Gecko08’s Collection & Recent Acquisitions

Another thing I was wondering, are there any other therocephalian/cynodont figures out there?

Here is my newest dinosaur.
Protoceratops andrewsi from Wild Past. This dinosaur is one of the oldest relatives of Triceratops, among Psittacosaurus and Liaoceratops. Protoceratops lived 76 million years ago in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. It was around 8 feet in length and had a very infamous battle with a Velociraptor. It was discovered by Roy Chapman Andrews (whose book I happen to have).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Wild Past’s figure is around 1:30 scale.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
06.22.2021

A very beautiful little model, congrats!

Nice addition

Protoceratops never assumed the same protagonism as velociraptor what turns this model even more interesting. Not all ceratopsians are equiped to the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. Thanks for sharing this Wild Past model.

Today I got a new addition to the collection and it’s safe to say that I needed this figure.
Safari Ltd Baryonyx walkeri. As Roger previously stated, Safari Ltd was hit very hard by COVID-19 and that may have been why they only released 3 dinosaurs, and I understand that. Hopefully they with come back full force in the years to come and there are unlimited possibilities regarding the toobs, maybe prehistoric fish, or maybe prehistoric amphibians (PLEASE!!). Back to Baryonyx
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Baryonyx was 25 feet long and was like a Spinosaurus without the famous sail. It was also quite a bit smaller than its famous cousin. Baryonyx has recently risen to popularity with its appearance in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom and Camp Cretaceous. It lived in England of the early Cretaceous era, around 130 mya. I appreciate all the detail put into the snout.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Baryonyx means “heavy claw” for the giant claw it used to grab hold onto fish. This figure is around 1:30 scale.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
06.25.2021

I hope you are right about Safari and that Baryonyx is really beautiful! Very good balance without tripod tricks.

Very interesting figure, with nice pose.

Congrats

A stunning model, and interesting to read about it too!

Today I received probably the weirdest dinosaur ever in the mail. Papo’s Chilesaurus.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The Chilesaurus diegosuarezi lived in Chile of the Late Jurassic era (145 mya). Papo has a history of reconstructing everyday dinosaurs with a odd twist (see: Spinosaurus, Baryonyx, and Giganotosaurus), but the oddities of this dinosaur are seen in the fossils too. This dinosaur was 10 feet in length and the figure is around 1:18 scale.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
“That’s not on InGen’s List”
Let’s dive into the history of this weird dinosaur. The first specimen was found by 7 year old Diego Suarez in 2004. It was named in 2015. If the scientists can ever figure out where exactly this creature fits on the family tree, then the implications could be massive. The creature has a body similar to basal sauropods, with the teeth fitting of a herbivore, and a backwards pointing pelvis bone allowing for a larger gut, also similar to the ornithischians (herbivores, but on a different area of the family tree than sauropods), but it also has two fingered hands, a trait exhibited in some theropods. There have been some proposals about where Chilesaurus fits on the family tree, but it’s all guesswork. If I had to take a shot at placing the Chilesaurus on a tree, I would say that the combination of characteristics means that it is probably the mirror image to some of the first dinosaurs, and that it is some lost ancestor to an early lineage of dinosaurs. It doesn’t make sense.
07.02.2021

Really awesome baryonyx and chilesaurus! I always enjoy reading your updates. Congrats!

Papo really did a great work with this model. I think the incosistencies with its taxonomic placement makes it even more interesting and regardless of all of it, the final model is a very exciting piece in my opinion. It was a pleasure to read your presentation and I will let here a link to the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Kosta provided to us.

Chilesaurus is definitely an iconic little oddball. It sounds like a hybrid dinosaur from the Jurassic Park movies, but sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
07.03.2021

I recently bought the Camp Cretaceous Savage Strike Monolophosaurus from Walmart.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
It is great to see an obscure species like Monolophosaurus gets attention. If you pull down on the dinosaur’s tail, the mouth shuts.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
In 2018, Mattel released a green Monolophosaurus with a battle damage action feature. The green color scheme of the 2018 Monolophosaurus was probably the inspiration for one of the Monolophosaurus color schemes from the show.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
It lived in Asia around 160 mya (Middle Jurassic). Monolophosaurus in the fossil record was around 24 feet long (certainly not that big in Camp Cretaceous because there was a scene where they were in the air vents, but maybe they were juveniles). This figure (if you are using the real life measurements) is around 1:40 scale.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
07.21.2021

Oh, it surely must be a very rare creature, I can't find it on the exaustive list Halich made on DTF. The action feature reminds me the Chap Mei models even if the design is not that grotesque.

