Two years have passed since I wrote in this column (Vol. 25), "Why don't I build an Allosaurus on a long autumn night?" The ultimate ANTS Allosaurus skeleton kit has been sleeping soundly in the closet ever since that day, but this year I got a new item to keep me up late.

Black Hills Stan 1/6 Scale Skull Model

This is not just any skull model. It's an excellent item, accurately scaled down by scanning the original fossil. And the one I bought was an "educational" model with each part of the skull separate. With the sounds of insects in the background, referring to "The Osteology of Tyrannosaurus" from Dinosaur Studies Frontline No. 3, I'd mumble things like, "This is the quadrate bone, and this is the quadratojugal bone..." Looking at and fitting them together is not only elegant but also very educational (although in my case, I forget the bone names as soon as I learn them...).
This model was sold at the Shinjuku Mineral Fair in June, and there was also an assembled and painted version, which was also wonderfully made. I was dreaming of having both (since each one costs about 100,000 yen!), and to my surprise, a friend from the Dinosaur Club actually bought the set. I'm envious... By the way, another member of the Dinosaur Club bought the remaining set of three skull parts that Black Hills brought, so the Dinosaur Club achieved the feat (?) of buying up all the disassembled skulls.

For Black Hills' Stan-related pages, click here