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

[Loon]

By contrast I saw the film but have no clear memories of it.  It's fascinating to read how it stayed with you. And it's a very successful repaint.

I can see that. Despite my personal feelings on it, I can totally buy that it might not be for everyone. Nostalgia is a big part of it for me.

@Stegotyranno420 thanks. Those JP3 toys aren't the best in the series, but they're a load of fun.

@paintingdinos I really love what you did with the colors, so I hope I didn't come off as wanting a 1:1 copy. This is honestly perfect. As for the JP3 designs,  I should also add that the patterns are among the most interesting in the series. Especially with the recent films, I feel like they've gone with very generic stripes on every design, whereas the third movie had all these interesting shapes and colors on their animals.

@Theriz Ha, nice to see I wasn't alone.

[Loon]

Hadrosaurs, in my mind, have always come across as some do the most colorful dinosaurs. I think this may be a side product of being exposed to Luis Rey's art ever since I was young, but to me a drab hadrosaur just seems plain wrong. That was the case with CollectA's Edmontosaurus. I've had issues with CollectA's paint schemes before, they're either too simple or add just one too many colors to look cohesive. This was the latter. That green just looked so out of place; I would have preferred them try to do something more simple.

Before


After


When pitching the idea of a repaint to @paintingdinos, I fell in love with the notion referencing animals that currently live where the fossils were found. It's not only a nice homage, but also allows for realistic looking references and some unique combinations of their features. The head and tail colors come from a Common five-lined skink, while the white underbelly and facial patterns owe a lot to the Pronghorn, and of course the vicious Canadian Goose inspired the black and gray patterns along the back.

"Where you're going is the only place in the world where the geese chase you." - Ian Malcolm

The banding along the tail was also very important to get down as well and I think it looks so lovely paired with the blue. When going for such a flashy and diverse color scheme, I think it's easy to make the figure look disjointed, but that's not the case here. Nothing ever feels abrupt; paintingdinos made each color blend so seamlessly into the next.



A huge shout out has to be given to those horizontal stripes she put along the body; they create a strong sense of unity as they extend between colors. Along the with darker greys on the torso, they provide a nice grounded contrast, and give this animal an intimidating presence. Really, come to think of it, there aren't enough dinosaur models with darker color schemes (I'm getting a little sick or every figure being brown or green).





The head might be my favorite part of the whole figure. The way the black lines partition different areas of the head is so striking. I'm not much of a Star Wars fan, but the head reminds me so much of that edge-lord Darth Maul, I love it.

The pop of white on the "cheeks" is also a nice touch. It helps break up the other colors and gives adds another color tone to an already colorful figure.

Oh, and that head crest. Somehow, amongst this sea of tones and vibrant patterns, this head crest still manages to stick out. I mean "stick out" in the best way possible; it was a display feature after all, it should grab your attention. Still, it doesn't feel like it comes from a completely different animal; the red, black, and those few hints of blue connect it to the rest of the colors, but the yellow makes it clear that this is a special structure.



This is truly a dinosaur model that will always catch my eye. I haven't put it on the shelf just yet (my display is a mess at the moment), but I'm going to make sure it's easily visible, because I just love looking at it.

I have to give a huge thank you to paintingdinos for creating such a  flashy paint scheme and making it work so well. Along with her Shantungosaurus custom, my late Cretaceous shelves are going to look like a hadrosaur rave, and I'm 100% ok with that.

[Ludodactylus]

That Edmontosaurus is spectacular! Really great color choices!

[Halichoeres]

Agreed there is too much brown and green, considering these were animals that could perceive more colors than most mammals. These repaints are a breath of fresh air in that respect! And beautifully executed, of course.

[Grimbeard]

What a spectacular repaint!

I felt that the original paint job undersold, maybe even undermined the fantastic sculpt beneath (while I feel the opposite way about Safair Ltds Edmontosaur, whos weaker sculpt get evelated by it nice paint job). "Peasoup-green" with "desert-stone brown" are a really ugly color combination and looked ironicly less realistic than this repaint. 

[Loon]

That Edmontosaurus is spectacular! Really great color choices!

