Okay, This One Probably Cost Too Much

After getting that dinosaur for a beast of burden that I talked about in my earlier post this week, I went out on my usual rounds to check all the Targets, Walmarts, and particularly Rosses to see what toys they had. At Ross, I found that they made Titan Heroes Jurassic Park dinosaurs. Titan Heroes are the Hasbro line that usually makes cheap yet durable 12-inch figures of Marvel and Star Wars characters. Little Anklevich has a whole collection of them.

 

They tend to have pretty good sculpting, but are always horribly lacking in painted detail. They're made for little kids, and they aren't that particular about that kind of stuff. Titan Heroes are the toys that I have repainted into really nice looking display pieces a few times in the past.

So, you know what you're getting. It's a decent toy with little to no paint. They usually sell for pretty cheap, maybe $10, although with inflation, they're probably up to $12 by now. Well, they had a dinosaur that was basically a velociraptor...although I think it had some other name like ultracoolasaurus or atrociraptor or some crap like that. 

Since it wasn't a velociraptor in name, they felt free to cast the toy in a different color. This one was white, and since it was a 12-inch toy, it was pretty big too. It would be perfect for a 4-inch figure to ride on.

The worst thing was that they wanted $9 for it...at Ross? That was pretty much regular price at the regular store. Why was it so much? 

I was on the phone with Rish at the time, and we talked about it. He was out and about looking for toys too, and was right near a Ross, so he stopped in to see if they had one at his store too, and he could see what I was talking about. We talked about it, how it would look with a figure on the back, what could be done with the figure, and by the time we were done, I had decided to buy it.

Then I went to the front, and saw that the line was about a mile long, and would take at least a year to wait through before I got to the register. I went and put the toy back.

But I didn't forget it. Now, today, I decided to go back and buy it after all.

It's not bad. I wish the stripes continued onto the tail, but I may have to add some myself to make it match. As expected, it will need a little paint to bring out the detail that is in the sculpt, but this thing will look great. It's pretty big for a velociraptor, so it will be great for a 4-inch figure to ride on.

I need to figure out how to make a good, yet easy to make, saddle to put on these dinosaurs, and I'll be good to go. I watched this video from a woman who made her own saddles for Schliech horses...

but her video just made me tired. I wonder if I could just buy one of those cheesy horse-riding toys that you see at Walmart and the like, take the saddle off, and put it on a dinosaur. I had plans to do the same thing with battle cat's saddle and a polar bear that I put up around Christmastime.

So, this saddle:

On this figure:

Like this:

Yeah, it needs some adjustment, but usually with some heat, the plastic becomes pliable and will change its shape to what you want for it. So, I think it will work in the end. Would the same be the case for a horse saddle on a dinosaur? I guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out what I do.