Where the Dinosaurs Are

OLD BONE ODORI
(my dance with dinosaurs)
page 4



A RASH OF REXES
In 2010, after getting the Ants skulls in 2004 and the Hypacrosaurus toy in 2005 on a road trip through Colorado, the trail for skeleton models of species I didn't already have pretty much went cold.  It seems that anyone other than Ants who decides to try to sell a dinosaur skeleton starts (and usually stops with) a Tyrannosaurus.  There was a Tyrannosaurus skeleton by Rpmtech that used to show up from time to time on Ebay, but I already had a Tyrannosaurus and some fellow kokkalophiles who have actually seen the kit weren't all that impressed with it anyhow.  The sculptor also started to make what appeared to be a very nice little Velociraptor skeleton, but he decided it was too delicate to be practical and sold it disarticulated and encased in a block of plaster as a sculpture of a digsite.  He hasn't offered either one for several years.  I would guess that most banks would be leery of loaning start-up costs to anyone whose business plan centered around making model dinosaur skeletons.
RPMTR
RPM TYRANNOSAURUS 1/12


For quite some time the  Lindberg Model Company has had a visible Tyrannosaurus rex shown as a coming attraction.  It looks as if they will use their old Jurassic Park Tyrannosaurus body as a shell, molded in transparent styrene and put a complete skeleton and organs inside, much in the same way that the old Renwal visible models were presented.  As I said, it has been "coming soon" for a long time.
LINDVIS 
LINDBERG'S VISIBLE TYRANNOSAURUS
There is a new line of toys that features a variety of dinosaurs that are transparent on one side and display skeletal structures, muscles and internal organs.  Obviously, there is a lot of speculation involved.    These models are pretty attractive, and they aren't all Tyrannosaurs.  However, the skeletons in these kits are neither complete nor free-standing.   

VISIVELO  VISITR  VISITRI
4D VISION SERIES  (MORE TO COME!)
There is a variety of Tyrannosaur skeletons to be found at Amazon.com.  This is the Geosafari offering, which looks to require a lot of support.    It may be the same as the Geoworld model I mentioned earlier.

GEOSAFTR
GEOSAFARI 1/12  (30 PIECES)
Amazon carries yet another Tyrannosaurus skeleton that looks to be around 1/12 scale at 36" (almost a meter) in length, manufactured by a company called Elenco.  As with the Geoworld and Geosafari kits mentioned above, it is designed to snap together and can be taken apart.
ELENCO  
ELENCO TYRANNOSAURS   ~1/12  (50 PIECES)
This model looks as if it may be the Ur-kit which gets re-boxed and sold by other manufacturers.  Or maybe it's yet another meter-long Tyrannosaurus...

DOYUSHA
DOYUSHA TYRANNOSAURUS 1/12

There is a new kit called Georex that features an entire Tyrannosaurus skeleton, internal organs and it is covered with scaly skin.  It has 150 parts and is in a very dynamic pose, although that is a bit weird as it is in a tail-on-the-ground kangaroo stance, as opposed to the balanced teeter-totter bipedal stance now considered more accurate.  I believe it is the Geosafari skeleton with organs and skin.  It is huge, at a meter in length and at almost £200, it is also rather pricey.

GEOREXSKIN  GEOREXINSIDE  GEOREXCON
GEOREX T REX SKIN ON AND SKIN OFF



There is also a new kit by a sculptor named Doyle Trankina that features a nicely sculpted Tyrannosaur on one side and a beautifully detailed skeleton on the other.  I wonder if he'll make a kit that is just the skeleton?  Well, as I have said several times here, I already have a Tyrannosaurus.
TRANKTR
DOYLE TRANKINA'S T REX BONE SIDE

While none of the skeletons he produces are available for sale, I have spent a lot of time admiring the web gallery of Taburin, a Japanese woodcarver and skeleton maker extraordinaire.  He appears to be able to make some extremely complex carvings at an astonishing rate, as the number of skeletons and skulls in his collection attest.  If nothing else, it is reassuring to know that there are indeed others who are still fascinated enough by dinosaur skeletons to do whatever it takes to get them on their shelves. 


