In these days when dinosaur toys only get more and more hyperrealistic, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when they could be inaccurate not just by following outdated science, but also due to complete disregard for any kind of scientific considerations.
Type: Figurine
Review: Utahceratops (1:35 Science and Art Model by Haolonggood)
5 (4 votes)
Before I start this review, I would like to thank our generous friends at Happy Hen Toys for providing this review sample. Of all of Haolonggood’s 2024 releases, this is the one I was most excited for, so I am honored to have been able to receive it as a gift.
Review: Ceratosaurus (Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, Captivz Build N’ Battle Dinos by ToyMonster)
4 (4 votes)
Before we begin the review, I would like to thank the generous folks over at ToyMonster for sending me this figure to share with the blog. Today we’re looking at the second to last figure from a batch of toys that ToyMonster sent me all the way back in June 2024.
Review: Kronosaurus (Marx)
4.9 (7 votes)
Review and photos by BlueKrono, edited by DinoToyBlog
If I were asked to pick a favorite dinosaur toy it would be a challenging query, but I think the one I’d settle on would be the Marx Kronosaurus. A relic of Marx’s early dinosaur lines, the swan-necked prehistoric reptile has a history going back almost a century.
Review: Pteranodon (ANIA/Animal Adventure by Takara Tomy)
3.4 (5 votes)
Takara Tomy is a millennial industry giant of toy production, whose products have probably found their way into everyone’s homes at least once. Naturally, my introduction to the brand came through their ANIA “Animal Adventure” line of palm-sized action figures featuring extant and extinct animal life.
Review: Lokiceratops (Frederik) (Prehistoric Animal Models by PNSO)
Review: Tyrannosaurus (Monster In My Pocket by Matchbox, Series 6)
2 (3 votes)
Monster In My Pocket was a toy franchise that released waves of, you guessed it, pocket sized plastic-monsters throughout the 90s. Several of the series included dinosaurs or near-dinosaurs, and some of the later series consisted almost solely of dinosaurs. The figures all seem to have come in at least three colour-variants, and included cards.
Review: Maip (Deluxe by CollectA)
4.4 (5 votes)
“Maip” may sound like an odd name for a dinosaur at first, but it is in fact a reference to a malevolent entity in Tehuelche mythology that is described as “the shadow of death that kills with cold wind.” That therefore strikes me as rather appropriate for a large and powerful meat-eating theropod.
Review: Apatosaurus (1992)(UKRD)
3.7 (3 votes)
Other reviewers seem to have stopped covering UKRD figures years ago, but there are still a lot of them left to go, so I guess that’s my lot in life. While they may seem like mass-produced dreck to most people, I find them interesting and charming because they often reflect outdated or downright bizarre ideas and vintage palaoart, usually (with some notable exceptions) based on John Sibbick’s paintings from the 1985 book Enyclopaedia of Dinosaurs by David Norman.
Review: Quetzalcoatlus (Jurassic World Dino-Trackers, Captivz Build & Battle Dinos by ToyMonster)
4.3 (6 votes)
Before we begin the review, I would like to thank the generous folks over at ToyMonster, for sending me a large selection of Captivz figures to share with the blog.
When Jurassic World: Dominion came out there was a lot of talk about the inaccuracies of its dinosaurs.
Review: Ankylosaurus (Animal World Dinosaurs by Bullyland)
3.3 (4 votes)
Having been described in 1908 and being the eponymous ankylosaurid, Ankylosaurus has long been a staple of dinosaur toys. Originally known from rather fragmentary material, reconstructions of this dinosaur historically evolved from Stegosaurus-like before the tail-club was known, to the version that was made familiar by Rudolph Zallinger’s 1947 Age of Reptiles mural and the 1964 World’s Fair model, with their nodosaur-like spikes, sprawling limbs, and dragging tail-clubs.
Review: Dilophosaurus and Stegosaurus (die-cast metal dinosaurs)(Jurassic Park by Kenner)
4.6 (5 votes)
To my surprise, there are still figures that were released as tie-ins with the original Jurassic Park film in 1993 that lack reviews here, including the die-cast metal dinosaurs line by Kenner, who of course made the main action-figure line for the film as well.