Favorite Prehistoric Life Softmodel Dimetrodon: A walkaround by Kikimalou

Dimetrodon is one of the most famous non-dinosaur extinct animal in the toys world. It was rarely on the bench in most Dino lines with a special mention for Bullyland who produced at least 8 models of this charming animal.
2106 will be a Dimetrodon year for Schleich and Papo won the STS 2013 Prehistoric animal of the year.
We are now waiting for a CollectA and a Mojo.
Japanese brands have also their dimetrodons: Kaiyodo, Epoch and Yujin didn’t forget to make their own.
I like very much the Japanese company Kinto Favorite which produced dinosaur models with a size approaching the ”occidental” one.
So I was very pleased when they opened a ”Prehistoric life” series and more than pleased to see a dimetrodon this year.
And here we are, with Brett’s help, the beast is on my shelf. It was so happy to be here that it decided to make little dance for my camera. Unfortunately I fumbled and made high sensibility pics (never make a walkaround while you are sick!)
Nevertheless I hope you will enjoyed

At 18cm long, the scale is more or less between 1:12 and 1:15. The species is probably Dimetrodon milleri, one of the smallest species of Dimetrodon in North America.  for more information about dimetrodon, have a look HERE  

Nice model!

Thank you Andreas  I don't why you are often the first to post on my topics

I dont know too :)

widukind wrote:

I dont know too :)

A truely beautyful beast

Great to see one of the larger models from Asia, - and a brilliant walkaroud as always  

Kikimalou wrote:

...
The Dimorphodons trio: Great boys band for Kosta  

Wonderful trio, - and very funny

SUSANNE wrote:

Kikimalou wrote:

...
The Dimorphodons trio: Great boys band for Kosta  

Wonderful trio, - and very funny

Yeahhh, love it

It is very nice model ! Very interesting colors and nice details too :)
And the walkaround is the top, of course.
Thank you for sharing with us :)
Kiki, which one of these 3 models you like the most ? :)

It is interesting that you can assign it to a different species. Milleri seem very flat in some reconstructions, as they had some troubles to support their sails. :)
I have mixed feelings about the figure, from some angles I like it very much, for example, when you show it frontally and also the close up of his head. The rest of the body in profile doesn't look very organic in contrast with what happens with the Papo dimetrodon. The trio is fantastic togehter!

I thought I commented here yesterday, but it seems I forgot to click "send"
Very interesting dimetrodon. I like the slightly vintage style it has (at least it looks to me that way) . Perhaps it's because of the head shape or the way it is modelled in general. I like the skin texture and the shape of the sail too Beautiful piece, I think my favourite from the presented trio

The only thing that is a bit concerning about this model is its colouration. I don't know if I like it or not This colour set looks a bit "toxic" or even psychedelic to me, and a base colour it just doesn't seem to fit to living animal skin. All together these colours give me feeling that it's zombie dimetrodon who just ate strawberry chewing gum and its sail was painted with metallic car paint So, well, yeah, now I think I like these colours, they are completely out of this world  

Thank you for great walk around Chrsitophe! After looking at these photos I think I may need this model also in my collection, it's too crazy to miss

Very nice!Happily,I have this model myself.
You may be interested to know that the exact species for this one is Dimetrodon limbatus.The sculptor Hirokazu Tokugawa had some collaboration with the National Museum of Nature and Science,Tokyo on this model.

Thank you Susanne, Kosta, Rogério , Anna and John

@Susanne: I'm glad you haven't notice I called them dimorphodons trio... Dimorphodons!!! Poor macaque

@ John and Rogério: Dimetrodon limbatus, thank you for the tip. The sails let me thought about Dimetrodon milleri but you are right of course

@ Anna: The Kinto is actually the less vintage of the trio, especially for the semi-erected legs position. Dimetrodons are Synapsids, it means they are closer to mammals than to any living reptile. Of course it is an artistic feeling, but for me the Kinto has the "less reptilian" looking of the batch.
The colors are indeed psychedelics and they are maybe its weakest part.

@Rogério: The Papo has a very "saurian" or "lizard" skin texture and I think Kinto tried here to avoid lizard like skin becauese this animal has nothing to do with lizards.

