Excalibosaurus lived during the early Jurassic about 190 million years ago and at 22 feet (7 meters) long, it was a decent sized fellow. Looking much like a modern sword fish, it was named after the sword Excalibur of Autherian legend. This marine reptile is characterized by the extreme elongation of the rostrum, in which the lower jaw is a quarter shorter in length then the upper jaw. Where as I do agree that “strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government,” naming a unique ichthyosaur after the legendary sword of King Arthur does make this animal stand out.
It is nice to see CollectA continuing to make marine reptiles. To date they have made thirteen different prehistoric aquatic reptiles. This is their second ichthyosaurs, as previously they made a Temnodontosaurus giving birth. I appreciate CollectA’s willingness to take chances on animals that are not as well known. So with out further ado I present the 2017 CollectA Excalibosaurus.
About the toy: The toy was made for CollectA’s standard size range of toys which means that this is a small toy that is only 5 in (13cm) long. The pose is simple. The head and upper half of the torso are stiff and straight, but after the dorsal fin it bends gracefully to its left. The thin snout is 1 inch long with the lower jaw slightly longer than half an inch (1.27 cm). Unlike the sword fish, Excalibosaurus has teeth all the way down its upper jaw. On this toy the teeth are present, visible, and nicely sculpted. The eyes are the appropriate size and the external nares are present.
The body is streamlined and flowing looking the part of an active predator. I feel that the body should be a little longer when I compare it to the fossils but it is hard to tell so I will not hold it against this figure. The forepaddles are long and look like a dolphins pectoral fin. The hindfins are small and rounded. A small dorsal fin is on top and when you look at the tail fin, the lower lobe is longer than the top.
The coloring on this figure is modern and believable with a color scheme that has the top being dark, and lighter on the underside. Very similar to many modern day animals and it correlates well with the evidence that has been found in the pigments preserved in fossilized skin . The top is black, the bottom is white, with a thin layer of grey blending in between. On the head it is white around the eye. The white paint continues in front of the eye and curves down the upper and lower jaw, which leaves the tip of the lower jaw black. The eyes are black and white. All the fins are black. The toys texture is very smooth. The jaws, flippers, and tail are all flexible. This can lead to some warping. The jaws are especially vulnerable to being bent and warped due to how thin they are.
Overall: It is a very nice figure of a cool marine reptile. If you like ichthyosaurs and only have limited room for display, then this is a good figure to have as it doesn’t take up that much space. If you are in the mood for an exciting or morbid display, thanks to its small size, it can fit inside the mouth of many other marine reptile toys, which will make the mosasaur and pilosaur figures happy. Personally I find the figure a little underwhelming, I think it would have been better if it was a bit bigger to highlight the long jaws. The colors are bland but accurate so no complaints there. I rate this as a good figure.
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Good review!
Thank you.
I would say that it is a very good figure, apart from that it is of a small size which is accessible to the economy of any person and most importantly it does not occupy space (especially for those who have excess figures on their shelves).
It is very detailed and the most important represents a marine reptile similar to the ichtyosaurus (which is popular among people) and does not entail economic risks in this case for the company. In short a great elegant figure and detailed despite its size and is a very dark species in the toy market.
So when does my Tamamo get an ichthyosaur named after her? Haha! Honestly tempted to pick this one up even just because of the references I can make, though at about 1:5.5 it might be hard to find (and fit on an average shelf) a model of Artoria to scale.
Great little piece from CollectA, though I agree that it could have benefited from being larger and from some more intricate patterning, something I feel many of their marine animals definitely miss out on.
That’s 1:53.5 scale, woops.