CollectA, the master of obscure dinosaur toys, reached in to their menagerie of extinct animals and choose to produce a truly interesting Proceratosaurus. The identity shifting Proceratosaurus received its name due to it originally being thought as an ancestor of Ceratosaurus due to its nasal crest. Now, this theropod is thought to be a coelurosaur, and an early member of tyrannosauroida. This Jurassic predator since is only known from a partial skull, reconstructions are speculative though it has been estimated at 3 metres (9.8 ft) long.
About the Toy: The 2011 Proceratosaurus measures in at 7in (17.7cm) long and 3in (7.6cm) high. Its feet are staggered and the head is looking down and to its left. The mouth is open reveling its small but different sized teeth. It is an active pose, perhaps looking for small lizards to feast upon.
On top of the head, there is a crest that sweeps back from the blunt snout, all the way to its eyes. The bottom jaw is small and is concave. The teeth on the bottom jaw are small and mostly uniform. On the upper jaw the teeth are spread out with varying length. The tongue is also visible inside the open maw.
The neck is long, and tucked into the body are the arms, which end in three claws facing inward. The tail is straight and is just under half the length of the entire figure. The body is neither overweight or shrink wrapped, and looks very nicely proportioned.
The Textures and colors is where this figure truly shines. It is sculpted with a fine set of down feathers. The feathers begin at the base of the skull and cover the upper portion of the neck, the entire body, and the tail. The head, bottom of the neck, arms, and legs are mostly naked and feather free, with the exception of some feather patches along its thighs. Where the skin is naked it is covered in little bumps.
No one knows if the species had sexual dimorphism, and its crest or colors were used in the competition over mates, but when I look at this figure, I can’t help and wonder if that’s the look they were going for. The crest itself is quite striking with a base of yellow, orange running along the edge, with three black lines, where two sweep straight back, and the third connects to the black patches around the eyes. The black patch runs all the way around the eyes, and then ends in a point on the lower jaw. The rest of the head is yellow. A dark and medium green are used for all feathers, and the rest of the naked skin is in a dull yellow. The teeth are white and the inside of the mouth is pink. The eyes are red and the claws are black. Overall it is quite a striking paint job.
Playability: This is certainly a very nice toy for kids. The main problem with this toy is the fact it is top- heavy. It needs a flat surface, or sand to stick its feet in-to to keep it from falling over. The colors are appealing, and many kids will be interested due to its brightly colored crest. Kids will also use the close spacing of the hands to place things in between them. It is a safe toy, and the paint job will hold up to some rough play.
Overall Appraisal: It is a bold and interesting interpretation of Proceratosaurus. The colorization and feathers make this toy stand out in crowd. There are some small issues especially due to the fact that it is prone to fall over as it is top-heavy. Since this figure is in the standard range of CollectA, its scaling will not be compatible with many other figures. Outside of that, I highly recommend this figure.
Availlable at Amazon.
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One of my favorite figures, albeit largely an educated-guess/fantasy, but it is so life-like.
Outstanding photography, by the bye.
From my point of view is not bad figure but what I want to alert especially for children their fragility, I had to buy another only because I dropped my shelf that is 1.85 meters high, although it should be Carnegie recognize that the velociraptor is a fairly brittle material will break the feet of the animal fall as well if I accidentally went to the same height.
Moreover for children they are figures of great gameplay but what I said I decided to make this assessment usually happens with some figures.