Leyster's Collection (updated 29/03/24)

[Gwangi]

I actually prefer the old PNSO Stegosaurus over the newer one (at least the adult one). I know that the "green body with reddish plates" colorscheme is overdone and the plate pattern is..."controversial", but its still my prefered Stegosaurus look besides Rebors Woodland Variant Stego.

The only think I dont like that much about old Bieber are the pink markings on his eyes.

I agree with everything in this post. I've been on the fence about getting it since its release though, and isn't it retired now or something?

[Leyster]

@Halichoeres I agree, when it came out it was praised by Matt Dempsey, which is REALLY knowledgeable about ornithischians.

@Grimbeard I agree, I would've preferred it to keep the whitish marking of the promo pics.

@Gwangi afaik it's retired on the official site, bit you can still buy it at third part sellers like Speelboer or Everything Dinosaurs.


Binomial name: Iguanodon bernissartensis Boulenger, 1881
Classification: Dinosauria->Ornithischia->Genasauria->Neornithischia->Cerapoda->Ornithopoda->Iguanodontia->Dryomorpha->Ankylopollexia->Styracosterna->Hadrosauriformes
Time: Barremian-Aptian (Early Cretaceous)
Formation: Sainte-Barbe Clays Formation (present-day Belgium), Lower Greensand Formation (present-day UK)
Manifacturer and date of release: Safari LTD, 2016
Sculptor: Doug Watson
Scale: 1:40 based on the lectotype (IRSNB 1534)

[Shonisaurus]

Sincerely, Safari's iguanodon is one of the best on the toy dinosaur market along with its counterparts from Collecta and the spectacular PNSO. Honestly, in my case, the Safari iguanodons are on the same level of genius as the Collecta one, although I prefer the Collecta one, the Safari one seems more scientific to me and obviously for me the best one is the PNSO brand, but it is a mere appreciation mine.

Thanks for sharing your photos. It makes me happy to see your posts in this thread.

[SidB]

L @Leyster , I'm quite glad that you posted this Iguanodon rendition, since I'd like to hear your thoughts on it's rival, the new PNSO figure. The Safari piece fits my conception of this genus. In particular, the head corresponds, in as far as I can see, to the general range of skeletals that I've been able to access, of Iguanodon bernissartensis head configuration. The CollectA one too.

But the PNSO's does not. In looking at a range of head skeletals, almost all correspond to the Safari/ CollectA. One or two seem fairly close to the PNSO figure, but not exactly. The PNSO's head seems to correspond exactly to the Mantellisaurus, which had been subsumed under Iguanodon, but, of course, now has its own dedicated genus. So the PNSO is a chimera, seemingly. What do you think?

[Flaffy]

L @Leyster , I'm quite glad that you posted this Iguanodon rendition, since I'd like to hear your thoughts on it's rival, the new PNSO figure. The Safari piece fits my conception of this genus. In particular, the head corresponds, in as far as I can see, to the general range of skeletals that I've been able to access, of Iguanodon bernissartensis head configuration. The CollectA one too.

But the PNSO's does not. In looking at a range of head skeletals, almost all correspond to the Safari/ CollectA. One or two seem fairly close to the PNSO figure, but not exactly. The PNSO's head seems to correspond exactly to the Mantellisaurus, which had been subsumed under Iguanodon, but, of course, now has its own dedicated genus. So the PNSO is a chimera, seemingly. What do you think?

Matt Dempsey's recent Iguanodon musculature, and he too goes for the classic, robust, boxy skull that is iconic to Iguanodon.

[SidB]

Exactly, @Flaffy .

[Leyster]

S @SidB until last week I woul've agreed too that it was a chimera, but in one of the recent videos PNSO shares on Facebook they showed the skull they used for the model and, while not having the classic shape (different sex? crushing?) it's undoubtely Iguanodon bernissartensis.


Note that there is half of Paleo-Nerd logo only because I grabbed it from a live where it was shared by @Mattyonyx , which himself took it from the PNSO video, since I was too lazy to check exactly in which one of the videos it was featured.

[Flaffy]

S @SidB until last week I woul've agreed too that it was a chimera, but in one of the recent videos PNSO shares on Facebook they showed the skull they used for the model and, while not having the classic shape (different sex? crushing?) it's undoubtely Iguanodon bernissartensis.


Note that there is half of Paleo-Nerd logo only because I grabbed it from a live where it was shared by @Mattyonyx , which himself took it from the PNSO video, since I was too lazy to check exactly in which one of the videos it was featured.

Are we positively sure the actual model is based off this skull? It's noticeably different compared to the skeletal below (one of the rare instances where the skeletal matches up with the figure). The back of the head shows the most obvious differences between the two.

[Lanthanotus]

I just finished the review of Harvey for the blog and while I really like the PNSO figure, I agree that its head can barely resemble what is accepted as Iguanodon. The overall shape from snout to forehead (which in such an animal is the back of the head naturally) is too smoothly curved and only so slightly raised in the last bit of the back that it hardly can match an Iguanodon's characteristic shape, especially when you think that most animal do not have a lot of soft tissue in this part of the head so to disguise the shape of the skull.

[Mattyonyx]

S @SidB @Lanthanotus Since I got mentioned by Leyster in his post, here are the screen captures from the official PNSO video:






The specimen in the reference picture is pretty popular, here's another angle from an old postcard.


Being their only official statement about the head, at least the effort to give an explanation is something I appreciate, even though it's clear that using an unconventional head was a controversial choice, any way you look at it.


