, that's out of a market of, what, 2? And one of those figures is like 40 years old... Still, CollectA really did a good job with this one.

[Stegotyranno420]

how long is the figure?

Nevermind, its like 6.27 inches

Based on my sources and quick evidence(I'm gonna do more in depth research tomorrow) this figure is like 1/45-55 scale(i might have made math blunders, but I'm just doing my final task before my slumber, i don't really care.)
Yeah its much smaller than it should be

Oh yeah, (insert some Scrotum humanum joke here)

[Dusty Wren]

It is super charming to see the CollectA meerkat towering over this tiny therapod. Thanks for sharing photos; I think this little guy looks way better in hand than he did in the promos.

[Libraraptor]

Those pictures made me want wo have a CollectA Megalosaurus!

[Faelrin]

Wow it looks excellent, especially alongside their Iguanodon. Definitely a must have.

[PrimevalRaptor]

Well those new pterosaur display spots really rock!

And great shots of the Megalosaurus, I'm glad it also looks that great in person, really should pick that one up.

[Loon]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I'm glad seeing it in hand has had the same effect on others as it did me.

It is super charming to see the CollectA meerkat towering over this tiny therapod.

I didn't even think of that, but yeah, that's pretty funny. Good thing my modern animals don't display next to my extinct ones.

[Bokisaurus]

Yeah, that little megalosaurus does have a charm that is hard to resist 😃
It's a little gem packed with details.

[Leyster]

The Megalosaurus looks way nicer tha the promotional photos!

[Halichoeres]

I like the rocks; nice substrate for pterosaurs.

I opted to wait until the Mamenchisaurus is available before pulling the trigger on this one, but your photos are definitely whetting my appetite. Looking forward to ditching my old Toyway Megalosaurus.

[Crackington]

Thanks for sharing the pictures of the Megalosaurus @Loon , but got to say, "super-tiny" is good news for me! Nice looking model.

It looks like there are now three main Megalosaurus toys, Invicta, Toyway and now Collecta? Plus various cheaposaur monstrosities like Nayab etc and I guess some high quality reproductions of the Crystal Palace Godfather. Hopefully they'll be more soon.