Wow, has it really been over a year-and-a-half since my last update? It is crazy how time flies by once you hit your fifties. I’ve spent most of my “hobby time” downsizing the scope of this website. When I first ventured forth with this project, I envisioned providing “everything” available about all collectibles within the scope of my hobby along with intricate detail about all extinct life. Well, it occurred to me …. finally …. that I will become extinct before I can achieve this vision. So I’ve been reshaping The Dinosaur Fan into “An Extinct Life Pictorial Encyclopedia & Non-Sports Card Digest” which basically means that I’m focusing on providing images of as many of these long gone creatures as I can find and from a collecting perspective, I’m focusing on completing checklists and providing images of as many collectibles as I can.

The focus of my collecting has also changed for a variety of reasons. Since early 2012, I have pretty much stopped acquiring items for my personal collection. My hobby is has, more or less, become the collection of information about collectibles and extinct life; in essence, it’s become The Dinosaur Fan website itself. To that end, in spite of the time taken to redevelop some of the site, I have been adding information. There are now 2,069 sets (over 60,000 items) included in the site and over 45,000 extinct life forms (over 96,000 species). Of course, I could really use your help. If you have information (e.g., images, checklists, descriptions/information, trivia) about prehistoric animal-related collectibles (either "in scope" or "out of scope") that you would like to share, I'll gladly publish it and give you credit on the webpage upon which the data is presented. Also, if you have information pertaining to extinct life forms (e.g., genus, species, images, life form details) that you would like to share, I'll gladly publish it and give you credit on the webpage upon which the data is presented. If you are interested in sharing information with The Dinosaur Fan readers, please contact me at: mmriley@dinofan.com.

A special thanks to 'eonepoch' who has been kind enough to provide checklists, artist information, and images for several existing sets as well as new sets he brought to my attention. If you have information (e.g., images, checklists, descriptions/information, trivia) about prehistoric animal-related collectibles (either "in scope" or "out of scope") that you would like to share, I'll gladly publish it and give you credit on the webpage upon which the data is presented. Also, if you have information pertaining to extinct life forms (e.g., genus, species, images, life form details) that you would like to share, I'll gladly publish it and give you credit on the webpage upon which the data is presented. If you are interested in sharing information with The Dinosaur Fan readers, please contact me at: mmriley@dinofan.com.

God bless and God's speed to you and your loved ones.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I must admit that I am onboard with Davis’ observation regarding growing up. Faith, hope, love, and dreams are the stuff of life and the afterlife. Happy 2011 and happy 11th anniversary of The Dinosaur Fan website! I hope all of you who visit this website continue to be relatively happy and optimistic despite the continuing difficult economic climate.

I spent most of the free time I was able to scrounge up for this hobby adding new collectibles and trying to fill-in as many of the empty checklists as possible. Regrettably, I’ve only scratched the surface of information that needs to be added. The number of sets listed is now over 1,900 (encompassing more than 56,500 items) and the number of identified extinct life forms is closing in on 26,000. I’ve also performed a little website redevelopment to address persistent problems with the style sheets, to simply some of the content, and to eliminate less meaningful information which I do not believe I will ever have the time to populate.

Finally, I am hoping to obtain input from you, the readers. If you have information (e.g., images, checklists, descriptions/information, trivia) about prehistoric animal-related collectibles (either “in scope” or “out of scope”) that you would like to share, I'll gladly publish it and give you credit on the webpage upon which the data is presented. Also, if you have information pertaining to extinct life forms (e.g., genus, species, images, life form details) that you would like to share, I'll gladly publish it and give you credit on the webpage upon which the data is presented. If you are interested in sharing information with The Dinosaur Fan readers, please contact me at: mmriley@dinofan.com.

God bless you and yours. Happy 2011!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope the beginning of 2010 finds you well, happy, and optimistic despite the difficult economic times. Another year has come and gone. I find it impossible to believe that January marks the 10th anniversary of The Dinosaur Fan website! With a redesign about every two years, The Dinosaur Fan has had five or so “facelifts” since its inception in 2000. The developer side of me has in the past gotten the better of me and I’m off looking for “technical” means of improving the website structure and function.

