Beasts of the Mesozoic, Jurassic World, & other Dinosaurs thread!

[Rody]

On the other hand, my local Targets have been selling the Mosasaurs at the LOWERED price of $24.99 - which is a serious bargain, and I'd grab one if I didn't already own it.
If anyone doesn't have the Mosa yet, I encourage you to get it. It's definitely my favorite Mattel figure so far.

[Noble Saber]

On the other hand, my local Targets have been selling the Mosasaurs at the LOWERED price of $24.99 - which is a serious bargain, and I'd grab one if I didn't already own it.
If anyone doesn't have the Mosa yet, I encourage you to get it. It's definitely my favorite Mattel figure so far.

I'll do you one even better - got a Target by me clearancing the Mosasaur for $17.08!

[Fermix]

On the other hand, my local Targets have been selling the Mosasaurs at the LOWERED price of $24.99 - which is a serious bargain, and I'd grab one if I didn't already own it.
If anyone doesn't have the Mosa yet, I encourage you to get it. It's definitely my favorite Mattel figure so far.

I'll do you one even better - got a Target by me clearancing the Mosasaur for $17.08!

[SoggyNoodles2016]

On the other hand, my local Targets have been selling the Mosasaurs at the LOWERED price of $24.99 - which is a serious bargain, and I'd grab one if I didn't already own it.
If anyone doesn't have the Mosa yet, I encourage you to get it. It's definitely my favorite Mattel figure so far.

I'll do you one even better - got a Target by me clearancing the Mosasaur for $17.08!

Fermix, you win the thread

[ApexOversteer]

Received my Eofauna figures today, and wowie, these are gorgeous!

The 1/35th scale Giganotosaurus is fantastic, possibly the best/most accurate dinosaur figure I have out of several Papo, Rebor and a couple each Kaiyodo and X-Plus. The Emu-esque feet and the face especially impress, the sculpting on the inside of the mouth is insane, and the pose, while typical in the genre, is dynamic enough to be versatile in choosing a shelf location for the figure. I will say the coloration is a bit darker than expected, but I'm not disappointed in that, it looks fantastic! If I have one nitpick, and it's a minuscule one, it's that the inside of the mouth is a very bright red, which contrasts a bit too much with the more realistic body color.



The Steppe Mammoth is in 1/40 scale, and is wonderfully sculpted. I often take issue with hair or fur covered animals being represented in solid material. Making PVC look like hair is very difficult, but Eofauna's artists, both sculptor and painters, have managed to pull it off, with the hair flowing with the musculature of the body adding to the realism in the figure. The pose here is dynamic and very lifelike. I'm drawn to the tusks, trunk and mouth on this piece, well executed all.



The 1/35th scale Straight Tusked Elephant is the star here. This one came out of the box and the wife lost her mind. She doesn't collect toys, or elephants, or anything of the sort, but this one just grabbed her heart and she LOVES it. She immediately recalls the passage from Crichton's Jurassic Park novel, about John Hammond having the tiny angry elephant in the gilded cage, and remarked that this figure must be what that tiny elephant must have been like.

You set this one down, and it's real. It's a tiny Elephant on your table, and it could walk away any momeny. The paint is AMAZING, with the pink hues and the grades of grey. The eyes are looking back at you. There are striations and cracks along the tusks. I have never seen such a lifelike chunk of PVC before. This one is a true wonder to behold, one of the best figures of any kind I've bought in a while.



Bravo to Eofauna on these, I'll be sure to keep my eye out for more from them!

[MandaSaurus]

Can't believe it. I found the BD Pteranodon and BD mustard Raptor in my Wal-Mart yesterday. Guess what happened to the ones I got from Amazon? Sent 'em back! Wouldn't have bought 'em in the first place, if I thought they were gonna show up here! Well, live and learn, I guess. Still no luck with the Coelurus, though...

[_JNavs_]

So I was going through my old Dino figures I had as a kid today and found a Safari Spinosaurus from I believe 2010? But while the paint job was absolutely abysmal, the sculpt seemingly predicted the "New Spinosaurus" stance which is surprising.


I went ahead and repainted it entirely, as well as fixing the posture a bit so he's on all 4's, and I'm loving the results.. I've always had a fascination with the idea that some Predatory Dinos could have skin color patterns similar to skeletons, to kinda give that impression of death to scare it's prey into shock.
Black: Night Sky
White pattern: Starry Night/Intimidation
Tan: the muddy waters he likely hunted in

The idea was basically, what if this Spino was nocturnal in nature? Or maybe the fish he hunted were nocturnal which required him to adapt?



