Unlike some of my fellow bloggers, I’m not buried in dinosaur toys and models, though I do have a few cluttering up my desk and office. To be honest I don’t know many people who don’t have at least a few going around. I generally take a look at the selections going in a museum gift shop or the occasional toy store, especially when I’m abroad and might see something new or different.
When in Japan, this can rapidly become very time consuming. Models of various kinds are very popular there and dinosaurs are major sellers. Even small stores can have a huge range of things from the very small and cheap to massive skull replicas and high-quality 1/10th scale tyrannosaur life reconstructions. Here’s just one side of a display in a Tokyo toy store – it’s got more models of more kinds and different brands than anywhere I’d seen before and this wasn’t the only place with this kind of selection. I can think of a couple of people who might go broke if allowed more than 10 minutes in a few of these places.
I’ve accumulated a fairly substantial collection over the years. The T-rex and spinosaurus replicas at the local hobby shop aren’t as good as what I’ve had for some time.
So this is what heaven looks like.
Has anyone else seen the T. rex and Triceratops anatomical assembly kits? I was reluctant to buy the rex kit because of an error in the depiction of its posterior skull bones.
Wow, I haven’t seen a rack of dinosaur figures in a store like that since I was a kid. I wish there were stores like that near my hometown.