Stegosaurus (CollectA)

2.4 (12 votes)

My previous review for the dinosaur toy blog was a Therizinosaur, so I spilled the obligatory ink in describing how these were among the strangest-looking dinosaurs known. Today I am reviewing the CollectA model of Stegosaurus, a dinosaur so famous that it is safe to say that any child who could describe what a dinosaur is would also be able to instantly recognise and name Stegosaurus. But the very familiarity of this animal tends to make us forget that it too was among the most remarkable-looking dinosaurs ever to evolve. The huge row of plates running along the back is a structure so unique that there is nothing else quite like them in the entire animal kingdom. Indeed, even among other members of the Stegosaur family tree, Stegosaurus itself was atypical. In other stegosaur species such as KentrosaurusHuayangosaurus and Dacentrurus, the rows of back plates, though still present, were much narrower and pointier, and hence closer in both appearance and probable function to spines. Spines are pretty easy things to make sense of in an animal; they are there to make life unpleasant for predators. But in Stegosaurus itself the ancestral back spines had become extremely broad and… well, plate-like. It seems reasonable to interpret this as evidence for a shift in function from defence to visual display. If so, it is surely logical to imagine the plates of Stegosaurus to have been brightly coloured or strikingly patterned; perhaps (in plate colour) the sexes may even have been sexually dimorphic. Such musings are of course speculative, but still, the point remains – even among dinosaurs, our old friend Stegosaurus was a very extraordinary animal.

Stego1

The Stegosaurus model I am reviewing today is the one by CollectA in their “standard” range (which consists of smaller models, not to a constant scale). To be blunt, this is not a very good figure, because its design seems to harken back to the way these animals was imagined in the early decades of the twentieth century, when dinosaurs were universally portrayed as big, slow and stupid. Granted, the tail does not actually drag along the ground, but it curves down awkwardly as if it wants to. The tail is also far shorter than it should be (a strangely common fault among Stegosaur models) which proportionally makes the body seem rather high, and, shall we say, portly. The tail spikes… (hey! It looks like I’m going to write an entire review of a Stegosaurs figure and resist using the term “thagomiser”. Oh, wait a minute… I just did). The tail spikes are neatly symmetrical, point almost straight up, and are set well back from the end of the tail, as if carefully placed there by an occupational health and safety committee to present the minimum possible danger to anybody. All four feet are planted firmly on the ground and the animal has an unmistakably slow and ponderous air. The colour scheme of drab, dark greens and browns is deeply conservative, which makes little sense if the plates were indeed a display structure. The head, I must admit, has a rather appealingly vacant expression, but this only enhances the impression of an animal that would be outclassed intellectually by most cabbages, and that was about as dynamic in its behaviour as a tree sloth who was feeling a little more sleepy than usual.

Stego2

All this could be perhaps forgiven if it were not for the plates. These are really badly done and make the model both inaccurate and rather ugly. On the real animal, the plates had a distinctive tapering diamond shape that was both spectacular and graceful. In the CollectA model, this diamond shape has been lost, and instead the plate edges jut almost vertically out of the back. Making this worse, the plate surface is crudely detailed with a lumpy pattern that is unconvincing and rather grotesque. Needless to say, the plates are the most definitive feature of Stegosaurus, the diamond shape being obvious from even the most cursory glance at the fossil skeleton, so there is really no excuse for getting them this wrong.

Stego3b

Am I being too harsh on this model? To be fair, this is a perfectly serviceable and inexpensive toy that kids would certainly enjoy playing with. It also deserves credit for attempting to portray the dinosaur as a living animal rather than a sensationalised “prehistoric monster”. In this respect the figure is in a class above the Stegosaurus monstrosities that some of us will remember from our nineteen-eighties childhood, which universally sported tiny plates and tyrannosaur-sized heads, complete with razor sharp teeth on a herbivore!

Stego4

This said, in both size and general price range, the Collecta Stegosaurus is directly comparable to the “Wild Safari” rendition of the animal which is vastly superior in every respect (see a review and excellent pictures by Tetonbabydoll here) While I don’t think the wild safari version is perfect by any means, when you place the two models side-by-side, the effect is of an instant “now and then” diorama – the wild safari Stegosaurus depicting the dynamic and strikingly beautiful animal that palaeontologists imagine today, and the CollectA version illustrating the previous century’s “big, slow and stupid” vision of dinosaurs as obsolete reptilian behemoths. The difference in colour schemes alone makes this point very strikingly. CollectA has produced many truly excellent dinosaur models (for example, I have written favourable reviews for their Cryolophosaurus and Nothronychus) but this Stegosaurus, (representing one of their older sculpts) is not one of them. I include it on this blog in the hope that one day a full set of reviews for the CollectA dinosaur range will be complete, and also as an utterly gratuitous excuse to include an appalling visual pun to finish with.

Stego5

Stegosaurs, as is well known, took great pride in showing off their fancy plates.

Available from Amazon.com here.

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Comments 7

  • Is this the procon model? Only i have a similar one with a very different colour scheme

  • […] improved. The CollectA Stegosaurus is stamped 2009 and is still in production, as well as a smaller version and even a carcass which are painted to match this one. You can easily find it on eBay here and […]

  • I kinda like this model. The colors look more natural than those fanciful patterns I’ve seen in others. Too bad it’s not as big as the Papo model. Still, it’s something I’ll add to my collection.

  • Good review. My personal pet peeves with Stegosaur reconstructions in general (apart from the typical missing throat armor, wrong number of plates and digits) is the oh-so-painfully obvious ineptitude of the “artists” in presenting the tail as a weapon–which it clearly is (unless you honestly think the thing was used as a garden fork or for plucking choice fruits from low hanging branches….). The spikes are useless unless pointed sideways, perhaps at an upward angle, but SIDEWAYS; and the tail is ineffective unless it is long enough to give some momentum to the spikes. Look at the damn bones then apply a little logic. Grrrrrrr…..

    Both the Safari and the CollectA figures are equally ridiculous in that respect.

    Your photo of the stegs displaying their plates, however, is priceless.

    Cheers.

  • Really nice review. A pleasure to read. The comparison with the Wild Safari Stegosaurus was extremely helpful.

  • Thanks for the positive feedback Laticauda! I must admit, I brought this figure because a) Like you, I love stegosaurs, b) it was ridiculously cheap and c) I actually found it on the shelf in the toy section of a major retail outlet. For those of us who are used to only buying dinosaurs sight unseen off the internet, or making a special trip to museum gift shops in order to purchase them, finding them for sale in a “normal” toy shop seems like something of a luxury!

  • Great review John. I have to admit I never gave this toy a really good look before. With a quick glance I would just say ugh, and move on to the next one. Which is weird because I love the stegosaurid family. After reading your review, now I now why my subconscious told me to move on.

    August has been a fun month, every day there has been a new review.
    Oh, love the plates pic, just awesome.

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