There's still some minor modifications I have to fix up but overall it's basically done.

[JAGzilla]

I haven't had any luck with the Coelurus yet, either. Weirdly, though, a case or two of the first Roarivores wave turned up at Walmart, and there are still a few Allosaurus and Baryonyx hanging around. I skipped both of them when they were new, but I dunno... I do kind of like the gray and blue on the Baryonyx, and while I'm not crazy about the mouth gaping open, the sculpt is pretty decent, too...

Also, that's a good look for the Spinosaurus, JNavs. The head and neck look great in those colors. The idea of a quadrupedal Spino has been around for a while, though, even if it apparently wasn't popular until the recent finds. There was a book I had as a kid, which was from the early '90s at least, that depicted Spinosaurus as doing most of its walking on all fours. It was shown with a standard therapod head back then, though, and I don't think the idea that it was a fish specialist was around yet.

[_JNavs_]

I haven't had any luck with the Coelurus yet, either. Weirdly, though, a case or two of the first Roarivores wave turned up at Walmart, and there are still a few Allosaurus and Baryonyx hanging around. I skipped both of them when they were new, but I dunno... I do kind of like the gray and blue on the Baryonyx, and while I'm not crazy about the mouth gaping open, the sculpt is pretty decent, too...

Also, that's a good look for the Spinosaurus, JNavs. The head and neck look great in those colors. The idea of a quadrupedal Spino has been around for a while, though, even if it apparently wasn't popular until the recent finds. There was a book I had as a kid, which was from the early '90s at least, that depicted Spinosaurus as doing most of its walking on all fours. It was shown with a standard therapod head back then, though, and I don't think the idea that it was a fish specialist was around yet.

When I bought the Roarivore Allo and Bary they were great, but their shelf life wasn't too long, since after a couple of months their legs warped from underneath them I guess, and now they can no longer stand. I know I could probably reheat them but it'd just happen again lol.

Also thank you! I wasn't aware of the long standing quad stance for the Spino, but I do recall those hilarious depictions which had them upright with an early t rex head.

[JAGzilla]

Man, the legs should not be warping that fast. That's some really shoddy craftsmanship. Actually, though, I wonder if that isn't also what happened to my Concavenator and/or Legacy Gallimimus. One of them (or possibly my TLW junior T. Rex) tipped over on the shelf the other day; I don't know which one, since all three were down. I haven't gotten around to getting up on a chair and fixing them back up, so I don't know if the legs are still alright. I'll have to pay attention to that.

I have had legs warp over time on other figures, though. My Clone Wars Geonosis-camo AT-RT made it about seven or eight years before suddenly collapsing. It'll still stand, but it's kinda rickety. Same with my JPIII electronic Spino. I moved him for the first time in years while rearranging my dinosaurs a few weeks ago, and found out that he wants to topple forward unless perfectly balanced. Hopefully he keeps holding that pose, because he'll knock half my collection down like dominoes if he falls.

[ultrazilla]

Got my 1/10 scale T Rex from Iron Studios recently, it's quite a beast alright.

[_JNavs_]

Man, the legs should not be warping that fast. That's some really shoddy craftsmanship. Actually, though, I wonder if that isn't also what happened to my Concavenator and/or Legacy Gallimimus. One of them (or possibly my TLW junior T. Rex) tipped over on the shelf the other day; I don't know which one, since all three were down. I haven't gotten around to getting up on a chair and fixing them back up, so I don't know if the legs are still alright. I'll have to pay attention to that.

I have had legs warp over time on other figures, though. My Clone Wars Geonosis-camo AT-RT made it about seven or eight years before suddenly collapsing. It'll still stand, but it's kinda rickety. Same with my JPIII electronic Spino. I moved him for the first time in years while rearranging my dinosaurs a few weeks ago, and found out that he wants to topple forward unless perfectly balanced. Hopefully he keeps holding that pose, because he'll knock half my collection down like dominoes if he falls.

Yeah that's exactly what happened with mine, they started collapsing over the shelf (but were caught by the hero that is the huge Mattel Mosasaurus), I tried to stand them on an even surface and they just couldn't do it. That JP3 Spino is ginormous he'd likely cause a collection apocalypse

[MandaSaurus]

Collect Jurassic is showing off a previously unknown dino release, on-shelves, the Bash n Bellow Apatosaurus. Considering what day this is, I'm taking this "release" with a grain of salt for now...

EDIT: Yeah, it's fake. "Sighting by April F." Ha-Ha. Good job on the photoshopped pic though...