Yeah, it really is. Paintingdinos did such a great job of making them all work together, which surprised me honestly, since they are very in your face.

Agreed there is too much brown and green, considering these were animals that could perceive more colors than most mammals. These repaints are a breath of fresh air in that respect! And beautifully executed, of course.

I'm frankly getting pretty fed up with a lot of modern color schemes. Especially in the higher end market, they seem to have completely abandoned the idea of interesting colors.

What a spectacular repaint!

I felt that the original paint job undersold, maybe even undermined the fantastic sculpt beneath (while I feel the opposite way about Safair Ltds Edmontosaur, whos weaker sculpt get evelated by it nice paint job). "Peasoup-green" with "desert-stone brown" are a really ugly color combination and looked ironicly less realistic than this repaint. 

Yeah, like a lot of CollectA figures, there's so much detail in the sculpt. I think Geiger's theropods can be very hit or miss, but all of his recent ornithischians have been excellent, this one being a prime example. They just need some love in the paint department.

[ceratopsian]

......
Yeah, like a lot of CollectA figures, there's so much detail in the sculpt. I think Geiger's theropods can be very hit or miss, but all of his recent ornithischians have been excellent, this one being a prime example. They just need some love in the paint department.

That sums up CollectA's strengths and weaknesses perfectly.  And this is a stunning and very striking repaint.

[Loon]

@ceratopsian I'm happy you think so. About CollectA, I often think about the repaints you've had done by Martin Garratt, the dimorphodon especially, as great examples of how much these sculpts could benefit from some more considered paint apps.

[ceratopsian]

Thanks @Loon. Indeed, I have found over the years that CollectA models frequently give excellent results when some repaint care is lavished on them. (Not their theropods though!)

[Bokisaurus]

Very nice repaint of this fabulous model😃 the colors are truly striking and eye catching! Congratulations!

[paintingdinos]

I really love what you did with the colors, so I hope I didn't come off as wanting a 1:1 copy. This is honestly perfect. As for the JP3 designs,  I should also add that the patterns are among the most interesting in the series. Especially with the recent films, I feel like they've gone with very generic stripes on every design, whereas the third movie had all these interesting shapes and colors on their animals.

No not at all! I figured you were happy with the changes. I also agree. If they had the ability to completely manipulate the DNA of the animals they were bringing back... why NOT make them more visually interesting? Especially the new films. They clearly demonstrated they could do pretty much whatever they wanted, but still made them muddy grey. Brown. White. Little to no markings. I hate to be so pessimistic but... snore. From what I've seen the park builder game did a way better job with that, giving them more interesting colors/markings.

Also I love the hadrosaur rave, no one else at the party can even compete with their stylish duds.

[Loon]

Call it my inner horse girl showing or just general social ineptitude, but I have always been drawn to media where humans form strong bonds with other animals. Something about that kind of narrative just appeals to me. Maybe it's that main characters are often socially awkward, "I like animals better than people" types; which, yeah, I guess that's me.

Living the dream

James Gurney's Dinotopia is, in my opinion, one of the exemplars of this type of story.

Source: https://artandinfluence.com/dinotopia-the-fantastical-art-of-james-gurney

Unfortunately, I didn't grow up reading the books, but did still encounter the series as a youth. Being a dinosaur obsessed child requires a healthy appetite for mediocre media and the Hallmark miniseries was something I just devoured. Honestly, looking back on it, it's not that bad and the music is seriously fantastic.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/River-Quest-Dinotopia-John-Vornholt/dp/0679869824

I also remember fawning over a copy of one of the chapter books, River Quest, in my elementary school's library. But, that was one of those filthy chapter books where you had to read of all things. Besides, and at that age I was becoming more obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sonic the Hedgehog to bother with some dinosaur book for babies.

Source: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/73536-dinotopia-the-mini-series/images/posters

As a young adult getting back into dinosaurs, I would often see James Gurney's art pop-up here and there and quickly became obsessed with it. I quickly connected the dots, realizing that these were the paintings that Dinotopia show I used to watch as a kid was based on and that they came from a series of books. As soon as I got enough money together I ordered all 3 of the main books; I still haven't read First Flight, sorry.

