Custom Dinotopia Quetzalcoatlus "Skybax" by paintingdinos

A few weeks ago, I talked about the GR Toys/Haolonggood Quetzalcoatlus figure in my collection thread. I really like that figure, but the included unpainted version got me thinking. I’ve wanted a figure of the Skybax from James Gurney’s Dinotopia series for quite some time. The horse girl in me loves stories about people befriending and riding large animals (or the occasional giant robot). So, I reached out to Dinosaur Toy Forum member, paintingdinos (here's her thread), whom I’ve commissioned several lovely customs from in the past. She really worked some magic here, and I can’t thank her enough. Hopefully, I can do her work justice with my pictures, since the results are well…

Like the standard Quetzalcoatlus, I too found myself mouth agape when this thing arrived. It’s just too beautiful for words.


The Skybax vary in design depending on which art you look at. This figure’s paint scheme was mostly inspired by Gurney’s Skybax Rider painting. You can notice this primarily in the wings, where the patterns are more purple with some green flakes, as opposed to the simple reddish patterns of other art.


Here is our Skybax alongside her retail counterpart. While I didn’t dislike the standard paint job, paintingdinos' work just takes this figure to new heights.



Some more angles for you to feast your eyes upon. This figure speaks for itself in so many ways. So, I’ll shut up for a bit.






Something I truly didn’t appreciate until I had this custom in hand was the certain painterly quality it has. Let me try to explain this and not confuse you with my inability to articulate. I mean, it has this look of being a painting made three dimensional, if that makes sense. The wings and head are notable examples, looking like they came out of Gurney’s paintings. This isn’t something I’ve ever felt about any other figure before; it's just so beautiful.




Alright, here are some fun pictures I took of this beauty.





Danger in the Rainy Basin


”Breathe deep, seek peace.”



My amateur photo editing skills on full display.

And finally, the money shot, my homage to The World Beneath.

Of course Nedry’s here.

Wow, this repaint really is stunning, those colours and I completely understand what you mean about looking 3D in the way of a painting! It clearly shows so much talent and looks so natural too, with no evidence of it having been painted, those colourful patterns are so striking!
And I LOVED the photos with the Kabaya/ Japanese brand dogs, I love this series which combine realism and natural cuteness so well!

Wow what a glorious transformation! I really love the colors on that figure and I always think a repaint is more special when it’s based off of a character from something rather than just a generic recolor. A beautiful size too! I didn’t realize how large it was until it was next to the 2010 Toothless. Big congrats!

Very beautiful repaint!

Very nice psychedelic repaint, the original is nice but yours is really the Dance floor king or queen 

Oh wow!! Beautiful piece of artwork. I love that you got a custom from Dinotopia, those books are iconic, and this custom does them justice certainly. I agree with what you say about the painterly style - I love when an artist handles that technique well, so it looks, as you say, like a painting in three dimensions. Not sloppy, but painterly and elegant.

Fantastic paintwork, and wonderful photos
So many details, and still perfect ballance . It is amazing !

Thankyou very much for sharing

PS, I thought of Bonnie when I saw the Quetzalcoatlus with little dog

I didn't know that Kabaya has made dog models

Bonnie wrote:

Wow, this repaint really is stunning, those colours and I completely understand what you mean about looking 3D in the way of a painting! It clearly shows so much talent  and looks so natural too, with no evidence of it having been painted, those colourful patterns are so striking!
And I LOVED the photos with the Kabaya/ Japanese brand dogs, I love this series which combine realism and natural cuteness so well!

Thank you! Yeah, those kabaya dogs are nice. I think they're a little too cute, but they maintain a realistic enough look. The Kaiyodo pets, are more realistic, but I would prefer that level of sculpted detail from Kabaya.

Joliezac wrote:

Wow what a glorious transformation! I really love the colors on that figure and I always think a repaint is more special when it’s based off of a character from something rather than just a generic recolor. A beautiful size too! I didn’t realize how large it was until it was next to the 2010 Toothless. Big congrats!

Ha, happy you like the Toothless comparison. I've loved that series since the first one came out, and I think the idea of riding some giant reptile must just appeal to me given how much I love Dinotopia.

Caracal wrote:

Very beautiful repaint!

Thank you so much!

Kikimalou wrote:

Very nice psychedelic repaint, the original is nice but yours is really the Dance floor king or queen 

I never considered it psychedelic, but I can see it. Definitely a stand out figure.

Jill wrote:

Oh wow!! Beautiful piece of artwork. I love that you got a custom from Dinotopia, those books are iconic, and this custom does them justice certainly. I agree with what you say about the painterly style - I love when an artist handles that technique well, so it looks, as you say, like a painting in three dimensions. Not sloppy, but painterly and elegant.

Thank you! I've had a few of her customs, and she always delivers in making them look so natural and elegant, as you said.

SUSANNE wrote:

Fantastic paintwork, and wonderful photos
So many details, and still perfect ballance . It is amazing !

Thankyou very much for sharing

PS, I thought of Bonnie when I saw the Quetzalcoatlus with little dog

I didn't know that Kabaya has made dog models

Thank you. I can see why you might have missed the Kabaya dogs. A lot of sellers seem to label everything from Japan "Kaiyodo" or "Like Kaiyodo," which doesn't help. I also think a lot of the model databases ignore pet series, as they're more concerned with wildlife, so it's easy to lose them in the shuffle, if that makes sense.

@Loon

The How to Train Your Dragon series is by far my favorite series ever and I'm still obsessed with it. I've seen everything so many times and I have a fairly large collection of dragon figures. I've never heard of Dinotopia before actually but it sounds like it has the same concept so I can see why you like it so much!