Kentrosaurus (Wild Safari by Safari Ltd.)

What’s that coming over the hill? Why, it’s the Wild Safari Kentrosaurus, new for 2010. A special mention should go out to the magnanimous and quite probably very handsome Dan Liebman, he of Dan’s Dinosaurs, who was generous enough to airmail me this little guy for a reviewing. Cheers!

Now that I’ve shamelessly sold out, what of the figure itself? Well, as you might already know, Kentrosaurus was a small stegosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania that is reckoned to only have reached about 5 metres in length, much of which was tail. Like its more famous and considerably larger North American relative, Kentrosaurus was a rather low-slung beast, with short forelimbs and a miniscule head for its size. Just as with the Wild Safari Stegosaurus Safari have replicated the latter detail admirably – this guy really is a pin-head. So small is the bonce on this figure that my rubbish camera finds it rather hard to keep it in focus in close-up (see below). It also means that its eyes are reduced to a tiny yellow splodge with a black dot in the middle, which rather reminds me of the old Inpro figures. That said, it’s rather nicely done considering its tiny size. The figure overall is probably about 1:40 scale.

This Kentrosaurus is posed in a slight squat, perhaps preparing to angrily lash its tail at some crafty carnosaur. The tail itself is resplendent with an array of vicious-looking spines. I can’t help but feel that the Safari sculptor might have exaggerated the lengths of the plates and spines on this figure a little bit – it might have been their intention to portray them with a kertain sheath. I’m not sure how much real evidence there is for this, but it does make them look wickedly pointy. Oddly, the end of the tail has been painted the same colour as the spine-tips, which makes it appear from a distance as if its tail (inaccurately) ends in a spike. Closer inspection reveals the texture to be different, but it’s an odd choice to make.

Nevertheless, the figure is quite lovingly detailed with skin folds and wrinkles that give the impression of a scaly hide. The olive green colour is a little drab, but I like the use of brighter green to contrast the plates and spines; the underside is beige. Alas, the tiny claws on the feet remain unpainted, but they’re small enough for this to not really be noticeable. Although the faintest impression of a ribcage is visible on the flanks of the creature it looks rather well fed and chunky overall. (Oh, and it has ’1209′ stamped onto the inside of its rear left leg. What can it mean?)

Overall it’s another decent addition to the Wild Safari line, which has the bonus of displaying nicely alongside Carnegie and other 1:40 figures, as it’s just about in scale with them. It’ll look great alongside other African Late Jurassic dinosaurs like Giraffatitan. It’s also, like the other WS dinos, very much affordable, so you can grab a whole herd of them if you like! Just watch those spikes…