Procynosuchus
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 30th, 2009
[Originally posted June 30th; revised, expanded and updated for July 30th.]
Few companies sell cryptids as a set, although 2009 saw one of the first ones ever. The set above includes a Bigfoot (Sasquatch), a Nessie (resembling a classic Sea Serpent), a Mothman, a Chupacabras, and a Jersey Devil. It first appeared in February from Entertainment Earth.
The shortcomings with cryptid models and toys are most apparent when you begin to compare them to the museum-quality, inexpensive replicas that are out there in toy stores and other outlets.
Because cryptids oftentimes are referenced from extinct animals, most of the Replica Cryptia issue from the different representations of prehistoric mammals, dinosaurs, extinct birds, and large marine animals.
A very special new edition to my collection is the Procynosuchus from the Korbach Museum in Hessen, Deutschland (Germany). Thanks to the generous efforts of Andreas Müller, I have some of these for the museum, both for exhibition and for trade with other collectors, to hopefully fill some gaps in extinct species replicas. (While some Procynosuchus have been offered for prices as high as $245-$300 on eBay, they are worth more to me for their trading value, to add to the collection here.) Thanks to Andreas, I have some here, in both color phases. 🙂
Photograph by bokisaurus. Used with permission.
That’s the news, now I want to talk of the better models, toys, and replicas out there, especially those which come in recognized collections, most of which come via companies who have associated themselves with museums.
I will soon have this seascape here at the museum, thanks to a donation. I have noted that cryptozoologist Darren Naish has one too. Marine mammals and other oceanlife often are mistaken for Sea Serpents and other aquatic animals. These kinds of replicas are great for demonstration purposes during educational talks and lectures.
No self-respecting cryptozoology student would be without a sizable number of dinosaurs, for a variety of reasons. The mountain above is part of my collection. I stumbled into obtaining this when I discovered it was on sale for 1/10th of its original cost at a store that was discontinuing its dino stock. That was manna from heaven, thanks to the cryptozoo gods, I felt.
But, needless to say, my favorite replicas, outside of those of cryptids (Bigfoot & Nessie being the most frequent ones out there), happen to be the ones of the so-called “prehistoric” or “extinct” mammals. Besides the fact that some of these extinct forms may still exist and are today’s cryptids, I’ve always been more interested in mammals. These replicas just are more appealing to me.
I have several individuals of the collections shown here from the various companies. (Some images above are from Darren, and most below are thanks to bokisaurus. Permission granted from them all to share with you here.)
I don’t have this “mountain,” pictured directly below, which does look interesting to use for display purposes, but I do to have the majority of these prehistoric mammal replicas.
The following collection is one that I have never seen except through images on the web. It looks like a worthy group to try to obtain.
Some specific mammal replicas that are on my “special wish list” include these two:
Synthetoceras from Chick Yeut, a Chinese company (generally easier to find in Canada than in the USA, I hear).
Deinotherium from Bullyland (here again, easier to obtain outside America, in this case in Germany). Image: DinosaurCollector.
A couple extinct bird groupings are ones that I have likewise only viewed on the Internet. (More boki images, throughout.)
Thanks for thoughts and images to sites and people, including bokisaurus, Dinosaur Collector, Boki’s Prehistoric Mammal Collection, Jason Adams’ photo of Cenozoic mammals, The Dinosaur Toy Blog, and Darren Naish’s toy photos.
First and foremost, I encourage people to appreciate your own replicas, give your favorite museum-quality replicas as presents for cryptozoologists-in-training and cryptozoology/Bigfoot research associates, and, most of all, collect them yourself, with a focus on your areas of cryptid interest.
Want to trade a museum-worthy item you have with me for a Procynosuchus? Get in touch. I’d trade three Procynosuchus for one Deinotherium!
If you have replicas you wish to trade, or have leads to good ones not easily available to the International Cryptozoology Museum, your exchanges and/or information will be appreciated.
For those who sent me special wishes for my July birthday, a big thank you.
Snail mail address:
International Cryptozoology Museum
PO Box 360
Portland, ME 04112
Your assistance is greatly important in supporting the museum. Please…
Thank You.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Hmmm… The only actual ‘replica’ I have is an Oviraptor I bought at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Its primary color is light blue, with brighter accent colors, mostly on the head.
