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Post by RetroArt on Jul 2, 2012 0:14:51 GMT -5
Ooops- see if the .jpg will appear.   |
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Post by acroray on Jul 2, 2012 0:22:52 GMT -5
Oh, wow! Now I'm going to be looking for this one as well! ;D
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Post by RetroArt on Jul 2, 2012 9:18:53 GMT -5
...aw nuts. competition now.  |
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Post by acroray on Jul 2, 2012 14:46:47 GMT -5
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Post by acroray on Jul 4, 2012 20:50:20 GMT -5
Yeah, but the edition we're concerned with in this thread is the one using a photo of the Pyro dino kits on the cover.  The Rex is a probably the best build I've ever seen of that kit... |
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Post by desslock on Jul 4, 2012 22:35:46 GMT -5
OMG - I had that book as a kid - the one with the Pyro kits. I recognize it immediately. Wow, brought back memories I'd forgotten.
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Post by acroray on Jul 15, 2012 19:15:00 GMT -5
After losing a bunch of auction for Pyro long box dinos, I won this Pyro "White Box" edition Segosaurus for a paltry $4! After repairing the torn, taped-up box and popping apart the assembled two body halves, I get my first example of the Pyro whitebox! My Pyro Stegosaurus herd grows... Unlike the more common Life Like versions of this edition, this box says 'printed in Canada' and 'made in USA'. (Life Like has USA attributions for both.) Otherwise, it is nearly exactly the same as the Life Like version. It has the newer Pyro logo printed huge on the box bottom. The dino is also molded in a more sensible grey color (although very glossy), rather than the weird colors of the earlier Pyro long-box editions or the later Life Like editions.  |
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Post by acroray on Jul 15, 2012 19:15:53 GMT -5
'Lest we forget who the manufacturer is...  |
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Post by acroray on Jul 15, 2012 19:23:30 GMT -5
I'm going to make the assumption that this is indeed the instruction sheet included in the kit. Interestingly, it says "Life Like" and has the company name whited out from the kit line up on the backside. But unlike Life Like's instructions, it has a nice drawing of the dinosaur - including the cave man! This is a first for me, because I have not yet seen the cave-man on the kit's various editions of its instructions to portray the cave-man as he's intended to be displayed with the dino. The other-products part of the sheet also doesn't show the last two kits in the line. So this kit - or at least the development of its instructions - may predate the release of the Corythosaurus and Protoceratops, which weren't released in long boxes. If it is original, it may also represent a transitional period for the product's manufacturing and release from the one company to the next.  |
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Post by acroray on Jul 15, 2012 19:24:38 GMT -5
My clean-up of the washed out printing on the instruction sheet. The Stego illustration is very true to the kit.  |
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Post by TAY666 on Jul 16, 2012 8:19:35 GMT -5
Ooo!
Very cool.
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Post by acroray on Sept 30, 2012 21:56:43 GMT -5
I finally got to restore the builtup 1st edition red Pyro Rex that my dad got for me back in June. I pried Rexy from his base, and popped off the name plate, and stripped the paint from both with an L.A.'s Awesome bath. Rex then got some careful scraping, sanding & polishing to clean up the old model glue smears and flash as well as I could.  |
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Post by acroray on Sept 30, 2012 21:59:08 GMT -5
The cave man's left foot was too tightly glued on to pull him free without damaging the foot, so I scraped down his bad seams, repainted & shaded him, and patched up the flaking old water-based acrylics on the base. The name plate got a coat of 98-cent Wal Mart rattlecan black, and Testors silver chrome brushed on the letters.  |
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Post by acroray on Sept 30, 2012 22:03:50 GMT -5
Everything is painted according to what I read on a photo of the first-edition instructions that someone posted at Flickr. That includes leaving the dinosaur's hide in red exposed plastic. A coat of rattlecan Testors Modelmaster flat coat evens out the exposed plastic, and actually blends away the remains of the old glue smears and the sanding I did to work some of them away. The only real variation I did from instructions was the underbelly, which is suggested as white, off-white or flesh in the instructions. I used a Tamiya color called 'sky', which is a sort of very pale greenish blue. It seemed to look just slightly more reptilian than the other suggestions, but still close enough to them. So, this is what Pyro's first Rex looked like back in about '63 when it was first released. The first plastic model Rex.  |
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Post by Gamera on Oct 1, 2012 12:48:17 GMT -5
Just goes to show that even a kit that is very poorly anatomically sculpted can look amazing.
