David Silva's Beasts of the Mesozoic Tyrannosaur Series

[Lynx]

I have a question, how do you do the backer survey, and is it optional? This is my first time on Kickstarter so I'd love to know! Do I have to also create an account on backerkit?

[Fembrogon]

Man I'm really going to go broke from this series alone. These things are even more expensive than the notoriously pricy Bandai SH Monsterarts godzilla figures .

It's ironic for me: there have been a couple of times when I drifted away from kaiju collecting to focus on dinosaurs etc., if only because the latter was the cheaper option. Now we've got BotM, PNSO, and other brands like Rebor and Nanmu and GR Toys out there producing high-end content, and I'm sitting here thinking, "...I can't do this either!!" *exhausted*
I will say, though, I think the Tyrannosaur prices are more reasonable than the SHMA prices. The tyrants are BIG figures, and with their level of detail and articulation a hefty price point is inevitable. Having said that, the 1/35 scale rexes are priced at about $60-65 plus shipping, which is around what the MA figures STARTED at when the line was new, at a comparable toy size.

I'm dancing around pledging myself; there are definitely at least a few of these which I want, but I should probably hold off until I've got a few more funds to do it.

[Faelrin]

@Lynx It will be required to complete, as that will be when you add your shipping info. When the survey is sent out, it will be sent to the email you used to register with kickstarter. From there you will have a link that will take you directly to the kickstarter survey. The backerkit survey also acts as a pre-order store, beyond the new changes with kickstarter itself regarding add-ons. Think of your pledge total as total credit you can spend there. You will be freely able to change your pledge, and add-on's at the time of the backerkit survey until it is locked down. When the survey is locked down you will be charged for any additional add-ons, etc. Only the address is free to change until things are ready to ship.

David has also made clear that the backerkit surveys will not be locked down until all of the prototypes have been finished (sculpted and painted, etc), which will give folks time to decide on what they want to add on and such.

Edit: Here is some screencaps of a what a finished survey will look like (minus my private info blacked out of course):

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

So I just pledged for the WWD Tyrannosaurus (not sure if I'll keep it though), the Guanlong, Suskityrannus, Teratophenus, both sets of post cards and the calendar. Will add my beloved Eotyrannus if and when it becomes available.

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

I wonder if I should swap the WWD Tyrannosaurus for Dryptosaurus. It just I don't have space for a figure that large in that scale. Is there anyway thought could be an especially large individual at roughly 1:20 to 1:25 scale?

[suspsy]

Still more than $20K before Gorgosaurus is unlocked. 

I created a list matching up tyrannosaurs with ceratopsians a while back. Some people here might find it helpful in making a decision.

http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=9265.0

[Faelrin]

Forgot to add the Alectrosaurus update here. So doing it now:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/creativebeast/beasts-of-the-mesozoic-tyrannosaur-series-action-figures/posts/3324701











Worth mentioning that it also has a speculative reduced third finger.


@suspsy originally shared this interview in the BotM Cyberzoic thread, but it has a lot of info pertaining to this series, so I think folks should check it out if they haven't yet.

https://aiptcomics.com/2021/10/08/tyrannosaur-dinosaurs-beasts-of-the-mesozoic-toys-silva/?fbclid=IwAR0fqEvpdfmsuiWhSxRdGFjNWv3CvFFJYdEf6-fKlKVJQ_Ochh-Kte4hTKg

[Carnoking]

Hmmm... could cyberzoic be the next big dinosaur/fantasy IP?

[Carnoking]

At the same time though, I also want to encourage people to have fun with dinosaurs. I don't want people to feel excluded because they don't know how to pronounce the names or because they don't understand what the most current version is. I feel like there's a certain elitism that people sometimes associate with paleontology and dinosaurs. But when we were kids, we didn't worry about that. We were just like "Dinosaurs — so cool!"

This quote also struck a chord.

[Stegotyranno420]

At the same time though, I also want to encourage people to have fun with dinosaurs. I don't want people to feel excluded because they don't know how to pronounce the names or because they don't understand what the most current version is. I feel like there's a certain elitism that people sometimes associate with paleontology and dinosaurs. But when we were kids, we didn't worry about that. We were just like "Dinosaurs — so cool!"

Sometimes I wish I could go back to those carefree, happy, times...

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

As I kid I always liked trying to learn the names as as many as possible, and tried to pronounce everything properly. I still vaguely remember the time I learned the proper way to pronounce Chasmosaurus. And Tuojiangosaurus was always my favourite Stegosaur. I was also obsessed with scale as a kid, not just with dinosaurs but with all my toys, I wouldn't play with out of scale cars for instance. So aside from the carefree part that is alien to me lol

[Duck]

I've also decided to back the Bistahieversor. Hopefully it comes earlier than estimated. One can only dream...

