Futabasaurus (Animal Adventure by Takara Tomy)

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Review and photographs by Takama, edited by Dinotoyblog

Futabasaurus was an elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Japan. It has become one of the country’s favorite prehistoric animals to create in figure form. Look at almost any Japanese dinosaur toy line and you’re likely to find a Futabasaurus in the mix.

This Futabasaurus is one of several prehistoric animal models created by Takara Tomy for their Animal Adventure line. The unique feature of these models is articulating ball-joints that allow for posing and playability. I have two of these figures, one that I bought at a local store  in the USA, and one that I bought from Japan via Amazon. The former, a Tyrannosaurus, came in a plastic polybag, whereas the one I bought from Amazon came in a windowless cardboard box with artwork and Japanese writing on it. [I’ve unboxed this figure on our Youtube channel for anyone interested – Ed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNVxuGmhwSc]

The Animal Adventure Futabasaurus is a medium-sized figure around 6 inches long. According to the box, the animal could grow up to seven meters long, which puts this model at around 1:46 scale. In terms of accuracy there is not much to complain about. The neck is jointed in three places so you can pose it in a swan-like fashion, or you can pose it in a more accurate straight pose akin to CollectA’s Thalassomedon. The head of this model is accurate to the photos I have seen of the skull, if a little cartoony, and it is posed with its mouth open. There is not much detail to talk about: the entirety of the figure is made out of smooth plastic and the surface has only a little bit of texture.

In terms of playability, this model has around five points of articulation limited to the neck and front flippers. The hind flippers and tail do not move. The ball joints on the neck allow its head and mid-section to be posed in many ways, most of which would look unnatural for the animal. The neck pieces can rotate along their long axis (like a barrel) but this also result in an arrangement that does not look natural, unless you believe that plesiosaur heads could rotate upside down. The flippers have a bit more range of motion allowing you to pose them any way you see fit. The colors on this figure are not that bad of a choice, considering the fact that this is a marine reptile. The bottom of the figure is grey, the back is blue, and the back and flippers are dappled with white spots. The teeth are painted white.

Overall, despite the limited poseability options, this is still a fun toy to fiddle around with, and I say it has a lot more playability than the other figure I have from this line (which I will review it in due course). You can order it from Amazon in Japanese packaging here.