Gecko08’s Collection - MOVED TO A NEW TOPIC

Thanks [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], I was very happy to learn that Collecta was making an updated version of Elasmosaurus. Today I got something else in the mail (good job saving money Haydn). This is actually the 2020 figure of the year, so I was able to make an exception. The next time a figure of the year is prehistoric, I’ll be quicker to the punch.

Megaloceros giganteus (Papo)
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Early Pleistocene Europe
Height: 6 feet
Scale: 1:20
This is a GREAT figure. The massive elk finally gets the figure it deserved from Papo.

Pliocene-Pleistocene 1:20-1:25
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Diprotodon (Southlands Replicas), Smilodon (Safari Ltd), Megaloceros (Papo)
Thanks to the continents, all of these lived during the same time, but none of these met.
11.06.2021

I got a couple new figures today from Safari but first off I want to explain a weird ebay experience I just had. A couple days ago I ordered a terror bird figure from eBay and fast forward to today. I get this…

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I sent the seller a message asking what happened, and ill update this post when he responds. If he doesn’t want me to send it back, then I’ll have a birthday present for my friend.

Vagaceratops (Safari Ltd)
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Late Cretaceous Alberta
Length: 18 feet
Scale: 1:35
By the very end of the late Cretaceous, there were only two ceratopsian subfamilies. Those being Chasmosaurinae and Centrosaurine. Vagaceratops is a Chasmosaurine, which puts it in the same subfamily as Triceratops.

Here are some other Chasmosaurines in the 1:30-1:35 scale range.
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Those being Triceratops (Safari Ltd), Torosaurus (Toyway), Pentaceratops (Schleich), and Regaliceratops (Safari Ltd). Chasmosaurus and Spiclypleus are also in this group and have figures in my collection, but they are around 1:20 and I usually choose not to exaggerate size in my group shots even if it means I’ll be using fewer figures.

Styracosaurus (Safari Ltd)
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Late Cretaceous Alberta
Length: 20 feet
Scale: 1:30
It’s got some paint wear on it, but that’s to be expected when buying used eBay figures. It will also make a nice member of the herd when I find one with better paint. Styracosaurus is from the Centrosaurine subfamily, and here are some Centrosaurines in 1:30-1:35.
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The others being Einiosaurus (Safari Ltd), and Machairoceratops (PNSO). I chose not to include the BOTM Centrosaurus for the same reason as the other BOTM ceratopsians. Some that I need but don’t have are Diabloceratops, Sinoceratops, and pachyrhinosaurus.

UPDATE: the seller on eBay is sending the right figure. He didn’t want me to send it back.
11.08.2021

Since my collection is consistently experiencing new arrivals, I thought it unfair to make any more update posts right when I get the figures. It feels like spamming this topic and it’s not good for getting more replies, so I’ve decided there’s no time like the present to put a stop to it. With that out of the way, here are some additions I’ve gotten over the past few days.

First off, some Thyreophorans (the Clade that includes Stegosaurs, Nodosaurs, and Ankylosaurs)

Dacentrurus (Battat)
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Late Jurassic England
Length: 20 feet
Scale: 1:40
In a species where all we know of it is this mess of bones
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It can be hard to tell how accurate a figure is, but judging by the general Stegosaur body plan, Battat’s Dacentrurus is as accurate as it gets. Roughly to scale with Safari’s phenomenal Stegosaurus.
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Polacanthus (TS Toys)
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Early Cretaceous Europe
Length: 16 feet
Scale: 1:20
I just remembered that I had this figure when I looked through my collection to find the rarest figures. Glad to finally add it here.

Euoplocephalus (Battat)
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Late Cretaceous North America
Length: 10-20 feet
Scale: 1:40
Ankylosaurs are criminally underrepresented in my collection, but plenty of them are out there for me to get. Here it is with some 1:35-1:40 contemporaries.
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Gorgosaurus (Papo), Daspletosaurus (Collecta), Parasaurolophus (Battat), Deinosuchus (Safari Ltd). Daspletosaurus was suited for taking on ceratopsians and ankylosaurs, or at least better suited for taking them on than the fleet-footed *for its size* Gorgosaurus.

