Review and photos by Takama, edited by Suspsy
Ever since someone reviewed a Boley Dilophosaurus, I began to rethink exactly what is open for reviewing on this blog. I thought I would test the waters by reviewing one of my cheap “Chinasaurs” brand dinosaurs that I have been buying every time I go to the local vegetable or fruit festivals, whenever they are available.
Before I start, I just want to get one thing straight. This is a cheap toy that will never stand up to the likes of Safari, CollectA, Papo, or even Schleich. And it has many accuracy problems to boot. The toy I’m reviewing is part of a small group of dinosaurs made by Rhode Island Novelty, which, from what I can tell, is basically a party supplies outlet. Now, these dinosaurs are cheaply made, but they are still durable enough for rough play unlike the Jurassic World Bashers and Biters toys. The reason they look so outdated is because they have been around since the 1990s’ (I remember getting some of them back in those days). As such, I’m not going to be as critical as I am with most other toys I review for this blog.
The Rhode Island Novelty Velociraptor is your standard 20th century depiction of a dromaeosaur, which is to say it looks less like a Velociraptor and more like a Deinonychus. Despite this, it is made in a tripod pose. The details on it are very lacking. The whole body is just covered in round lines and the teeth are very blunted. Of course, since this is a standard toy from the 90s’, it remains featherless and its hands are pronated. Honestly, because of this toy’s classic look, I really like it, as it’s something that could be found in a Ray Harryhausen movie. The only reason I think he did not include one in any of his works is because dromaeosaurs were not as popular when he was still working his stop motion magic during the 80s’. The colours on this guy are dark orange and brown with some darker brown highlights. The teeth are white and the eyes are an evil red. As far as I can see, the base colour of this model is grey and the whole bottom part of the body is not painted.
Overall, I can’t recommend this at all to dinosaur collectors. It’s pretty darn cheap, and can be bought in a set from the website I linked to above. I bought mine separately from a vendor at one of my local festivals. As of now, I only have seven of the twelve little figures, and I do not plan on buying them in bulk from the website. Instead, I will buy these models whenever I visit a festival and find a vendor that sells them.
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