However, at a couple months shy of my 53rd birthday, I am realizing that my bigger passion is the extinct life contained in this website as well as the collectibles associated with those creatures which no longer inhabit the Earth. So, it is my hope to concentrate on the content of this website for whatever life this website has left. The number of sets listed is now over 1,690 (encompassing more than 47,400 items) and the number of identified extinct life forms is nearly 26,000. I have approximately 100 more sets to add, hundreds of checklists to populate, and thousands of individual items to list. I want to take a moment to thank fellow collectors who have contributed to the sets listed in this website including Jeff Quinn, David Elliott, Beth Trimble ("Dinobeth"), Glyn Roberts, Jacques Vincent, and Peter Markmann. I greatly appreciate their contributions and hope that any of you reading this who know of other collectibles featuring extinct life which are not contained within my website would feel free to contact me and let me what you’ve “discovered”.

I’ll conclude this update by repeating something I said upon the fifth anniversary of this website. The Dinosaur Fan is this hobbyist's "labor of love". The audience is limited and the visits are minimal but as long as I continue to enjoy this hobby and the intricacies of web design/development, The Dinosaur Fan will continue to "evolve" until it reaches it's own "K-T Extinction". Until then, I hope you enjoy this site and would love to hear from you.

God bless you and yours. Happy 2010!

Most image presentations have been converted to image slide shows to allow for multiple photos of collectibles, artist renderings, life form art, etc. I’ve added credits so that those of you who provide photos/scans/information will get clear credit for you contributions. I’ve modified the “Nature on the Rampage” fiction book section to minimize load time and hopefully improve navigation. I have “temporarily” shut down the Sale/Trade section as I currently do not have time to properly describe and photograph items I have available.

I am currently working on the last of the life form information sections (i.e., the “By Cladistic Relationships”) which will probably take three or so months to complete. Once done, I’ll begin working in earnest to populate the collectibles information as well as the life form details. I have over 100 additional sets to add as well as adding information pertaining to the sets that are already in the website. I am always look for information on set that I do not have listed, so if you know of any, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Hope you and yours are content, healthy, and as happy as one can be during these economically challenging times. God bless.

What that means is I will not be adding new collectibles to this website with any consistency. As time permits, I will provide missing checklists and photographs. If I become aware of new sets for which I able to obtain pertinent information, I will add them to The Dinosaur Fan.

You may have noticed that The Dinosaur Fan now has a slightly different look. I made this change for a couple of reasons; first I wanted to increase the amount of screen space available for information presentation and second I wanted to redesign and reemphasize the extinct animal section contained in this website. I have a lot of work to do with this section and it will probably be a few months before the information is available. My long term goal is to create a fairly extensive on-line Encyclopedia of Extinct Life.

A couple other exciting changes were also made to The Dinosaur Fan. The For Sale/Trading section has been reestablished (although not updated with new items yet) and the “Nature on the Rampage” fiction book section is now available. Please check these sections out when you get a chance.

I hope to begin work on the life form sections very soon.

TECHNICAL NOTE: I am still ironing out some bugs with the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), so if you open a page that looks 'messed up' (e.g., the menu is above, below or on top of the page's content), press the 'Refresh' button of your web browser and that will fix the problem 90% of the time. The only pages that cannot be 'fixed' are those containing images which are too large for the allocated display area. I am trying to identify and resize those images which are too large.

CONTENT NOTE: As I stated in my last news item, some sections of my new site will NOT be available right away including the subject specific information (e.g., animal details), the trading/selling section, and the fiction book section (a.k.a., 'Nature on the Rampage').

I hope you enjoy the more 'mature' version of 'The Dinosaur Fan'.

A More ‘Mature’ Version of ‘The Dinosaur Fan’ is Coming Soon!

It’s been a long time since I posted a news item. My ‘silence,’ along with limited updates during the last several months, are certainly NOT due to a lack of interest or lack of involvement in prehistoric animal collecting and/or web page development.

As we rolled into 2007, a cataclysmic event occurred that rivals the hypothesized meteorite impact which gradually killed off the dinosaurs. Yes, ‘The Dinosaur Fan’ (that is to say, the 'prehistoric' webmaster of this site) turned 50 years old! Soon after, my wife suggested that, since I am now officially a middle-aged adult, I should pursue hobbies which are more refined and perhaps a bit more ‘mature’. I thought about it for a couple of days and then …. enthusiastically agreed! At which point, I started redesigning ‘The Dinosaur Fan’ website to take advantage of enhanced web data technologies (e.g., ASP.NET Version 2.0), to provide additional levels of information (e.g., collectibles by their artist, subjects by author/paleontologist), to enhance data presentation & sorting, and to create a more ‘mature’ look-and-feel to the entire website. Not exactly what the wife had in mind but I did thank her for her brilliant suggestion :-)

So, that is what I have been doing with the limited free time I have for this wonderful hobby. It has taken a fair amount of time to design the new look and capabilities of this site as I am doing all the data programming and ASP.NET stuff on my own which has forced me to stumble through a fairly lengthily learning cure. Also, in an effort to 'simplify' the overall design of the site, I eliminated the use of HTML frames and incorporated the use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which have posed some challenges as well.