I got the Collecta Prehistoric Marine tube from Amazon (but considering that it came in a bag full of Chinese lettering instead of a tube and that it cost a third of the usual price, these are probably ripoffs).
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The ones that I’m not going to add to the list are Xiphactinus, Archelon, Dunkleosteus, Olenoides, Cameroceras, Pliosaurus, and Temnodontosaurus. My reason for not adding them is that I’m able to get larger versions of these species and plan on doing so.

Still kudos to Collecta for making a Dunkleosteus that doesn’t have armor unnaturally placed outside its body.
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And now for what you’ve all been waiting for...

Leedsichthys (Collecta)
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Late Jurassic
Length: 55 feet
Scale: 1:160
Sad how the largest ray-finned fish to ever live is treated like this. I have a Sansyo88 figure that I prefer over this one, but since it’s the only mass-produced Leedsichthys from a good company so far, I decided to try it out. Poor Leedsichthys, the only thing I have close to its scale is the Kaiyodo Tarbosaurus (and it’s about 1:120).
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Australiceras (Collecta)
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Early Cretaceous
Length: 9 inches
Scale: 1:6
The ammonites with the most unusual shells appeared during the Cretaceous. This set offered me greater ammonite diversity, and even better, it covered some really unusual ones.

Diplomoceras (Collecta)
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Late Cretaceous
Length: 10 feet
Scale: 1:35
Ah, the paper clip ammonite. What a strange creature…..

Baculites (Collecta)
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Late Cretaceous
Length: 6 feet
Scale: 1:25

Parapuzosia (Collecta)
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Late Cretaceous
Height: 6 feet
Scale: 1:40
Parapuzosia was the largest ammonite.

And one Cenozoic beast!

Phorusrhacos (Unknown)
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Miocene of Argentina
Height: 8 feet
Scale: 1:12
I’ve wanted this figure for quite a while, but the only way I could find it on evilbay is through one of those Chinese sellers that sell chinasaur rip-offs of Papo dinosaurs. But then I found a source in the states that was selling one just as I was about to buy it from china. It's the same guy who sent me the rubber dinosaur when I should have gotten this one. Either way, it worked out fine.
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Aside from the pronated hands, this is a pretty accurate figure. And detailed.
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You’ve got to hand it to Phorusrhacos, most top predators don’t do well after being usurped by a rougher creature. Phorusrhacos lived in South America when a land bridge connected it with North America and the fauna changed, starting a whole balance of power subplot. Smilodon moved into South America and dominated over the fauna, but Phorusrhacos survived and migrated to North America, where it evolved into Titanis Walleri.

On the last day of November, I plan to take a trip to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. I read they have a nice gift shop with Safari Ltd and Schleich dinosaurs, which is why I've been trying to save money from making sparse online purchases.

11.12.2021

Wonderful new additions. I think I've said it before, it's great that you show size comparisons. The Parapuzosia is enormous, imagine we had large prawns like this today! No idea how they can construct a Dacentrurus from the jumble of bones, it must have been a researcher with a lot of fantasy. Going back further, I like your Chasmosaurines a lot; I had no idea that there were so many species within this group. Your topic is one of the most educational topics on STS for me.

.. indeed!

The Phorusrhacos is very interesting .

I always read and enjoy your updates, Haydn, yours is one of my favorite collections here. Sorry I don't post my appreciation often.

Love that Phorusrhacos, would get that figure myself if I found it!

Great new models! I like the prehistoric sealife tube best.

Thanks everybody! So now I’m saving up money for my museum trip in 2 weeks, which means I won’t be getting any new figures (of course unless the play visions amphibians turn up). I’ve been wondering how I’m going to continue this topic. Maybe modern fish? Group shots? Figures that didn’t make the cut onto my list? I’ll decide later after some more thought. Here are some group shots.

The only post-dinosaur extinction fauna I have to scale with my Phorusrhacos are the Primeval Future Predator and the Safari Diplomystus. What an odd group….
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And it just shows how out of scale Phorusrhacos is of everything Else.

Campanian Asia 1:35-1:55
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Kamuysaurus (Collecta), Therizinosaurus (Collecta), Protoceratops (Wild Past)

Kamuysaurus most definitely coexisted with Therizinosaurus and Protoceratops because Japan was connected to Asia at the time.

