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.
My heart jumped in excitement when Mattel announced in 2021 that they were going to make one of my favorite dinosaurs, Masiakasaurus knopfleri! I finally get to talk about it which is an added bonus. This particular reconstruction is based on the 20 or so years old depiction that has dominated all sorts of media this animal was featured in.
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.
Jakapil is a genus of basal thyreophoran discovered in the Candeleros Formation of Argentina and described in 2022, it is also one of the coolest dino-discoveries in recent years, although I might be biased since I have a thing for basal thyreophorans.
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.
Lophostropheus is a coelophysoid theropod known from the boundary between the late Triassic and early Jurassic. It is known from a single tooth, a handful of vertebrae from the neck, back, and tail, some pelvic material, and an unidentified fragment. Such scant remains practically guaranteed a toy of Lophostropheus from Mattel, and here we are.
This is my first review as an author rather than guest reviewer at this blog, so I’ll start out with a classic figure, the UKRD Iguanodon from 1992. Iguanodon of course has the distinction of being the second named dinosaur genus (after Megalosaurus), and has remained relatively famous for a non-American dinosaur, even being the protagonist of a film, Disney’s Dinosaur.
There’s no palookas in this bout, folks, only two young fighters thirsting for glory! On the left, weighing in at 4,435 lbs, the Spiked Smasher, Cuff! And on the right, weighing in at 4,501 lbs, the Destroyer of the Dunes, Clout! Who will emerge victorious?
Although I’ve reviewed a number of these Yowie figures there’s one above all others that I’ve been wanting to obtain, the Atopodentatus, and I guess the 12th times the charm! Although listed as “common” on the Yowie rarity chart it had frustratingly eluded me for two months.
Overviews of three large murals on display in the Paleozoological Museum of China. These huge historical artworks were painted in 1994. They were recently described by myself and others in the journal Geoconservation Research. For more information see:
Wang, Q., Wang Y. and Smith, A.S. 2024. Atmospheric Paleoart: A Case Study of the Murals in the Paleozoological Museum of China. Geoconservation Research. 7(2), 072409. https://oiccpress.com/gcr/article/view/8295/9393
There are lots of figures of the artworks in the paper but the murals are long and narrow so it’s difficult to appreciate them as a whole. That’s why I created this video to help show them off.
Take a look at this pair of bumpy-backed beasts from Haolonggood.
Unlike some other toys of Concavenator, these two are largely scaly except for the quills on their arms.
What set of “ultimate dinosaurs” wouldn’t include the second dinosaur described by science? Although hardly obscure I wouldn’t exactly call Iguanodon popular either so any new figures of it should warrant some attention and a time to shine on the Dinosaur Toy Blog.
