Burian's art and Pyro's dinos

One of the most influential artists in the realm of dinosaur art is the late Czech artist by the name of Zdeněk Burian.  Burian's realistic dinosaur art was a huge influence on scientists, merchants and  artists involved with dinosaurs.  His work often influenced other artists, or was outright copied into other people's products.  The classic Pyro dinosaur kit line directly benefited from Burian's artistry.

This is a Burian illustration of Corythosaurus from 1955:

This is Pyro's Corythosaurus kit from approximately 1968 [specifically the Life Like edition, which differs from the Pyro edition in the packaging's brand-name only]:

The kit itself is nearly identical to the artwork, including the detailed patterns in the texture on the dinosaur's hide.

Lindberg's press photo for their most recent edition of the kit.

 Burian isn't credited on the box art, and I doubt he ever saw any compensation from the continued production of the model before his death in 1981.

A Burian illustration of Protoceratops also certainly provided the model for both the packaging art and the kit design for Pyro's Protoceratops.

Burian's Protoceratops from about 1955:

The package illustration from the 1968 kit's box (again, the comparable Life Like edition):

If you happen to be a fan of Burian's work, it might be worth your while to add either of these kits to your collection, as they are both reasonably true to his original illustration and are probably the finest of the Pyro dinosaur series.  Lindberg Hobbies' most recent edition of the Corythosaurus kit is very common, as is their Jurassic Park release as "Hadrosaurus".  Protoceratops is a bit less common, but can still be found on line with little difficulty.

Personally, I could still use a more recent edition of Protoceratops, to build as a more modern companion to the one I still have from my childhood.  If you've got one that needs a good home, please contact me!

My childhood Life Like edition, still in my collection.

My Pyro/Lindberg Stegosaurus buildup won the May/June modelling contest at the Tholian Web model building forum!

Tholian Web 2012 Wall of Honor May/June

This is the Stegosaurus in the blog mast-head, which is the classic Pyro kit, but with some hide textures that Lindberg worked into the tooling for the kit's releases from Jurassic Park (1992) onward.

Here it is, after priming and puttying.  The Mr. Surfacer is a huge help with the awful seams on these kits.