Permian-Triassic Synapsids 1:15-1:25
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Dinogorgon (Schleich), Inostrancevia (Safari Ltd), Lystrosaurus (Kaiyodo), Trochosaurus (Kaiyodo), Lisowicia (Collecta), Dimetrodon (Safari Ltd)

Except for the Kenner Lycaenops (which was too big) and the Nayab Placerias (which was too small), these are all my synapsids. Poor Lystrosaurus, surrounded by everything it ever feared at once. They wanted to run off my table. “I’ll take my chances on the floor”.

11.13.2021

It looks like the dinosaurs in the background are going to fight about who will get the Lystrosauri while the Lystrosauri escape.

rogerpgvg wrote:

It looks like the dinosaurs in the background are going to fight about who will get the Lystrosauri while the Lystrosauri escape.

  
  Indeed

rogerpgvg wrote:

It looks like the dinosaurs in the background are going to fight about who will get the Lystrosauri while the Lystrosauri escape.

I can imagine the tiny Trochosaurus saying “THEY’RE GETTING AWAY!” but none of them listen to him.

11.14.2021

Thank you for this useful last picture and for the other ones too!

And I plan on keeping the group shots coming. First off, an ancient figure that resurfaced in the collection.

Dimorphodon (Hasbro)
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Early Jurassic England
Wingspan: 4 feet
Scale: 1:15
The head proportions are a little off, but otherwise it’s not that bad. I’m probably going to get the much better Safari or Collecta figure.

Pterrific Pterosaurs 1:15-1:30
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Pteranodon (Safari Ltd), Anhanguera (Schleich), Geosternbergia (Favorite Co), Guidraco (PNSO), Dimorphodon (Hasbro), Tapejara (Safari Ltd)
This year, we will see one new addition to this shot, that being Collecta’s Geosternbergia. My only request for companies is that they give flying positioned Pterosaurs bases (something Favorite Co did with the Geosternbergia) , so they aren’t just awkwardly lying on the floor. Also if anybody has any suggestions for two figures they would like to see together for reference, feel free to list it down below.

11.15.2021

Another very interesting and helpful picture!

Now this is probably one of the last posts I make before my museum trip (and I’m sure that in itself would call for a hefty post). Today’s life belongs to my Paleozoic Aquarium.

Anomalocaris (Off Brand Amazon)
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Early-Middle Cambrian
Length: 3.2 feet
Scale: 1:5
A ripoff of the favorite co Anomalocaris (and also bycatch being sold with my Acutiramus and cephalaspis). The reason I decided to showcase it even though I have the mini model from Favorite is because it’s closer in scale to a majority of my other Cambrian animals. In order words, nothing else I have from the Cambrian is 1:10, but I do have some around 1:3 and 1:4.

It looks nice with Collecta’s new Redlichia rex.
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Gemuendina (Gosnell)
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Early Devonian
Length: 1 foot
Scale: 1:4
Sean Bell’s blog post about this figure: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (Sean said it was 1:13, but he used the larger estimate whereas I used the smaller estimate so it would fit in better with my other Devonian fauna)

Gemuendina was a placoderm from the early Devonian of Germany. While this figure looks like a stingray, the heart shaped body and the mouth placement are that of Gemuendina. It looks a bit cartoony, but it adds a welcomed splash of color to my Devonian fauna. After all, non-Dunkleosteus placoderms aren’t very often to see in figure form.
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Here it is with Safari’s Stethacanthus, Kaiyodo’s Acanthostega, and Yowie’s Mcnamaraspis. Strangely, none of these would have met Gemuendina despite being in close scale. It would have actually shared turf with the bottom feeding Cephalaspis.
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And here is one more figure I decided to add a day after I wrote the initial post.

