Deinonychus

Oh no! More Velociraptor mongolensis hype! As sort of an amateur expert on Dromaeosaurs I feel pretty well qualified to tackle this one. Of course, the book and movie Jurassic Park ushered the term "Raptor" for Dromaeosaurid dinosaurs into the general lexicon, and even in the paleontological community, Raptor is used as a slang term for any Dromaeosaurid, but just calling it a Raptor does not make it a V. mongolensis The Raptors in the movie were Deinonychus antirrhopus. This is due to the fact that when Michael Crichton was writing Jurassic Park, he was advised by an illustrator and amateur paleontologist named Gregory S. Paul who, at the time, was pushing the idea that Deinonychus antirrhopus was actually just another species of genus Velociraptor and should be named Velociraptor antirrhopus. Paul's theory has been roundly rejected since then, but the damage was already done and the definition of "Raptor" has since been very murky. So what does all this have to do with the Dino Attack/2010 toy? Not a whole lot, but I'm getting there. First we have to discount the horns on the head and the spikes on the tail. Done. It's fairly easy to say that this is a mutant created by Ogel or some other LEGO baddy. Next we look at the head. The robustness of the posterior portion of the skull with it's even sloping to the anterior end suggests a larger and boxier skull then is present in V. mongolensis who has a very gracile skull with a slught curve between the optical fassa and the nasal cavity. The skull shape eliminates V. mongolensis and Dromaeosaurus albertensis from consideration. Moving on to the rest of the body, it has the classic Dromaeosaurid shape, but the head is too big in relation to the body and length of the tail. This we'll put down to "toyification". So with the configuration of the torso to the arms and legs we can, for now, say with plenty of certainty that this is a Dromaeosaur of some kind. Using a Minifig to estimate length, we get a size around 33 feet, or roughly 10 meters. This completley rules out D. antirrhopus and Utahraptor ostrommaysorum who check in at 10 feet and 20 feet long respectivly. The next best candidate would be Megaraptor namunhuaiquii who at 25 to 30 feet is not a dino you'd want to meet in a dark alley, or any alley. While the LEGO version seems bigger then the largest estimated specimen of M namunhuaiquii, there are no known Dromaeosaurids bigger, so he's our most likley suspect. So it seems we have everything in order and we get to the feet... UH OH! The LEGO dino seems to lack the large sickle-shaped killer claw on the second toe of each foot, the hallmark of Dromaeosaurids. So this would technically eliminate him as a Dromaeosaurid at all...but the morphology of the body suggests no type of dinosaur but a Dromaeosaurid...so we're stuck and can just chalk the lack of claw up to bad cloning or mutation. So what do we have. Well, technically the LEGO Raptor is no known dinosaur species. But the closest we can get is Megaraptor namunhuaiquii, which, for our purposes, is good enough

I know I look great in pink

Great pics! I'm thinking with a few slight modifications, the Sonic Phantom would make a decent Star Wars Podracer

Hmmm...I'm thinking the Thunder Fury would fit in very well with Ogel's forces... Which is just as well since the Alpha Team figures are going to be driving the Humans' mechs at my house

Wow...those are some pretty damn big Coelophysis bauri

Dino Attack/2010 Rex would be the best if not for those bloody horns :P So I have to go with the original, greenie it is

So...wait...if I don't get up when the alarm on the Pirate clock goes off does the figure empty out my wallet, violate my wife, burn down my apartment and steal my car?

(pours through cross-section books and vehicle guides) Uhhh...doesn't say... Portable outdoor grill?

