Best Dinosaur and Non-Dinosaur Toy Figure of 2018

Safari Ltd® Wins Best Dino and Non-Dino Toy Figure of 2018

Good news SafariFans, our Malawisaurus has made it into the spotlight! Thanks to Prehistoric Time Magazine's PIX contest, it was recently voted best dinosaur toy figure of 2018! And if one victory lap wasn’t enough, 2018 wasn't the only year our Wild Safari® Prehistoric World collection was noticed. The last 7 years in a row Dino fans across the country have continued voting for toys from our collection! 😃

Since our Prehistoric World dinosaur collection is such a favorite among subscribers at Prehistoric Time Magazine and many more, we thought we’d take a look at why the Malawisaurus is such a winner.

Malawisaurus

Our Malawisaurus figure isn’t nearly as large as the real thing, but it’s still no slouch at 14 inches long and 4 inches high. Modeled after the mighty Malawisaurus, this dinosaur was a relatively small titanosaurid sauropod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period. Like other titanosaurs it featured large dermal scales covering the skin on its back.

Here's a fun fact about this Dino, it's scientific name is Malawisaurus dixeyi, which means “lizard from Malawi, Africa.”

Malawisaurus is one of the few titanosaurs whose discovered remains include skull material, giving us a better idea of what this animal and its relatives looked like in life. The name Malawisaurus refers to the place of discovery, in the republic of Malawi in southeast Africa. It was originally described in 1928 by Sidney Haughton, who incorrectly believed it was a type of Gigantosaurus (a sauropod related to Diplodocus, now known as Tornieria). Though small for a sauropod, Malawisaurus was still quite a large animal at over 50 feet long.

You might be wondering why this particular sauropod isn't showing any teeth. In modern reptiles, lips are found on those that live primarily on land, like lizards, whereas more aquatic reptiles – like crocodiles – have exposed teeth. This is because exposed teeth on land would quickly dry out and become easily damaged. So scientists believe this may have applied to land-dwelling dinos - including sauropods like Malawisaurus - as well.

American Mastodon

While the Malawisaurus did win an award in the PT Magazine, it's not the only member of our Wild Safari® Prehistoric World collection that won an award! The American Mastodon, also won, but of course not for best dinosaur 😉. This figure was awarded best non-dinosaur prehistoric animal toy figure of 2018.

Although our American Mastodon figure appears to resemble the beloved Woolly Mammoth, don’t confuse this prehistoric mammal with its doppelganger!  The mastodons split from the other members of the order Proboscidea around 25 million years ago. The most well-known of these beasts was the American mastodon, which was the last of the group to go extinct about 11,000 years ago.

 But Wait, There’s More…

While these Prehistoric World winners are exciting, this isn’t even close to everything we've got in our 2019 Safari Ltd product line. Check the whole collection of dinosaurs out today!