tabutintr
HAND-CARVED WOODEN SKELETON BY TABURIN (UNKNOWN SCALE)


OZ AND ECHOES

In the spring of 2010, while transporting my Ants Allosaurus to a new office, several major pieces fell apart.  The glue had become brittle with age and the dynamic pose put a lot of stress on the small resin tabs that held the neck and the raised right leg together.  While sweating out the process of drilling and pinning some of those delicate parts without causing even more disruptions, I decided to do a Google search to see what else might be on the Web regarding that model.  It turned out there wasn't much, but one page did grab my attention, if for no other reason than the author mentioned me as having an image of it on the Internet.   He had a very nice series of articles on model dinosaur skeletons and I wrote to compliment him on his work.  This was Dr. Brant Bassam, who was at that time the director of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs project.   He reminded me that he had actually contacted me several years before when trying to track down an Ants Allosaurus and was almost certainly the person who told me about Taburin's work.  However dedicated I may seem to chasing down dinosaur skeleton models, Brant is head and shoulders above me.  What I may have gone through to get a Triceratops paled beside his quest for that elusive Allosaurus.  When he finally tracked one down, he cast a duplicate it to serve as a reference while correcting some errors he found.  Those errors could have seemed trivial, but to a dedicated student of skeletons, they seemed worth fixing.  His techniques for using his computer to make the adjustments and then cast them are extremely impressive.  In addition to his work on the Allosaurus, he also obtained a Gaston Apatosaurus, marketed as the most accurate dinosaur skeleton model available.   It wasn't accurate enough for Brant, so he made extensive revisions to the skull and the results are fantastic.  I have not seriously considered buying my own copy of that kit.  Expense aside, at a 1/12 scale, it is over two meters long and that is a LOT more shelf space than I have available! 

gastonapat
GASTON DESIGN'S PLATT APATOSAURUS 1/12

BrantPlattLat   BrantPlattObl
BRANT BASSAM'S REWORKED PLATT APATOSAURUS SKULL 1/12   2.25"  (6 cm)

His Brantworks website includes information about a number of skeleton models that I was previously unaware of and is lavishly illustrated.  In our communications I wistfully commented that I was having a hard time bringing myself to assemble the Rhamphorynchus skull that I purchased from Wiccart so long ago as once it is built, it is, in a sense, gone.  This struck a responsive chord with Brant, as he had made an entire duplicate of his Allosaurus before assembling it.  He was very interested in getting his own copy of the pterodactyl skull (the entire skeleton would be even better, but I had missed out on that one...) and he offered to use his casting skills to make me an extra copy.  I packed the little thing off to Queensland and in a few weeks was rewarded with a beautiful copy of the kit as well as one of Brant's Apatosaurus skulls and a reworking he had done on the Kaiyodo Triceratops skull.  My Triceratops now runneth over!  He and I would both love to see a complete Deinonychus skeleton, and with the Wiccart limbs I already have, perhaps someday that may be possible.   Well, he is rather busy running the Australia Age of Dinosaurs as well as spending considerable time in the field working on recent finds in Oz.  He also has a family in town, so I don't expect anything soon.


While discussing Ants with Brant I was reminded of the line of their line of skulls and the gaps in my collection.  I found the Echoes In Time website and they did claim to offer the complete collection.  They only had a single low resolution image of all of the skulls together and it looked as if some of them were the very tiny 1/10 scale versions.   I emailed and asked for more details and pictures.  After a couple of months without hearing from them, I wrote again and they apologized for not answering sooner, but said they didn't have better images.   They did tell me that the smaller 1/10 scale skulls were too small to bother with and the ones they were selling were the larger 1/2 and 1/3 scale alternatives.  While advertising the complete collection for over $400, they allowed the skulls to be purchased individually and offered enough of a discount for buying multiple models that postage was covered.  That was enough of an incentive for me, and now they are keeping the Ants originals company in my display case.  They are nicely done, but at some point I would like to do some repainting to make them a bit more distinctive as they are all colored the same, regardless of the age of the fossil or the formation in which the original was found.  I already pried the jaws open and hinged them with thin wire as well as mounting all of them on brass or steel tubing and bases made from scrap wood.  Well, they aren't full skeletons, but between getting them displayed the way I want them to look and building the full skeleton kits I already have, I can keep my dance going for quite a while.  After all, it's not the only thing that keeps me busy, just one of the best!
EDMONLAT    EDMONOBL
EIT  EDMONTONIA  1/10   2"  (5 cm)