So, yeah…as the calendar happens to be closing in on my own birthday….
Loren the Cadbury Yowie animal collection is also good if you can get them now.
They feature alot of extinct, endangered and the occasional cryptid animals.
Ive managed to get the Thylacine and Kawakawau in this series and there are quite a few more.
Also got the Moa and Dodoand a few other rarities.
They have stopped producing them I believe but the animals occasionally come up for sale.
I can see what you mean about the cryptid figures. They have a “cartoony” feel to them, which is rather tongue-in-cheek, like they indicate they aren’t “real” animals anyways.
I loved my toy animals as a kid. Between me and my kid brother, we had all the Marx dinosaurs and ancient mammals (see here and here).
I really liked the detail and nongarish colors like light green, gray, and brown. I don’t like dinosaurs painted in bright colors that remind me of the colors of Hot Wheels! I remember which ones would stand and be stable, and which ones always seemed to fall over.
We also had most of the MPC figures, some of which were original, especially those from the Age of Mammals, such as the Diatryma and Macrauchenia.
I also had a sea life collection from the early 60s, maybe from Marx but maybe MPC. These would make great additions to the museum too.
Of course, I also had loads of zoo animals and farm animals too.
While at college, my mom gave away ALL my plastic toy animals, dinosaurs, everything. It still bums me out; I have forgiven, but never forgotten. Our local library has had displays of Marx original dinosaurs this last year, and I was nostalgic for them.
In my mid-20s I worked on an archaeological site near Washington DC, and dedicated every weekend to going to the Smithsonian. There I bought several of the British Museum plastic dinosaurs and mammals from Invicta.
I have a remote control mammoth and a Tyrannosaurus from Jurassic Park that makes earth tremor sounds when you stomp him up and down, and when you squeeze his sides, he opens his mouth and roars.
I still have these.
Yeah, I wish SOME manufacturer would make some non-tongue-in-cheek cryptid figures! No cartoony-looking ones or garishly painted ones.
CryptoInformant 2.0: Yep, the Oviraptor you are describing is the one that is part of the Safari, Ltd.’s line. Recent years have seen an explosion of “feathered dinosaurs,” as they seem to be in the media all the time and have caught the public’s fancy. I have several kinds of feathered dinos.
Nzcryptozoologist: Needless to say, the Cadbury Yowie animal collection is difficult to find in the States. Perhaps I have under-estimated them, but from what I could see of them, they are expensive, very small, and often comic in presentation. For completeness, it would be good to have them, if the Yowie, Dodo, Moa, and Kawakawau are good cryptids. Certainly, due to their size, they have not usually been worth the prices as they don’t display well.
Lance Foster: Thank you for sharing your good memories of your collections, and being so kind to include the links so everyone could see what you were talking about.
The Marx items, very much a high demand collectible within the dino toy trade, have come and gone in my life too. For purposes of the museum, as opposed to concentrating on completing an old, small-sized collection like that, I have dwelled on, for example, obtaining, across companies, all representations of display-friendly sabertoothed felids and mammoths, for example.
I don’t mind the brightly-colored new replicas, as I enjoy seeing the artists’ creativity and manufacturers’ view of how the prehistoric world may have looked. After all, stepping back from them, who could have ever imagined the patterns we see today on the zebras, giraffes, or the color of a cardinal, which we all just take for granted nowadays?
I couldn’t agree with you more, Lance, that the time is long overdue for one of the companies like Schleich, Bullyland, Papo, or Safari, Ltd. to design and produce a line of cryptids that are not “cartoonish.”
Believe it or not, they actually have dog toys that are “Urban Legends.” They offer Bigfoot, Champ, and the Jackalope. I am not associated with this site.
I am going to have to get at least Champ and Bigfoot.
Wow, JTTM – isn’t that kind of funny to think of a dog munching on Champ?
Loren – Yeah, the Oviraptor is feathered, and I agree with you on the brightly colored dinosaurs: seeing as we don’t really know what color any of these dinosaurs were, and even modern reptiles don’t limit themselves to brown, gray and green, why should we assume that a group of animals that covered such a diverse range of niches would have been limited to those three colors?