[Rody]

Received my Eofauna figures today, and wowie, these are gorgeous!

Bravo to Eofauna on these, I'll be sure to keep my eye out for more from them!

They're amazing, aren't they?! I almost missed Eofauna entirely, but once I found out about the Steppe Mammoth, I ordered one and was hooked.
I totally agree about the Straight-tusked; besides the excellent sculpting and paint application, I think the posture and subtle details like the curled trunk really sell that sublime, lifelike quality. I actually reviewed the figure myself for the Dinosaur Toy Blog.
The Giga is an absolute favorite of mine. After the two "elephants", I was excited to see what they could do with dinosaurs, and boy did they deliver! Just beware: Giga MIGHT have stability issues down the line. Mine has had a couple of hot water treatments to refine its stance.
Honestly, I think it's impossible to photograph these figures badly:

So I was going through my old Dino figures I had as a kid today and found a Safari Spinosaurus from I believe 2010? But while the paint job was absolutely abysmal, the sculpt seemingly predicted the "New Spinosaurus" stance which is surprising.

I think it's from around 2008 or earlier; Safari ltd. has/had a short series of bigger, cheaper figures called "Great Dinosaurs". I have the Spino and the Therizinosaurus. The Spino resembles the smaller Wild Safari figure they used to stock.
The quadruped stance is funny, because as already mentioned, a lot of older illustrations depicted Spinosaurus on all fours. I think artists were mostly just confusing the animal with Dimetrodon, but Baryonyx used to be depicted as a partial quadruped, too, so there's that.
Now here we are in the 2010s, and the quadruped stance almost became legitimate again! Honestly, I laughed long and hard when I saw the Ibrahim paper results. Scientific progress can be a funny thing.

Speaking of Spinosaurs...
LOOK, mommy! Another big expensive model!





Evidently Taobao and AliExpress already have it. Pull the trigger if you dare.

[_JNavs_]

So I was going through my old Dino figures I had as a kid today and found a Safari Spinosaurus from I believe 2010? But while the paint job was absolutely abysmal, the sculpt seemingly predicted the "New Spinosaurus" stance which is surprising.

I think it's from around 2008 or earlier; Safari ltd. has/had a short series of bigger, cheaper figures called "Great Dinosaurs". I have the Spino and the Therizinosaurus. The Spino resembles the smaller Wild Safari figure they used to stock.
The quadruped stance is funny, because as already mentioned, a lot of older illustrations depicted Spinosaurus on all fours. I think artists were mostly just confusing the animal with Dimetrodon, but Baryonyx used to be depicted as a partial quadruped, too, so there's that.
Now here we are in the 2010s, and the quadruped stance almost became legitimate again! Honestly, I laughed long and hard when I saw the Ibrahim paper results. Scientific progress can be a funny thing.

Speaking of Spinosaurs...
LOOK, mommy! Another big expensive model!





Evidently Taobao and AliExpress already have it. Pull the trigger if you dare.

Oh no.. PNSO my kryptonite...

[JAGzilla]

Eh, I'll pass. The little spikes along the sail are kind of excessive, and ruin the look for me.

[_JNavs_]

Eh, I'll pass. The little spikes along the sail are kind of excessive, and ruin the look for me.

I see what you mean, but tbh they kinda remind me of Bearded Dragon spikes, they're usually on the loose folds of the dragons skin to protect them from predators. Now imagine you're a 60 foot lizard that can't scratch his back, but you also have the unfortunate luck of having a huge sail on your back which is made up of similar loose skin. Which means you can't defend from pterosaurs and larger dinos.

What would be the next best thing? Little spikes along your weak points to prevent critters from getting on your back while you sleep.

[xolta]

While technically not a dinosaur, recently at wall-mart i saw some of the corp toys now have per historic aniaml buddies. One of them begging a terror bird.

[JAGzilla]

^^ While that does make a certain amount of sense, I can't see pterosaurs going after a Spinosaurus to begin with, other than maybe mobbing it to protect a nest. And a fellow large carnivore big and committed enough to attack a sleeping Spino isn't going to be deterred by spikes that small, anyway. Maybe slowed down long enough for the Spino to get up, I guess, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I just plain don't care for the look, so whether it hypothetically makes sense or not is neither here nor there.

[Rody]

I kind of doubt anything we know of would have hunted Spinosaurus, anyway; the only other predator close in size was Carcharodontosaurus, and why go after another predator when there are so many large prey fauna instead?
Honestly my issue with the PNSO Spino is that it looks scrawny - the poor thing's ribs are showing, put some meat on those bones!