“Lego® Releases Set with 3 Model Fossilized Dinosaur Skeletons,” by S.M. O’Connor

On October 15, 2019, Lego A/S, doing business as The LEGO® Group, announced the forthcoming release of the set Dinosaur Fossils in the LEGO® IDEAS theme. It becomes available worldwide on Friday, November 1, 2019 (All Saints’ Day). Comprised of 910 pieces, the set consists of three buildable models of fossilized dinosaur skeletons: a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Triceratops, and a Pteranodon. Each 1:32 scale model is posable and has a buildable display stand with a suitable sign in the style of an exhibit label. [By contrast, the quasi-dinosaurs[1] from LEGO® Jurrasic World™ theme are toys.] The set also includes one paleontologist Minifigure™, a LEGO® fossilized egg, a small LEGO® fossilized bone, and a Homo sapiens skeleton Minifigure^TM to demonstrate the size differential between a modern man and the prehistoric creatures.

It would make for a fine natural history exhibit in miniature for display on a desk or bookshelf. This set might be an appropriate gift for a paleontologist or the child or grandchild or niece or nephew of a paleontologist, a paleontology student; any adult or teenager who appreciates dinosaur fossil exhibits; or anyone who works in any capacity (not just curators) for a natural history museum such as The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., or the Natural History Museum in London.

Figure 1 Credit: The LEGO® Group Caption: The Tyrannosaurus rex model is the largest of the three in LEGO® IDEAS Dinosaur Fossils, as it measures 7” (20 cm) tall and 15” (40 cm) long.

Figure 2 Credit: The LEGO® Group Caption: LEGO® IDEAS Dinosaurs (Set #21320) comes with three buildable model fossilized dinosaurs skeletons, each with its own buildable display stand; a paleontologist Minifigure™; a chest of his tools; a fossilized egg and bone; and a fossilized human skeleton to showcase the size differential between dinosaurs and people.

Credit: Solid Brix Studios Caption: The host, who received a free LEGO® IDEAS Dinosaurs Fossils set from The LEGO® Group for review purposes, suggests fans of the Jurassic Park and Night at the Museum films may enjoy building the models. After building the models, he indicates these are definitely display models, not toys, and someone younger than sixteen would have difficulty building the intricate models.

The LEGO® IDEAS set includes interesting facts about Tyrannosaurus rex, a Triceratops, and a Pteranodon, as well as information about the fan designer. Sets in the LEGO® IDEAS theme are submitted by fan designers. [In this case, it was Jonathan Brunn.] Other fans around the world vote on a creation submitted. If it reaches a threshold of 10,000 votes, then The LEGO® Group reviews the submission, and may bring it to market.

The aforementioned Jonathan Brunn is a creative and Web designer who works for a creative agency in Perpignan, France. Mr. Brunn describes himself as a “massive science and dinosaur geek.” He’s also interested in outer space, and obviously, paleontology and LEGOs.

Brunn states, “When I was little, my passion for dinosaurs was almost obsessional. Dinosaurs were the most incredible thing ever for me, so I made this project to please my inner child! I would have loved it as a kid, and I think every kid who loves dinosaurs and science would agree with me.”

LEGO® IDEAS Dinosaur Fossils (Set #21320) became available worldwide in LEGO® Stores and online at www.LEGO.com on Friday, November 1, 2019. It is designed for builders who are sixteen-and-over. The list price is $59.99 in the United States of America and €59.99 in the European Union. LEGO.com lists it as “Temporarily out of stock.” Speculators are already selling it for $109.97 or more through Amazon Marketplace.

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[1] Remember, in both Dr. Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park and in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation Jurassic Park (1993), it is explicit the geneticists at InGen have spliced dinosaur genes recovered from mosquitoes found in amber with genes from reptiles, birds, or amphibians to create living facsimiles of real dinosaurs.

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The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.