Mosasaurus (Dino Escape by Mattel)

Mattel’s take on Jurassic World’s giant sea reptile is back as big and beautiful as ever, with a few new interesting quirks up its plastic sleeve.

When Mattel began announcing their upcoming releases in the wake of acquiring the Jurassic World license in 2018, one of the first and most exciting toys to catch my eye was the giant Mosasaurus, an impressive “real-feel” articulated toy that could eat Hasbro’s earlier attempts at the genus for lunch. Mosasaurus was certainly a breakout star of the first Jurassic world film, and Mattel’s rendition of the movie monster (originally reviewed here by Cretaceous Crab) remains one of my favorite figures in Mattel’s entire Jurassic toy line. It’s been four years already now since the line began, and Mattel decided to bring back the Mosasaurus in 2021 with a modified reissue of their 2018 toy marvel. How does this refurbished marine giant fare as a figure today?

Mattel’s revamped Mosasaurus is released under the “Dino Escape” series, with an additional new moniker of “Ocean Protector” unique to this figure. Like the original release, the toy requires minor assembly out of the packaging; due to the toy’s size, the tail and flippers come detached and separately wrapped inside. Although the pieces come with instructions and are intended to snap in place easily, one of the front flippers on my copy of the figure tends to come loose from time to time (hopefully this is just an unusual quality control issue). Once assembled, the full Mosasaurus figure stretches an impressive 74 cm (29 in) in length from nose to tail tip – more than big enough to chomp nearly every other prehistoric beast in one’s Mattel collection, giant theropods included. The flippers have swivel/hinge joints for playing and posing. The tail also includes a side-to-side swinging hinge joint unique to this reissue; and of course the figure’s enormous mouth can be opened wide and shut again, to create and re-create any dino/human-munching scenes from the films or one’s imagination.

Although proportions of the toy have been stylized somewhat – mostly, reducing the length of the body & tail to be more package-friendly – Mattel’s figure is faithful to most of the film creature’s significant physical traits, including the pronounced brow ridge extending past the orbit front & behind, as well as the crocodilian mouth line with exposed top & bottom teeth. Pebbly scales adorn the majority of the body and appendages, with armor scutes lining the back and tail and wrinkly skin on the belly and lower jaw. Such dermal features are highly speculative at best and pure fantasy at worst for real-life mosasaurs. Existing fossil impressions of mosasaur skin reveal mosasaurs did feature a variety of scale shapes; but these scales would have generally been much smaller and finer across the body. Large spiky armor also would have simply been impractical for a specialized, streamlined marine predator. Of course, Jurassic World is not a franchise primarily concerned with scientific accuracy; and Mattel’s action figure does a fine job replicating the “monsterized” features of InGen’s aquatic super-beast.

One of the prominent selling points to Mattel’s original Mosasaurus release was the figure’s “real feel” gimmick – a softer, rubbery body that harkened back to the classic Kenner Jurassic Park toys. For the “Ocean Protector” reissue, Mattel has exchanged the squishy body texture for a more meta gimmick. Each Ocean Protector Mosasaurus is marketed as being environmentally friendly, produced from a full pound of recycled plastics sourced from waterway regions lacking in formal waste collection systems. While it doesn’t really function as an educational toy, it’s neat to see Mattel employ an active conservation angle into the construction of a toy – especially a toy related to a franchise that, ostensibly, has always had something to say about humanity’s tenuous relationship with the natural world. Admittedly, the resulting product doesn’t feel like it’s made of material of equal quality to other toys in Mattel’s line; but it’s still a sturdy toy, and a subtle downgrade in the plastic seems entirely forgivable in the larger context.

I think it’s worth mentioning again how impressively big the Mosasaurus is. Mattel didn’t need to add any of the standard action or sound gimmicks seen in the Jurassic World line; the sheer size of the figure is the main draw. The toy easily dominates any platform or surface it’s displayed upon, the body rearing upwards as if breaching the ocean surface to replenish air or strike unsuspecting prey. Admittedly, the front end of the figure fares better than the back end, where the reduced tail ends up looking rather underdeveloped. The portrait of the overall figure is slightly odd as well: whether it’s a side effect of manufacturing or the packaging, my Mosasaur appears slightly lopsided, as if the figure got squished slightly and stuck that way. This is a minor nitpick, of course, and kids aren’t going to notice when they’re snapping the toy’s mighty jaws over other hapless plastic victims (as an aside, the jaws on mine don’t perfectly shut either, in case you’re a stickler for those details).

The original Mosasaurus was painted light blue with silver streaks pattering the back. For its reissue, Mattel has given the Ocean Protector Mosasaurus a darker makeover, with a deep midnight-blue coloration for most of the body and a white jaw and underbelly for countershading. Faint white speckling dots the back and tail, giving the animal a faux sparkling appearance like a starry sky or glittering sea surface. The eyes are a light blue and the mouth is a muted pinkish-brown. Overall I’m tempted to say I like this color scheme better than the first; the starker contrast of body colors certainly lends to the figure’s intimidating aura.

If you missed out on the original release, there’s plenty to love about the Dino Escape/Ocean Protector Mosasaurus action figure; it’s big and fun, and makes for great play and display. The use of recycled plastic is a welcome touch for environmentally-conscious collectors to appreciate, and hopefully any of the minor quality-control issues I addressed are unique to my own copy. Mosasaurus is bound to steal the spotlight a few times again in the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion, so if you want your own mega marine lizard ready to go ahead of time, you can check your local Target and Meijer stores, or order online from their websites in addition to typical shops like Amazon.