Review and photos by Zim, edited by Suspsy
June 12, 2015 was the day the Jurassic Park series was revived with a new film called Jurassic World. It features a revamped park along with many new species, including Dimorphodon, Mosasaurus, and a new hybrid, along with old favourites like Tyrannosaurus.
Songbirds are all around us today. So common, that it is hard to believe that any could become extinct. Of course, this is far from the case, as no species lasts forever. Here, we see the Bushwren, a near flightless species found in each of the major islands of New Zealand and many of the smaller islands.
Before we get on with the review, let’s all have a moment of silence for the now extinct Amber Collection. Honestly, I always had my reservations about the Amber Collection and never bothered to get invested in it. I always thought that Mattel should stick with the 3.75” line, and that it was unlikely that anything larger than a Velociraptor would ever be seen in a 6” line.
This unique independently-produced model is a delightful throwback to older days of dinosaur art and collecting.
One of the various treats we have in this modern-day bounty of dinosaur collectibles is the increasingly easy access to many of the tools and supplies needed to produce toys, allowing a number of independent artists to pursue their own ideal collectibles where established company brands have passed over.
Utahceratops gettyi was a fairly large chasmosaurine ceratopsian that grew to a length of about seven metres and a mass of over two tons. As its name suggests, it was discovered in Utah, in the fossil-rich Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. In 2017, the monument’s size was reduced by half in order to allow gas and oil and mining companies to exploit it, which would have destroyed countless fossils in the process.
The Mattel Therizinosaurus we’re looking at today is among the most highly anticipated toys of the Jurassic World: Dominion line, and it makes sense. Although we’ve only seen fleeting glimpses of it, we know the herbivorous theropod will have a starring role in Jurassic World: Dominion.
Review and photos by Charles Peckham, edited by Suspsy
I’m really happy that Recur exists and is making toy dinosaurs. I’m a big fan of CollectA and Safari Ltd., but I realize that they are cost prohibitive to a lot of collectors, and while I enjoy cheap knockoff toys (I don’t care for the term “Chinasaur”), part of me always hesitates to give them to kids, knowing that the original toy they got the design from is probably 70 years old, and was scientifically inaccurate then.
Schleich isn’t exactly wanting for criticism on this board. Plenty of paleo fans and collectors – myself included – tend to be underwhelmed or outright repulsed by the variety of ugly-looking toys Schleich produces in the name of educational purposes. Not all Schleich products are bad, though, and at least a few of their prehistoric line figures have managed to surprise collectors – even if was almost by accident.
Larami’s Museum set is looking pretty dated now, but it’s a charming playset all the same and one of the more memorable imitators out there.
It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; by that metric the dinosaur toy industry has been incredibly generous towards the leading toy brands.
When the prologue (and later, trailer) for Jurassic World: Dominion dropped, it was met with a lot of grievances from our community. To be fair, there was a lot to gripe about, from anachronistic animals mingling together, to the sloppy anatomy typical of the franchise.
Diplodocus is without question one of the most famous dinosaur species, not least because its history goes a fair way back in the science of paleontology. In 1877 Samuel Wendell Wilson in company of his mentor Benjamin Franklin Mudge led an expidition for Othniel Charles Marsh (this name may ring a bell with a much wider range of people) and discovered first fossils of Diplodocus.
The star of ‘Battle at Big Rock’ is back to bat under Mattel, with a slight makeover in play features and paint job.
Allosaurus was once a king of dinosaur media, second only to Tyrannosaurus in books and film. Featuring in multiple major productions such as The Lost World, One Million Years BC, and (debatably) The Valley of Gwangi, the “other lizard” ended up getting overshadowed during the 90s and 2000s with the advent of the Jurassic Park franchise and its more novel assortment of “villain” theropods like the cunning Velociraptor and the gigantic Spinosaurus.
