Plateosaurus (CollectA)

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Having recently reviewed the Bullyland Liliensternus, I thought it fitting to do another Triassic dinosaur that lived with and was possibly preyed upon by Liliensternus. I’m talking of course about everyone’s favorite basal sauropodomorph, Plateosaurus. This one was put out by CollectA in 2011. CollectA is known for their production of obscure species so it is no surprise that this well known Triassic dinosaur has been produced for their line. Despite their propensity to tackle obscure genera, CollectA models are historically not very good, but they’ve been improving. Though some newer models are still hit or miss the Plateosaurus is among the best and probably the best model of this dinosaur currently available.

The CollectA Plateosaurus measures 8” from nose to tail and is rearing up at 6” tall matching it closely to the older Carnegie Plateosaurus. As such it is 1:40 in scale and actually displays nicely next to the Carnegie representation. Where CollectA has succeeded most with this model is in the attention to detail. Surprisingly for CollectA this model is quite lifelike which is what drew me to it to begin with. The appropriately small and rectangular head is packed with tiny, individually sculpted peg-like teeth. The fenestra are present behind the nostrils and tiny eyes are sculpted with black pupils. The eyes themselves are blue. The body itself is a convincing olive drab all over with pale stripes running down the neck, back and tail. The paint job actually looks to have been inspired by the “Walking with Dinosaurs” Plateosaurus and the same color scheme is presented in Greg Paul’s recent “Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs”. The nails are all painted black and the inside of the mouth pink. Small scales are sculpted throughout. Tie those in with some wrinkles and musculature and you have an incredibly lifelike representation from CollectA, taking into context that it is a toy and fairly cheap.

 Speaking of accuracy, the figure mostly succeeds on that front. Overall I see little to complain about and the head especially appears faithful to the real animal. All five toes are sculpted on the feet with the three weight bearing toes as heavily clawed as they were on the actual animal. The only thing seriously wrong is the position of the hands. Recent evidence has shown that like theropods, these sauropodomorphs could not pronate their hands. This means that not only is the CollectA model inaccurate, but so too are the many artistic representations of this animal as a quadruped. Most now agree that this animal was bipedal. The large thumb claws also appear reduced and while all the fingers are present the hands almost look like baseball gloves. The caudofemoralis muscle could probably be a bit beefier too but that is hardly reason enough to pass up this otherwise well made model.

 To echo what I said in my review for the Liliensternus, Triassic dinosaur models are rarely made. Tell CollectA and other companies you want more by picking up this fantastic sculpt of a rarely made dinosaur. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more affordable and accurate toy representation.