Review and photographs by Dilopho, edited by Suspsy
Pteranodon is a Latin word meaning “winged and toothless.” So what on earth was the AAA sculptor thinking when they made this monster? It’s huge, mean and scary–it’s not the Pteranodon we are used to. But is it bad? Well, let’s have a closer look at it before we jump–or fly–to early conclusions.
The Pteranodon by AAA is a well-made figure for sure. It is solid, well-painted and heavy. And I do mean well-painted; this figure has been all around the woods in my town, in the streams, puddes and mud, roosting in the trees and menacing other figures, and it has withstood it all. The colour scheme is a nice sandy colour, with red and black highlights in some areas. It’s very natural, but AAA doesn’t usually do bright colours anyway.
The beak of the Pteranodon is very strange. You can’t tell unless you are holding the figure, but the beak feels completely different from the rest of the animal. It’s harder, smoother, and feels like a different material altogether. It’s also dotted in battle scars–this is no showbird! (Well, in fact, this is not a bird at all, but it was just a metaphor.) The teeth (groan) are well painted, and surprisingly sharp too. I’ve found that the beak is also able to bend more than the rest of the figure, so you can squeeze the jaw shut around the neck of pterosaur prey, be it Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus or Icthyosaurus. This predator is large enough to eat them all.
And that’s my next point. This figure is huge compared to other AAA dinosaurs (You can see that in my Stegosaurus review). No one fights for scraps with this dogfighter. Since it is so big, it is also unbalanced, and tips backwards, so AAA fixed this by giving it a long, diamond tipped tail like Rhamphorhynchus. This, while being helpful, further adds to the idea that the sculptor had never, ever seen any reference pictures of Pteranodon. What were they thinking?
Nevertheless, I think this figure is great! In accuracy terms, it’s extinct. In playability, it’s ruling the AAA world! And it certainly looks threatening looming over the top of my dinosaur shelf. If you can find this at some garage sale, get it! You (probably) won’t regret it!
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Honestly no longer a bad monster movie, but to me it means a lot. I bought twenty five years ago in what was then a store of nuts and I have good memories of the, it was one of my first dinosaur figures.