History: As you know, the Stegosaurus is one of the staples in the four food groups of the dinosaur world that the lay person and connoisseurs know. Besides the spikes, plates, ‘tiny’ brain, and being the size of a bus, what else can I say about Stegosaurus? It was an herbivore that had a small beak, and teeth in the back of the mouth with cheeks that ground up plant matter much like a modern day cow. It was preyed upon not only by Allosaurus but probably Ceratosaurus and Torvosaurus later in the Jurassic. So without further ado, tie a napkin around your neck or lay one gently in your lap, as I offer up the latest version of Stegosaurus from Bullyland and see if it fits your palate.
About the toy: The Bullyland version is approx. 1:30 scale model as it dwarfs much of the current competition. The body is in an ‘s’ shape with the head looking down and off to the left and the tail turning to the right. The Stegosaurus looks to be on the move in search of tasty plants to munch on. Its right front leg is off the ground and it is pushing off on its back left leg. Its body is thick and feels well fed and active with decent musculature in its quads. The tail is held high and has a length that appears to be long enough. There are 18 plates on its back with 4 nice spikes on the tail. Its head has a beak followed by cheeks and its eyes seem to bulge out of the eye socket. On the forefeet there are five toes and on the back feet there are five toes.
The color is a standard array of Stegosaurus colors straight from Jurassic Park, Walking With Dinosaurs, and my coloring book when I was a kid. My Stego’s were green with brown plates. It is yellowish green with dark tiger stripes that originate from the back and tapers to the legs muscle line. There are an additional lighter three stripes horizontally across the quads. The plates are large and have dark brown outline with an orange red middle. The Plates have texture lines that radiate from bottom middle to the edges of the plates. The Thagomizer is colored similar to the rest of the body but being colored with slightly yellower hue. Personally I like the colors, though when looking at it closely, the yellow brushwork just doesn’t feel natural. The overall texture is nice with pebbly look with many skin folds.
Scientific Accuracy: First off, I mentioned above that on this Stegosaurus it has five toes on its hind feet. Stegosaurus actually had three short toes on its hind feet. The skull is not the pin head that Safari ltd’s Wild Safari Stegosaurus and Carnegie Collection Stegosaurus brought to the table, and is a little bigger than what I have seen in skeletal reconstructions. It is also missing the small rounded ossicles on the throat and neck. After those small inaccuracies, I think it feels very close to the real thing, with short forelimbs, head close to the ground, and a tail that is high in the air, ready to swat a nosey predator.
Playability: The paint does rub off real easy but it is a great toy to play with. It has good size, pleasing colors, and a tail that is perfect for swatting all the cars, dolls, stuffed animals, block towers, and carnivorous dinosaurs it can thagomize.
Overall appraisal: There are some glaring but easy to overlook scientific flaws and its paint job looks better from afar than up-close, though still pleasing. In my opinion it is not perfect but it has a great pose, good detail, pleasing paint job, and a child will enjoy playing with it. It will also look handsomely on a shelf.
Available from Ebay here.
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Missing cheeks and ossicles, upward (as opposed to sideways–an easy fix) pointing spikes, extra toes and that one itsy-bitsy extra front plate notwithstanding, I think this is the best–as in believable–of the stegosaurus lot in plastic figurines.
Really nice review, by the bye.
Excellent review and superb Bullyland stegosaurus, truth is no more than a toy with its imperfections but is not the worst figures of this company. Certainly in the review have forgotten the nasty “zombie eyes” that the company usually put their figures.
Furthermore as all Bullyland figures but is quite resistant material is very vulnerable to abrasions, but it always has one on a shelf with only other brush with plastic dinosaurs longer produced.