Whether they executed a convoluted plan to put a Mantellisaurus head on an Iguanodon body (adding Bertozzo and Nabavizadeh's latest proposals and ignoring the 2007's classification) thinking no one would have ever noticed, and then searched for a skull which could serve as a justification, or simply used another I. bernissartensis head, it's apparent they took a big risk.

[SidB]

Thank you, @Mattyonyx , for taking the trouble to bring this information concerning the mystery of PNSO's fabrication of a rather unorthodox iguanodon. I have to admit that I'm still quite perplexed at the thought processes that lead to their final outcome. I'm particularly interested in the reference to the latest proposals of Bertozzo and Nabiavizadeh relative to the decision to dismiss the 2007 classification by PNSO. I've done a cursory search for their proposal (B and N), but haven't located it as yet. Do you know the source of this paper?

[Mattyonyx]

Thank you, @Mattyonyx , for taking the trouble to bring this information concerning the mystery of PNSO's fabrication of a rather unorthodox iguanodon. I have to admit that I'm still quite perplexed at the thought processes that lead to their final outcome. I'm particularly interested in the reference to the latest proposals of Bertozzo and Nabiavizadeh relative to the decision to dismiss the 2007 classification by PNSO. I've done a cursory search for their proposal (B and N), but haven't located it as yet. Do you know the source of this paper?

Sure, I was talking about these ones:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joa.13363
https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.23988

Both the papers were mentioned in the PNSO video and, unlike the previous ornithopods, Iguanodon is the first official figure to follow Bertozzo's proposal about the presence of a nuchal ligament and a more muscular neck (the one that made the "chonky Parasaurolophus" viral).



Judging by this picture, it seems like they used the (h) option.

They are very recent papers, which means their Iguanodon is not an older model like Parasaurolophus, so why would they have made a chimera based on an old idea? It's not like they could get away with it, and the general feedback is proof of that.

[SidB]

Thanks, @Mattyonyx , interesting material. Regarding the Mantellisaurus type skull, I'm resigning myself to the mystery of it all, barring someone from the PNSO workshop shedding some light on their decision to proceed in this direction.

[Leyster]

Binomial name: Anchiornis huxleyi Xu et al., 2009
Classification: Dinosauria->Theropoda->Neotheropoda->Averostra->Tetanurae->Coelurosauria->Tyrannoraptora->Maniraptoromorpha->Neocoelurosauria->Maniraptoriformes->Maniraptora->Pennaraptora->Paraves->Eumaniraptora->Anchiornitidae
Time: Oxfordian (late Jurassic)
Formation: Tiaojishan Formation (present-day China)
Manifacturer and date of release: PNSO, 2017
Sculptor: somebody in the atelier of Zhao Chuang
Scale: 1:4 for 41HIII0404 (referred specimen)


I have some doubts with the proportions of this, nevertheless is nice to own a reproduction of such an important animal.

[Halichoeres]

Yeah, like several of their miniatures it has too large a head, making it just a bit cartoony. Still, I'm glad they bothered to make it at all!

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

Also very pleased they made an Anchiornis, its one of the highlights of my larger scale figures despite its size.
I had never taken to their Archaeopteryx though because I had Safari and Favorite which are small enough for me.

[Leyster]

@Halichoeres @Gothmog the Baryonyx IMHO the miniatures are still the most interesting thing PNSO has done thus far. They allow to represent smaller taxa than the usually made ones. Speaking of miniatures...

Binomial name: Bothriolepis canadensis Whiteaves, 1880
Classification: Placodermi*->Antiarchi->Bothriolepidoidei->Bothriolepididae
Time: Frasnian-Famminian (middle-upper Devonian)
Formation: Escuminac Formation (present-day Canada), Catskill Formation (present-day USA)
Manifacturer and date of release: Kaiyodo, 2001
Sculptor: Eiichiro Matsumoto
Scale: 1:5

*This, is placoderms are even a monophyletic group...

Funny little thing. I'm surprised there's not more placoderms around (escluding, you know, the one everybody knows...)

[Leyster]

From small to really, really big

Binomial name: Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis You et al. 2006 (alternatively, "H."ruyangensis Lü et al., 2007)
Classification: Dinosauria->Sauropodomorpha->Bagualosauria->Massopoda->Sauropodiformes->Sauropoda->Eusauropoda->Macronaria->Titanosauriformes
Time: Barremian if Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis, Aptian/Albian if "H".ruyangensis (in both cases, Early Cretaceous)
Formation: Lanzhou Basin of the Hekou Group if Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis, Haoling Formation if "H."ruyangensis (in both cases, present day China)
Manifacturer and date of release: PNSO, 2016
Sculptor: somebody in the atelier of Zhao Chuang
Scale: 1:18 if Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis, 1:25 if "H".ruyangensis



*PNSO didn't specify the species, but the fact that when they talk about Huanghetitan they metion how wide its body cavity was, which is a feature very "pubblicized" in "H." ruyangensis, make me think it's meant to represent this species. But "H."ruyangensis be a nomen dubium.

And here is my review of this model!

[Shonisaurus]

Nice photography and review. I congratulate you. The PNSO huanghetitan is one of my favorite sauropods along with the Battat diplodocus. As always you add extremely detailed information. I like to read your thread.

[SidB]

Thanks, L @Leyster , for noting that H. ruyangensis may be a nomen dubium - I had been tempted to acquire this brute of a beast if I could get it at a sensible price (not likely), because after the initial advertising of the genus as 1/35, 1/18 was too large by far for my collecting purposes. But 1/25 would have put it back into the bounds of possibility. But no, not now - too large.