Best dinosaur figures ? Sauropodomorphs and other dinos considerations... And Black rhinos too

I apologize I can't find enough time to make better pics of the herd but here are some pics.
I don't have a lot of sauropods and prosauropods but I will enhance my collection soon with new models I hope.

So, here are the herd in two pics




Here are the prosauropods. I've got only one specie : the Plateosaurus engelhardti , which lived in Europa during the late Triassic period, 216 to 199 Million years ago




Then the Mamenchisaurus which lived in China during the late Jurassic, 160 to 145 million years ago




The Apatosaurus, also known as "brontosaurus"  which lived in North America during the late Jurassic, 150 million years ago




The Diplodocus which lived in North America during the late Jurassic, 150 to 147 million years ago




The Nigersaurus, lived in Africa ( Niger Republic ), during the middle Cretaceous period, about 119 to 99 million years ago



The Camarasaurus lentus, which in North America in the the late Jurassic period, 155 and 145 million years ago.




The Brachiosaurus brancai, also known as Giraffatitan, which lived during the Late Jurassic, 150–145 Million years ago.




At last, the Agustinia ligabuei which lived in south America, 108 million years ago in the early cretaceous.
The fossil found in 1999 was nearly complete except the head...

Kikimalou wrote:

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This one's neck is unbelievably long!  

HKHollinstone wrote:

This one's neck is unbelievably long!

This model is a little bit "old fashioned" now but the mamenchisaurus was the sauropod with the longuest neck, so long ii made up half its total length.

Amazing !!!!

I have never looked twice at the..hmm..dinos before.
But your pictures show they are really very fascinating

PS what is wrong with the pictures

Kikimalou wrote:

I apologize I can't find enough time to make better pics of the herd but here are some pics.
I don't have a lot of sauropods and prosauropods but I will enhance my collection soon with new models I hope.

So, here are the herd in two pics

...Oh, my lovely sauropodas! So many beautiful models, thank Christoph! I have some this models of course too... By the way... Why you don,t like Schleich dinosaurs? I did,t like "old style" Schleich dinosaurs, it seems made from "plasticine" and I,ve bought only 2-3 figurines. But I think it, s new set (new style) models is very good (T-Rex, Spino, Brachio, Apato, Parasaurolofus etc.) .

I love Sauropods !

You have a fantastic collection

...By the way I,m waiting Brachio, Nigersaurs and Jabaria (?) in scale 1:40 (Deluxe) from Collecta... This is it,s dinosaurs post ...


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Sergey wrote:

...Oh, my lovely sauropodas! So many beautiful models, thank Christoph!    I have some this models of course too... By the way... Why you don,t like Schleich dinosaurs? I did,t like "old style" Schleich dinosaurs, it seems made from "plasticine" and I,ve bought only 2-3 fidurines. But I think it, s new set (new stile) models is very good (T-Rex, Spino, Brachio, Apato, Parasaurolofus etc.) .

So... Why I don't like Schleich dinosaurs ?

Because I'm bad      

Seriously, I like very much a few Schleich dinos like the old plateosaurus, the old and odd brachiosaurus, the new parasaurolophus and the old edmontonia.

I also like very much some prehistoric reptiles like the desmatosuchus, the kronosaurus, shonisaurus and elasmosaurus  

But, what I dislike in a lot of Schleich dinosaurs is the unaccuracy of the models, it seems Schleich try to compete with the beautiful but inaccurate Papo. some of those new models are very well made, very fine (not all) but false.

Looking at them is like watching a tiger with a lion head and false legs... A lot of collectors dislike non realistic wild animals models, it's easy to understand. I also don't like lack of research and unaccuracies on dinos.
I understand Papo try to make Jurassic park style dinos.
But why Schleich isn't able to do enough research to make chubby but more realistic dinosaurs is still a mistery for me...
The two tyrannosaurus are jokes : Not accurate and of course really peanuts near a Papo tyrannosaurus (which is not accurate too but so beautiful).
The apatosaurus, what a hughe guy but not an apatosaurus, look at the Safari one, it is realistic.
The brachio... The same problem.
The new quetzalcoatlus with his heron neck...  
The new Giga ????? Ok it can stand on his feet, that's the only thing I like on this hughe piece of cake.
The triceratops... I've got it ! And I also have the Safari and the Papo. The Schleich is the worse, the feet are unaccurate but, ok it's not too bad, but the details... The details on the skin, the head are the poorest of the three models.