Postosuchus (Safari Ltd)
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Late Triassic
Length: 13 feet
Scale: 1:40
This is the miniature from the Prehistoric Crocodiles tube. The more I see images of the bigger Postosuchus, the more I want it, but it tell myself to hold out for a bipedal one to be made.
In pursuit of Nayab’s Placerias.
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I’ve also been eyeballing the Marx Moschops, Sphenacodon, and Cynognathus, but I’m paranoid that as soon as I buy them, Safari Ltd will make all three of them.
11.17.2021

It's wonderful to find so few known species figurines to compare with what I could find when I was fourteen years old!.. and it's hard to understand why we can't find replicas of well known mammals like vicuña or jaguarundi!

Caracal wrote:

It's wonderful to find so few known species figurines to compare with what I could find when I was fourteen years old!.. and it's hard to understand why we can't find replicas of well known mammals like vicuña or jaguarundi!

Oftentimes the species chosen by companies to render in plastic are a complete mystery. I would think it'd be easier to make figures of extant species, as you have the actual animal still alive to base the figure off of, rather than dinosaurs where the colors are all educated guesses (with the exception of a couple of exquisitely preserved Chinese taxa). I wonder if it's frustrating for a company to make a figure of a certain dinosaur, and then the very next year, their figure is rendered inaccurate by a new discovery. On a different note, when I first heard that people were criticizing PNSO, I was baffled at what they were saying. I didn't understand how anybody could complain about a company that makes detailed, well researched figures. But I did some more digging, and realized that while they may be aesthetically pleasing, sometimes they would make sacrifices in the way of accuracy to satisfy that. I've seen them sometimes bend the proportions of an aquatic animal just to not have to use a normal swimming pose. When faced with buying from PNSO vs buying from Safari, I would buy from Safari.

11.17.2021

Some recent acquisitions.

Tanystropheus (Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd)
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Middle-Late Triassic Europe
Length: 20 feet
Scale: 1:20
For me, the vibrant coloration on this version is prettier than the previous, drabber iteration. Tanystropheus was more stringy than it was big. Crazy that an actual animal that used to live looked like this    It reminds me a bit of Plesiosaurus. Tanystropheus was an aquatic piscivore that may have hunted fish with its massive neck. Strangely, Tanystropheus is a stem archosaur, meaning it’s closer to crocodiles and birds than it is to plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. The foot morphology is a little outdated, but I can just envision it as resting on the seafloor or on the riverbank. It’d have to spend most of its time in the water, to avoid having to lug around that massive neck,

With some other 1:20 Triassic beasts.
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Proterosuchus (Safari Ltd), Lystrosaurus (Kaiyodo), Henodus (Safari Ltd)

Tanystropheus is one of the few Safari figures that actually has a gimmick. It has a wire in its neck that allows you to pose it in all sorts of different positions. When I opened the box, its neck was craned in an unnatural position so I had to fix it back. It’s a great figure and probably one of the most unique old Carnegie figures.
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Sinornithosaurus (Safari Ltd)
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Early Cretaceous China
Length: 3 feet
Scale: 1:15
This is the newer release version, and I will explain my choice of getting this one below.

Tiny Creatures of Early Cretaceous China 1:12-1:25
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Psittacosaurus (Safari Ltd), Liaoceratops (PNSO), Sinornithosaurus (Safari Ltd), Dilong (Safari Ltd), Sinosauropteryx (PNSO), Bepiaosaurus (Safari Ltd)
All of these were under 10 feet.

Sinornithosaurus would have probably been one of the top predators of its area because its jawbone has several grooves that lead upwards into the skull. Some paleontologists have theorized that this means it was venomous, as the Gila Monster has the same grooves on its upper mandible. Some people have disputed this theory, but so far it’s the best explanation. And if it’s true, that means it’s the only venomous dromaeosaurid dinosaur.
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Here it is with the old release.
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As if Sinornithosaurus wasn’t already interesting enough, it’s also one of the only dinosaurs we know for sure what the colors were (the others being Psittacosaurus, Anchiornis, Borealopelta, Archaeopteryx, Sinosauropteryx, and Microraptor). The reason why I preferred the newer version of the Sinornithosaurus is because the darker palate matches the actual coloration better.
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Yesterday I went on a trip to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (I stayed overnight because it took a while to get there and back).