HERRSKULLEIT    DEINSKULLEIT
EIT HERRERASAURUS 1/3      4"  (10 cm)                                                                      EIT DEINONYCHUS  1/3   3.5"  (9 cm)
It is interesting to compare these two skulls to the Wiccart versions, shown on page 2.


GALLSKULL   GALLLITTLE
EIT GALLIMIMUS  1/3       4.5"  (12 cm)                                                                   ANTS GALLIMIMUS 1/10  1.25"  (3 cm)


HETEROBILIT  HETEROBL

EIT HETERODONTOSAURUS 1/2    2.5"  (6 cm)      ANTS 1/10 VERSION ALSO SHOWN   0.5"  (1 cm)


HYPSOLAT   HYPSOBL
EIT HYPSILOPHIDON  1/2     2.75"  (7 cm)


PSITBIGLIT    PSITOBL
EIT PSITTACOSAURUS 1/2    2.5"  (6 cm)       THE ANTS 1/10 SKULL IS SHOWN ON THE LEFT FOR COMPARISON  0.5"  (1 cm)



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                          TRHYPSO
                                                                                         EIT TYRANNOSAURUS AND ANTS HETERODONTOSAURUS, BOTH IN 1/10
A MID-DECADE BLIP

In 2014 I started to see a variety of skull reconstructions show up on Ebay from sellers in China.  These included some rather showy theropods, including Ceratosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Cryolophosaurus and "Velociraptor".  Most appeared to be 1:10 scale.  I bought the "Velociraptor" and it is nicely made although it will benefit from some cleaning up and should probably be painted.  It was advertised as life-size, although in looking at it, I think it is really a Deinonychus and probably more like 1:2.  I have not purchased any of the others. While I still might, I'm not sure that they are always available. 


Resin raptor 




A NEW GOLDEN AGE DAWNING?
I started this website in 2010.  I admit that it has been pretty static for a long time and a lot of the content here bemoans the rarity of good skeletal material models.  It is now 2019 and things have started to change.   Over the last couple of years the rise of the 3D printer has started to make a significant impact on dinosaur figure sculpting and skeleton production.  There are several active manufacturers selling skulls and skeletons.  Shapeways is an outfit that provides 3D printing services for sculptors and many pieces are available in a variety of different kinds of plastic and even metals.  One of the nice things about 3D printing is that the scale can be varied easily in the settings.  Small skulls may vary from life size to 1:3 and large skulls may run from 1:32 to 1:10.  Prices vary significantly according to the material and scale.  This is the Parasaurolophus from Dinosaur Replicas (Strick67) in standard white plastic at 1:12 scale.  I received it as a Christmas gift and it is really nice.  I will say that at this scale there is no tooth detail and from what I can tell, a larger scale would just be bigger with no extra detail.

Para skull
PARASAUROLOPHUS BY DINOSAUR REPLICAS  12 CM (5 INCHES)

Incidentally, the process of developing a 3D print is no simple task.  The Dinotoy forum has a fascinating thread on the development of a 3D print of a Tyranosaurus skull and foot by Strick67 here.  He is now working on a Styracosaurus and the detail, including teeth, will be incredible.  Details of that project can be seen and appreciated here: Styracosaurus Skull Project.