Congratulation on your research and finished kit.
Do you have link to any other painting schemes from the original instruction?
I have some Pyro kits from my childhood that need repainting and would love to do a similar job.
G
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Post by acroray on Oct 1, 2012 16:02:00 GMT -5
The color schemes don't seem to change much over the years, from Pyro through to Lindberg's pre-Jurassic Park releases. Thanks to a kind collector who showed off his first-edition Pyro Rex & Bronto, here are: Instructions for Rex: www.flickr.com/photos/24552655@N07/5620502724/Box for Rex: www.flickr.com/photos/24552655@N07/5620501906/Instructions for Bronto: www.flickr.com/photos/24552655@N07/5620462460/Box for Bronto: www.flickr.com/photos/24552655@N07/5619872577/You'll notice that the box art for the kits reflect the plastic they were cast in, and the colors they were suggested to be painted. When Pyro (and Life Like) started casting them in bizarre colors, the instructions didn't always suggest a different overall color... As late at Lindberg's last edition of Rex, the painting instructions remained the same, with the amendment for brown on the upper body. But the kit was cast in brown plastic. I'll have to review my instruction samples from over the years & editions, and see what sorts of schemes were suggested over time. The 1979 Lindberg edition of the T-Rex had box art which was highly retouched to suggest extensive additional hide texture. I do intend someday to do a Rex up that way... probably if I score a cheap buildup one missing his cave man.  |
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Post by desslock on Oct 4, 2012 8:23:06 GMT -5
picture links aren't working...
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Post by Gamera on Oct 4, 2012 14:27:12 GMT -5
Just dug out of the loft some of my Pyro kits today  I have started re building the Bronto. He is made from purple plastic and comes with a base and name plate however I do not think he ever had a caveman? Does anyone know if different releases had cavemen or where these omited? The ones I have are: Triceratops ( purple, no base) T-Rex ( purple, complete boxed - from carboot sale) Stegosaurous (black, base and nameplate) Protoceratops (purple, no base) Ankleysaurous (not found yet!) Also had a Dimetrodon in weird blue plastic, but actually through him out years ago Regards G |
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Post by acroray on Oct 4, 2012 14:42:22 GMT -5
picture links aren't working... Did you copy-paste? The hotlinks in the post aren't working right. Also, the person who posted them to Flickr doesn't have a Pro account, and these older photos aren't in this available stream of 200-most-recent photos... |
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Post by acroray on Oct 4, 2012 14:52:24 GMT -5
Bronto came with a base, nameplate and two cave-people (man & woman) during the Pyro & Life-Like editions. Lindberg deleted the Cavewoman from the kit for their editions. Trike, Anky & Dimetrodon had NO base, nameplate or cavemen. Were available in several colors. Lindberg added a new base and the bronto's cavewoman their editions of Dimetrodon, though!T-Rex & Stego each had a base, nameplate and 1 caveman. Rex's caveman is wielding a club. Stego's is hefting a boulder over his head. The kits were available in several colors. The first-editions of Rex, Bronto and Stego were red, deep blue and orange respectively. Later editions of all the kits were done in metallic grey, grey, purple, black, light maroon/grey swirl and maybe even other colors. Grey & metallic grey seems to be the most-common colors for Pyro editions, and purple or maroon white-box early Life Like editions. But there's a lot of overlap in those, especially through the white-box editions. But almost all of the white-boxed Life Like Dimetrodon & Protoceratops kits I've seen have been purple. Just dug out of the loft some of my Pyro kits today I have started re building the Bronto. He is made from purple plastic and comes with a base and name plate however I do not think he ever had a caveman? Does anyone know if different releases had cavemen or where these omited? The ones I have are: Triceratops ( purple, no base) T-Rex ( purple, complete boxed - from carboot sale) Stegosaurous (black, base and nameplate) Protoceratops (purple, no base) Ankleysaurous (not found yet!) Also had a Dimetrodon in weird blue plastic, but actually through him out years ago Regards G |
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