Claynosaurz: Animated NFT Dinosaurs Rule the Blockchain

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Photo - Claynosaurz: Animated NFT Dinosaurs Rule the Blockchain
Claynosaurz is a project that has launched several animated NFT collections, aiming to establish a decentralized community where users can engage, play, and create.
The project was envisioned in late 2021 by two seasoned animators: Nicholas Cabana, known for his work on movies like "Paddington 2" and "Jurassic World," and Dan Cabral, who has experience in creating graphics for various games and cartoons. They were later joined by other 3D animators, designers, finance professionals, and brand strategy specialists.

The majority of the Claynosaurz team previously worked with large studios, including Sony, Disney, Dreamworks, Marvel, and more. However, unlike traditional companies, the developers also interact with their community, inviting people to take part in creating content inspired by the project's fictional world. The use of such content for commercial purposes is not allowed.
Our team is built in similar fashion to the studio productions we’ve been a part of,
state the Claynosaurz team members.
Claynosaurz is set in its own fantasy animated universe populated by dinosaurs, with the central location being Claynotopia. This world encompasses a variety of landscapes like deserts, mountains, and forests. In the future, users will have the opportunity to shape the narrative of this imaginary world themselves and explore these areas through quests and missions to discover treasures or resources. To do this, players will need a dinosaur character from the NFT collection.

Claynosaurz

The project's flagship digital collection, also named Claynosaurz, comprises 10,222 unique animated NFTs on the Solana blockchain, depicting seven dinosaur species. The team focused extensively on developing individual stories for each character and on the visual elements. Before the final render, the artists produced thousands of conceptual artworks and conducted multiple animation tests.
The Claynosaurz NFT. Source: Tensor

The Claynosaurz NFT. Source: Tensor's official website.

Each Claynosaurz NFT features a range of attributes that affect the character's appearance and rarity. These attributes include skin color, emotional expressions, the number of layers used in animation, movements, and more. The collection also includes extremely rare tokens, whose average market price reaches 2,100 SOL (approximately $124,000), significantly exceeding the price of standard characters, which is around 30 SOL.

Other Collections

The Claynosaurz team expanded beyond a single series, launching four additional collections: two with new characters and two featuring resources for crafting items and altering characteristics: 

1. Call Of Saga: A set of 2,000 animated NFTs introducing two new dinosaur species to the universe. The average market price for a regular character is about 15 SOL ($800), while a rare one is valued at around 500 SOL ($35,000).

2. Dactyl: A component of the Claynotopia collection, though released separately as special NFTs. It consists of 222 unique tokens representing flying dinosaurs, each priced at nearly 200 SOL ($10,000).

3. Claymaker: An NFT series that allows users to modify their characters. A total of 9,984 tokens of varying rarity (based on the number of uses) have been issued, with the minimum price starting at 1 SOL ($54).

4. Clay: A digital collection of 31,020 NFTs that, according to the developers, play a vital role in the project. The standard token is priced at 0.63 SOL ($35), while the rarer ones are sold for over 150 SOL ($8,000).

The team plans to create additional resource sets in the future as mission and quest rewards. For various Claynosaurz events, they often release a limited series of useful non-fungible tokens: Pizza (650 NFT), Croissants (444 NFT), and Tacos (527 NFT), offering owners a one-time chance to obtain elite character equipment.

Toys and Cards

Beyond NFT collections, the Claynosaurz team has excelled in other areas. In spring 2023, they introduced special trading cards for Claynosaurz event attendees, and by autumn, they announced the launch of their own plush toy line. These items are linked to their digital blockchain counterparts, appealing to individuals not typically engaged with cryptocurrencies. The team isn't just focusing on marketing goals; they're venturing into new territory to produce high-quality products.
Even if you've never seen Claynosaurz before, whether you're a mother, a kid, or anybody really, we want you to walk by a shelf full of these things and be like, 'Man, these make me smile,
said Nicholas Cabana, Claynosaurz co-founder.
A significant challenge was designing toys with unique shapes that accurately conveyed the character's essence. The solution came through partnering with Gund, a global toy manufacturing leader. The team has planned to distribute the first sold-out limited series by the end of 2023, with further collections slated to hit specialized store shelves in early 2024.
Claynosaurz Plush Toys. Source: Claynosaurz

Claynosaurz Plush Toys. Source: Claynosaurz's official X account

As it stands, Claynosaurz has made great strides in attracting attention and building a vast decentralized community. However, the project still lacks a preliminary working prototype for a gaming platform with missions, which would allow NFT owners to actively use their characters. Therefore, at present, Claynosaurz's digital collections remain primarily as visually appealing animated sets.