Review and photos by Charles Peckham, edited by Suspsy
Dinosaur Habitats is described as a book, but it’s not bound with pages in the traditional sense. Rather, it stretches out like an accordion to reveal three pop-up displays that each include a paragraph talking about the geological period and area they represent.
Greetings DinoWaurriors!!! This line is like the science of palaeontology, full of surprises. It has several surprises, from lacking things like Velociraptor or it’s choice of pterosaurs. Here, we see a ceratopsian, and a nomen dubium: Dicaeratops. This animal is actually Nedoceratops, as named by Othniel Marsh, but he died before the work was completed, and it was named Diceratops later, though this was taken already, so was changed to Nedocaeratops.
When it comes to Tyrannosaurus rex, the first image that comes to mind is that of a snarling, blood-thirsty animal. As famous as it is, unfortunately in pop culture films and images, it is often depicted as a villain, a killer that is always on a rampage killing any helpless animal on its way.
So, the description of being cute is not often associated with it.
2020 has been a bumper year for the Palaeozoic, Therapsids and minor creatures of the Mesozoic, but this has come at the expense of Cenozoic species, at least among the major toy lines, and the mammals only made half of this list. CollectA produced Megalodon, and Papo brought out the only mammal of 2020 from the major toy producers.
Review and photographs by Stolpergeist, edited by Suspsy
As of this writing, there are currently three species of Allosaurus recognized: A. fragilis, A. jimmadseni, and A. europaeus. The former two American species are mostly represented in toy form, with almost every one of them being A.
Review and images by Bryan Divers, edited by Suspsy
Another great woolly mammoth toy from Wild Republic! This product has gone through several overhauls since its original introduction in 2007: the fabric color was darkened in 2008 and the fabric itself was changed completely in 2012 from a stiffer, white cotton-backed fabric to a more flexible fabric with matching brown backing.
Review and photos by Rebecca O’Neill, edited by Dinotoyblog.
This group of ten novelty, cartoonish dinosaurs were purchased on Ebay in 2018, and don’t seem to be available anymore. Very much in the style of The Land Before Time or Dinosaurs the television show from the 1990s, they are a variety of well known dinosaurs rendered in a caricature form.
At this point I think it’s fair to say that a new large-format pterosaur is among the highlights of CollectA’s new figure announcements. They don’t quite come every year, but they do seem to be coming more frequently. This year’s choice was one of the earliest pterosaurs, the peculiar Caviramus schesaplanensis from the Rhaetian (Late Triassic) of what would become Eurasia.
The first specimen of Caviramus was only a broken lower jaw which showed evidence of heavy teeth and an unusually low joint.
A new pack of Dire wolves have claimed this stretch of territory just on the edge where the forest meets the open plains. The pack, numbering seven animals, is led by a young pair of Alpha male and female, both just recently left their old packs to form their own.
Review and photographs by Shenuday the Great, edited by Suspsy
By now, most dinosaur fans have probably watched the new Netflix series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. Like many viewers, it seems, I was pleasantly surprised by the show. I was, of course, equally excited by the new toys being produced by Mattel for the show.
Review by Paleo-Nerd, photographs by RobinGoodfellow and Suspsy, edited by Suspsy
Even though CollectA has always released models of almost unknown dinosaurs or recently discovered ones, when Saltriovenator was revealed as a new release for 2020, the surprise for Italian paleo-nerds was huge.
Review and photos by Bryan Divers, edited by Suspsy
No other prehistoric animal has touched my soul quite like the gentle woolly mammoth. Their gentleness, their ability to love, and yet their tragedy has captivated me since childhood. I have even written a song, “If I Can Reach You In Time,” which puts to music my longing to see and touch a mammoth, and the quest to find mammoth DNA in time to rescue the species from extinction.
