“If MPC Ran the Zoo”…
Macrauchenia looked like it could have inspired some of the creatures in a Dr. Seuss book, if its history of paleoart is anything to go by. First described in 1838, the “long-necked llama” hasn’t achieved the same level of fame as some of its mammalian contemporaries from the Miocene and Pleistocene; however, its lanky legs, long neck, and peculiar trunk make for a very distinct image, and have earned the genus at least a few toys over the decades.
It’s time for our annual review of a large Mattel ceratopsian. Every year since 2018 Mattel has released one of these and they always end up being among my favorite toys from Mattel. This year it’s a Diabloceratops, part of Mattel’s Dino Trackers line.
Earlier this week, we saw the reveal of the very retro-looking Electronic Real Feel Tyrannosaurus rex. Now check out its packaging, which is similarly a homage to the original 1993 Jurassic Park packaging by Kenner.
Also newly revealed are three additional Classic ’93 products.
Marbhtach’s crimson eyes are fixed on Banrigh’s as he carefully lays the freshly caught pachycephalosaur still oozing life on the ground before her. Whereupon he slowly backs away, nodding his head and cooing softly with each step while Banrigh sniffs and scrutinizes his offering.
Among the many new toys Mattel is releasing for this year is the Electronic Real Feel Skin Tyrannosaurus rex. The colour scheme is clearly a homage to the original Electronic T. rex from Kenner’s 1993 Jurassic Park line, while the swallowing gimmick with a retrieval slit in the belly is reused from the Bull T.
Can you detect the tiny ear conches?
A firm from the German Democratic Republic, VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb) Plaho, released a series of highly collectable die casting plastic dinosaur figures in 1967. They were sold in the Museum of Sena in Thuringia, Germany, until the mid-1980s.
Review and photographs by Funk, edited by Suspsy
Ever since I first saw preview pictures of the stop motion figures used to animate the dinosaurs in the 1994 Atari fighting game Primal Rage in a Nintendo magazine, I thought, “wow, they would make great toys.” Fast forward to a few years ago where I learned such toys were actually produced by Playmates of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame, and I got a few of them used.
PNSO’s first reveal for the year is a new version of Lucas the Giganotosaurus. This looks like it will be one of the very best renditions of the southern giant lizard yet.
For all the dozens and dozens of Velociraptor toys & models which swarm the market, there are criminally few which attempt to depict the famous “swift plunderer” as something even remotely resembling what we know of the real-life animal. When sculptor and toy designer David Silva announced his articulated Beasts of the Mesozoic line in 2015, beginning with a series of 1:6 scale, scientifically accurate dromaeosaurs, collectors were understandably very excited at the prospect.
Seventy-one million years ago what is now Alberta, Canada, would have been located next to the Western Interior Seaway with various coastal habitats including swamps, marshes, tidal flats, lagoons, and estuaries. Familiar faces would have swum the aquatic ecosystems, including gar, bowfin, and sturgeon that are all present in North America’s freshwater habitats today.
Review and photos by EmperorDinobot, edited by Suspsy
Due to the horrors of Covid-19, I, EmperorDinobot had to stay away from stores for a while during early 2020, which was when the bulk of the Jurassic World: Primal Attack animals came out. Mattel has given us sooooo many figures that it became hard for me to keep track of them.
In 1978 (the same year I was born), the fossil remains of a hadrosauriform dinosaur were discovered at Brighstone Bay on the Isle of Wight. The remains were sent to the British Museum of Natural History (now the Natural History Museum) in London and declared to be those of the famous Iguanodon.