I'm sorry, I would love to like Schleich dinos but I'm sad and angry because I'm sure Schleich is able to make good ones but it doesn't.

Sergey wrote:

...By the way I,m waiting Brachio, Nigersaurs and Jabaria (?) in scale 1:40 (Deluxe) from Collecta... This is it,s dinosaurs post ...

I will buy the deluxe jobaria too... And maybe the sarcosuchus, the hydrthosaurus and the smaller ankylosaur  

Kikimalou wrote:

...[The two tyrannosaurus are jokes : Not accurate and of course really peanuts near a Papo tyrannosaurus (which is not accurate too but so beautiful).
The apatosaurus, what a hughe guy but not an apatosaurus, look at the Safari one, it is realistic.
The brachio... The same problem.
The new quetzalcoatlus with his heron neck...  
The new Giga ????? Ok it can stand on his feet, that's the only thing I like on this hughe piece of cake.
The triceratops... I've got it ! And I also have the Safari and the Papo. The Schleich is the worse, the feet are unaccurate but, ok it's not too bad, but the details... The details on the skin, the head are the poorest of the three models.

I'm sorry, I would love to like Schleich dinos but I'm sad and angry because I'm sure Schleich is able to make good ones but it doesn't.

...Thank, Christoph... Maybe... I did,nt think about it.   (By the way I,m fully agree about Sch. triceratops, I,ve not bought it, the best model is Papo model)

Kikimalou wrote:

HKHollinstone wrote:

This one's neck is unbelievably long!  

This model is a little bit "old fashioned" now but the mamenchisaurus was the sauropod with the longuest neck, so long ii made up half its total length.

It's incredible.  You have a lovely collection Christophe

Kikimalou wrote:

But, what I dislike in a lot of Schleich dinosaurs is the unaccuracy of the models, it seems Schleich try to compete with the beautiful but inaccurate Papo. some of those new models are very well made, very fine (not all) but false.

I'm sorry, I would love to like Schleich dinos but I'm sad and angry because I'm sure Schleich is able to make good ones but it doesn't.

... And one more question, Christoph (I want to some continue)... But there is inscription on the tags to every Schleich dinosaur model: "...This dinosaur series is the result of close cooperation between Schleich and the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. Each model is true to scale and  hand-painted, and is an ideal collector,s item". And what you say about it, Christoph? It,s lie?      

Sergey wrote:

... And one more question, Christoph (I want to some continue)... But there is inscription on the tags to every Schleich dinosaur model: "...This dinosaur series is the result of close cooperation between Schleich and the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. Each model is true to scale and  hand-painted, and is an ideal collector,s item". And what you say about it, Christoph? It,s lie?      

Sergey, there is a lot of questions under your "It is a lie ?".

First ; " It is an ideal collector item !", If you like the model and want to collect it, it is an ideal collector item. Some people in France are collecting Camembert's boxes and they think they are ideal collector items. But if you want to collect realistic and up to date dino toys... They are not ideal.

Second : They are hand-painted : I guess it's true  

Third : Each model is true to scale           . Search on books, web, encyclopedias the real or admited size of the dinosaurs made by Schleich and then take a tape measure and compare your model with the real animal. Divide the Size of the real animal by the size of your model and you will know the scale... And you will have  a lot of surprise     .
Try to do the same with the famous 1/32 sea animals and you will have big surprises.
Each model is true to scale is a BIG LIE !
And not only the scale ratio of the whole animal but even the scale of parts of the animals are wrong. I will give examples soon in another posts if you enjoy the discussion.

