The Dinosaur Toy Blog

Afrovenator - that’s one most people haven’t (and won’t) heard of. It almost makes me surprised that CollectA did one (but I guess if any of the mainstream dinosaur companies were to do one, it would be them).

Afrovenator itself was a megalosaur (or allosaur or spinosaur, does anybody even know?) from mid-jurassic Africa, who was about thirty feet long, and was presumably a pretty nasty fellow. This figure’s sculpt seems to be a passable restoration of him. The skull should be a little taller, and the teeth should be MUCH longer (the fangs on this guy were huge!). The nostrils should be a little higher up on the skull, and the postorbital fenestrae should be a little larger. Oh, and the way they hands are positioned is wrong (but really, you should know that). The sculpt does have some good points though; the scales are nicely sculpted and there’s nice ridges of spines on his back.

The coloration of this guy has to be my favorite part about him. It’s very subtle but very nice. Just a light tan on the belly with a darker olive green on top, with some darker blue green tiger stripes. I think this might be a male, due to the facial coloration, which is very bright orange. The eyes are a reddish brown, with slit pupils (this guy was nocturnal!). The claws are black, but the hallux toes’ claws aren’t painted at all.

Now, the pose. It looks ridiculously kinky, unless you have a puddle of water or a dinosaur carcass in front of it. If you have the rest of the CollectA 2010 set, be sure to not place your Tsintaosaurus behind him

All in all, if you can get past the common CollectA shortcomings which are present here, this is one to get. It’s only about $5, and at about 6 inches long this dinosaur is not too small nor too large. Reviewer recommended!

Review and Photos by Dan of DansDinosaurs.com

Safari Ltd. released their first Brachiosaurus figure in 1989, and it remained the largest prehistoric figure in their entire collection for two decades. Despite the changes in paint application, its mold has been unchanged to this very day. Our image of the Brachiosaurus has changed a bit since that time, and thanks to the animal’s appearance in Jurassic Park, it has become a popular species among casual collectors.

For their Wild Safari dinosaur line, Safari created a smaller Brachiosaurus figure, presumably one that held greater playability among children. This figure has been released in both yellow and green paint schemes. For this latest 2010 release of the Brachiosaurus, Safari has echoed some of their earlier color palettes, but updated the figure with an entirely new sculpt.

Immediately noticeable is the posture of the new figure’s neck. Previous incarnations of the Brachiosaurus from Safari displayed the animal with a “periscope” neck posture, held straight into the air, perpendicular to the ground. More recently, we’ve come to believe this animal carried its neck like many other sauropods, further in front of its body. This would still allow the animal to graze from dizzying altitudes on leaves that would have been inaccessible to most other herbivores. As such, the 2010 Wild Safari Brachiosaurus carries its neck at a 45 degree angle to the ground.

Traditionally seen as pudgy, sloth-like giants, sauropods are now more often depicted as graceful creatures. They were not fast animals certainly, but when you’re the biggest thing on the plains, you’ve got far fewer predators to flee from. This entire figure displays a leaner, cleaner design aesthetic. The legs are powerful and well-proportioned, substantially thicker in the hind limbs, which are also appropriately shorter than the clawed forelimbs. The feet appear to be the dark and sullied, an excellent touch of realism rarely seen in mass produced figures.

The body has some great texturing with wrinkles and folds, and natural musculature around the limbs and chest. The tail tapers quite elegantly, though the head is perhaps the most pleasant surprise. The jaws are lined with individually sculpted spatulate teeth, while the ears and tongue and plainly visible. Rarely are sauropod figures lavished with so much attention to their heads. With its neck outstretched and its jaws agape, one can easily envision this animal reaching out for a tasty conifer morsel. The eyes are dark and glossy, which really enhances the animated quality of the figure. Being able to look the animal in the eye makes it that much more believable.

The only noticeable problem I had with this figure are the nostrils, which are conspicuously absent from an otherwise tremendously detailed head. It was once thought that Brachiosaurus had its nostrils on its crest, and they are now believed to be positioned further down the snout, yet in neither spot can they be seen on this figure. The figure’s foot has “1109” printed in white on the bottom, the first such inscription to be found on a Wild Safari dinosaur, while the ventral ID stamp includes “2008” in addition the usual information. It is a little known fact that this Brachiosaurus was originally scheduled to be released by Safari before 2010; the cause for this delay is unknown.

The 2010 Brachiosaurus is about half the size of the Carnegie Brachiosaurus, but it still towers over all other dinosaurs in the Wild Safari collection. The beautiful sculpt and attractive coloration make it one of the finest reproductions of the species to appear in figure form, and with a surprisingly low price point, there’s really nothing to stop me from recommending it to collectors everywhere.

Now available from Ebay here for $19.99 Also available direct from Safari here