NOTE: beginning May 3rd for up to a week and a half, I will bring the existing website down in order to upload and test the new site. Since my web host supports the different versions of ASP.NET on separate servers and will not allow me to run two sites simultaneously, I am unable to keep the old site running during the transition to the new site. Some sections of the new site will NOT be available right away including most of the subject specific information (e.g., animal details), the trading/selling section, and the new fiction book section (i.e., my other website called 'Nature on the Rampage' currently located at http://www.dinofan.com/fictionbooks/DinosaurFictionBooks.html) which I will eventually merge into this website. I apologize for any inconvenience this outage may cause but am hopeful that the new site will provide something enjoyable for all you non-sport card collectors and prehistoric animal fans.

The "Want to Know More" information (i.e., top, left button on each page) includes a summary about the life form group, identification of the life forms shown, and references relating to that life form group. It should be noted that only a few of the life form group summaries are populated. It will most likely be years before I have time to do so. However, the references should provide as much, and generally more detailed, information than I will ever be able to provide.

The "Cladogram Shortcuts" (i.e., top, right button on each page) will provide a graphical, clickable map of the entire "Life on Earth" cladogram. This should be completed within a couple months.

The "Life Map Shortcuts" (i.e., bottom, right button) will provide direct shortcuts to all of the life form group pages. This should also be completed within a couple months.

I hope this revised section of The Dinosaur Fan will be both interesting and educational. Regarding e-mail, I have several saved off and will try to respond fairly quickly. I apologize for the delays.

For now, … back to the collectibles section of this website. I have some 30 or so new sets to add, many, many items to scan, and several hundred checklist to populate. Until next time, hope you and yours are healthy and happy. God bless.

This is a warning that many pages of the Animals "By Classification (i.e., Family)" section of The Dinosaur Fan (i.e., the material found by pressing the first button on the “Animals” page) may no longer be available. I am the process of completely redesigning this section of my website. When complete, it should contain a significant number of additional images, correct some cladogram relationships, and list several hundred additional extinct life forms. I apologize in advance for any frustration this “outage” may cause.

It should be noted that some of the new material has already been added and that additional information will be included on a weekly/monthly basis until the revamping of this section is complete.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Dinosaur Fan is this hobbyist's "labor of love". The audience is limited and the visits are minimal but as long as I continue to enjoy this hobby and the intricacies of web design/development, The Dinosaur Fan will continue to "evolve" until it reaches it's own "K-T Extinction". Until then, I hope you enjoy this site and would love to hear from you.

God bless you and yours. Happy 2005!

I also made an attempt to research and clarify the vast sea of Panini (sticker/album company) products. The huge amount of collectibles issued in multiple countries in varying years, combined with apparent inconsistencies and inaccuracies within Panini's website "Archive", make this a daunting task. If any of you Panini collectors out there can help clarify some of the information I have published, please feel free to contact me at:mmriley@dinofan.com

By the way, if you like reading science fiction novels that feature man against prehistoric animals, beasts, or primitive man, please check out my new mini-website, "Nature on the Rampage!" at: www.dinofan.com/fictionbooks/DinosaurFictionBooks.html

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Dinosaur Fan is this hobbyist's "labor of love". The audience is limited and the visits are minimal but as long as I continue to enjoy this hobby and the intricacies of web design/development, The Dinosaur Fan will continue to "evolve" until it reaches it's own "K-T Extinction". Until then, I hope you enjoy this site and would love to hear from you.

God bless you and yours. Happy 2004!

Welcome to the "new" Dinosaur Fan web site. I hope you will take some time to explore the opening page "virtual tour" of prehistoric animal collectibles. Did you find the "lost" journal? Did you find all 61 collectibles? It took a lot of effort to put together all of the graphics but I felt this might provide an interesting way of introducing folks to this nitch of non-sports card collecting.

