David Silva's Beasts of the Mesozoic Tyrannosaur Series

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Getting back to the tyrannosaurs, here's a question I've posed in the past, but will ask again now that we've got an official thread going: what should be the inspiration for the colour schemes this time?

He better use some red-ish tones for the 1/35 Tyrannosaurus

Jurassic Park novel version? 

[suspsy]

David has made a few key comments on CB's Facebook:

Wow, thank you all so much for the overwhelmingly positive response to this news! There are so many questions and I plan to go through and answer everyone soon. I especially want to point out though, that the names in parentheses are not the names I intend to use, I only put them there as some people know those dinosaurs by those other names. I also want to mention that only bodies 1 and 3.5 will be feathered. I'll follow up with individual answers as soon as I can.

Integument proponents will no doubt be disappointed, but it's David's call, he made it, and I respect it.

Based on the information I've seen, yes I do think they should have lips.

Cool!

This is true- the 'sub-adult' Triceratops will pair perfectly with the 1/35th T-Rex.

Guess I'll have to pick up that Tric at some point then!

'Nanotyrannus' is only mentioned because it's associated with the juvenile T-Rex and is not meant to imply that it will be called by that name.

Good!

Haven't decided on colors yet, but I am looking forward to that process.

As am I.

And with regard to possibly not making the 1/18 T. rex a stretch goal.

I will see if I can make that work. I know a lot of people are interested in that one.

[MLMjp]

I got so excited by the possibility of a 1:35 T.rex that I completely forgot that the Ceratopsians are not even out yet. And the Tyrannosauroids won't probably se the light of the day until 2022.

Better forget about this until we get some prototypes or the announcement of the kick-starter otherwise I'm gonna die of impatience...Goodbye guys, I won't visit this thread for a long time...

[Flaffy]

David on why Zhuchengtyrannus isn't on the lineup:

I agree, but it would be the size of the big T-Rex and I'd rather get the T-Rex funded first and then release a Zhuchengtyrannus later on.

Isn't Zhuchengtyrannus around the same size as Tarbosaurus?

[Faelrin]

Good to see he responded to some of the concerns that were being posted.

I'm rather glad to see that the sub adult Triceratops will be able to scale with the 1/35 one. What a great choice. This probably opens up the opportunity for the juvenile rex to resemble a juvenile rex more, then the sub adult Triceratops did. In case it is also of help to folks here, the size of the sub adult Triceratops is 10.5 inches long, and the adult one is 18 inches long.

I was having a feeling only body 1 and 3.5 would be the feathered ones at the minimum. I think it's a fair enough mix (and taking into account the current evidence). Honestly having a scaly T. rex would also help his sales no doubt, since that's always been more popular. What I am curious is if all of these (early tyrannosauroids and later tyrannosaurids) will have lips. I would think they probably will, as eventually all the raptors did. That would be particularly exciting for me as no figure currently depicts any of the species chosen with lips as of yet.

I hope will we see Appalachiosaurus,  Nanuqsaurus, and Zhuchengtyrannus eventually, but well I could live without them.

@suspsy Also thanks for passing on the information about the Gorgosaurus. I also think you may be right about sauropods being next, if he's doing a 1/35 scale rex. I think I recall him mentioning something a while back either on FB or instagram about mentioning he would be interested in doing them, when someone asked him about it. I really do think it would be interesting if he went with snake colorations for them, if not something entirely original, but that may be a ways off yet.

Edit: I really liked someone's suggestion for ratite colors (although emu was already used for the Mononykus). I think they would look great on some of tyrannosauroids.

[Killekor]

I'm Really happy that Mr. Silva decided to make the Qianzhousaurus and the Yutyrannus (my favorite Tyrannosaurs), even if the former will not be feathered.

As I suggested in another thread I would like farm birds as an inspiration for the Tyrannosaurs. T-Rex's colors could be inspired by chickens (a classic!) or peacocks, and who wouldn't want a "Goose" Qianzhousaurus ?

Killekor

[DragonRider02]

I hope there will be 'Build-a-Tyranno' sets, I really, REALLY want to give Guanlong Ice Age 3 colors 

[suspsy]

I got so excited by the possibility of a 1:35 T.rex that I completely forgot that the Ceratopsians are not even out yet. And the Tyrannosauroids won't probably se the light of the day until 2022.

Better forget about this until we get some prototypes or the announcement of the kick-starter otherwise I'm gonna die of impatience...Goodbye guys, I won't visit this thread for a long time...

You'll be checking it regularly and you know it! 

Oh, and here again is a comparison photo I took awhile back to gauge the size of the 1/18 T. rex. The LEGO build is the same length (27"/69 cm).

Untitled by suspsy3, on Flickr

[MLMjp]

I got so excited by the possibility of a 1:35 T.rex that I completely forgot that the Ceratopsians are not even out yet. And the Tyrannosauroids won't probably se the light of the day until 2022.

Better forget about this until we get some prototypes or the announcement of the kick-starter otherwise I'm gonna die of impatience...Goodbye guys, I won't visit this thread for a long time...

