For today we’re going to look at one of those odd ones in my collection–a well known company in an unusual style. As the photos give it away, it is a special release pewter version of their Plesiosaurus, but not the one familiar now. For many recent collectors (last 15 years or so) the company has been known as Favorite. They are out of Japan and make a variety of excellent figures in a variety of sizes and styles, including large vinyl figures, mid-size PVC figures (so-called soft models), smaller figures, metals, statuettes and more. And they range from a lot of dinosaurs/prehistoric animals to modern animals and several fish. But back further, they went by the parent company name of Kinto, and released different (excellent) dino models under that name. This Plesiosaurus is the metal version.
Kinto was well-known for their attention to detail and updated design, but of course the science marches on and some of their figures are a little off (I have their original Spinosaurus…compared to what we know now, it’s so wrong, but at the time it was great). The plesiosaur has that same look–very well done, great details in the skin and around the mouth (it’s hard to capture, but there are teeth sticking out around the lip line) but the neck could probably be a little thicker. Otherwise, I think it still holds up pretty well. The pewter also has an advantage over the soft model original in that it has a nice base that lets it swim off the ground; the toy version had an eye hook for hanging, but the base was a separately sold piece. This is another difference from the newer Favorite plesiosaur, which comes with a large peg and base (many of their current aquatic models come with some kind of base to lift them into a swimming pose, which is great for display).
I cam across this figure while on a road trip through some museum-heavy parts of the NW great plains (Montana, Dakotas, Wyoming). When you’ve been collecting as long as I have, you eventually get some figures and other pieces that stand out as very different from the rest. This metal plesiosaur was a great little souvenir to add on, and since it wasn’t easy to find it was a worthy addition. I don’t know that the figure is still in production–certainly not in its toy incarnation–but the metal version is still around online. Not something that everyone would need perhaps, but a bit of a showpiece for fans of marine reptiles.