The Mattel Monolophosaurus is certainly a great addition to my collection, but if you’re looking for a more scientifically accurate dinosaur, I would suggest the 2014 Safari Ltd Monolophosaurus.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
It is the same scale as the Mattel one. My safari Ltd mono is a bit roughed up unfortunately.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The aerial photo shows how Safari Ltd aimed to capture how slender Monolophosaurus was. This isn’t a post bashing Mattel, because Mattel’s job is to recreate the dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park franchise (and they did that greatly). And safari ltd’s job is to produce figures based on the fossil record.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Now for some good news off to the side. I ordered 6 Ediacaran models from the Life: Evolution of life on earth game series. As much as I would like to have the Yowie Dickinsonia and Mawsonites, and for that matter the Miracle Earth Kimberella, I can only get what I can find. And I have Safari ltd’s Charniodiscus from the Cambrian tube for an extra in my group photos.
07.22.2021

Gecko08 wrote:

Also my dinosaurs on my top shelf mostly fell down today. I am very very angry about this. I got them all back up and none of them were broken, but my third Cambrian diorama suffered a severe loss. None of the figure were broken, but the diorama scenery was completely blown away.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
But I was considering not using diorama because of how much space they took up, so this was the last straw.
01.01.2021

When I just remember that this year started with the Cambrian Mass Extinction.
07.22.2021

This is a wonderful model, and useful information about this species too! The Safari model is beautiful too!

Great comparison of monolophosaurus. Halichoeres must defintely to put the Safari model in his list of the best representatives.
I also enjoy your comments about the different design styles. It means they are both great models but their goal is different and they shouldn't even be compared because they represent two different leagues, not in quality but in concept.

Gecko08 wrote:

When I just remember that this year started with the Cambrian Mass Extinction.        
07.22.2021

Good way to react to such an apolcalyptic event.

I don’t understand why people are bashing the Jurassic Park Franchise for being inaccurate. Jurassic Park is and always has been a science fiction series and not a documentary, so anyone who is looking for real world information about dinosaurs in a science fiction series is missing the point. On good thing is that a dinosaur appearing in a mainstream movie like Jurassic Park will inspire people to research and learn more about the real species.
07.22.2021

So today I found one of my uglier not as well made dinosaur figures in my collection. The Hasbro Jurassic Hero Mashers Parasaurolophus.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
This figure was released in 2015 when the first movie in the new trilogy was released. The human figure in the picture is the Hasbro Owen (the only human figure released for Jurassic World). This figure only bears a light resemblance to the Parasaurolophus in the movies. The main idea for the hero mashers line is the idea of removing the limbs, tail, and head of the dinosaurs and creating weird dinosaur hybrids. I couldn’t do that because this figure is the only one I got from the line.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Here it is with the Mattel Dino rivals parasaurolphus from 2019. In 2015 they released a commercial for the line: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
After watching the commercial I realized something that I was very grateful of in the Jurassic world movie hybrids. They never mixmatched certain dinosaur parts with other dinosaurs like they never put pterosaur wings on like a Spinosaurus or something.
07.26.2021

That's at least a funny concept. It was already explored with other kind of toys, why not dinosaurs?

It was an interesting idea for the toy line, but it might not have gone so well if it was explored in the live action movies. I just realized that I needed to elaborate. When designing the Indominus Rex, the produces knew it was a mixture of many different species of dinosaurs, but instead of putting a stegosaurus tail or a pterosaur wing on its arm,(I’m just providing examples not saying the Indominus was made of those creatures) they chose to make a unique Indominus Rex build that wasn’t too wacky or strange.
07.26.2021