The centerpiece is a massive Basilosaurus (35 mya whale) skeleton.
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But they also had a Smilodon posed next to a giant ground sloth.
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And a display hall starting with a Dunkleosteus skull.
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With plaques about the main eras (this one included the Carboniferous)
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Gorgosaurus fossils next to mosasaur and whale skulls.
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Protostega turtle and the hall ends with the Pleistocene and a Mastodon skull.
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The gift shop was okay, with a couple of Schleich and Safari figures.
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I didn’t need any of the Schleich figures so I got the chance to pick up some Wild Safaris that I needed.

Microraptor (Safari Ltd)
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Early Cretaceous China
Length: 3 feet
Scale: 1:5
I needed an updated Microraptor for a while now and I was torn between the BOTM, PNSO, and Safari versions. I eventually opted for the Safari Microraptor because it was more cost effective than the BOTM version, and wasn’t shiny and emaciated like the PNSO versions. The poor PNSO Microraptor needs a hamburger!  The jet black coloration is actually accurate to the melanosomes found in Microraptor fossils. That’s more often in feathers than scales, but the Psittacosaurus melanosomes proves it’s not impossible for a non feathered dinosaur.

Citipati (Safari Ltd)
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Late Cretaceous Asia
Length: 9 feet
Scale: 1:18
Citipati was bigger than Oviraptor, and is also one of the many Oviraptorosaurs often looked over, but now it gets the figure it deserves. The bright coloration won me over, as I usually try to stay as open minded as possible in terms of coloration in dinosaurs, but a bright blue tyrannosaurus still seems pretty jarring to me. But in terms of a feathered dinosaur, this sits right.

Coelodonta (Safari Ltd)
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Pleistocene of Eurasia
Length: 12 feet
Scale: 1:25
A lot of the prehistoric mammals that weren’t outstandingly large are 1:20-1:25. Billed as a generic Woolly Rhinoceros, that usually means Coelodonta antiquitatis unless the company specifies a different species (like say Elasmotherium). Interestingly, Safari also confirmed it to be a Coelodonta. Coelodonta frozen remains have been found in Russia.

American Mastodon (Safari Ltd)
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Pleistocene of North America
Height: 7 feet at shoulder
Scale: 1:30
The actual scientific name of the Mastodon is Mammut americanum, but the usage of Mastodon has been popularized, so I usually see it as a common name and a scientific name like in extant species.

12.01.2021

There is also a Tanystropheus by Starlux you know..

how is it possible to be sure of the colours of these few dinosaures?!

 I am very happy to have these 2 last guys too! :)

Caracal wrote:

There is also a Tanystropheus by Starlux you know..
how is it possible to be sure of the colours of these few dinosaures?!

I have done some searching for Starlux creatures, and the only one that I was really interested in getting was the Drepanaspis, and I’ve found it on eBay a couple times, but I’m waiting for a chance to buy it without a majority of the cost going to shipping. To answer your question, birds have melanosomes to give color to their feathers, and sometimes in an exquisitely preserved specimen, the melanosomes can be visible, but this video can explain it better than I can. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
And Psittacosaurus was a featherless dinosaur, but the melanosomes were preserved in the integument. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
But if melanosomes can be preserved in integument, it means that if we’re lucky, someone will find them in a hadrosaur or tyrannosaur.

Also some more additions, this time from the Carboniferous. My Mazon Creek commission from Paleocasts has arrived. I usually don’t collect resin models, but there’s precious little from the Carboniferous, so it was worth it.
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Bandringa (Paleocasts)
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Late Carboniferous Illinois
Length: 10 feet
Scale: 1:12 (scales well with the primeval action figures)
Bandringa is a lot like the paddlefish and it may have been able to detect prey with its bill. It is known commonly from the Mazon Creek lagerstatte as juveniles but rarely as adults. The leading theory on this is that it used the area as a Shark nursery, similar to what many modern sharks do.

It looks cute and funny if you look at it directly from the front.
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Also scales well with the contemporaneous Xenacanthus by Safari. Both of these are true sharks, unlike say, Helicoprion, which was a stem-ratfish.
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Palaeoxyris also came in the box. Palaeoxyris is an ichnogenus believed to actually be Shark eggs.
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Adelophthalmus (Paleocasts)
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Late Carboniferous
Length: 8 inches
Scale: 1:1.5
Adelophthalmus was one of the most diverse eurypterid genera, with 35 species. It means “no obvious eye” but the eyes on A. mazonesis (the exact species here) are pretty obvious.