And yeah, it would be nice for them to make a serious representation of cryptids, but I think that would be right next to them admitting that we’re right on some of these things, at least in the company’s view.
Wonder what a “serious” Chupacabras would look like, anyway? If it ends up being a mangy coyote, I’m not going to be happy.
Great topic. Thanks for the pictures.
I have tons of Schleich, Bullyland, Papo, Safari, Yowie and others. Limit myself to only historically extinct animals but the supply seems almost endless.
Loren makes a very important point. If you want to collect, just pick out your absolute favorites. Otherwise be prepared to spend a lot.
For those interested in feathered dinosaurs, there is a new book, “Feathered Dinosaurs; The Origin of Birds” by John Long. The artwork is by Peter Schouten, the same artist who did “A Gap in Nature” and “Amazing Animals.” Spectaculor books.
A note about the marine life collections: I wish that, at some point, they’d see the need for making one just about sharks. I recently started an art project in which I intend to make an image representing each species of shark, and most of them – like the Blackfin Gulper Shark, for instance – I had never even heard of, and, apparently, neither had Google Image Search when I tried looking for reference images.
I can tell everyone who commented is an adult. I personally like the “cartoonish” cryptid figurines; if they were made realistic they wouldn’t exist, especially Mothman and the Jersey Devil. My own collection seriously lacks a Thylacine and a Dire Wolf which I can’t seem to find anywhere. I’ll be going to NY in a few months so perhaps the American Museum of Natural History will be able to provide. Thanks to everyone who posted pics!
Welcome, seagraves. Only speaking for myself, chronological age is no guide for the kind of enthusiasm I tend to have for realistic yet colorful, high-quality replicas of most fossil animals. I think those that are interested in dinosaurs and extinct mammal “toys” might still retain a bit of the boy and girl inside of them. 🙂
As to Thylacine replicas, I did a whole blog posting on them and they are relatively non-existent in the inexpensive range. You have to invest bigger bucks for the PaleoCraft models and other art-oriented items related to that species.
With regard to the Dire Wolf, probably the best easily obtainable item is the Bullyland replica of the Dire Wolf (Canis dirus) from Link and Pin Hobbies. But be realistic, this is small, only four inches from tip of nose to tip of tail, and to most people, looks like a dog. Still, you’ll know it’s a Dire Wolf!
Enjoy.
Mr. Coleman,
Thanks so much for your links!! The PaleoCraft thylacine is especially beautiful, albeit pricey. May have to wait on that one. Thanks again!
Happy Birthday Loren.
Thanks, Ceroill, and to others who sent me private well wishes with donations.
The only Dinosaurs I played with as a child were the moderately “cartoonish,” cheap rubber and plastics ones one buys at Toys-R-Us or a Dollar store these days so pardon me if I have a “sentimental attachment” to the less “realistic” ones. Oh well, to each his own… Great post, Loren. 🙂
Long ago, back in the 60’s, Esso gas stations had a green brontosaurus (as it was called then) as their mascot, and on occasion they would have these injection mold machines which would, upon your putting in a quarter or a dime or whatever the price was, make you a nice fresh plastic bronto of your very own. I seem to recall they were of vinyl, and about…um..I want to say 8″ long, but since I was a kid, probably considerably smaller.
Anyone else remember those? I think you could also get a stego from the machines.
BTW—I love those Dodo Birds in your Boki Collection, Loren!!!
Always was a fan of the lamentably extinct buggers.
See, I had none of that kind of “variety” when I was growing up.
Must not have taken the time to “ask around”.
Drats. Oh well, C’est la vie… 🙂
Since I’ve found myself working more Cenozoic creatures into various fiction-based writing, I’ve been thinking about starting a collection of replicas like these.
I think you’ve successfully pushed me to do so, Loren. Thanks!
Although the yowie models to seem somewhat “comic in representation” I actually had the ones that do list along with the hard to get Adzebill .
The Moa representation is actually one of the best I have seen in this series.
Although they have stopped production of these are quite easy to pick up here on the trade lists relatively cheaply. They don’t come up regularly but they do appear on and off.