Would you like a side of miniatures with your rubber monsters?
Not every dinosaur toy is equal. Not every absence of inaccuracy means inaccuracies are absent. Dilophosaurus is frequently plagued by imaginary features ingrained into pop culture due to a certain Universal/Spielberg blockbuster; but just because a toy of the two-crested reptile eschews the frills doesn’t mean the rest of the design gets a free pass.
“Season’s greetings, fellow dinosaur lovers! Yes, it is us once again, Dr. Bella Bricking and my invaluable partner Beth Buildit, here to share some comfort and joy with the reviewing of yet another Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary set!”
“I can barely see with this thing on, Doc!”
“Let’s stick to the script, if you please, Beth.
What a year it’s been for Haolonggood, and they’re certainly showing no sign of slowing down! The many-horned chasmosaurine Kosmoceratops from Utah is their newest ceratopsian. The red version with its contrasting blue-splattered frill is definitely my favourite of the two colour schemes.
I guess this will still count as a 2023 release? Meet Aymen, the latest in a long line of modern Spinosaurus toys and I believe the first one to be depicted in a bipedal stance as opposed to hunched over or swimming.
I, Emperor Dinobot, recently posited a question around, and it was the following: Could Mattel be designing dinosaur figures and naming them afterwards? We already have an example: Roarivores Sinoceratops is actually a Pachyrhinosaurus, but it got a name change due to the fact that Universal wanted to market Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to the massive Chinese audience, and Pachyrhinosaurus was substituted by Sinoceratops, a dinosaur which represented China.
Well, it turns out that Mojo Fun does technically have some brand new prehistoric figures in store for 2024. Like those from CollectA and Papo, the miniatures in this tube are all based on preexisting larger figures, and older ones at that. You’ve got Ankylosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Mandschurosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Pteranodon, Smilodon, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor, and the woolly mammoth.
Take a look at two more interesting 2024 Mattel Jurassic World Danger Pack toys. First is Craterosaurus, an Early Cretaceous stegosaur from England known from just a partial vertebra (which clearly didn’t deter Mattel).
And the other is Kileskus, a Middle Jurassic tyrannosauroid from Russia.
Mattel loves Carnotaurus. Our friends at DinoToyCollector.com have catalogued 22 Carnotaurus figures for Mattel’s Jurassic World line, but that number includes the minis, Snap Squad, and similar toys too, and their various repaints and repackages. Either way, the company has still produced an impressive array of Carnotaurus toys.
Happy Hen Toys has generously provided me with my first ever Haolonggood review subject: Dacentrurus. The very first stegosaur to be formally described and named in 1875 (the original name was Omosaurus until someone realized in 1902 that it was already taken), Dacentrurus is estimated to have been up to nine metres in length and five metric tons in weight, making it presently the second largest known member of its family after Stegosaurus.
Well, this is definitely disappointing. Mojo Fun is only releasing repaints for next year. And two of these five repaints are of the same animal. It’s even more unfortunate considering that Mojo was on a pretty decent prehistoric mammal roll for the last three years.
Next month, Haolonggood will be releasing their biggest figure yet: a towering Alamosaurus. Just look at the size of it!
Like all of Haolonggood’s recent products, it will come in multiple colour schemes: blue, gray, or a limited edition brown version.
Review and images by Pliosaurking, edited by Suspsy
Hello, everyone and welcome to another review, in which I’ll be reviewing the Gr Toys x Halonggood Blue Carcharodontosaurus! Carcharodontosaurus was a massive carcharodontosaurid that lived in northern Africa during the Cenomanian stage of the Cretaceous period about 90 million years ago.
