More random figures. Possibly more random than normal! Even a figure that was customized (not the first one I’ve discussed, I think. But a weirder one). Mostly prehistoric animals though. That’s something.
Playmates Dinosaur King Futabasaurus
Visiting another Dinosaur King figure again already? Yup, another wave 2 figure, and one that I had really wanted. It was really cool that there was a Japanese elasmosaur, and of course once Futabasaurus was described, several different models were made by several different companies–and there were several versions based on the Dinosaur King design (which also influenced a few other figures too). It’s kind of a simple figure, and it’s kind of a generic elasmosaur, but I like it. Decent little model, and I like this small version, but of course these wave 2 figures are nearly unfindable now.
Yujin Primary Freshwater Fish Pictorial Book 1 Reissue Cherry Salmon 2 versions
Next, we have two versions of a figure from Yujin. I have talked about fish figures from Yujin before that were different versions, but that was usually from different series releases. As far as I can tell, these two Cherry salmon figures are both from the Freshwater Fish Pictorial Book 1 Reissue. But the figures are hand-painted, so the variation in the figures’ paint jobs could be that. Or it could be that there are more variations within the reissue than just the one. It’s hard to say, but the pink stripe down the sides of the one figure is really, really blatant. Of course, I received this one later in a bulk lot of figures (and of course no papers), so when I saw it it clearly stood out, but was not one of the actual paint variants that Yujin has actually issued (like the Dolly Varden repaint, for example). Really nice figure, and we definitely need more trout figures to collect!
DinoMagic Fizz-N-Surprise Velociraptor
I’m going to be brief on this one! DinoFroz was a company that made a line of figures contained in what amount to bathbombs…that you could drop in a volcano (that you had to buy)…that would reveal a prehistoric animal that required assembly. All of the figures are very stylized and cartoonish. The line did contain a few more interesting species from the Triassic…but the random pick started with one of the dinosaurs, a Velociraptor. A very…odd…very…lumpy Velociraptor. At least it has the large toe claw. It is fairly representative of the other dinosaurs in the line–and I’ll be honest, they probably won’t appeal to a lot of people. I only have them (and a lot of others) because I was hunting the Triassic ones, and I somehow ended up with a bunch of extras. Most likely a friend sent/trade them to me and was more than happy to include a bunch of extras when I got the ‘good’ ones. Eventually I’ll get to one of those…but I would have to say, I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to get this one.
Safari Ltd Prehistoric Sharks toob Xenacanthus
I know that I’ve gone over a couple of the shark figures from the Safari Prehistoric Shark toob. The really cool toob with lots of unusual elasmobranch species that of course is discontinued. This Xenacnathus figure is one of the species that I really like, something about pleuracanth sharks really intrigue me (maybe that long, eel-like body form appeals, just like other fish I appreciate, like eels and bichirs). The figure is a really nice sculpt, although the paint is a little simplistic. And…can’t forget that they sculpted the anal fins as a pair…that’s kind of strange. It is something I’ve seen before with sculptors that don’t fully know fish morphology, or misinterpret illustrations. Still, it’s part of a set that is really worth tracking down if you can (there are other Xenacanthus figures, but honestly they’re no easier to find).
Customized Teleoceras (Panini rhino)
And we can end with a custom figure. Several years ago I was going through a bunch of older figures that I had lots of with my son. We realized it might be a fun project to see if we could take them and make some animal figures of species I didn’t already have. So, among those were a few rhinos (we’ve seen a customized rhino before, but I didn’t do that one) so we worked on them. A few small cuts on the horn and legs, some judicious heating of the legs, and it turned into a stumpy-legged rhino from the Miocene! Not really an expert job–we didn’t even repaint them (other than the horns)! But I think we kind of approximated what we were going for. It’s just one of those things to do sometimes!