It raises the sea scorpion genus count in my collection to four. The one still in the matrix is the Mixopterus by Safari. The gray one from the far left is Eurypterus by Paleocasts. The green one is Acutiramus from Amazon.
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Tullimonstrum (Paleocasts)
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Late Carboniferous
Length: 14 inches
Scale: 1:2
Tullimonstrum might be one of the most enigmatic species in the fossil record. Ever since it was found in the 50s, there’s been heated debate over what it actually is. In 2015, a study concluded it was a lamprey-like vertebrate, but that was debunked in 2017. There was a Paleocasts model with lamprey pores, but since it was likely an invertebrate, I commissioned this one instead.

Glaphurochiton (Paleocasts)
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Late Carboniferous
Length: 3 inches
Scale: 1:1.5
This chiton has the features of modern chitons, but they didn’t appear until the Mesozoic.

Euproops (Paleocasts)
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Carboniferous
Length: 3.5 inches
Scale: 1:2
This one is a Xiphosuran (horseshoe crab relative), but it looks like a cross between a horseshoe crab and a trilobite.

Paleolimulus (Paleocasts)
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Carboniferous
Length: 3 inches
Scale: 1:2
This one looks more like a modern horseshoe crab. Horseshoe crabs are actually closer to eurypterids and spiders than they are to crabs.

Here are some group shots.

The xiphosurans being terrorized by Tullimonstrum
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Glaphurochiton being ambushed by Adelophthalmus (chitons can move, but at a snail’s pace, so all the Adelophthalmus has to do is pounce)
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My current Mazon Creek club. A majority of them are 1:1-1:2, except for the Bandringa, which would work well as a juvenile with the rest of them. There’s three more I’m after, but I’m planning on commissioning them early next year.
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And two Collecta critters from Dejankin’s. It’s pretty easy for me to get Collecta models from Dejankin’s because they offer them a great prices (I got these for $6 each), but I paid $22 because of shipping. They to priority mail, meaning that it costs $10. Ironic, because if it didn’t cost that much, I would have probably bought extra figures this time around.

Pravitoceras (Collecta)
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Late Cretaceous Japan
Length: 3 inches
Scale: 1:1
Dinosaurs from Japan are scarce enough, so to see a non dinosaur from Japan is excellent. Some people have complained that it looks like candy, but I could see an animal with these colors fitting in on a Cretaceous reef. Ammonite diversity is always something cool for me, so I will get the Pleuroceras and Cooperoceras.

The only other thing I have from the entire Cretaceous era at 1:1 is PNSO’s Nemicolopterus. It’s because they usually make large animals from the Cretaceous into figures.

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Xiphactinus (Collecta)
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Cretaceous North America
Length: 18 feet
Scale: 1:30
When I heard Collecta was making a Xiphactinus, I could hear the collective cheer of fish fans and non dinosaur fans alike (myself included). I’m very glad this figure was made, as Xiphactinus needs a figure. A rare species? Check. Accuracy? Check. In life, Xiphactinus looked like a giant tarpan, with the appetite of a starved shark. Fossils have been found with another fish inside its stomach. We actually believe the cause of death was stomach rupture from eating the fish that was too big. Another fossil was found with a mosasaur flipper wedged inside its mouth.

Xiphactinus and Cretoxyrhina are two late Cretaceous fish species that get “standard” sized figures this year.
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It’s probably a bit on the large side to be featured with the Collecta Mosasaurus and Safari Tylosaurus (the only Mosasaurs I need to get), but it scales nicely with some other late Cretaceous sea life.

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It’s chomping on the Collecta Diplomoceras while the Parapuzosia flees, having suspicion that it will be next. The PNSO Ectenosaurus (ectenosaurus is a smaller Mosasaur, only around 10-15 feet) tries to grab a piece of the Diplomoceras, but the Xiphactinus will likely not tolerate that.

12.04.2021

wonderful new models and big thank ror the link Gecko08! :)

More figures to drool over.