The Dinosaur Fan is a dinosaur card collector’s encyclopedia

Collectibles by Artist

“I have a habit of being an archaeologist of my own past, a sentimental collector of personal artefacts which may at first glance appear random, but each of which holds a unique significance.”

Agnes Chew, The Desire for Elsewhere

This section of The Dinosaur Fan presents sets by the artist whose illustrations are used on the items contained in the various sets. These men and women range from visionaries to copycats but in all cases, they bring to life creatures that mankind has never seen in life. And a rare few of these artisans are true Paleoartists who work diligently with paleontologists, biologists, geologists, etc. to skillfully reconstruct these extinct animals starting with fossil remains and slowly envisioning and re-envisioning until they arrive at fully fleshed out images. These artists will often modify their work over time as scientific data is revised and/or new information comes to light.

Current Collectibles Record Totals

Total Sets
3,684

Total Items
153,741

Total Images*
103,810

Sets w. Artists**
890

* Image total includes the fronts, backs, and third images of collectibles as applicable (e.g., album pages, inside of foldouts, figurines)

** Number of sets for which at least one artist has been identified

In this section, we have attempted to identify the origin of the artwork in terms of whose artwork is the true basis of the images on the items. The artwork is classified into two groups:

ACTUAL: the art on these items was either created by the artist specifically for the items or was existing works by the artist which were used with little or no modification. This group includes legitimate images by the original artists though, in most cases, the artist is not specifically acknowledged.
DERIVED: the art on these items was copied, in whole or part, by an artist using the work of the original artist, usually without consent or acknowledgement. This does not necessarily mean that the artwork is not “original” but that that it is predominantly based on someone else’s work. The purpose of this group is to give credit to the original artist

Robert Telleria

I use the term “we” above because the endeavor to associate the artist’s work with the items in this website is a collaborative effort between myself and Robert Telleria who relentlessly evangelized, and ultimately convinced me of, the value of acknowledging the contributions of these artists. In fact, Robert is responsible for most of the artist identifications and is solely responsible for differentiating between “Actual” and “Derived” artwork. Some of you may recognize Robert’s name from this website’s Collectibles Introduction page as he has provided information, updates, corrections, and/or images for over 1,160 different sets in this site as detailed in the Contributors to The Dinosaur Fan page. I would like to personally thank Robert for his continual efforts to improve the accuracy and expand the content of The Dinosaur Fan. Robert, however, is much, much more than a contributor to The Dinosaur Fan.

Robert is a tireless researcher of all things extinct and in the process has assembled an amazing collection of extinct life models and ephemera. Robert does not simply collect items, he collects their history; what company issued/manufactured them, where were they issued/manufactured, when were they issued/manufactured, who were the artists involved, what collectibles and art are similar to other items and/or directly or indirectly associated with them, and much more. Beyond collecting and research, Robert is an amateur paleontologist and a contributor to many different categories of paleo collecting, some of which are summarized below.

Robert is an accomplished craftsman of extinct life figurines/toys, specializing in the creation of time period accurate “could have been” models that were never actually produced which he designs in the style of the original manufacture. They are featured in an ongoing series of “Dinosauriana Imagined” articles published in the Prehistoric Times magazine (www.prehistorictimes.com) which cover over fifty brands such as Mignot, SRG, Invicta, Starlux and Linde, replicas from Disney's Fantasia and Primeval World, and HO scale figures of Sinclair statues from 1933 and 1964 including a model of the entire 1964 World's Fair Dinoland pavilion.
Robert has collaborated with paleontologist Gregory Paul to produce Smithsonian merchandise and maintains his web site (gspauldino.com) and merchandising (www.zazzle.com/eonepoch).
Robert has published an extinct life model/figurine collectors digital guide titled Dinosauriana--The Essential Guide to Collecting Figural, Toy and Model Dinosaurs as well as The Visual Guide to Scale Model Dinosaurs. He is working on a third guide that reviews the history of dinosaurs in educational programs. He views Dinosaur Fan Site as an ongoing book on "Dinosauriana ephemera".
Since the 1990s, Robert has been a semi-regular contributor to Prehistoric Times magazine (www.prehistorictimes.com) with the highest number of contributions to the magazine's 'Collector's Corner'. Two articles he co-authored served as paleontological pronunciation guides “Speaking Dinosaur”. U-Haul® produced a corporate headquarters poster of one of his articles “Rolling in Deep Time: The Paleoart of U-Haul®”.
Robert has written the first ever article on toy dinosaurs for Antique Toy World in its 50 year history.