Review and photos by ChemaV, edited by Plesiosauria
The Saurierpark (http://www.saurierpark.de/saurierpark.asp) is built on the grounds of a botanic garden, located in Kleinwelka, a subdivision of the city of Bautzen in Germany. In 1977 a large series of life sized dinosaurs were built out of steel and concrete.
Sometimes in our clamour for the most spectacular, expensive, hot new dinosaur figures, we can forget there’s still plenty of joy to be found in plain, cheap, cool old dinosaur figures. And you can’t get cheaper than free! The German Margarinefiguren, or Margarine Figures, by Wagner, came free with packets of ‘butter’ (and maybe other products, I don’t know) in the 1950s.
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.
I’ve been meaning to plug some of the gaps in our Marx review series for a long while, so thanks to the other reviewers who have been most patient with me. The Marx Iguanodon toy under review today was part of the Second Series Mold Group, PL-1083, first released in 1961.
The Naturecraft Ltd. company was founded in 1931 in Congleton, Cheshire, UK. It was one of Congleton’s oldest companies, and was headed until its buyout by Managing Director Peter Tomlins. Naturecraft England originally produced figurines such as dogs and other animals, as well as caricatures and other wall art.
Common legends says, that the first remains of Iguanodon were discovered in the heaps of a road cut by the wife of an English country doctor. Now, this may be true or not, but the doctor, Gideon Mantell, described the species in 1825 on basis of just a few teeth.
This is an overall pleasing and recognizable figure of the famous dinosaur, but it does have some setbacks in design for a 2020 rendition.
Iguanodon isn’t as flashy of a dinosaur as Tyrannosaurus or Triceratops, but its place in the roots of dinosaur history keep the genus as a staple in dino iconography.
