Some years have passed since the last review of a Protocasts model appeared on this blog. This is certainly not due to a lack of models by the side of the creator, in fact I myself got an Irritator figure laying around since years awaiting a review.
Review: Cohen’s Thingodonta/ Yalkaparidon (Lost Kingdoms Series A by Yowie)
4 (4 votes)
There aren’t many animals in the world known by their scientific name as opposed to a common name, yet the palaeo world seems to only use them, unless they are particularly well known, like the Woolly Mammoth or T. rex. That’s why I love this particular model, of an animal named Yalkaparidon (from the Aboriginal word for boomerang, based on the animals molar shape), but referred to in the common lexicon as Cohen’s Thingadonta, which is a brilliant name.
Review: Woolly Mammoth (Large Version by AAA)
3.6 (9 votes)
Review and photographs by Stolpergeist, edited by Suspsy
Woolly mammoths are among the most majestic mammalian megafauna of the past. Being such iconic prehistoric animals, plenty of toys have been made by various companies, from the fantastic and anatomically accurate figures by Favorite Co. Ltd. and Wild Safari to the imposing beasts by Schleich and Safari’s Missing Links.
Review: Ouranosaurus (Recur)
4.2 (26 votes)
Niger, Africa back in the Early Cretaceous was a land full of weird and unusual dinosaurs. Unlike the desert-like environment of today, back then it was lusher with many rivers that crisscrossed the land. Here lives one of the most distinctive basal hadrosaur, Ouranosaurus nigeriensis (meaning Brave lizard).
Review: Marsupial Tapir/ Palorchestes (Lost Kingdoms Series A by Yowie)
4 (4 votes)
Interpreting fossils is never an easy task. Unless the animal was complete when found, or very well preserved, it can be hard to tell what an animal looked like. Prehistoric animals can be revised over and over as new information comes in about them. One animal that has been altered several times is Palorchestes, which was thought to be a kangaroo relative, then more tapir based as a result of the rostrum, and more recently, similar to a giant ground sloth.
Review: Mosasaurus (Jurassic World Snap Squad by Mattel)
3.6 (16 votes)
By and large the Snap Squad toys by Mattel have been frustratingly difficult to find. Nearly a year ago I managed to find a few at Wal-Mart, and foolishly didn’t buy them all. That was the first time I ever saw them “in the wild” and I wouldn’t see them again until April 2020, when for some reason they showed up at Aldi of all places.
Review: Chasmosaurus (Age of the Dinosaurs by PNSO)
4.3 (20 votes)
Chasmosaurus is by no means the largest ceratopsian, reaching only around 4.8 metres in length and 2.2 tons in mass. Nor does it boast a particularly intimidating or bizarre array of horns like its fellow Canadians Regaliceratops, Styracosaurus, and Triceratops.
Review: Microraptor (CollectA)
4.6 (22 votes)
In an Early Cretaceous forest of what would today be known as China, strange, bird-like creatures can be seen moving around in the thick vegetation and canopy high above.These animals are, at first glance, looks like birds roughly the size of a raven, with long tails and black plumage.
Review: Prehistoric Animal Set (The Ark by Joy City)
4.2 (6 votes)
Every now and again, something rather interesting pops up that you wouldn’t expect to be as good as you’d think. The toy sets you would see at supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl, often seen as cheap item makers, having something worth getting. Here, we examine the Joy City line on prehistoric animals, a counterpoint to there Dinosaur wave, which seems more typical chinasaur.
Review: Zhejiangosaurus (Vitae)
4.9 (9 votes)
While a lot of dinosaur names are quite a challenge for the laymen to be read and correctly spelled, the ones inspired by Chinese locations and names may even be a serious challenge to the dinosaur expert. Zhejiangosaurus comes as one of the easier names, but maybe one you do not really need to remember…..
Review: Apatosaurus (Monster In My Pocket by Matchbox, Series 6)
3.7 (6 votes)
Review and photos by Funk, edited by Suspsy
Monster In My Pocket was a line of small collectible figures in bright colours, all depicting monsters of some kind. The line seems to have had several series consisting of or including prehistoric animals, and the one here, the Apatosaurus, is from Series 6, which appears to have been released in 1993, during the “Dinomania” craze that followed in Jurassic Park‘s wake.
Review: Xiphactinus (Fauna Casts)
4 (6 votes)
Before there was Jaws, before there was The Meg, there was Xiphactinus.
Although sharks have been a constant nightmare in many pop culture’s films and stories, these fishes were not the only ones that have the reputation of being ferocious, and definitely not the largest. There were other, less known nightmarish fishes that hunted the prehistoric oceans, one of them is Xiphactinus, the subject of today’s review.
In the late Cretaceous, a vast inland sea once bisected what we know today as North and South America.