Seventeen months ago (yes, its been over 1-1/2 years!) I started working on an ASP.NET approach to the design of The Dinosaur Fan in order to enable this site to run off a database backbone. Over the long months, I read three books, messed up more code than I successfully created, and reached intellectual "melt down". I want to thank my friend and Microsoft product expert Kevin Bell (www.access-experts.com) who contributed his seemingly inexhaustible programming skills to this effort and in the process literally saved me a couple years of development work.

The resulting architecture enables me to publish new data within minutes through the elimination of laborious .html page replication. I can now add items to my database, run update queries, scan the items, and upload the data. The web site is automatically updated with the new information and scans without having to add or modify .html pages. You can probably imagine the time savings in development and maintenance this approach provides. In addition, this technology allows me to automatically "slice and dice" data in a variety of ways once the initial forms and programming are developed.

So, what is different about this site aside from the virtual tour? You (the reader) can now view collectibles in five different ways, view extinct animals in four different ways, and see data summaries for each of the various views. I now have items available for sale and/or trade listed in the "Trading" section as well as my want list in the event we can help each other out. There are now over 1,100 sets listed in this website with over 790 scanned images and more on the way!

There are still some gaps to fill. I have a lot of research to do in order to populate the database with information such as company summaries, issue dates, artist profiles, set scans, check list detail, etc. You will find that most of the detailed animal data is currently missing as I am still researching and populating this information. What I have done though, is create "Unknown" or "Undetermined" groupings so that all the information I have available will appear in the website even though I am missing some details.

Some of you may have noticed that there is no longer a search button. I am still analyzing the benefits of being able to search my web site. The data is "served up" from the database into "forms" which are essentially empty until someone asks for data (e.g., when you press a button or link such as a letter or category from a menu). So there is very little data actually residing in the web site. The various sorting selections for the collectibles and the animals essentially replace the traditional search capability. Anyway, for now there will be no search button.

Finally, I want to apologize to those of you who sent me e-mails over the past months. Responses from me have been very slow in coming (and in some cases no response was sent at all as a hard drive went bad on my computer and with it a number of unanswered e-mails were lost). My only excuse, aside from the bum hard drive, is that what little time I have for hobbies was focused on figuring out how to accomplish the aforementioned website capabilities. Going foreword, I will try to respond to e-mails within 48 hours. If you sent an e-mail to which I have not responded, please consider re-sending it. Again, I apologize if I have offended anyone.

I hope you will continue to enjoy "The Dinosaur Fan" as much as I do.

The New and Enhanced Version of The Dinosaur Fan is Coming this July 4th!

So, that I may have enough time to upload and test all of the new featurs, The Dinosaur Fan will be offline for one week from June 27 through July 3. I apologize for any inconvenince this outage may cause but am hopeful that the new site will provide something enjoyable for all you non-sport card collectors and prehistoirc animal fans.

This month marks the third Anniversary of 'The Dinosaur Fan' on the web. Where does the time go!

Progress with all parts of the web site enhancement continues to be made. I am hopeful that I will be able to roll out my new site sometime during the first quarter 2003. In the mean time, if there is information you are seeking which is not currently available, please drop me a line at mmriley@dinofan.com.

I have made significant progress with all parts of the web site but I am afraid it will take several more weeks to complete. Due to the complexities and interrelations of the components of this site, it is not time efficient to post partial/subsections of the new material. So, my best guess is the "new and improved" site will be available sometime during the first quarter 2003. In the mean time, if there is information you are seeking which is not currently available, please drop me a line at mmriley@dinofan.com.

As I was preparing this update, a fitting quote from 'Jurassic Park' regarding 'change' popped into my head ... sigh …

'Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.'

Jurassic Park .. Ian Malcolm

Included in these efforts is a slightly modified navigation system, the addition of many additional sets, an interactive "game" which highlights the great variety of prehistoric animal collectibles that exist, an expanded animal classification/cladogram section, some of which I have already posted, and much more.

As you probably know, this kind of effort takes a lot of time, effort, research, and plain 'ol "grunt work". Being a family man and working full-time, I have to squeeze this stuff in when ever I can and leave time for my hobby which of course was the genesis of this web page.

So, please be patient. It will most likely be several weeks (probably months) before I finally introduce all the changes. In the meantime, if you are in search of information about a particular collectible and/or animal, please feel free to e-mail me at mmriley@dinofan.com.

Happy Memorial Day to one and all. Thanks to our service men, women, and families that sacrificed so very much in order to insure the freedoms we enjoy in the USA.

On a happier note, today marks the second-year Anniversary of The Dinosaur Fan on the web. My thanks to all who have taken the time to visit.

