Many of us will recall the old days when the term “prosauropods” was used to describe the likes of Plateosaurus, Massospondylus, Melanorosaurus, and other early long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs thought to be the ancestors of the great sauropods like Brachiosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Diplodocus.
Type: Figurine
Review: Pteranodon (Ultimate Dinosaurs by Yowie Group)
Collectors of extant animals are no doubt familiar with Yowie Group, who have been producing animal figurines for U.S. markets since 2014 and for Australia since 2017. Yowie Group is a relaunch of Cadbury Yowie, which produced toy animals and chocolate in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, before Cadbury and Yowie parted ways.
Review: Compsognathus corallestris (Monster in my Pocket by Matchbox)
I have a doozy for you today, a remarkable figure of C. corallestris, a semi-aquatic species of Compsognathus with fin-like hands. At least, that’s what palaeontologists thought when they described the type specimen in 1972. The interpretation didn’t last long though. The flippers were formally dismissed and reinterpreted as ‘normal’ hands in 1978, and ‘C.
Review: Atopodentatus (version 1) (Paleo-Creatures)
I’m fascinated by how depictions of prehistoric animals change over time in the face of new evidence. This is the theme of my recent children’s book, The Tyrannosaur’s Feathers, which focusses on T. rex as a case study for this ‘make-over’ phenomenon. However, while the appearance of some prehistoric creatures, T.
Review: Kronosaurus (‘daddy’/Kronos)(Dinosaurs and Friends by De Agostini)
The DinoToyBlog has evolved over the years, much like the prehistoric creatures we review. Articles here are more substantial now than ever before. The average word count has increased, the number of photographs has gone up, and the scientific rigour has shot through the roof. It’s fantastic!
Review: Kentrosaurus (Jurassic World Dino-Trackers, Captivz Build N’ Battle Dinos by ToyMonster)
Review: Megaraptor (Haolonggood)
Unlike most other prehistoric toy companies, the vast majority of Haolonggood’s dinosaurs have been herbivorous ones thus far. And the carnivores that they have tackled are mostly genera that have already been done by many of those same other companies: Allosaurus, Baryonyx, Carnotaurus, Daspletosaurus, Dilophosaurus, etc.
Review: Stegosaurus (Haolonggood)
I’ve been in the dinosaur collecting hobby for about 14 years now and this hobby has evolved rapidly within that time. In 2010 most collectors were content to just get good models of their favorite genera. Nowadays, a figure of a genus isn’t enough, collectors want dinosaurs identifiable at the species level.
Review: Becklespinax (Altispinax) (Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, Captivz Build N’ Battle Dinos by ToyMonster)
Review: Stegodon (TNG)
Review: Sinosauropteryx (Dinotales Series 1, ver. B by Kaiyodo)
It’s been over ten years since fellow reviewer Gwangi covered a figurine of Sinosauropteryx, a small compsognathid theropod, produced by Kaiyodo under their renowned Dinotales series. Since that time, a grand total of… two, maybe three more figurines… have been produced of this seminal genus.
Review: Nasutoceratops (Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, Captivz Build N’ Battle Dinos by ToyMonster)
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 for me to share with the blog.
I love how quickly Nasutoceratops has risen in popularity. Described in 2013 it had two excellent figures to its name produced only two years later.