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Let's talk about Toy Dinosaurs!
7 years ago
General
Object In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.
The new Jurassic World toys are out and they look rad! http://jptoys.com/index.php/2018/02.....-mattel-s-line
I honestly don't give 2 hoots about the humans(most of em anyway - we'll get to that) but those dinosaurs are a huge step up from what Mattel put out for the first movie. And they have Herrerasaurus, where else do you find some obscure dino like that? (Well, Safari Ltd maybe... we'll get to that too.)
I got a tiny Blue because of course I did. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....ay-she-may-not Oh look, Hasbro, Mattel actually remembered to put the BLUE on Blue. XD Went with Battle Damage because I like the overall design the best. I kinda like how this line did the Battle Damage on these, too - it's on a little spring-loaded thing that you press and the flesh wound flips open, instead of having a chunk of flesh that comes off and WILL get lost like on the old JP line. And, because I don't want to think of Blue with a gaping flesh wound, I just keep that shit closed so her spaghetti won't spill. XD
Now, the human figures I am eyeing are - ooh, big reveal, huge fucking surprise - Alan and Ellie. Oh yes, they have a "Legacy Collection" with JP1 characters! They got Ian Malcolm and even Robert Muldoon, but I'll pass on those guys. I will probably go with that boxed set for Alan, he comes with 2 very lovely raptors, a Gallimimus, and a Dilophosaurus. They're Target-exclusive apparently which means they didn't have em at Wal Mart - sad times. I'll have to make a trip to Buffalo or order off Target's website, we'll see.
I've been thinking about the old Jurassic Park toys a lot too. They were some of the best toy dinos of their time, or at the very least some of my favorites. I used to have a small collection, but they got eaten by a snowblower long ago. Had 2 raptors - biter and screamer - and 2 Dilophosaurus - the squirt gun one and the screamer. I also had a Dimetrodon, though that is not actually a dinosaur, it is a synapsid. (The more you know!) I do still have the big reddish Rexy and the Coelophysis pair, though them Coelos are pretty beat-up. I might actually still have Alan and Ellie from that line somewhere around here too, probably hiding with my old Lion King toys. I, uh, have a literally 25-year-long history with that ship. :B
I currently have a much larger collection of Safari Ltd. dinosaurs. These ones are more like scientific replicas. I like em because they're generally pretty well detailed and colorful and overall good representations of the actual animals, rather than movie creatures. I think my favorite from this company is the feathered T. rex my half-sister got me for Christmas a few years back. I also have 2 other nonfeathered rexes of theirs, the old green one and the newer reddish one that is colored quite similarly to my JP Rexy. I have 3 Dilophosaurus from them, too, and too many more to list, ha. They have a pretty diverse cast with some obscure species(like Herrerasaurus, see, I came back to it) and I usually pick one up if I go to the museum or the fossil shop. (Yes, there's a fossil shop an hour from where I live: http://pastpres.com/ I love it, they have a small but amazing museum area in the back too.)
I have one Papo Spinosaurus and one Schleich green raptor that I refer to as Ellie, ha. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....and-smol-ellie I actually did base Ellie's colors loosely on that toy. XD That's all I have of those brands, but I admire them from afar. Safari Ltd is usually cheaper so that's my main collection. ^^; Not always the most accurate, but always pretty cool-looking!
I've saved the best for last: Creative Beast Studio's Beasts of the Mesozoic line:
http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....and-smol-ellie
Creative Beast site: http://creative-beast.com/
I got their Dromaeosaurus and named him Sam. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....-from-creative
He's fully posable, fully feathered, and basically the coolest damned dinosaur toy I've ever owned. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....a-disagreement
Had some fun with him and my figure drawing mannekin. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....figure-drawing
I bet that's what inspired Mattel to put out that fully posable Indoraptor.... too bad it doesn't look like a real dinosaur. ;p It's still neat, but I'd personally have a real species. I'd grab one of those of Blue in a heartbeat, at least she looks like a plucked Deinonychus.
And that's a bit about my collection. Do any of you have some nifty dinosaur toys? What are your favorites?
I honestly don't give 2 hoots about the humans(most of em anyway - we'll get to that) but those dinosaurs are a huge step up from what Mattel put out for the first movie. And they have Herrerasaurus, where else do you find some obscure dino like that? (Well, Safari Ltd maybe... we'll get to that too.)
I got a tiny Blue because of course I did. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....ay-she-may-not Oh look, Hasbro, Mattel actually remembered to put the BLUE on Blue. XD Went with Battle Damage because I like the overall design the best. I kinda like how this line did the Battle Damage on these, too - it's on a little spring-loaded thing that you press and the flesh wound flips open, instead of having a chunk of flesh that comes off and WILL get lost like on the old JP line. And, because I don't want to think of Blue with a gaping flesh wound, I just keep that shit closed so her spaghetti won't spill. XD
Now, the human figures I am eyeing are - ooh, big reveal, huge fucking surprise - Alan and Ellie. Oh yes, they have a "Legacy Collection" with JP1 characters! They got Ian Malcolm and even Robert Muldoon, but I'll pass on those guys. I will probably go with that boxed set for Alan, he comes with 2 very lovely raptors, a Gallimimus, and a Dilophosaurus. They're Target-exclusive apparently which means they didn't have em at Wal Mart - sad times. I'll have to make a trip to Buffalo or order off Target's website, we'll see.