At last : "This dinosaur series is the result of close cooperation between Schleich and the Humboldt University of Berlin"... Is it a lie ?
hard to tell... Of course I'm sure Schleich used the skeletal copies of the Humboldt museum to make their model. But does it mean it is a close cooperation ? A lot of skeletal reconstruction are very expensive to make and you understand paleodontology is a living science and discoveries often changed the way we think dinosaurs are. No museum in Europa have enough money to change their skeletal reconstruction easily.So maybe some mistakes, and some are really incredible, are due to old reconstruction. But again I'm not sure because the mistakes are sometimes so big that it is only incredible.

But again, the best way to answer you is to speak about the models themselves.


So, I will speak first about the apatosaurus. You have this year two models of apatosaurus. One from Safari and one from Schleich.
You can see the Safari because I made a review about him and you have the new Schleich.

So here is the apatosaurus skeletal. I will show two models because in the 2000's the thought about the apatosaurus were like this :

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But nowadays, it seems the apatosaurus was more like that :

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A few years ago Kinto favorite, a japanese company made this model :
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And in 2010 Safari ltd makes this :
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And Schleich made that :
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Now look at the shape, the size of the tail, the neck. The Kinto looks like the first skeletal and the Safari like the second one.
And the Schleich looks like...      

Now look at the feet, the Kinto and the Safari are both like the skeletal.
Now look at the Schleich one :
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Isn't it funny    ?

Another example : the saichania.

here are some skeletal views and models :
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And now the two Schleich saichanias :

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well, the older one is not a saichania but it looks more like his cousin euoplocephalus.

So we can say the later model is a big improvement ! It looks far more like a saichania. My congratulations to Schleich

But  But    But   . Look at the hindfeet  

The Schleich have 6 toes on the hind feet and the skeletal have three. Maybe the Schleich is a mutant ?
All the advanced ankylosaurids have three toes on the hindfeet except the Schleich.

Another valuable item for collectors I guess


example three : the Sauropelta.

A pic of the real sauropelta skeletal :
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And now a pic of the very small but very fine sauropelta model made by KAIYODO :
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And the Schleich "museum" one   :
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The pics are speaking by themselves...

I enjoy very much to read and see what you experts know about these fascinating creatures.
It is a whole new world to me.

Thankyou, please go on , - or should we ask Torben if it is possible to make a new headline about Dinosaurs etc, - what would the heading be ? Prehistoric animals ?

thank you Suzanne.

You know I'm not an expert but I like to know the animal I collect.

I'm not sure it is a good idea to make too much headlines. If there is a dino headline, then why not a wildlife haedline, a sea animal, a farm...

IMHO, headlines for major companies and headlines for collection are enough.

Christophe, you are right about the Schleich Brontosaurus being inaccurate. But I still like it

Kikimalou wrote:

thank you Suzanne.

You know I'm not an expert but I like to know the animal I collect.

I'm not sure it is a good idea to make too much headlines. If there is a dino headline, then why not a wildlife haedline, a sea animal, a farm...

IMHO, headlines for major companies and headlines for collection are enough.

Yes, looking at it that way, I think you are right

Already it takes time to look through them all to see if I missed sometheng

HKHollinstone wrote:

Christophe, you are right about the Schleich Brontosaurus being inaccurate. But I still like it

Harriet, you are right. If you like this model, collect it .

I have a lot of odd or inaccurate models, especially among the vintage ones, but I like them very much and they are very important for me But I will never say I collect them because they are the best or the most realistic.

What I dislike about the Schleich dinos is not the models, they are false but even false models can be very appealing. Look at the Papo ones, they are false but often awesome.

So ? Papo makes JP dinos and never write somewhere "...This dinosaur series is the result of close cooperation between Papo and the Natural museum of Paris, France. Each model is true to scale and hand-painted, and is an ideal collector,s item".

What I dislike is Schleich is a pretentious company who telling us a lot of twaddle

Kikimalou wrote:

HKHollinstone wrote:

Christophe, you are right about the Schleich Brontosaurus being inaccurate. But I still like it

Harriet, you are right. If you like this model, collect it .

I have a lot of odd or inaccurate models, especially among the vintage ones, but I like them very much and they are very important for me But I will never say I collect them because they are the best or the most realistic.

