Suchomimus (Wild Safari by Safari Ltd)

Suchomimus is believed to have been a large piscivorous theropod, related to the extremely large Spinosaurus. Despite Suchomimus being relatively well known to dinosaur enthusiasts, it is usually not made in PVC form, in favor of Baryonyx. So, even though this toy has some flaws, it is still nice to see one in plastic.

To the toy. At first glance, and by the stock photo, this guy looks very “doofy” looking. I had never planned on picking him up until I saw him in a craft store and saw how neat he was. The figure is pretty nice. The arms are thick, and the hands are large with sharp claws, perfect for snatching up unwary fish. There is actually only one crest instead of two (many companies use two crests on various spinosaurids, thanks to Jurassic Park 3).  The characteristic ridge down the back is large and pronounced, with neat little spines on it. There’s a nice bony ridge over each eye. The eyes themselves are yellow with slit pupils; suggesting that this was a nocturnal beast that hunted fish at night. There’s decent detailing along the body, and a nice “pelican-like” deflated pouch underneath the neck, maybe such a structure could have been used for bringing fish home to the nest. This Suchomimus is all green, save the pink mouth and yellow eyes. The underbelly is a darkish lime gree, which fades into a “classic” green color, with very dark green stripes that start at the top of every other spine on the figure’s back. It is roughly four inches tall and eight inches long from nose to tail.

And now for the faults… Unfortunately, the makers of this toy didn’t focus too much on scientific accuracy. The nostrils are way down at the end of the snout; which is definitely a no-no. The teeth on the lower jaw are actually bigger than the ones in the upper jaw; it is thought to be the opposite in real life. Speaking of the teeth, they are all about the same size and are thickly covered with white paint, so they have that “blob” look to them that nobody likes. The muscles in the back of the jaws are the same green as the body is; While there is no evidence saying that these muscles had to be a pinkish color in life, I think it would have looked a lot better had they been painted pink or red. The large scales on the hands and feet aren’t painted either, and it really would have looked better had they been. To top it all off– It is in the oh-so-dreaded kangaroo pose.

All in all, this guy is pretty neat- And he’ll probably bring a smile to your face too. While most online pictures make this guy look very bad, in real life he’s really a neat little fellow. All in all, I give him a 7.5 out of 10. He’s pretty neat, and for about $7, he can be yours (of course, if you love spinosaurids in general, he’s definitely one to get!).