Lythronax argestes is now UNLOCKED!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 03:31:22 AM

As some of you already know, last night the 1/18th scale Lythronax argestes was UNLOCKED! The figure is now selectable from the 'add-ons' menu to include in your pledge. Add-on price: $73(US)/ $76 (INT)

The Lythronax figure measures 16"/ 41cm in length and features 22 points of articulation, three sets of alternate feet, base, interchangeable standing lower legs, and a bendable tail end.

 One of the reasons for this announcement being a bit late is that I wanted to reshoot this prototype since it was one of the first ones shown a while back and since then I've updated the base.

 I'll be updating the Lythronax gallery with the new photos soon, but here are some comparisons with other figures in the meantime.  First with a standard 'human' for scale.

With its prey, Diabloceratops.

With the big adult T. rex.

And with all of the other 1/18th scale size examples from the Tyrannosaurs Series.

Sculpting

Lythronax is yet another amazing sculpt by Jake Baardse. 

 With parts separation and printing by Raul Ramos.

Lythronax features a unique head and neck that utilizes one of Jake's other body sculpts from the line, Bistahieversor.

 For some reason these two have become inseparable in my mind, despite not necessarily being contemporaries. 

 They remind me of the hyenas from Lion King, always up to no good...

Package Art

Gabriel Ugueto provides us with another stellar illustration for the Lythronax packaging, and even incorporated the Beasts of the Mesozoic Diabloceratops, which I absolutely love. 

Fun fact- Gabriel also did an alternate rendering of Lythronax with some speculative feathering, but I opted to go with featherless version to match the figure design better. Still, it's very cool to see!

Will we be getting baby ceratopsians to complete this scene? I don't know for sure, but personally I think it would be a great addition to the line, so hopefully I can find a way to make this happen.

Remaining unposted Stretch Goals

And incase you missed it in the comments section, backer Faelrin has correctly guessed the remaining stretch goal totals, so for those that want to know, here's what we'll need to unlock the remaining planned figures past what has been shown:

1/18th Daspletosaurus torosus- $440,000

1/18th Alectrosaurus olseni- $455,000

1/18th Tarbosaurus bataar- $485,000 

1/18th Moros intrepidus- $500,000 

1/18th Albertosaurus sarcophagus- $530,000 

We're only halfway into the campaign and doing exceptionally well, especially when compared to the previous two Beasts of the Mesozoic campaigns. I think these goals are all very attainable and who knows, I may even come up with a few more toward the end.

That'll do it for now. I hope I made this update worth the wait, and don't forget that the 2022 Tyrannosaur Series Calendar was added yesterday as well. Check the main campaign page or yesterday's update for more details.

Suskityrannus hazelae is our next unlock at $365K and will round out wave 2, so let's make it happen!

Thanks everyone!

-David

Suskityrannus hazelae is now UNLOCKED!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 03:31:00 AM

Well done everyone, the 1/18th scale Suskityrannus hazelae has been UNLOCKED! This is now selectable from the 'add-ons' menu to include in your pledge. Add-on price: $32(US)/ $35 (INT)

 The prototype is still in-progress, but once painted, will feature colors inspired by the Osprey bird.

 The parts layout for Suskityrannus is similar to Guanlong with a new head and tail.

 The Suskityrannus figure measures 8" / 20cm long, with 19 points of articulation including a bendable tail, base. and interchangable feet. 

Sculpting

 As with the Proceratosaurus, Raul Ramos did a fantastic sculpt of the Suskityrannus skull for me to work from.

 Printed at 1/18th scale it is super small- less than 1 inch!

 I'm currently in the process of sculpting the head now, with the left side being nearly done. (I always prefer to finish the left side first for some reason...)

 And here's a look at the new tail. This one has less of a feather plume at the end and keeps more to the shape of the tail underneath.

The promo WIP image is the same sculpt but with the color removed for a cohesive look. For these smaller Tyrannosaurs,  I won't be able to get resin castings of these parts before the Kickstarter ends, but I do expect to have the sculpts themselves finished by then.

 And here's the Suskityrannus with its contemporary, Zuniceratops. Zuniceratops may be bigger, but would be no match for Suskityrannus in a foot race as we'll see next.

Package art

Raul Ramos knocks another one out of the park with his illustration of Suskityrannus for the package art. The scene was all his idea and I love that he captured a moment with these two New Mexico species interacting. 

 And I am definitely looking to match the Suskityrannus likeness from this piece with the head sculpt, as I love the personality Raul has bought to it. Sneaky, sneaky.

Proceratosaurus Update

 Just a quick update on the prototype for Proceratosaurus. The body is built and its hard to tell, but the arms and hands are shorter on this version- parts that will also be shared with Eotyrannus. I decided to use the same tail as Guanlong as I felt it balanced the look better with the feather crest on the head.