Well, for those of you in the States, Target has cut the price on all three of their $50 featured Endcap sets. That'd be the Voporak set, the Durmstrang ship AND the Ultimate Space Battle set. Each set is now marked down to $39.76...so get a set while the getting is good! ...incidentally I managed to snag the Voporak set outta the deal...sweet :P

With nine days left you may need to sell a kidney, rob a bank, take out a loan, undergo medical testing, donate mutliple bodily fluids, live on dirt and rocks for a year or possibly all of the afore mentioned. At an increase $200 every hour, this would only cost you about $52000. This is insanity. :oD AND your entire collection of legos :'( oh, and your house! LoL :-D Nah...with all the LEGOs I have I could probably built that anyway if I put my mind to it...but I don't wanna give up the assembled models I already have out :P

Well I voted for Star Wars because if any theme defined LEGO in 2005 it was the onslaught of new SW sets for Revenge of the Sith... HOWEVER... Pinning down the straight-up best theme is harder. Bionicle and City made outstanding strides in innovation this year and the Dino Attack/2010 sets are a magnificent blend of modern military design and prehistoric fun...but the best sets hands-down were the Vikings...here's to hoping the Vikings are with us as a distinct theme for a long time to come! *viki*

Ah Nintendo...you used to hold my heart...but that was before you stopped trying and the hot new system Playstation came along with her DVD player and then little PSP sister...but, letting go is all part of growing up :P

Wow... Time to sell my Transformers... And my Xbox... And my car... And my cat... And my Wife... But hey, free shipping, so that's something

Endor? Hey I know...we can detonate a Death Star II over the moon...this time with no Rebel Fleet to vaporize the wreckage, we can have a sweet extenction-level barbeque :oD

Great review! I love how everytime LEGO does Slave I it just gets better and better, and this time it was just enough changes to make it cooler without ruining what was already an excelent design. Now I can hardly wait for the man in the brown truck to pull up with my set However I'm a little miffed about the redesigned bottom...Jango's version had a nifty little hole that that I use to mount it flush to the wall with a mug-hook...looks like I'll have to rig something new for Boba's version :P

I was amazed when I saw the ammount of "Backorder" stuff on S@H yesterday...it warms my evil little heart to see LEGO do so well although I wish I had tried harder to get one of my family members to get me the Knight's Kingdom Chess Set a llittle sooner >-|

There's a chat? :o What we really need is one of those Invision Board Shoutboxes up at the top there...it's sort of like a chat that's visible to everyone viewing the board and updates when people post anew...those things are great for getting to know your fellow board members (hint, hint)

So, how many TIEs do you need in your personal squadron to join up? I've got 3 TIE/ln models, 2 TIE Advanced x1 models, a TIE/b, TIE/d, and a custom TIE/i slapped together from another spare Advanced...and I expect to have a real TIE/i shortly. Plus I have a long and storied history as a crack TIE pilot thanks to Lucasarts :P

Ah good, I'm not the only one with a pet having a Star Wars name Here's Mara Jade:

Star Destroyer playset eh? Hmmm... I'm hoping for either something like Cloud City which has a bridge, gunnery station (Imperial Gunners!) hangar, (More TIE Pilots) and perhaps a detention block (Imperial Navy Troopers!) or just a bridge set with a ton of Imperial officers and perhaps... All 6 bounty hunters?

Congrats on so far kicking your addiction Now how long before you're able to run a kilometer without dying?

But the T-1 Typhoon just looks so...sad...without guns and rocket pods :( I mean hell, even the vikings have better weapons to fight the dragons and monsters then the Dino 2010 guys have to fight laser-beam firing dinosaurs :P

Yeah, I fell out of love with Megabloks "Minifig" sets after that first Power Rangers wave...everything since then has been utter crap... They should just stick to making huge fighter craft and ships and tanks and stuff

Worked on me...I even held off on the Tri-Droid set for almost 6 months because I heard it was going to be in the Ultimate Space Battle set. Now I'm really glad I got it when I did...and just when I was thinking LEGO was the one company that didn't pull a bunch of bullcrap with their exclusives :|

Great looking set, can't wait until mine comes later this week :-D I actually like the fleshy color on the sullustian, looks right on that little sucker. And I absolutley love the docking stand. All these Star Wars sets are a pain to find shelf space for because they take up such a huge horizontal area, but this way I can display it verticaly and also not have to find a space for it hanging from my already overcrowded celing. Although I wish the centerline wing didn't have defined "top" and bottom" surfaces. Kind of limits the nice looks of the whole thing. But overall, great looking set and great review