I have mentioned elsewhere that websites are so last-millennium.  Yes, I admit that by maintaining this site, I am a dinosaur and a non-avian one at that.  Social media sites, with Facebook in particular, have become a major force in Internet commerce.  Vwuwuvu's Facebook page sells what look like beautiful skeleton models of an interesting variety of dinosaurs as well as some other prehistoric bests.  They appear to be computer designed 3D prints.  They vary in scale from 1:10 to 1:35.  They can be purchased in white plastic or assembled and painted.  Here I am actually starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by the choices available.  I don't really think that it is possible to have too much of a good thing, but after decades of digging for occasional nuggets, finding this many kits this readily available presents a different challenge; how to decide where to begin?  Once again, I have an Allosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus.  Do I really want more complete  theropod skeletons with minor variations on a theme in their feet and forelimbs?  Do I just stick with skulls and for that matter, start getting new skulls only if they represent significant differences from specimens I already own?  Having said that, I would still love to have the Deinonychus I have been chasing since my dealings with Wiccart and Ants.   I have a Triceratops, so do I need (and do I have the shelf space) for a complete Styracosaurus, not to mention many other amazing varieties of ceratopsians?  Even collecting skulls from that group can fill up a display case if sculptors manufacture the potential variety of species in resin.  Sauropods are big, even in 1:35 scale, so how many examples of those do I need?  Well, maybe an Amargasaurus; they are fairly small as sauropods go and those neck spines make the skeleton look a lot more interesting.  I am ambivalent about getting a lot of Hadrosaurs but once again, an impressive display could be made featuring the variety seen in their skulls.  An Ankylosaurus with all of its armor would be nice to have, but then I would probably pass on some other nodosaur.  Remembering the side panel of the old ITC box, a Dimetrodon would be tempting and for that matter, so would a pterodactyl.  I like the idea of the flying reptiles as they could hang from the ceiling instead of occupying shelf space.  However, how much difference is there in post-cranial anatomy between a Rhamphorhynchus and a Pterodaustro?  Enough to justify buying one of each or just settle for skulls?  Then, do I spring for a Pteranodon just to get a flyer without a tail, or again concentrate on skulls?  By the way, even a fairly small scale Quetzalcoatlus would require a lot of elbow room.  How about the aquatic archosaurs?  If I could get my hands on a Mosasaur, would I still want a Plesiosaur (or a Pliosaur)?  Then what do I do when someone finally casts or prints an Ichthyosaur?  Decisions, decisions...


Vw-CarchVw-GiraVw-Deino




Vw-triVw-Tr1-35Vw-Yang



Vw-StegoVw-SmiloVw-Mura

A SELECTION OF VWUWUWU'S SKELETONS


One other new source for skeletons that has caught my eye is Desert Dinosaurs.  They have a website but their business really seems to be on a Facebook page. While that may be the more up-to-date way of doing internet business, their method of making skeletons is decidedly olde-schoole.  They develop cardboard templates and use them as guides for sculpting and then make resin casts for sale. So far they have made a large and beautiful model of a Tyrannosaurus based on a certain famous skeleton at a certain famous museum that doesn't want her name used without official licensing fees.  While I think that selling it as Sue-Me-Not might work, perhaps they should avoid all the potential hassle by calling it Barney.  No liability there, right?  They also have an Allosaurus (again) and for something entirely new and exciting, a Carnotaurus!  Unlike the 3D prints that tend to cast spines, ribs and limbs in one piece, their kits feature each bone as an individual piece, similar to the way the Ant's Allosaurus was manufactured, that must be assembled with connectors.  Their only exception so far is a beautiful Tylosaurus that features a much simpler kit with each flipper cast as a single piece, as well as the many ribs and the spine cast in one piece.  Given the mind-numbing similarities between vertebrae, ribs and phalanges, I don't really blame them.  I built a model warship (USS Constitution) many years ago and recall that making all those little cannons on their tiny carriages got pretty repetitious...   I don't build armor kits, but I have seen enough reviews of model tanks to know that complete tracks or at least snap-together links are often preferred to assembling them piece by tiny piece.  These kits appear to be beautifully made and they are big.  Once again, I just need more shelf space.

DD TrDD AlloDD_CarnDD-Tylo

DESERT DINOSAURS
 
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