We've had two unlocks in two days, and are moving along very well for this point in the campaign! Suskityrannus finishes off the Wave 2 figure assortment, and now we look to Wave 3 and next up is the Gorgosaurus unlocked at $395,000.  It's more of a reach than usual due to it being a significantly large figure- second only to the adult T. rex, but I have no doubt that it's attainable as are the other remaining stretch goals. During this time though,  it would be especially helpful for us all to share this campaign news where we can and try to attract more backers to the project. So if you see my posts on social media, please give them a share and leave a comment if you can. It's always helpful to keep the conversation going outside of Kickstarter. And of course if you'd like to use any of these images to create your own posts about the campaign, please feel free.

Now it's time for us to go after 'Big Blue'...

Thanks everyone and have a great night!

- David

2022 Tyrannosaur Series Calendar added!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 06, 2021 at 01:47:11 AM

Originally planned to be added tomorrow morning at the half-way point of the campaign, I've decided to add the 2022 Beasts of the Mesozoic: Tyrannosaur Series calendar a little early in hopes to take us that last bit of the way to unlocking the Lythronax! The calendar is now selectable from the 'add-ons' menu to include in your pledge. 

Add-on price: $35(US)/ $40 (INT)

As with previous Beasts of the Mesozoic calendars, this measures 11"x17" (28cm x43cm) and features the package art from the Tyrannosaur Series over the course of twelve months on high-quality printed paper. 

Designed to showcase as much of the artwork as possible, the calendar includes the beautiful illustrations of Raul Ramos, Shannon Beaumont, Gabriel Ugueto, RJ Palmer, and Raph Lomotan.

Here's a preview for each month:

These twelve illustrations are also available in postcard format to add on. The remaining Tyrannosaur package illustrations will be included in the 2023 Beasts of the Mesozoic calendar, but that will be offered next year on my website.

As with all of the print rewards, the Tyrannosaur Series Calendar is expected to ship this December. Please note that this is an exclusive item to Kickstarter, so the print order will be directly based on the pledges during this campaign. 

And soon, it will be time to unleash the 'Gore King'.

Take care everyone- have a good night!

-David

1/18 Tyrannosaurus rex- action figure comparisons!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 05, 2021 at 10:02:51 PM

I hope you all are enjoying your Sunday afternoons. I thought today would be a good time to get in some action figure comparison photos so you can see how action figures that you may already own match up with the Tyrannosaur prototypes. First up we have the 1/18 Tyrannosaurus rex comparisons!

Beasts of the Mesozoic comparisons

First we have the big T.rex with some of the other unlocked Tyrannosaur figures. 

And with the Ceratopsians...

And even though it's out of scale, here it is with a Raptor Series figure.

With non- Beasts of the Mesozoic figures

 Now, I know that many of you probably collect the Jurassic World and Jurassic Park toys, but I unfortunately don't own hardly any. With the Ceratopsian Series I had a friend who owned some and allowed me to borrow them, but he no longer has them. In any case, I still have my little Protoceratops here so he'll have to represent this particular toy line.

But on a related note, I do have a small collection of Papo dinosaur figures on-hand.

And here's the T. rex with some other, non- dinosaur, figures from my collection:

I hope some of you found that helpful, or at least fun to see. I plan to do more of these with some of the other prototypes. Which Tyrannosaur figure would you like to see action figure comparisons with next? Let me know!

Less than 10K now to unlock Lythronax, let's do it!

Talk to you all soon!

- David

Tyrannosaurus rex fine-cut figure update 1: THEY CAN FREE STAND!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 05, 2021 at 03:58:16 PM

Today I was able to unpack the T. rex fine-cuts sent to me from the factory for both the 1/18th and 1/35th scale Tyrannosaurus rex figures, and I must say, I'm impressed.

One of the biggest questions since I began developing the Tyrannosaur line was- how will they stand? I felt that if I could get them to stand with a base and foot pegs, and no visible support, it would be a great achievement. And with the interchangeable lower leg idea, that problem seemed to be resolved.  Can it stand without a base? I doubt it... at least that's what I used to think. Behold...

So apparently by using both of the fixed lower legs, these figures can indeed stand on their own without the aid of a base and foot pegs. Who knew? I saw a photo from the factory a while back showing this, but I was still skeptical. Now I can confirm that yes they do work. I would even say that surprisingly,  the larger one is even more stable than the smaller one.

For those unfamiliar with the action figure making process, the fine-cut is the first stage of preproduction and is a resin duplicate of the original sculpted parts but are modified with functional joints, engineered to allow for the best movement possible.

These vary a little from the original prototypes in that the joints are more refined and functional, getting us closer to the final version. And the jaw works very well now too- see, the mouth will fully close.

Once a fine cut figure is approved, it becomes the basis for the metal tooling molds and thus all of the injection molded figures there after. 

There's more that I want to explore with these fine-cuts such as dynamic posing options and range of articulation (though it is a bit limited at this stage due to the rigid resin material). It would all be too much for one update, but I wanted to at least show some new photos of these guys and share the good news about the standing situation.

Alright that'll do it for now- talk to you all soon!

-David