I've been thinking about the old Jurassic Park toys a lot too. They were some of the best toy dinos of their time, or at the very least some of my favorites. I used to have a small collection, but they got eaten by a snowblower long ago. Had 2 raptors - biter and screamer - and 2 Dilophosaurus - the squirt gun one and the screamer. I also had a Dimetrodon, though that is not actually a dinosaur, it is a synapsid. (The more you know!) I do still have the big reddish Rexy and the Coelophysis pair, though them Coelos are pretty beat-up. I might actually still have Alan and Ellie from that line somewhere around here too, probably hiding with my old Lion King toys. I, uh, have a literally 25-year-long history with that ship. :B
I currently have a much larger collection of Safari Ltd. dinosaurs. These ones are more like scientific replicas. I like em because they're generally pretty well detailed and colorful and overall good representations of the actual animals, rather than movie creatures. I think my favorite from this company is the feathered T. rex my half-sister got me for Christmas a few years back. I also have 2 other nonfeathered rexes of theirs, the old green one and the newer reddish one that is colored quite similarly to my JP Rexy. I have 3 Dilophosaurus from them, too, and too many more to list, ha. They have a pretty diverse cast with some obscure species(like Herrerasaurus, see, I came back to it) and I usually pick one up if I go to the museum or the fossil shop. (Yes, there's a fossil shop an hour from where I live: http://pastpres.com/ I love it, they have a small but amazing museum area in the back too.)
I have one Papo Spinosaurus and one Schleich green raptor that I refer to as Ellie, ha. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....and-smol-ellie I actually did base Ellie's colors loosely on that toy. XD That's all I have of those brands, but I admire them from afar. Safari Ltd is usually cheaper so that's my main collection. ^^; Not always the most accurate, but always pretty cool-looking!
I've saved the best for last: Creative Beast Studio's Beasts of the Mesozoic line:
http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....and-smol-ellie
Creative Beast site: http://creative-beast.com/
I got their Dromaeosaurus and named him Sam. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....-from-creative
He's fully posable, fully feathered, and basically the coolest damned dinosaur toy I've ever owned. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....a-disagreement
Had some fun with him and my figure drawing mannekin. http://squeakychewtoy.tumblr.com/po.....figure-drawing
I bet that's what inspired Mattel to put out that fully posable Indoraptor.... too bad it doesn't look like a real dinosaur. ;p It's still neat, but I'd personally have a real species. I'd grab one of those of Blue in a heartbeat, at least she looks like a plucked Deinonychus.
And that's a bit about my collection. Do any of you have some nifty dinosaur toys? What are your favorites?
I want a Blue raptor plastic toy tho...
Or set up
I have a few dozen of them from different lines, and my roommate collects all the Papo and Jurassic Park dinosaurs he can get his hands on, but he passed on most of the Jurassic World ones because they looked bad... raptors without sickle claws??? We've both really been tempted by the new JW line, they do look so much better (we still haven't seen them in person in our country though)!! Thanks so much for posting that checklist, it's very useful!
The line that introduced me to dinosaurs when I was 3 years old is Dino Riders, they're pretty outdated and vintage looking nowadays but they're the only toys that ever gave dinosaurs "glass-like" eyes that makes them feel alive. I only display the dinosaurs and not their armors though.
I have a bunch of JP ones too (mostly from my childhood but also doubles my friend got in huge ebay lots), I collected all the ones I could find from the Chaos effect line (what can I do, I love colorful monsters :P), various Safari and Schleich, and lately I've started amassing a small pack of feathered dinosaurs, my favorites! I am still waiting for my own BotM order... love those raptors so much.
Oh, and since Gorgonopsids are my second fave animal after Velociraptor, I got a small bunch of them too. Loved the one made for JP years ago, I think I have all of its color variants!
Here's some (bad, sorry) pics of my toys!
https://i.imgur.com/VaVt2Da.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NrFPxhj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PnY6hI6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/c8Yo6op.jpg
That first set of JW dinos was pretty piss-poor wasn't it? I guess Hasbro's just bad at dinosaurs. Weird because Kenner was a subsidiary of Hasbro. Somehow I didn't have much hope when I heard Mattel was picking them up, but they delivered and it blew me away! Oh, and that JP Toys site with the checklist is a wonderful resource. They have lists and pictures of all the JP and JW toys, even unreleased prototypes, and news and a bunch of great stuff. :3
I kinda liked the Chaos Effect toys. It was clear what was hybridized for most of em and the paint jobs were bright but not overly garish. Just real interesting designs. Especially the black and blue alpha raptor! (I might have to hunt ebay for that one!) I never got any but they were cool. I wish Jurassic World had taken some cues from that, I didn't think the Indy rex was anywhere near as cool as the old CE hybrids. The Indoraptor is getting there, at least its coloration is more interesting, but still looks like a big raptor in need of lips to me. :/
I went to our local Toys Center but seems the new JW dinos aren't out in my country yet. Bummer but a relief at the same time, as I don't exactly have much money for toys at the moment, lol!
I agree about Indy - she had the potential to look really like... over the top and monstrous, instead she was generic theropod number 36475634 (I liked her being albino despite how overused the trope is) - I think to someone who doesn't know dinosaurs she might have just looked like any other carnosaur. I don't think the Indoraptor is much better, as you said it's basically just a bigger raptor ;_; they look NICE on their own, but don't really give me the idea of some exceptional mutation made to impress people.
Thanks for sharing these other pics with me! I am sure your collection will grow a lot as soon as more JW2 toys hit the shelves :D
BTW I see you have a PAPO Spinosaurs, is it sticky? My friend's PAPO spino's plastic feels all tacky and gross and we can't figure out why.
I just checked that spino, yes it does have a slightly sticky feel to it. I never noticed it really, I guess because it just sits on the shelf most of the time. Hmm, that's weird, wonder if it's something in the plastic.