Source: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2015/04/tyrannosaurs-behind-art.html?m=1

It's a real shame I missed out on these books as a kid because they are just chock-full of the kinds of things I love. While there's not a ton of deep Silmarillion-level lore, the world is fleshed-out so practically it makes you forget that this is a world were dinosaurs have lived unchanged on an island for tens of millions of years. There are just oodles of pages of schematics and labels highlighting all the little eccentricities of this place. As a kid, I loved books with technical breakdowns of diagrams. I absolutely are up those DK guides that went over all the details of movies. You can really get lost tuff like this. I actually witnessed this first-hand the other day. I brought a copy of the first book to my child care job and caught a co-worker turning through the pages, carefully looking over the art, and then proceeding to buy the book on his phone for his niece. I'm honestly just happy I could spread the word.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/277886239480063622

The way the series approaches the complicated issue of anthropomorphic animals is really stand out, too. For example, carnivores aren't considered evil, but are treated by the mostly vegetarian populace as a different culture. It also goes a step beyond many franchises, and makes it clear that these animals are not subservient in anyway to their human counterparts, but equals. They have their own culture and lives. Unlike so much dinosaur media, these dinosaurs don't spend their time roaring and chasing humans, they'd mostly rather sing or discuss the cyclical nature of time. This might just be my fan-fiction level head canon, but I have found so much enjoyment in this series. It's one of the few fantasy worlds I wouldn't mind living in, honestly.

Source: https://jamesgurney.com/products/dinotopia-a-land-apart-from-time-signed

One of my favorite features of the Dinotopia series is the Protoceratops named Bix. She's the resident empathy among the main characters, relying on communication skills and understanding to resolve conflicts. These are admirable qualities and so refreshing compared to other dinosaur characters who are either over-the-top anti-heroes or lost children.

Source: https://pin.it/1FGQdtr

Because of Bix, Protoceratops became my favorite dinosaur and I have amassed a small collection of them.

It's a whole...thing...

Unfortunately, Dinotopia never got much merchandise in the realm of toys. There are a couple of plush, one of which is a Bix, but that's it. Coincidentally, Bix was modeled after the Protoceratops from Tyco's Dino Riders. When there were talks of Disney and Jim Henson making a Dinotopia movie in the mid-90s, a line of figures and dolls was proposed, but never made it past the mock-up stage. It's ok, sometimes our dreams have to die horrible deaths and apparently result in Disney's Dinosaur and The Phantom Menace. I'm not mad. Who said I was mad?


In lieu of proper figural representation, and to accompany the Quetzalcoatlus Skybax custom she had made before, I commissioned Bix from @paintingdinos. Like the aforementioned Skybax, this custom would utilize a figure that was based on the more modern look for Protoceratops as opposed to the plump "hog-parrot" of Gurney's books. Since it is one of the better modern reconstructions of Protoceratops available, I chose the CollectA figure from a couple years back.


I was a bit concerned at first, as I am a big fan of classic Protoceratops reconstructions and didn't know if the figure would be able to come across as a character firmly rooted in those ideas. The modern look for Protoceratops is relatively slim, with long legs and a head that makes it look like it'll fall down under its weight. But science marches on, and if anything it would prove a neat experiment to see what a modern version of Bix might look like.



Of course, paintingdinos did a masterful job here. I made the executive decision to defer to her judgement on how this would turn out. I know nothing about color or layers or...art...


Bix really looks like she jumped out of one of Gurney's illustrations. There's a real painterly quality to the way the colors interact. I can't quite describe it without sounding like an art history students trying to fill space on an essay, but it's something about the point at which the red and yellow meet and how they continue to cross over.


The quills, while maybe a questionable choice on CollectA's part, look so good. Paintingdinos went for something akin to a porcupine and I think it really works. They contrast just enough from the red and yellow to stick out, but aren't so striking as to look out of place.


The head is also another victory in conveying the character. The upward angle of the head, along with the jaw articulation and those little Nosferatu teeth didn't give off the warm vibes Bix has in the books.