You'll be checking it regularly and you know it! 

Damn, you are right

[terrorchicken]

I'm Really happy that Mr. Silva decided to make the Qianzhousaurus and the Yutyrannus (my favorite Tyrannosaurs), even if the former will not be feathered.

As I suggested in another thread I would like farm birds as an inspiration for the Tyrannosaurs. T-Rex's colors could be inspired by chickens (a classic!) or peacocks, and who wouldn't want a "Goose" Qianzhousaurus ?

Killekor

yeah but please no overly recognizable birds. I dont like when the color pattern used for an extinct animal reconstruction is too familiar. Like please no rock pigeon or budgie tyrannosaurs. 

I hope he offers more smaller sized figures this time around. The ceratopsian series only had the zuniceratops and I would have liked to have seen more choices in that size range.

[Flaffy]

I would love to see some more "natural" tones, something like Gabriel's tyrannosaurs:

[Shonisaurus]

Although there are hardly any remains, I would like BoTM to make the European aviatyrannis. The size is very small and honestly it could even be at the scale of the BoTM raptors. I think that figure is not on the BoTM list.

[Faelrin]

@Flaffy Those are lovely. I would certainly like to see something along those lines as well.

[Appalachiosaurus]

I'm hoping for snakes

[Ravonium]

My two cents on a few things relevant to this thread.

1. This could have been posted in the controversial opinions thread, but considering what David chose for the final lineup, I don't mind Nanuqsaurus not making it. Same goes for Zhuchengtyrannus (I'm admittedly a bit disappointed Alioramus and Appalachiosaurus didn't make it though)

2. So these appear to be the figures that will have feathers:
-Dilong
-Moros
-Suskityrannus
-Eotyrannus
-Guanlong
-Proceratosaurus
-Yutyrannus
-Dryptosaurus

Interesting how he's opted to feather Dryptosaurus, but not Alectrosaurus, as I'd assume the latter had a higher probability of having feathers in life (of course I could be wrong to do so, and in that case, feel free to correct me). It is also possible that bodies 1 and 3.5 are just the bodies that will contain at least one feathered species, however I'm struggling to think of an alternative reason why the latter was called '3.5' rather than '4'.

3. Nice to see that this lineup is smaller and contains more small figures and underrepresented taxa this time; I think the ceratopsian line suffered from having too many taxa that had fairly decent representation in the toy market despite not being popular, and also from having not many options for small figures. I'm also, as other people here are, very happy to see a 1:35 T. rex; I imagine it will end up being my collection's featherless T. rex.

4. As for colour schemes, I backed the suggestion of gamebirds (and suggested ratites for some of the larger figures), and I still do for the feathered figures, however I'm not convinced that they'll work on the featherless figures. Snakes are a fairly interesting suggestion for the featherless figures, and I'm going to suggest monitor lizards as something David should explore for the tyrannosaurids.

5. Finally, as for what I'll get from this lineup, I think I'll get the 1:35 T. rex and Suskityrannus at a minimum (hoping I can also afford to add Guanlong to that list).

[stargatedalek]

I assume Dryptosaurus was chosen for feathers only out of convenience for scale, since it's similar in size to Yutyrannus.

I'm not interested in any of the bald depictions, but I'm fine with that since it makes things a lot easier on me to pick out the ones I really want.

[Concavenator]

I'm hoping he chooses bears as inspiration for the tyrannosaurs' color schemes. I said bears because I want them to have natural color schemes, it's good to, sometimes, have flashy colors, but there are some figures, like the Chasmosaurus, whose color scheme I'm not fond of. I think bears would probably be among the best choices, at least for the feathered ones.

[suspsy]

I think bears are way too monochromatic for David's tastes. They come in black, white, creamy white with some light brown highlights (Kermode bear), and a variety of browns. That'd make for a pretty dull lot. Aside from maybe big cats, I don't believe he's going to go with any mammal group.

I've also suggested @Appalachiosaurus' idea of snakes in the past, especially considering that they're natural predators of lizards and that the tyrannosaurids won't be feathered. A Tyrannosaurus rex with a bushmaster's colour scheme might be nifty:



Oh, and in response to @Flaffy's question, Zhuchengtyrannus is thought to have been slightly bigger than Tarbosaurus, but considerably smaller than T. rex. The Eofauna team estimates it to have been about 30 or so feet long and 4.4 tons.

[Appalachiosaurus]

I'm hoping he chooses bears as inspiration for the tyrannosaurs' color schemes. I said bears because I want them to have natural color schemes, it's good to, sometimes, have flashy colors, but there are some figures, like the Chasmosaurus, whose color scheme I'm not fond of. I think bears would probably be among the best choices, at least for the feathered ones.

I just hope he stays away from mammals in general, "natural" colors on a carnivoran are very different from natural colors on a reptile. Just because they shared similar niches doesn't mean they would have looked the same as well.

[suspsy]

Well, as it turns out, David stated on Facebook today that he is indeed leaning toward snakes for the tyrannosaur series, but hasn't made a final decision yet.