What I dislike about the Schleich dinos is not the models, they are false but even false models can be very appealing. Look at the Papo ones, they are false but often awesome.

So ? Papo makes JP dinos and never write somewhere "...This dinosaur series is the result of close cooperation between Papo and the Natural museum of Paris, France. Each model is true to scale and hand-painted, and is an ideal collector,s item".

What I dislike is Schleich is a pretentious company who telling us a lot of twaddle

Yes I agree with you Christophe It's nice to have accurate dinos as well as ones you just like the look of.

Kikimalou wrote:

Sergey wrote:

... And one more question, Christoph (I want to some continue)... But there is inscription on the tags to every Schleich dinosaur model: "...This dinosaur series is the result of close cooperation between Schleich and the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. Each model is true to scale and  hand-painted, and is an ideal collector,s item". And what you say about it, Christoph? It,s lie?      

Sergey, there is a lot of questions under your "It is a lie ?".

...Thank you very much, Christoph, for pics and explanation! It,s very interesting for me, partially because I did want to be a biologist in remote past!        

...So one more question, Christoph (as you did notice our dialogue is found interesting for many forum,s members   ). What model of my lovely species - Brahio (and what brand) you considering "the best of all". I want to know!    

Sergey wrote:

...So one more question, Christoph (as you did notice our dialog is found interesting for many forum,s members   ). What model of my lovely species - Brahio (and what brand) you considering "the best of all". I want to know!    

Well Sergey, as I said to Suzanne, I'm not an expert.

So, about the brachiosaurus, which I love very much too   , I will speak about models I still don't have and never saw in a shop.

First, about the brachiosauridae, the best known is the Brachiosaurus brancai which no longer named like that and is now the Giraffatitan brancai. The brachiosaurs allithorax from North America is now the only "brachiosaurus" and the Giraffatitan, which have more complete fossils, is from Africa. Scientist thinks now that they are both different species.
Why I explain that ? Because some of our models are indeed more giraffatitan than brachio  

The way we see the brachiosauridae reconstruction evolved a lot in time. Here are a few pics of this evolution.

The older point of view, this pic show the giraffatitan at the Humboldt museum before he was rebuilt :

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The tail lying on the ground and the neck was a bit curved but more like a slash.

In the 1980's and 90's, the reconstruction changed like this. You can see a drawing and the new reconstruction at the Humboldt museum. The neck is more "swan-like" and the tail is no longer lying  on the ground...

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In the last few years a new conception appeared. Here is a drawing and No Humboldt museum pic because the musuem still doesn't change  his skeletal... It's expensive you know  :)  The neck is again more like a slash than like a swan.

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So what we could watch carfully if we want a recent model ?
Avoid all the models with a lying tail.
If you like the swan pose, go for it even if it is not up to date. then the best choice IMHO is the Bullyland :

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But the most updated are models which are like the last drawing.
At last, look at the feet on the skeletal and try to find a model like that.
IMHO the most accurate models are the 2010 Safari ltd and the Kinto favorite. But you must know they are smaller than your big old Carnegie bravhiosaurus.

Here is the Kinto :
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The Safari Ltd:
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And a pic with both models :
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Kikimalou wrote:

But the most updated are models which are like the last drawing.
At last, look at the feet on the skeletal and try to find a model like that.
IMHO the most accurate models are the 2010 Safari ltd and the Kinto favorite. But you must know they are smaller than your big old Carnegie bravhiosaurus.

...Thank again, Christoph!    By the way - I,ve saw Kinto models dinosaurs in web about 2-3 years ago (but I did,nt know that it was "Kinto" brand). This models are really beautiful!!    

...One more Kinto dinosaur models... The beautiful and more realistic? Ok!


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Thank You for valuable lessons Christophe and for lot of good pictures too.
Sergey Thank You too for pictures of very interesting things and dioramas. I think all this topic is very interesting. I don't have knowledge of dinosaurs and maybe that's why I never thought about collecting them. Although I think many of them are incredible, especially Papo versions.
I found very interesting site with customized dinosaurs: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I think You may find there something nice too
I like especially these photos
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Thanks for posting the link and pictures Ana, they are so real looking!