@ Rogério & Kosta: Having the three models is interesting from "museum class" or not point of view. The Carnegie is a very serious model made 15 years ago. Safari Ltd tried to make it accurate and appealing.
The Papo dimetrodon is one of the most "Museum class" of the brand.
The Kinto is a "Museum class" model with odd colors.
Which is my favorite? I don't know.
What I can say is the Papo has the "Papo touch", it is a very dynamic and dramatic piece. It is a great quality.
The Kinto has the "Kinto touch", the model is not as spectacular, the charm is elsewhere. Kinto produced Prehistoric animal models which look like extinct animals, not like "powerful beasts of the past". Why a tyrannosaurus or a dimetrodon need to look more terrifying than a lion or a tiger? Both are or were apex predators of their time and nothing more. I like this idea

Kikimalou wrote:

@ Anna: The Kinto is actually the less vintage of the trio, especially for the semi-erected legs position. Dimetrodons are Synapsids, it means they are closer to mammals than to any living reptile. Of course it is an artistic feeling, but for me the Kinto has the "less reptilian" looking of the batch.
The colors are indeed psychedelics and they are maybe its weakest part.

By saying it has vintage feeling to it I didn't mean to say it has outdated information or isn't accurate. I also like the fact that it isn't shown with scales and as I said I like the skin texture, exactly because it seems more accurate for the animal that is closer to mammals than to reptiles. I don't know much about prehistoric animals, but the fact that dimetrodons were not dinosaurs and were rather a relatives of mammals, at least I have known already

Vintage style for me is more connected to the way of modelling, that's what I tried to say. Maybe a bit of stiffness and lot of symmetry in pose connect is also to archaic depictions of animals in general. But "vintage" term had in this opinion of mine nothing to do with questioning accuracy of this sculpt.

For me psychedelic colours are not necessary an issue, they are crazy to the point of artistry However, I would love to see a repaint of this model, it would show the great sculpting in a new light I think.

Ana wrote:

By saying it has vintage feeling to it I didn't mean to say it has outdated information or isn't accurate. I also like the fact that it isn't shown with scales and as I said I like the skin texture, exactly because it seems more accurate for the animal that is closer to mammals than to reptiles. I don't know much about prehistoric animals, but the fact that dimetrodons were not dinosaurs and were rather a relatives of mammals, at least I have known already

Vintage style for me is more connected to the way of modelling, that's what I tried to say. Maybe a bit of stiffness and lot of symmetry in pose connect is also to archaic depictions of animals in general. But "vintage" term had in this opinion of mine nothing to do with questioning accuracy of this sculpt.

Ok, I misunderstood. I had the same feeling when I first discover the Papo yak, dromedary or camel, something that remind me the goood old German composition style  

Ana wrote:

For me psychedelic colours are not necessary an issue, they are crazy to the point of artistry However, I would love to see a repaint of this model, it would show the great sculpting in a new light I think.

 I understand. I'm not a fan of "too much artistic" paintings on "dinos". We don't know exactly how they looked and they were maybe very different from what we imagine. Unlike extant animal models, "dinos" are a bit imaginary creatures with shapes different from nowadays. I think an "imaginary" creature with an artistic painting leads to something close to Fantasy. I prefer more common paintings, which remind us extant species an lead to something close to "natural world".   Well I hope you are reading something close to English  

I would love to see a good repaint of that one Not by me alas, i don't know what to paint on these big sails!

Thank`s for your opinion Kiki :)

costicuba wrote:

Thank`s for your opinion Kiki :)

It was impossible for me to answer this one or that one

Kikimalou wrote:

Ana wrote:

By saying it has vintage feeling to it I didn't mean to say it has outdated information or isn't accurate. I also like the fact that it isn't shown with scales and as I said I like the skin texture, exactly because it seems more accurate for the animal that is closer to mammals than to reptiles. I don't know much about prehistoric animals, but the fact that dimetrodons were not dinosaurs and were rather a relatives of mammals, at least I have known already

Vintage style for me is more connected to the way of modelling, that's what I tried to say. Maybe a bit of stiffness and lot of symmetry in pose connect is also to archaic depictions of animals in general. But "vintage" term had in this opinion of mine nothing to do with questioning accuracy of this sculpt.

