Dinosaurs!

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I have some books on dinosaurs but they're all in dutch.

For any future posters in this thread: Please post what your favourite (or most studied) dinosaur is and any suggestions for books or other information will be very welcome.

Also, feel free to post pictures of your various dinosaur related collections!

Could you post some pictures of them please? I just want to know if I have any of the same ones as you (except in English, of course).

I think I gave them to my little cousin, and those I didn't are probably still in a box somewhere since we moved. The only book that I remember what it looked like was one with an orange background and a black (shadow I guess) dinosaur on the front.

I recently bought these Parasaurolophus figures. I love them!


This one is called Colobus.


This one is called Peacock.

Both good, but the pose of the first one looks more natural and alert.
How tall are they?

I disagree. I think the second one is posing more naturally looking. Colobus's tail is dragging a bit (so he can stand up properly, which is understandable) and the tail is curved sort of diagonally towards the end, which would require quite some gymnastic effort from the animal, as the joints in the tailbones wouldn't have that much flexibility. (Oh well, maybe he's just a little double jointed).

Plus the first one has what looks suspiciously like teeth in his beak.... Obviously they are just pebbles that have gotten stuck in his beak and just happen to look like teeth , as Parasaurolophus didn't have any teeth situated in it's beak. I'm going to paint over these "pebbles" soon anyway, so it will no longer matter.

They are both 1/40 scale (the second one officially is, and the first is about the same size). The first one is about 12cm tall and 18cm long. The second is just under 9 1/2 cm tall and about 23 1/2cm long.

Hmm, good point about the tail curve - and the 'teeth'. I suppose the false teeth is some marketing department insisting that as all dinosaurs go raowr!! he has to have teeth...
Wish they were bigger though - 50cm tall would make a really good size and allow for nice accurate modelling.
Where were they from?

Luckily the "teeth" are only painted in on the bottom jaw alone (I'm thankful they aren't sculpted into the plastic, although if it was that bad I wouldn't have spent the amount of money I did on the figure). They are quite subtle, but still incorrect, but meh, like I said, nothing a small dash of brown paint wont sort out.

Despite the relatively small size of them, the detail is really remarkable. The pictures don't do them justice really. And the paintwork is so lifelike. I would so buy them again if there were any scaled-up ones produced. The only other larger parasaurolophus models I have are quite cartoonish efforts, which are outdated in terms of anatomy. I still love them though (one of them was my first ever parasaurolophus, which I got from the Natural History Museum when I was 10 years old.

The green one (Colobus) is from the French Brand Papo, and I bought him from a gift shop in Buxton, Derbyshire when I was visiting there on holiday recently.

The brown one (Peacock) is from the German company Schleich and was purchased from Howletts the last time I went there, just a few days after I bought Colobus.

The size seems to be typical - a quick search found this as a good source for both manufacturers, with lots of species:
http://www.dinosaurtime.co.uk/
They do look rather good though.
I'd expected better from the NHM too: http://www.nhmshop.co.uk/dinosaur-repli ... egory.html

Pretty good, and I feel a temptation creeping on...
I wonder if EBay might have larger models?

Yes! I remember that magazine, in fact, I've collected all the magazines to build one of those glow in the dark-T-Rex skeletons back in the day.



My favourite Dinosaur is the Quetzalcoatlus. Because of the choice of its name mainly. I won't post a picture since all pictures seem to involve flying and it's still not clear whether this dinosaur did fly and if it did fly how it managed to do so (especially because of its size and weight).

( My knowledge of dinosaurs is also very limited now. )

I think a 1:40 / 1:35 scale is about average for most dino figures, as the manufacturers know that collectors tend to like their figures to all match up accurately in size.
I've had a good look through the Schleich catalogue, and they are all fantastic. And I've seen the current Papo series too, which are definitely on par. I want to slowly but surely build up my collection again, with these two brands (as well as any parasaurolophus paraphernalia I can get my hands on).

I see what you mean about the models at the Natural History Museum, they look a little crudely made and a bit outdated (the Tyranosaurus with huge bright red eyes, standing bolt upright, using it's tail as prop is a good example of that), and the choice isn't all that spectacular either. They just seem to have the more popular "movie star" dinosaurs there, I'd expect some more lesser known species there, in order to educate people.
I must get that Parasaurolophus skeleton in a tube though, I simply must.

This site might interest you:

http://www.dinotoyblog.com/category/collecta/

It has probably just about every half decent figure ever made, and the reviews are really good too. I've been addicted to this site recently.

I've had a look through EBay, and it tends to be the same stuff over and over again, with the odd bit of tat thrown in for good measure, I like the look of this though, I think it's going to be the next thing on my agenda:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Safari-Carneg ... 19c5716965

(even if it is a little outdated looking and the quality isn't anywhere near as good as my two prized possesions, but it's a pretty old style of figure and is becoming quite the collectors' item now. I still like it!)

If you find any more decent figures on there that might have slipped by me, could you let me know and send a link please?

I like your idea of not posting any pictures of Quetzalcoatlus flying. The non-flight theory seems to make a lot of sense to me, especially as it looked so top-heavy with such a massive head in relation to it's torso. (But Quetzalcoatlus was a Pterosaur, not a dinosaur. It doesn't matter much though, as Pterosaurs are always up for discussion here too).

Thanks for sharing.

I'd hoped for stuff similar to what the British Museum does, with their pretty serious replicas of various things. They're not cheap of course - but the NHM should have gone further than plastic toys for the kiddies, and any educational value seems to be down the bottom of the list.
Heh. I didn't spot that, and it looks pretty good too!
Yeah, interesting and useful to see what's around.
I also checked EBay and, well - meh.

Sho' 'nuff.

Something about Quetzalcoatlus, though. In 1985 Paul MacReady had a fully autonomous, flapping-wing half-scale model of this thing actually flying.
Various links off this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_MacCr ... owne1985-3
Plus a pretty rubbishy video of it in action underneath the "External Links" header.

Oh my....that's right. But good you appreciate those, too.
Okay, my favourite dinosaur....is the Supersaurus/Ultrasauros because of its name(s).

I loved dinosaurs when I was about in second grade, when Jurassic park came out. Fantastic movie that came out at the perfect age (second grade is when you learn about dinos!)

I still have some plastic dinos from those years -- little ones -- that my cats carry around the house as their "prey."