However, paintingdinos has managed to make it work so well. The white around her eyes is a great little touch that I think can go unnoticed in Gurney's art. I certainly didn't notice it before we went over reference material for this custom.

Also, miraculously, I think the paint has somehow accomplished the herculean feat of making that jaw articulation look bearable.

A recreation of a scene from my unpublished fan fiction: Mementoceratops mori

I am beyond happy to have a figure of Bix in my collection. Paintingdinos, as always, did some real next-level work to bring this idea to life and I can't thank her enough for that. Along with her Skybax custom, it feels like Bix fills a huge hole in my collection.

At long last, Bix and Cirrus are reunited! Hopefully no one feels like throwing a rock at her again.

Until the next time I post...
Breathe deep, seek peace!

[Halichoeres]

I don't go in for dinosaurs based on specific media properties, but if there's one that could tempt me, it's Dinotopia. paintingdinos did a bang-up job!

[Loon]

@Halichoeres thanks, and I agree, she did a great job.
My display has been in disarray for some time now. The problem with putting basically everything on shelves is that you eventually have to dust it and that's quite the task. I promised myself I'd do it once school got out, but summer came and went. This problem was compounded by me placing new stuff wherever there was space for them to stand. I finally got my act together last week. My sister was coming over, I had a new centerpiece to display, and I just could no longer live with a room that messy.

I'm sure many of you have seen most of this before. But it's relatively rare for it to look this nice and I don't know how long that will last, so I took some pictures. It's just a thing I do. Not all of these are dinosaurs or prehistoric, some aren't even animals, but I don't really share my collection in non-animal focused spaces and wanted to share them somewhere, so hopefully you don't mind looking at some of the other nonsense I waste my hard-earned money on.


Modern Marine Life





My new centerpiece, the Taka Corp Toothless and Hiccup statue (of course my butterfingers snapped one of the hairs on Hiccup's head, but, hey, that's what super glue is for)


Sideshow Collectibles Toothless Statue Bootleg


Mesozoic Marine Life


Protoceratops and adjacent character(s)


Hyenas and some large scale animals


Mattel Jurassic Park



Paleozoic


Triassic


Jurassic Europe, Africa, South America, and China


Morrison Formation


Cretaceous Asia and Europe (with a small cameo)


Cretaceous Americas, Korea, and Africa


Cretaceous basically everywhere


Late Cretaceous Canada


Late Cretaceous Asia and Madagascar


Late Cretaceous America


Modern Animals





Misc. nonsense


Paleogene


Neogene


Quaternary


Transformers



Anyway, thanks for looking.

[Libraraptor]

That. Is. Imposing.
That. Is. Stunning.
In the picture with the giant Paraceratherium and the Basilosaurus, do I see a walking whale or what is that little figure second from right?
Nice to see the Bullyland Procynosuchus in the Permian shelf. Still remember the hype around it in the forum many, many years ago.
There is a Protochirotherium by Bullyland, too which would fit the Permian/Triassic shelf, too. It´s the first ichnotaxon of which a figure had been made, quite interesting.

[Blackdanter]

Your collection looks wonderful. Really well displayed and varied. Great photos, thanks for posting.

[TooOldForDinosaurs]

Wow... Absolutely gorgeous collection and display. Everything looks so perfectly arranged and I can tell a lot of time went into the setup. So many fantastic figures and quite a bunch I am jealous of (most of the custom repaints  ). Every shelf is just beautiful to look at.

[ceratopsian]

A real pleasure to have a wander through this.  I know what you mean about maintenance.  I'm promising I'll have a massive reordering in my model room in the autumn/winter (when my summer hobby of growing cacti is dormant and frees up more time).  Currently it irks me that my shelves aren't in perfect order and are not dust-free.

[JimoAi]

Wonderful collection though the marine shelf could benefit from more bony fish and rays. For my mesozoic marine life, I went with CollectA's mosa as opposed to pnso's tylo to follow the 12m max size for mosasaurs in the 1:40 scale. Certainly made my jaw dropped!

[Gwangi]

A fantastic collection, a real miniature museum. Of everything you have I think I need that Flatwoods monster the most.