Review and images by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
Opabinia regalis is an enigmatic arthropod (or arthropod-like animal) from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale Lagerstätte of present-day British Columbia. It was a benthic predator, scouring the bottom of the Cambrian Seas for soft-bodied prey nearly 505 million years ago.
Although we aren’t short on good-quality Giganotosaurus toys these days, Favorite’s new take is a worthwhile rendition with a few unique traits of its own.
Giganotosaurus (Giant Southern Lizard) might not stand within the most famous ring of dinosaur genera, but I’d say it’s hardly obscure by this point in history.
In this review, I wanted to give you something different. Today, I wanted to share with you not only the figure I got but also the entire experience of how I ended up chasing after a mystery egg! Before we start, I want to give a bit of a background on who the artist is.
Alas, nodosaurids will probably never be as famous and popular as their cousins the ankylosaurids, undoubtedly due to their narrower, less intimidating heads and their lack of bone-breaking tail clubs. Still, almost all of the major dinosaur toy companies have produced at least one nodosaurid over the years, and these have generally ranged from being pretty good to truly magnificent.
Well, I’ve shown you the worst of this line, let’s waste no time and get straight on to the best of them!
Starting off the top half is everyone’s favourite three horned herbivore Triceratops. This features one of the best poses of the lot (something I haven’t talked at length about as most the figures are in a generic standing pose), an aggressive fight pose, all the better when you have two to joust with.
These six little dinos, sculpted by the Carnegie Collection’s own Forest Rogers, may look pretty dated today; but they manage to blend old and new aspects of science to produce a charming set as a whole.
Safari ltd. stands as one of the giants of educational, scientifically accurate dinosaur & animal toys today; but it’s easy to forget the company didn’t start out this way.
Does Mattel release too many repaints? Yes. Is there value in these repaints? Also, yes. Case in point, this Styracosaurus. This figure is the 3rd release of this toy. The first two times it was released I ignored it. I was disappointed by how much smaller it was compared to Mattel’s other ceratopsians.
The Jurassic Park/World has had it’s fair share of miniature dino models, from the original metal ones to hard plastic. Now Jurassic World Dominion brings hard (ish) rubber, safer for siblings, and we see one and two packs of minis, giving plenty of material to review. But how to cover them?
For decades, Stegosaurus was( and still is) the most famous of all the Stegosaurid family, its the first one that people know when asked to name one from this fascinating group. Over the last decade, some of it’s relatives started to gain some fame, species like Kentrosaurus has become a regular fixture in art as well as in the toy model world as well as pop culture.
By now, I think it truly is safe and reasonable to say that Mattel has done better with the Jurassic Park license than any other company. Granted, outshining Hasbro was hardly difficult given what a substandard job they did, but what about Kenner? They may no longer around, but back in the glory days of the 1990s, they bestowed on us collectors a slew of awesome dinosaur toys, plus humans and vehicles if you were into that sort of thing (I never was).
Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the release of Jurassic Park and in those past 30 years we’ve seen a plethora of movies, books, video games, toys, and other merchandise come along to capitalize on a film that has now become a timeless classic and a part of the pop culture zeitgeist.
Dilophosaur fans of multiple varieties get the best deal with this pair of charmingly well-constructed plush predators of semi-anonymous origin.
The realm of gray-market (dinosaur) toys is full of, well, gray areas to be cautiously navigated; in an online age it’s especially easy to get lost in a malaise of sketchy knockoffs and bootleg toys from unknown sources.
I love picking up rare species on the toy market, especially where they are part of groups that are rarely made. As mentioned previously, snakes are incredibly rare on the toy shelves, likely because they don’t vary too much so don’t sell well. Thankfully, Yowie comes in to the rescue, giving us the Giant Wonambi, a constrictor from the Pleistocene of Australia, the first fossil snake found in Australia.
Review and photos by PrimevalRaptor, edited by Suspsy
Since obtaining the Jurassic World license, Mattel has been pumping out a lot of figures in their toyline for the series, bringing a fresh wind into the dinosaur toy market especially over here in Germany where shelves usually are dominated by Schleich models.
Rajasaurus, whose name means “princely lizard,” belonged to Majungasaurinae, a subgroup of abelisaurs that ranged from Europe to South Asia during the Late Cretaceous period. Its remains were discovered in the Lameta Formation of Western India, which has been dated to the Maastrichian age (72.1 to 66 million years ago).
