In 1845, a fragment of upper jaw bone was discovered in the Maritime province of Prince Edward Island. At the time, it was hailed as Canada’s first dinosaur, but paleontologists eventually determined that it was in fact a synapsid which they named Bathygnathus. In 2015, researchers concluded that Bathygnathus is in fact a species of the famous Dimetrodon. The first fossil ever to be discovered in Canada then is Dimetrodon borealis.
It’s doubtful that Recur had any particular species of Dimetrodon in mind when they designed their 2015 toy. At around 27 cm long and 12.5 cm tall at the sail, it’s one of the largest renditions I’ve seen. It is coloured in varying shades of orange, ranging from very pale on the underbelly to fiery on the sail. Very dark and medium brown are used for the many stripes decorating the animal and the claws are muddy green. The eyes are red-orange, the mouth is flesh pink, and the teeth are dirty grey. Orange certainly appears to be a popular colour for Dimetrodon toys.
Unlike so many other Dimetrodon toys, however, this one is sculpted in a very active pose with its mouth wide open, its right front leg raised, and its body held high off the ground. The sprawling posture has become outdated in recent years, with many experts now speculating that Dimetrodon walked with its legs held directly or almost beneath its body. This individual could be in the midst of threatening or even trading blows with a rival. It has even been suggested that perhaps the sail did not extend all the way to the top of the neural spines, but I have yet to see a company tackle such a rendition. Certainly would be cool!
The Dimetrodon‘s skin texture consists of large scales and wrinkles, and it looks decent, though not outstanding. The claws are worn and grooved and the roof of the mouth is ribbed, which is a nice touch. The head and dentition look quite accurate and it’s nice to see that Recur did enough research to know that there are five digits on each foot. That said, the neck is far too long and the limbs are way too big. Kids and casual prehistory fans will immediately recognise this toy as a Dimetrodon, but to me, it kind of looks like a gorgonopsid with a longer tail and a sail on its back. And speaking of kids, it must be pointed out this toy, like all Recur products, is made entirely of PVC, and therefore very light, durable, and easy to play with.
The Recur Dimetrodon isn’t the finest rendition I’ve seen, but it’s got size and toughness and character going for it. In the end, I do think it’s a cool toy.
Available from Recur’s AliExpress store
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I get the feeling the Recur Dimetrodon is influenced by the Dimetrodon in the first image in Reply #481 here: http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=3947.msg132400#msg132400
The Recur Dimetrodon has some striking similarities to Papo’s Dimetrodon too, but I find it has more with that Dimetrodon artwork, which doesn’t take long to find in a Google image search for Dimetrodon.
FYI there are about 11 Recur dinosaur figures (unfortunately not this one though) available for reasonable prices at online retailer AliExpress. I have on order the Triceratops and Mosasaur (need to clear a big space on the shelf for the latter!).
I wish recur dinosaurs were easier to find in the USA. I think theyre great toys.
Yeah, that head immediately reminded me of a gorgonopsid, too.