Ok, I misunderstood. I had the same feeling when I first discover the Papo yak, dromedary or camel, something that remind me the goood old German composition style  

Yes, that's what I meant!

Kikimalou wrote:

Ana wrote:

For me psychedelic colours are not necessary an issue, they are crazy to the point of artistry However, I would love to see a repaint of this model, it would show the great sculpting in a new light I think.

 I understand. I'm not a fan of "too much artistic" paintings on "dinos". We don't know exactly how they looked and they were maybe very different from what we imagine. Unlike extant animal models, "dinos" are a bit imaginary creatures with shapes different from nowadays. I think an "imaginary" creature with an artistic painting leads to something close to Fantasy. I prefer more common paintings, which remind us extant species an lead to something close to "natural world".   Well I hope you are reading something close to English  

I would love to see a good repaint of that one  Not by me alas, i don't know what to paint on these big sails!

I think you are right. While I think it's funny to make a story which would fit the fantasy styled colours of prehistoric animals, I still think it's even nicer to try to imagine their world as believable as possible with more natural looking colours (but, hey the zombie dimetrodon painted with car paint, what a world it would have to lived? Post nuclear world ruled by crazy pseudo scientist-artisan? Or something else? ) But the world that existed 290million years ago is even more interesting to imagine, this is so incredibly long ago, and even dinosaurs would call this species archaic

If I find a Kinto dimetrodon one day I think I would try to repaint it. Hard to say what to do wth the sail colours, it certainly would be a challenge.  I can't think of any modern mammal having similar structure anywhere so it will be a bit hard to find decent inspiration

Maybe I will try to recolour it first in Photoshop if you don't mind if I use one of your photos from this topic for this purpose?

All this discussion just reminded me how much I loved to look into this old book when I was a child, it was so amazing to try imagine the world from so long time ago, it was illustrated by Zdenek Burian:


and he painted lovely dimetrodons also, this picture will always sit in my head I guess

Zdenek Burian I guess every European of my age haven't grew up without Zdenek Burian books

You can use all my pics Anna, they are made for sharing with STS members and are not holy pics

Thank you Kikimalou!

Yes, I think Burian's illustrations are very lively, and appealing

After playing a bit with the Kinto favourite dimetrodon photo I got something like this:


Not very original I guess but that's first what came to my mind

Nice walkaround of a great model. This Dimetrodon is my favorite of the group in most ways and will join my collection at some point. I agree with Anna about the "vintage" quality- if you look at other Tokugawa sculptures (http://a-fragi.blogspot.com/) I think many of them are like this- while being thoroughly modern interpretations they have the feel of "classics" somehow. The Stegosaurus from Favorite's first dino series (from a different sculptor) has this effect on me, too (maybe because of the smooth profile created by the plates).

It is interesting to see how those other colors might look on it. On the original the red flush is reasonable for a sail, and I suppose the skin color is a bit reminiscent of hippos or monitors ... but you couldn't go wrong with a good repaint.

I missed your pic Anna, It is a nice paleozoic tiger

@A.R.Garcia: Thank you for your comments. Classic is the word, better than vintage, Tokugawa have a very classic touch and I like that. I hope we will see more Softmodel from him!

Kikimalou wrote:

I hope we will see more Softmodel from him!

As much as I like seeing Favorite non-dinos being made, I want to see him sculpt more dinosaurs for them (some that I can actually find or afford. Actually, if they just gave wider distribution to already-sculpted models like the Saurolophus they could be making some money off of people like me...)

Of course it would be fantastic to see more dinos every year and the saurolophus is for sure a great add.

Nevertheless, when I look at his models like Inostrancevia, Higotherium, Plesiocolopinus, Drepanosaurus, Estemmenosuchus, Desmostylus, Osteodontornis or the incredible Cotylorhynchus I think it would be something really new

By the way, I would also love to see a decent wildlife line, Kinto "Animal world" vinyl models are the weakest part of their production.

Agreed on all points. Their wildlife, sea life, and in fact the main dinosaur line are all rather "safe" in their variety. It is understandable as a business model but the potential is there to do really interesting things.