National Museum of Nature and Science

With the grand opening of the new National Museum of Nature and Science building in 2004, the museum shop was completely renovated, and the dinosaur miniatures that had been commonplace on the shelves and readily available for decades disappeared. It's truly disappointing. While the "National Museum Collection Reproduction Model" dinosaur series made by Kaiyodo that is currently sold is certainly well-made, am I the only one who feels that it lacks the feel of a proper souvenir because of its gashapon-toy size?

Photo 1

Photo 2

The very first original dinosaur merchandise from the National Museum of Nature and Science was the extremely valuable plaster dinosaur introduced at the beginning of "Secret Treasure Museum Vol. 1," but after that, metal ones became the mainstream. The Triceratops and Stegosaurus on the left of Photo 1 are quite old, based on the exhibits in the old dinosaur hall. I colored them in my youth, but they were originally meant to have a verdigris finish. Then, a Tarbosaurus was added when the Tarbosaurus came in 1979, new and old reconstructions of the Iguanodon were added during the 1985 Iguanodon exhibition, and a Maiasaura was added during the 1990 dinosaur exhibition subtitled "The Story of Dinosaur Parents and Children."
Among these, a peculiar item is the Diplocaulus in Photo 2, a rare find that seems to have been out of print for a long time, though I'm not sure when I acquired it.

Photo 3

Photo 4

Other thoughtful souvenirs, I believe, include the Archaeopteryx handkerchief set (Photo 3 - a shame it's out of print, as anyone receiving it would surely be delighted) which was also introduced in Vol. 34, and the footprint mat (Photo 4), which is still sold today.

Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History

This museum is located at the foot of Hakone and has a decent number of dinosaurs. A dinosaur + hot spring tour is quite chic, but putting that aside, the small Stegosaurus with the museum's name engraved on it (Photo 5) isn't bad, but sadly, there are no Stegosaurus in this museum...

Photo 5

"Great Jurassic Dinosaur Exhibition" (2005)

This was a slightly rough-and-ready dinosaur exhibition held in Yokohama, featuring Chinese dinosaurs that seemed to have been seen many times before. However, the highlight and first-ever exhibit, the actual fossil skull of a Yangchuanosaurus, which was also on the poster and catalog cover, was magnificent (though the photos on the poster and elsewhere were reversed horizontally compared to the real thing, drawing much criticism from fellow dinosaur enthusiasts). Despite this, there were no Yangchuanosaurus goods to be found, and what I finally discovered was this (Photo 6): a lollipop! And here's what's inside (Photo 7). It's truly pathetic, but as it's the only Yangchuanosaurus merchandise, I have no choice but to preserve it permanently in the refrigerator.

Photo 6

Photo 7