When purchasing dinosaur figures, the most important thing to consider is the person receiving the figure.  Is it a birthday gift for a two-year old niece?  A cuddly, plush dinosaur should suit her nicely.  Is it something to entertain the seven-year old boy on a long car trip?  Consider an action figure or two, with interactive features such as articulated joints or electronic sound effects (assuming they won't disturb the driver).  Is the dinosaur figure intended for a college student, giving him a tasteful present to help spruce up his dorm?  Try an elegant sculpture, with a mature design aesthetic he'll love showing off to friends.  Retirement gift for a science teacher?  Go for the good stuff - most in the academic field can spot a cheap dinosaur a mile away.



That's not to say you have to surrender your hard-earned savings while picking out a dinosaur figure.  The vast majority of them are less than thirty dollars a piece, regardless of the manufacturer.  Some, however, can easily sell for hundreds of dollars.  This is typically either because it is an original, handcrafted item, or the craftsmanship and materials invested in by the manufacturer are relatively high (this may occur simply because of its size).  Like any toy, there is the issue of rarity.  A figure that might not have much in the way of attractive design or scientific authenticity could still fetch a handsome price, if it is rare enough.  As of the writing of this article, a single Battat Diplodocus can sell for $1000.  As always, one can never assume the quality of an item based upon its price tag.  If you want to know if you're getting a good value for your dinosaur figure, ask a veteran collector.

And what about that white-hot buzzword, "scientific accuracy"?  The ever-changing appearance of dinosaur toys reflects the healthy flow of ideas throughout the field of paleontology.  As new fossil finds are made and new scientific theories are developed, our image of the great dinosaurs is in a constant state of flux.  What is considered scientifically sound at any given moment may become next year's "popular misconception".  Some dinosaur figures are collected for purely entertainment purposes, such as action figures for young children.  These tend to focus more on attractive design qualities and playability - important for a toy, but often to the detriment of accuracy.  Others have been developed by the close collaboration of paleontologists and animal artists, and are consequently more expensive and geared toward more mature collectors.



You might ask yourself: "Why should I care if my five-year old plays with a scientifically inaccurate Tyrannosaurus toy?"  Perhaps you would be right to question the value of such a thing to a child; after all, children are more readily able to adapt to changing ideas, when updated sculpts of the figures are released.  However, there is great educational value to dinosaurs.  Try to think of dinosaur figures for your child not merely as playthings, but educational tools.  Children learn from their environment, so it is important to consider what sort of environment we provide for our children.  A child experiencing enjoyment in a toy is obviously more open to learning about its subject matter.  Be willing to teach your child about every toy they play with, even if it's just a small bit of information.  Dinosaurs, like many animals, are a common source of inspiration for aspiring artists and scientists - I frequently see such figures sitting on the desks of notable professors and other academics.  They are a great way to cultivate an interest in academic fields, particularly biology, geology, anatomy, and history.  Do all children need to play with dinosaur toys that have been rigorously reviewed for modern scientific authenticity?  Of course not.  Your child may, in fact, take an interest in the developing changes in dinosaur imagery over time.  Animals that once dragged their tails and crawled around like reptiles now carry their tails aloft, moving swiftly across the Mesozoic terrain.  Pointing out the differences between the original Carnegie Diplodocus and the newly sculpted Carnegie Diplodocus can open your child's mind to the ever-shifting storm that exists within the scientific community.

One common question is "Why dinosaurs?"  Well, the simplest (and most annoying) rebuttal for this question might be "Why not dinosaurs?"  Because they have been extinct for so long, people often forget that dinosaurs were once living organisms.  They are, in fact, part of our animal kingdom.  Their descendants, the birds, coexist with us today.  An ignorant person might ask what academic value dinosaurs have, since they no longer walk among us.  To these questions, I would ask "What about our history?"  Dinosaurs represent a tremendous stretch of our planet's history.  In comparative geologic time, dinosaurs were the rulers of this world long before humans arrived.  We are little more than newcomers.  Studying prehistory gives us a great deal of insight on subjects such as evolution and ecology, which form the very foundation of our existence.



"How will I know if a dinosaur toy is accurate?"  By familiarizing yourself with recent scientific data and artistic depictions of dinosauria, you will learn to instinctively recognize outdated or questionable designs of dinosaur figures.  Theropods (that would be the bipedal, carnivorous type of dinosaur) were once thought to stand upright, almost like a human.  It is now accepted that such animals probably carried their bodies more or less parallel to the ground, using their stiffened tails to balance the weight of their heads bearing ferocious jaws and teeth.  If you see a Tyrannosaurus figure with its posture held at a 45 degree angle to the ground, you might be looking at a somewhat antiquated design.  It is now known that many theropods were feathered - strange though it may seem, a down-covered velociraptor hatchling is not considered controversial among most dinosaur enthusiasts.  While tail-dragging dinosaurs make for easier toy sculpts since the tail functions as a third "leg", modern dinosaur toy sculptors are challenged to create dinosaurs that rely exclusively on their feet for standing.  Color can be important, not only in making a dinosaur figure visually striking, but as a point of authenticity.  Older reconstructions once had dull color schemes, with grey sauropods slopping lazily through the water, and pudgy carnivores looking lifeless in dull shades of brown.  While no one actually knows what colors dinosaurs had, it is generally accepted that they were capable of seeing color.  This suggests that coloration would have been an important part of display, perhaps in communication or camouflage.  Newer dinosaur models consequently sport flashier color schemes, with turqoise-trimmed tails, fuschia-flushed faces, and sapphire-speckled sails.  Some collectors find overly colorful dinosaurs to be off-putting, but this remains an area where the artist has the most freedom.

Ultimately, it is the up to the buyer to decide what figures appeal most to them.  Even the most snobbish of collectors might be persuaded to purchase a figure if its craftsmanship is admirable, its subject matter original, or its depiction simply too attractive to pass up.