Smilodon, the legendary sabre-toothed cat (not tiger!), is rivalled in popularity among prehistoric mammals only by the woolly mammoth. Despite the fearsome appearance of its huge canines, they were actually quite fragile and could not have withstood the stress of struggling prey. Instead, Smilodon probably used its great strength to immobilize a victim before driving its canines into the throat region for a precision kill.
This 2015 model is the second Smilodon to be released by CollectA. The first one, judging from photos, looked fairly decent, but this new one easily outshines it. First, it’s quite large, larger than I thought it would be. It measures about 13 cm long from nose to tail tip and stands nearly 8 cm tall. And second, the detailing on its body is second to none. The fur has a thick, shaggy feel to it, similar to that of a Siberian tiger. The face is sculpted in a vicious snarl and the animal is poised as though it were about to make a lunge. The canines are relatively soft and bendable, so there’s no need to worry about tooth loss.
No one knows, of course, what a Smilodon‘s colours really were, but the ones on this model look pretty realistic. The fur is yellowish orange with white for the underbelly and paws. Dark brown is used for the many spots on the fur and the pads on the soles of the paws. The ears have black and white, the eyes are dark and light brown, the nose is dull pink with black outlining, the teeth are white, the inside of the noun is light pink, and there are white accents around the eyes and the muzzle. The stumpy tail is white with a black tip and the brown region on the rump reveals that this is a male Smilodon.
As far as scientific accuracy goes, this Smilodon is pretty darned impressive. The paws look just like those on an extant big cat and the limbs look powerful yet graceful. It’s difficult to determine if this model is meant to represent the genus S. fatalis or the larger S. populator, but I’m going go out on a limb and say it’s the former. One thing I do wish is that this model had been sculpted with its mouth open wider. In order to use its huge canines, Smilodon had the ability to open its mouth to an amazing 120 degrees. It would have been very cool to see that ability depicted on this toy. As well, it would have been nice if the sheathed claws had been painted.
The 2015 CollectA Smilodon is an excellent toy that is sure to appeal to fans of all ages. Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better sabre-toothed cat than this. Highly recommended!
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I don’t think this CollectA Smilodon has to much scientific accuracy. To myself, it has much to long and slender front legs, and even the back legs look to long. I also think its neck is much to short, and the face not so cat like. I WISH just once, some mainstream company would make a Smilodon Fatalis like Paleo artist Charles R Knight’s rendition. Instead they are to busy making Smilodon’s morphology completely wrong, as if it was built like a modern cat. The problem is, Smilodon was NOT built anything like a modern cat. Also, I am not a fan at all of making Smilodon figures with markings. To myself, its a much safer bet to sculpt it just plain coated like a lion. If I had to guess, I think in real life Smilodon Fatalis was just plain coated, with no markings at all.
I disagree completely with this review. I find numerous scientific inaccuracies
with the CollectA Smilodon. Smilodon Fatalis was shaped nothing like extant big cats. Its frontal extremities were MUCH more beefy than modern cats. Smilodon also had larger paws with much bigger dew claws than modern cats. because this animal had a completely different style of bringing down prey than cats of today do. Smilodon had to grapple with large prey animals than drag in down and retrain its victim so that it could stab the prey without it flailing around. Smilodon had relatively delicate saber teeth, so restraining it’s prey was very important.. The CollectA Smilodon has much to long and slender front legs, and a much to short nectk. Smilodon had a relatively long neck that was extremely muscular because it was used to thrust its huge sabers into it’s prey. All the force to do this came from its powerful neck and shoulder muscles..
Brian
[…] conclusion, while I like the versions from CollectA and Safari better, this is nevertheless one of the finer, more fun Smilodon toys currently […]
can someone tell me when the first one came out??
I’m afraid I don’t know the exact year the original was released, although I believe it was prior to 2010.
Thanks, Suspsy, for again taking up the task of reviewing a prehistoric mammal for us. Along with Laticauda, you have really brought this largely neglected niche to a place of some deserved prominence on this terrific blog.
SidB
My pleasure. I have a couple more megafauna reviews coming up in the near future, though not from CollectA. Stay tuned!
Could you give a clue that Suspsy company will devote the latest news of megafauna? .
At least when we know the news. Me too excited me the prehistoric megafauna mammals because they are very few in the market.
I noticed that the potentiality of the 120 degree extension of the jaws had been sculpted on CollectA’s earlier Smilodon model, so maybe they wanted to try something different with this version. Your comment on the paws is germane – their older model’s ones are a bit crude in comparison and also they had painted the unsheathed claws on that model in contrast.
do you know when the first smilodon came out from this company??
To me it reminds me clearly differentiated smilodon hues to the famous and serious former BBC Walking with beast.
It is for me the best saber-toothed cat that exists so far in terms.
I just purchase it over two days ago and I can say that the material is made smilodon is quite soft, ensuring gameplay even for the youngest, regardless who is for me a figure collection.