In the August 1993 issue of Hobby Japan magazine, published to coincide with the release of Jurassic Park, Shuichi Miyawaki of Kaiyodo wrote an interesting article titled "Looking Back at 10 Years of Dinosaur Models." He discusses the history of Kaiyodo dinosaur kits, which I've been introducing in my previous two articles. In this piece, he states, "A new history of dinosaur modeling began when Shinobu Matsumura joined the company in 1987," and praises his work, saying, "The natural movements and expressions, created only by someone who truly understands living creatures, make the models feel as if they are alive and present." From then on, the dinosaur series focused on Matsumura's creations (the name was also changed to the Dinoland series). Indeed, Matsumura's dinosaurs, specializing in extant animals, are animals themselves, devoid of the monstrous image of earlier models. Matsumura's naturalistic style of dinosaur modeling, after the massive success of Choco Egg and Chocolasaurus, which he sculpted and supervised, seems to have become the mainstream of Japanese dinosaur modeling up to the present day.
Here are some impressive Kaiyodo dinosaur kits sculpted by Matsumura.

1/35 Tyrannosaurus. If my memory serves me right, this was the first one. A Tyrannosaurus model with a face reflecting its skull might be a world-first.

A Scolosaurus (1/35) with a wonderfully elegant posture. Today, the tail spikes have been corrected, and it is identified as Euoplocephalus.

Two 1/35 Triceratops. The one in front is made of resin, and the one in the back is soft vinyl.

Velociraptor & Mammal. It looks like a scene from an animal documentary.

Rhamphorhynchus. Exquisite balance!

1/20 Tyrannosaurus A and B (front), made of soft vinyl. The one in the back (A) has been modified to have a closed mouth.

1/20 Elasmosaurus. Made of soft vinyl. It's huge.

1/20 Brachiosaurus. Made of soft vinyl. It's incredibly huge. Compare it to the Favorite Brachiosaurus on the left.

The Pleistocene land turtle, Meiolania. Superbly crafted.

When talking about Kaiyodo dinosaurs from the '90s, the skeletal series sculpted by Shigeru Yamazaki cannot be forgotten, but since they have already been introduced in Treasure House Vol. 26 and Vol. 31, please refer to those articles.

●Other '90s Dinosaur Kits
The manufacturer HORIZON released some fantastic kits of Jurassic Park dinosaurs in '93 (which I will introduce together in the "Jurassic Park Dinosaur Kits" section), but prior to that, probably in the early '90s, they released four 1/30 soft vinyl kits.

Apatosaurus, with the distinct look of a Brontosaurus. This must be a deliberate retro design.

Stegosaurus and T-Rex. These are somewhat retro.

Elasmosaurus. ...However, its neck seems a bit short.

This is a rare soft vinyl kit, an Allosaurus-like figure from "One Million Years B.C.", an original product from Monster Japan, an American toy specialty store still located in Ebisu. I believe very few of these were released to the public.

●Bonus (This might be from the '80s)

This is a soft vinyl kit from Aoshima, a major plastic model manufacturer, but the quality is disappointingly poor, as if it misunderstood the trend of "active dinosaur imagery" at the time. Why is it labeled as 1/48 scale? Was it intended to be a scale model?

Next time, I will introduce dinosaur kits from independent manufacturers that were sold at "Wonder Festival," a garage kit exhibition.