Vol.57 A History of Dinosaur Plastic Models, Part 2
In 1971, Aurora, a company renowned for its figure-model plastic kits, released its famous "Prehistoric Scenes" series. This series was also featured in "Treasure House Vol. 10," and now it's back with detailed photos. I became a serious adult dinosaur enthusiast in 1976, awakened by the masterpiece "The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs" (by Adrian Desmond, the book that first popularized the warm-blooded dinosaur theory and influenced many to pursue dinosaurs, including Kazunari Araki, I believe). By then, there weren't many kits left on the market, so I spent over a decade searching model shops until I ended up on a TV show like "Priceless Treasures." You can read about that whole story and an overview of the "Prehistoric Scenes" series in "Vol. 10," but for now, let's take a look at the photos.
This series, with the exception of the Tyrannosaurus, all come with diorama bases that can be linked together. Photo 1 shows them arranged according to the instructions (Photo 2) (though some unfinished ones are mixed in...). They stretch about 1.3 meters across.
Photo 3: Cro-Magnon woman and cave bear. The bear skull casually lying at the bear's feet is surprisingly well-made. The richness of these small accessories is one of the selling points of this series.
Photo 4: Tar Pit. Originally, the condor was clutching a woolly rhino's meat, but it seems to have dropped it somewhere...
Photo 5: Neanderthal and Smilodon. At the Smilodon's feet is a partially eaten deer leg (?).
Photo 6: The terror bird, Phorusrhacos. A newly hatched chick and a snake preying on it. The snake originally had two heads, but my younger self, who didn't appreciate the playful aspect, cut off one of its necks. What a shame! What's more, I realized after finishing the photos and putting everything away that the snake was originally attacking the Cro-Magnon woman, and the accessory for the terror bird was a gliding lizard, Kuehneosaurus... I had no choice but to composite it in the upper right.
Photo 7: Mammoth. The hair detail is so superb that I painted it quite meticulously, but the base is inexplicably unpainted. Did I run out of steam on the main body?
Photo 8: Two horned dinosaurs. They are identical except for their heads. I completely remodeled the Triceratops' lower jaw, and I also modified the Styracosaurus' teeth, which were sharp like a carnivore's. Why did I do those unnecessary things!
Photo 9: Allosaurus. It looks ferocious. The original even had drool, but in my youthful exuberance, I cut it off.
Photo 10: Pteranodon. It can also be hung. The option of having torn wing parts is a nice touch.
Photo 11: This Ankylosaurus and Dimetrodon were added to the series in '74 and '75. The quality is flawless. They feature gimmicks like moving heads (Ankylo), moving tails (Ankylo), and opening/closing jaws (Dimetrodon), all without compromising their proportions. The examples shown here were assembled from kits re-released by Monogram in the 80s, but for some reason, they only came with half a base, so they are placed on original bases in the group photo (Photo 1).
Photos 12 and 13 show the gigantic Tyrannosaurus, also released in '75. If stretched out in a modern pose, its tail would likely exceed 90cm. Perhaps due to its size, it doesn't come with a diorama base. Its tail bends in two places, its head moves up and down, and its jaw opens and closes. The eyes were separate parts with holes, and since I didn't know about doll eyes back then, I drew eyes on the back of a gashapon capsule and attached them (Photo 14). I think I did a decent job, but it's undeniable that the intensity of the original (which had cat-like, fluorescent eyes) was lost. By the way, the gashapon contained those Super Car erasers.
The example is a Monogram re-release kit, but the original came in the strikingly molded colors of Photo 15. The package measures 66 x 42 cm.
Aurora went out of business in 1977, but it still has many fans, and original models from its famous monster series, for example, are traded at surprisingly high prices. Reissues were also released by manufacturers like Monogram and Revell, who inherited the molds, and some dinosaurs and mammoths from the "Prehistoric Scenes" series were re-released in the 80s and 90s. Interestingly, Revell even released a scaled-down version in 1994, the size of a candy toy (Photo 16). The package measures 11 x 9 cm.
In 2000, three new dinosaur models with Aurora's style were released under the "Aurora Brand" by a manufacturer called "PLAYING MANTIS" (Photo 17).
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