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

Just changed my pledge, got rid of the T. rex for base international shipping but added Dryptosaurus & Dilong to it. Might swap Dilong later. Plan on getting Eotyrannus & Alectrosaurus, but I don't want the Guanlong to get shipped on its own so its either the Dilong, Yutyrannus or a T. rex to keep it company.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Alright I'm in, pledged for Bistahieversor, Teratophoneus, and Suskityrannus! That paint on the Bista is just too epic. Bring on the North American tyrannosaurs!

How well-supported is the evidence for the reduced 3rd digit on the Alectrosaurus?

[Faelrin]

@ItsTwentyBelow Entirely speculative at this point, at the very least for Alectrosaurus itself, though I can't recall if any other tyrannosauroid featured such, although the fragmentary theropod Gualicho has hands kind of like this, maybe. The only specimen that I believe is currently referable to Alectrosaurus is specimen AMNH 6554, which consists of the hindlimb, foot, etc only. Previously there was some skull material referred to it, but no longer (although that has yet to be assigned to a new or existing genera).

[Concavenator]

Since I don't have any BotM figures yet, there's something that concerns me. I don't really know how to put this but, how stiff the articulations get over time? To be honest, I don't care for the articulations that much, I'm only interested in getting at least one representative of the whole Beasts of the Mesozoic series (in my case the Guanlong) simply because these figures are so good. But I do prefer static figures, so I may just find one pose that I like and leave it that way. Is there any risk of the articulations breaking or is there any sort of damage that comes from not moving the articulations from time to time? I would like to know this.

[Faelrin]

@Concavenator In my personal experience with all 6 of my raptors, etc I think only a few of them have looser joints but nothing too severe as I only really toyed with them back when I first got them, occasional dusting, and pics for reviews mostly. Otherwise they stay posed on the shelf without problem.

In general the more you use joints the risk of them getting looser gets higher. I've never encountered the opposite in all my years of owning action figures, but who knows maybe someone has.

When initially opening best to give them a day or two to acclimate to your climate as the joints could be pretty tight as the shifted temperatures and humidity could cause the plastic to expand and/or contract. This is especially important from those living in winter months and having stuff come into a warmer environment (which I have experienced). From there it may help to use hot water to work them loose if needed. Never force a stiff joint as the risk of breakage is there. If the hot water trick doesn't work you might need to use a small knife to clean out any excess paint and/or plastic. I could not move the arms on my Mattel Indominus rex skeleton until I did such, but never had anything that serious on the raptors, but I did hear of some folks having that issue of too tight joints so it is something to be cautious of.

[Concavenator]

@Faelrin Many thanks for your advice! 

@Concavenator In my personal experience with all 6 of my raptors, etc I think only a few of them have looser joints but nothing too severe as I only really toyed with them back when I first got them, occasional dusting, and pics for reviews mostly. Otherwise they stay posed on the shelf without problem.

In general the more you use joints the risk of them getting looser gets higher. I've never encountered the opposite in all my years of owning action figures, but who knows maybe someone has.

Hmm so the more you use the joints, the worse they get and not the other way around? That's good to hear (in my case), as I plan to pretty much ignore the articulation factor and give it the same treatment as I would give to any other (static) figure, leaving it on the shelf and occasionally handling it for dusting, mainly.

When initially opening best to give them a day or two to acclimate to your climate

You mean leaving the figure without using any articulation for that time? If that's what you mean by acclimating, I guess I'll be doing so, as I don't want to use the hot water method. We'll see what temperature will be at home when I get it, but if these first tyrannosaurs are being released in next year's fall or thereabouts, the temperature won't be extreme by any means.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Hmm, while it seems likely that older tyrannosaurs should exhibit that structure externally as it became further reduced, that's a bold move to include it when we don't know either way about how it appeared in Alectrosaurus.

To add to BotM the discussion, I own 3 of the full-size raptors, 3 of the smaller raptor species, the gray nestlings 3-pack, and three ceratopsians by BotM.

I've had no breakage issues or paint problems, and only a couple joints total that were so stiff as to need some caution at first, but now they move just fine.

Sometimes I switch around the poses of the BotM figures I have currently on the shelf, and am just happy that none of the joints, especially on my raptors, have become super loose to the point where they flop around or can't support the figure. The closest approximation to BotM when I was a kid were those super articulated "Carnage" dinosaur figures with display bases by ReSaurus from the late 1990s (and later sold by Toysmith). The leg joints on my ReSaurus Giganotosaurus quickly came to the point where they would just buckle when I'd try to display it with the rod and base, and the neck joint was so weak that the head was always hanging pointed at the ground and never faced forward like I wanted. And those were some of the most seriously cool dinosaur toys to kid me.

Not so with any of my BotM figs. The execution is much more professional.

[Faelrin]

@Concavenator Yes that is correct, especially if the joints appear stiff initially. Just be cautious and take care and it should work out. If you do ever run into a serious issue then you can contact David and he will try to help mitigate, either by offering an exchange, or whatever advice as necessary. That also goes for any other issues as well.