Recently, a thought occurred to me. I’ve been reviewing ancient fauna for several years but, in spite of having a user name based on ancient cetacea, I have yet to review a fossil whale. Time to change that with none other than THE fossil whale. At least, what Yowie refer to as a fossil whale, Mammalodon.
Type: Figurine
Review: Megalodon (Deluxe by CollectA)
4.5 (29 votes)
Anne Bonny is on the chase. She had been following the distant scent of a whale pod when a strange new scent and a distinct sound of splashing caused her to veer hard to starboard in the direction of the islands along the coastline. As she approaches closer, her many senses quickly inform her that a large beast is swimming slowly and clumsily at the surface.
Review: Hipparion (Jurassic Hunters by Geoworld)
3.6 (7 votes)
Ancient horses really don’t get much love in the toy market. Aside from Starlux and Bullyland, no one has added to the herd of prehistoric equinids. That is until Geoworld brought out their rendition of Hipparion, one of the most successful horses ever, lasting 22 million years and covering almost every continent, before dying off in the Mid-Pleistocene, possibly being out competed by the modern horse.
Review: Gorgosaurus (Papo)
4 (23 votes)
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy
It’s no secret that Papo has always been “inspired” by pop culture depictions of dinosaurs. This isn’t unique, even companies like Safari and CollectA occasionally copy designs and color schemes from time to time. Still, no one does it as frequently and blatantly as Papo.
Review: Qianzhousaurus (Wild Safari by Safari Ltd.)
4.4 (30 votes)
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy
For a long time, long-snouted tyrannosaurids like Alioramus weren’t considered a true group. After all, a long snout isn’t uncommon for tyrannosaurs, at least in juveniles, which all known specimens of Alioramus were. This all changed in 2014 with a paper by Lü et al.
Review: Pachycephalosaurus (Wild Safari by Safari Ltd.)
4.5 (23 votes)
Amongst us dinosaur collectors there are but a few really good Pachycephalosaurus figures out there that are usually referenced. You probably already know which ones they are but in case you don’t they’re the figures by Battat, Favorite, and CollectA. The Battat is of course hard to find, and both the Battat and Favorite are also starting to show their age.
Review: Velociraptor vs Protoceratops “Mongolian Fight” (Favorite Co. Ltd.)
4.7 (6 votes)
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy.
Discovered in 1971, the “Fighting Dinosaurs” fossil is particularly special, as it preserved two dinosaurs apparently in a literal fight to the death. Because of this, the combatants, Protoceratops and Velociraptor, have joined the most legendary dinosaur rivalries.
Review: Protoceratops (Dino World by Kabaya)
4.2 (5 votes)
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy.
Dino World was a line of small models similar to Kaiyodo’s Dino Tales. Unlike Dino Tales, these toys are sold by the Japanese candy company Kabaya and came packaged with candy. This review will be looking at #12 of 24 in the series, the hatching Protoceratops.
Like Dino Tales figures, this toy is very small.
Review: Fukuisaurus (CollectA)
5 (27 votes)
If you’re looking for dinosaurs in Japan, then the best place to find them is in the Early Cretaceous strata of the Kitadani Formation, located in the Fukui Prefecture. Species discovered there include the megaraptoran Fukuiraptor, the maniraptoriforme Fukuivenator, the avialan Fukuipteryx, the sauropod Fukuititan, and the subject of this review, the ornithopod Fukuisaurus.
Review: Archelon (Favorite Co. Ltd.)
4.7 (13 votes)
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy.
Too often, I see people dismiss Archelon as “just a large sea turtle.” Understandably, this makes many toy companies shy away from producing figures of it, since any modern sea turtle figure could be used as a substitute if that were really the case.
Review: Rutiodon (Kaiyodo)
4.7 (9 votes)
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy.
Phytosaurs unfortunately suffer from their superficial resemblance to crocodiles in that they rarely get the level of representation that their more “charismatic” archosaur cousins enjoy. When they do show up, they are usually represented by the late Jurassic Rutiodon, the subject of this review.
Review: Protoceratops (Deluxe by CollectA)
4.8 (23 votes)
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy.
Protoceratops figures tend not to be very large, most likely to better communicate the real animal’s small size. Breaking with tradition, CollectA has decided to create this figure in 1/6 scale, to go along with their Deluxe Velociraptor.