Review by Dilopho, photos by Halichoeres, and edited by Suspsy
Welcome back, readers! I hope you’ve had a nice New Year! 2017 is bringing some great new CollectA figures into the market, but the one we’ll be looking at today is one from 2009. And . . . it shows. To me, this Alioramus shows how much Collecta has improved from their earliest figures. It’s kind of like a “transitional stage” in that you put it between an older figure and a newer figure, it would resemble an evolutionary lineage.
First, let’s look at the overall figure. It is posed very nicely in a neutral but not static stance. It is looking straight ahead and its arms appear to be moving (though I’m not sure what they could possibly be doing). Also, the hands are correctly positioned and non-pronated, which is a big step! However, the feet bug me because they are curved outwards, which looks very painful for the animal. It does help the figure stand without being a tripod, though, and it was one of CollectA’s first proper attempts at a free-standing theropod.
The body is covered in an attempt at scales. They aren’t bad, but they’re not really my taste either. They don’t look like the scales of a reptile at all–more like a dried out skin. Running down the back and neck is a weird feature. I’m not sure if it is a sail or a hump. It’s purely speculative and kind of fitting for the look of the figure.
The head is nice from the side. It follows the shape of Alioramus nicely and has the ridges on the snout that this theropod was know for. The teeth, however, are a strange shape. Alioramus had a particularly high number of them, which this model reproduces, but they are too uniformly small and blunt. Tyrannosaur teeth should get sharper and longer towards the middle of the jawline and smaller at the front and back. The bottom jaw on this figure is really thin too. It’s almost like it would just flap around instead of closing with force. And when you look at the skull from head on, it is much wider than you’d expect. I find that most older Collecta figures are like that!
I find that the jaw isn’t really open enough for kids to play with, as it can’t fit anything inside, and the pose can take away further from the fun because the big feet get in the way. I can’t deny that this figure certainly has character, though, and would certainly get a place in children’s games.
Overall, this is a figure that shows progress. Even though it still has that old dumpy Procon look, it has the features of a more accurate CollectA model. It’s a nice representation of Alioramus too, with some speculation tossed in. However, it has some flaws, mostly from the front view. I like this figure and I think you might too, so if you want one, you should get it!
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Az első Alioramus,és tetszik.
A legzavaróbb az,hogy álvány illetve
rövid a farka,de így is szép.Beszerezve.
Two possible errors here jump out at me. The first is the tail which is in no way capable of acting as a counterbalance to the head and torso, and the lack of feathers now associated with tyrannosaurs in general, although the figure may have predated the latter conclusion.
Had the spine been parallel to the ground ala the “dinosaur renaissance” speculations accepted as likely today, the tail might have had to have been more substantial in order to balance the figure.
In any event, this was produced at a time when “other” tyrannosaur figures were few and far between.
It´s a old figure
There’s speculative and then there’s completely made up. The few known vertebrae of Alioramus show no indication whatsoever of a high ridge on either the neck or the back. It’s why I passed on this figure.