Stegosaurus (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Action Attack by Mattel)

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As you all know by now, The Jurassic World toys by Hasbro were a bust. Speaking personally, I didn’t buy a single Hasbro Jurassic World toy. I wanted to, but they utterly failed to impress. That’s all ancient history now that Mattel holds the Jurassic World license. Hasbro’s failure encouraged fans to speak up and Mattel has listened. Finally, we have good Jurassic Park toys again and instead of trying to convince myself to buy something I don’t want I’m faced with the task of convincing myself NOT to buy something I do want. So many awesome toys have hit the shelves already that some of us more low key collectors are daunted by the selection.

Naturally, the eternally popular Stegosaurus is included in the long list of dinosaur genera that Mattel has tackled. It’s been a staple among Jurassic Park toys since the first wave that accompanied the first film. Now it’s here again as part of the “Action Attack” range of figures by Mattel. The Action Attack toys represent a medium size range for the Jurassic World toys. This Stegosaurus measures 14.5” long and stands 8.5” tall. These toys have a medium price range too, costing about $20 per figure. They don’t make any noise but they do possess a basic action feature. In this case we have a tail that swings back and forth with the push of a back plate that doubles as a lever. What other action feature would a Stegosaurus have? It’s a simple feature, but a lot of fun too. For smaller children I can see pushing the plate back as being rather difficult but after playing with it myself for longer than I care to admit it seems to have “broken in” the ease of which the plate can be manipulated.

For those of us that merely want to display the toy rather than play with it, I can honestly say this is a beautiful piece that looks great in the box or out, with other action figures, or with a collection of Stegosaurus models. It’s reasonably accurate for an action figure with the correct number of 22 alternating plates along the back, five digits on the forelimbs, a properly sized head-to-body ratio and so forth.

That doesn’t make it flawless of course. The tail is swung low, like those so frequently complained about in the Jurassic World film. The pebbly osteoderms along the neck are absent, the forelimbs have claws on all five digits as opposed to just three, and there is also an extra toe on each hind foot. The forelimbs are also orientated the wrong way and like so many other dinosaur action figures just end up looking like generic elephantine limbs. Quadruped dinosaurs were secondarily quadrupedal. They evolved from bipedal animals and the forelimbs of these animals are all uniquely modified for that lifestyle. I personally like to see that interesting bit of their anatomy properly reconstructed, even in my Jurassic World action figures.

Nitpicks on anatomy aside this mere toy is also a work of art. I would dare say it’s the best Stegosaurus action figure yet produced, at least since Tyco’s “Dino-Rider” Stegosaurus and superior to the other Jurassic Park Stegosaurus toys. Details like the skin folds along the rib cage, scaly hide, striations in the plates, and thick muscular legs bring realism and character to the figure.

The toy is made of sturdy, thick plastic that shouldn’t easily break with the plates made of a soft, rubbery material Although you can see where the tail segments attach to each other they blend it rather well. Despite the fact that the head doesn’t move it’s still a separate piece that’s set into the body. The seam where it attaches is, I admit, mildly distracting. The legs can be moved forward and back with the hindlimbs able to pull out to a small degree in order to create better stability.

Lastly we have the paint job, an interesting choice of colors to be sure but subdued enough that it works well. The entire body is painted in various shades of cyan with the plates and back being darkest, aside from some light colored tips on the more prominent plates. The color choices give this Stegosaurus a “cool” feel. A touch of some warmer colors, particularly on the plates, would have been nice but I quite like what they’ve done with this figure. Unfortunately the beak and tail spikes are the same color as the belly and the toe nails aren’t painted at all.

The “Action Attack” Stegosaurus is in my opinion a must have toy from this line. It has some anatomical inaccuracies but I don’t know too many people that would expect that kind of rigorous dedication applied to an action figure. No doubt it’s at least movie accurate. The sculpt itself is beautiful and well detailed, the paint job and coloration soft and pleasing, and the action feature simple and fun for adults and children alike.

EDIT: It has come to my attention that the right-side plate at the start of the tail appears to be backwards, not just on my toy but on the bulk of them it would seem, perhaps all of them. You can see it in a few of my pictures. Oops! Can’t believe I didn’t notice it.

Available from Amazon here.