Collectible Image Posting Project Status - Sections 0-9, A, B, C, D, E, F are complete. The purpose of this project is to post a picture of each collectable issue/set as soon as possible. Detail checklists and write-ups will follow at a later date as time permits.

Happy New Year and God Bless!

To many of my Elementary School and Jr. High School classmates she was THE room-mom of whom they would speak some 30 years later at my High School reunion.

She was an enthusiastic member of the "Over-the-Hill Gang", a group of "empty-nest" mothers who went out to dinner periodically to reminisce and to share bragging rights about their children.

But most of all she was my "mom". She cheered me on my whole life and never failed to support my passions; from sports to baseball card collecting, from sharks to running, from my family to prehistoric animal card collecting, she was always there with a warm smile that shouted to the world, "That's my son!"

I already miss her terribly. Yet I know, she is with Jesus in Heaven. And as I weep, she looks down on me, her smile warmer and brighter than ever knowing that someday I'll join her in God's house where pain is no more.

Pictorial Animal Collectable Index Project Status - Section A is complete. The purpose of this project is to create a visual index header for each animal so that the reader will be able to immediately recognize what animal is being listed by issue/set even if the name of the animal does not mean anything to him/her. A secondary purpose of this exercise is an attempt to show artist interpretations of what the animal may have looked like next to physical evidence of their existence (i.e., fossil remains) in order to make these near-mythological animals more real.

Anyway, in accordance with the age old adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words.", I have decided to publish images of as many sets as I can. Later, I will follow-up with detailed checklists. Should you see a photo of a set in which you are particularly interested, send me an e-mail and let me know. I will be happy to publish whatever information I have at that time.

Images of a number of newly discovered sets (new to me at least) are being added as well.

My prayers and those of my family go out to everyone who suffered as a result of the terrorist hijackings and attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.

A few firsts have finally been completed.

The first digital dinosaur data card is completed and features my favorite carnivore, the Ceratosaurus (press 'Animals' button, then the letter 'C', and then 'Ceratosaurus').

The first artist profile also makes its appearance. A very nice local Colorado artist, Donna Braginetz, is the subject (press 'Artists' button, then the letter 'B', and then 'Braginetz, Donna').

Finally, the first company profile has been created and features 'Steve Jackson Games' (press 'Cards' button, then the 'Company' button, then the letter 'S', then 'Steve Jackson Games', and then 'Company Profile).

A number of newly discovered sets will be added soon as well as many more complete listings.

I have added approximately 35 more sets to the listings, which brings the total to approximately 720 sets/subsets. The unknown sets section is now complete. I have also begun work on company & artist profiles, which should begin to appear in the next 30 days.

I hope these changes achieve the objective of improving The Dinosaur Fan. As always, your comments/suggestions are welcome. My thanks to all of you who visited this site in 2000.

Happy New Year and God Bless!

The cladogram section of The Dinosaur Fan is now complete. To my dismay, information has changed since I did the research for this section several months ago. I'll update the cladogram once I ferret out what exactly has changed.

Work on prehistoric animal listings and virtual data cards has begun and should start appearing later this year.

Restructuring of this site has been underway for several weeks now (behind the scenes) in an attempt to reduce page load times and to exploit JavaScript capabilities to enhance the information and navigation of this site.

The cladogram section is being completely revised. The research has been completed and it is taking me a fair amount of time to produce the finishing touches (e.g., informational "pop-ups" and associated graphics). The "Life" and "Reptile" cladogram pages are complete. I hope to have the remaining cladogram pages updated and working well by mid-July.

I also hope to have the links section of this site updated and running sometime in the next couple of weeks. If you have a web site that relates to prehistoric animals and/or non-sport card collecting in some way and your site has a "Links" section, please drop me a line if you are interested in "trading" URL's (i.e., posting my URL on your site in exchange for me posting your URL on my site).

Finally, major updates and improved navigation for the Cards section are on there way. Once I finish up the work on the Cladograms, I'll dive back into the cards. Many more sets to include and update. I have now identified more than 600 prehistoric animal-related issues, an increase of more than 70 new issues since December 1999!

The Dinosaur Games & Fiction page has been removed, at least for now. The amount of research and web development pertaining to dinosaur information and dinosaur cards has been staggering and is consuming all of my available time. If there is an interest and if time permits, I'll take another look at dinosaur games & fiction literature at a later date.

"If you build it, he will come." (Field of Dreams)