Plateosaurus (Bullyland Museum Line)

EU government could still not agree on aborting the change to summer time, so this very day is an hour longer and so gives me some time to wirte another review after quite a long break…..

Today we gonna take a look on a probably not very popular figure, though the species is known by anyone who ever had a look into a dinosaur book.

Bullyland is famous amongst collectors for including some very exotic species as the Procynosuchus, the Protochirotherium or Spinophorosaurus all of which have been made exclusively for specific German museums. The Plateosaurus is released under the “Museum Line” which is a series of figures that were produced in collaboration with the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart.

Plateosaurus is the most “common” dinosaur in Germany, represented by quite a number of fossils and in several stages of their growth. In fact, the comparably high count of findings lead to the nickname “Schwäbischer Lindwurm” (Swabian lindworm). Despite the number and completeness of the fossil record, several aspects of Plateosaurus` biology were long under debate, especially the question of its locomation. The pose shown here is outdated and deemed invalid for Plateosaurus being unable to pronate its hands. For a very well detailed overview of Plateosaurus` biology have a look to the according English wikipedia page.

The figure reviewed here is sculpted after a model as seen in the museum (same goes for the Arizonasaurus, Batrachotomus and Liliensternus aswell by the way) and dates back to 2005 when it replaced another Plateosaurus figure by Bullyland that also is sculpted after a model seen outside the museum. It measures 29 cm in direct line and is roughly 8 cm high. As all Bullyland figures this one is quite lightweighted for its size and PVC free. The skin detail is simple with a lot folds but muscles are still well defined. The face looks charming and almost happy, quite unlike its real counterpart that seems to fend off another member of the group. The paint job is simple but efective and realistic, the figure`s orange brown base color overlain by a hue of moss green, striped with a darker tone. The pose looks dynamic and despite its shortcomes in accuracy I like that figure very much.

Despite Bullyland being a German company (and as I heard by a toy retailer in business again after finding an investor, but unfortunately probably concentrating on lincensed figures) producing a great variety of figures for German museums and the toy market, the better part of their figures are hard to find, even on the second market. This Plateosaurus was produced for just 4 years, discontinued in 2009 and you`ll need some luck to find it, especially in an acceptable condition – good luck!