Diplodocus (Natural History Museum by Toyway)

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Here is the 2006 Toyway Diplodocus, ready to tap dance into your hearts, across your living room, and give comedic one timers. Couldn’t you just picture this model walking on stage to an in-studio audience applause and doing an opening monologue. Of course with that smile, it should do some toothpaste commercials as well. Before I go way off topic, lets us remember that the actual Diplodocus probably did not have a sense of humor, as they had small heads, brains, and their daily thought probably went something like this. I am hungry need food. Was that a predator? Look more leaves!

History: Let’s take a quick foray into the well known facts. As I am sure you are aware, Diplodocus is one of the giants of the Jurassic, known for its long neck, and even longer whip like tail. It was an herbivore that most likely used it teeth to strip branches to feed. It is a widely popular dinosaur and is an easily recognizable sauropod that looks like a suspension bridge. It lived around 154 to 150 million years ago.

About the toy: The Diplodocus is 16in long (40.64cm) from the bend in its tail to its nose. It is 4in High (10.16cm) over its hip. The full length of the tail is 10.2 in (26cm). It is in a neutral pose that from the head, to the bend in the tail, is almost a straight line down the spine. The head on this model is very small showing off its white peg like teeth. The neck is a bit on the thin side but does become thicker as you move down from the head to the body. Along the spine, beginning at the wide hips, there is a line of narrow, pointed, keratinous spines that run the full length of the tail getting smaller and smaller till ends in small bumps.

The skin is wrinkled and lined yet it very smooth with very little texture. There is some nice muscle bulges in the legs and a few skins folds on the body. The colorization is mostly light and dark grey with a black wavy line that goes from the base of the skull to the bend in the tail. The teeth are ultra white. Its colorization is basically the same as 1996 Carnotaurus. The feet have five digits and the ends are done in dark grey.

Scientific Accuracy: The scientific accuracy on this is shall we say, a little comical. If you take a quick, glancing look, it passes the quick eye candy test. The neck is long and is held horizontally to the ground. It has a small head with good weight in the mid section. When you take a really close look at this guy, that’s when you notice that the accuracy just isn’t there.  I’ll just say both the skull and the feet are wrong.  In 1990  skin impressions were found with keratinous spines on the their tails, and could have them all the way up their spine.  Interestingly on this model, the keratinous spines stop abruptly over the hips.  I really would have loved a longer tail, but I understand that practicality must win out.

Playability: It works just fine as a toy, though it lacks punch. It’s one of those dinosaurs, that kids are excited about but doesn’t get the bulk of play. The neck is at a convenient height for most Tyrannosaurus Rex toys to grab a hold of, so that is a plus for the carnivore toys and for playtime fun. The paint also wears quickly on this fellow. I find the rest of the toy quite robust and able to take some rough style play.

Overall appraisal: I wish I could give this lovely sauropod a lot of love due to its wonderful personality. In the toy world it ranks as ok. There is certainly better Diplodocus out there such as the 2008 Carnegie, of even the standing CollectA version. The colorization bothers me just because it reminds me of the original paint job for the 1997 Safari Carnotaurus. The feet and head are comical and just not close enough to be accurate.

It could be used in dioramas, but again there are better Diplodocus out there. Despite those issues, I would still recommend this figure; on the basis that I think it looks good on display. If you can get past silly look on its face and some of the scientific accuracy problems that you probably will not notice from a distance, it could be worth taking a chance on.

This figure can still be found on the Natural History Museum store website or on ebay here.