Rugops (Jurassic World: Ferocious Pack by Mattel)

Review and photos by PrimevalRaptor, edited by Suspsy

Since obtaining the Jurassic World license, Mattel has been pumping out a lot of figures in their toyline for the series, bringing a fresh wind into the dinosaur toy market especially over here in Germany where shelves usually are dominated by Schleich models. Apart from the classic species like Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus, and company, Mattel also has added–to the delight of collectors such as myself–a good amount of rarely represented (or even never made before) dinosaurs to their roster, some of which are quite fragmentary. So when the first leaks and reveals for the Dominion releases came in and this feathered, two-fingered theropod was included, many of us were puzzled about its identity at first. Apart from the skull it would seem to be a small tyrannosaur, right?

As it turns out, no. Our mystery theropod is none other than the small abelisaurid Rugops from the Late Cretaceous of Africa, famous for coexisting with large theropods such as Spinosaurus. Named in 2004, Rugops is known only from a partial skull and is estimated to have reached a size of around 5 metres in length. It may have had a weak bite, leading to theories about it being a scavenger. The only other toys of it besides this one here are the 2010 CollectA model seen below and some electronic toy not in my possession.

So, more on the Mattel Rugops itself. Released in 2022 as part of the Ferocious Pack line that replaced the Attack Packs, it’s around 18 cm long and around 7 cm tall at the hip, making it a fairly small figure at roughly 1:30 scale. The body is covered in small scales and, yes, feathers (more on that later) with larger scales on the feet and what looks to be a keratinous crest on top of the skull. The head itself is probably a highlight on this figure, being quite detailed, showing why Rugops earned its name which means “wrinkle face.”

The general color is an olive green and the only other color is black, covering the upper jaw and parts of the neck, back, and tail, and also some small black dots along the lower jaw, neck, and limbs. Certainly not an exciting color scheme but I suppose it works well enough for a small theropod. The orange eyes feature round pupils, the teeth are white and a bit of color bleeds over on the sides of the tongue on my Rugops. The mouth is colored in a slightly darkish red with the roof unpainted. Claws on the hands and feet are unpainted as well.

As usual for Mattel toys, the Rugops features a decent amount of articulation. The jaws can open, the head can swivel around, and the limbs and tail rotate, allowing for a good amount of posing and playing options. As a Ferocious Pack figure, it features the usual DNA code that can be pulled out from its back. It does stand out a fair bit when viewed from above or the left side, but not nearly as bad as the battle damage on other figures in my opinion.

So, now let’s talk about the elephant in the room: accuracy. Starting off with the good things, the head itself certainly feels like it belongs to an abelisaurid; it has that somewhat boxy shape, though looking at the skull of Rugops, it could probably be a bit more rounded at the tip and also more slender when looking at it from above. The keratinous crest is a nice touch since the fossils imply such a structure, however it should be two and not just a single one. The teeth as well as the feet are very oversized. At least for the feet, that’s usually for stability, although my Rugops still has a tendency to fall over due to one leg being slightly warped. But looking at other people’s images, this seems to be a rare issue and nothing that can’t be fixed with a bit of hot water. The neck and body could maybe be a bit more slender, but in itself, the silhouette is that of an abelisaur, with one or two exceptions, of course.

Which brings me to the weird decisions on this toy. First off, the arms. Abelisaurids are famous for their short arms that could even give T. rex a run for their money and yet, toy companies always seem to have a few, ahem, shortcomings with them. The arms on this Rugops are way too long and the forearm bones should be heavily reduced. And while abelisaurids are known for having four digits on their hand, this figure here weirdly enough only has two.

Then there’s the feathers. I’m personally always glad to see different integument interpretations, but there is something funny about having scaly coelurosaurids in the same line as a feathered abelisaurid. After all skin impressions from Carnotaurus show small scales mixed with larger bumps and no hint of feathers. Of course, one species being scaly doesn’t mean we can safely say all abelisaurids were scaly, but at the time of writing this review, the available evidence points to abelisaurids not being feathered. So how did those weird inaccuracies come to be? Did InGen mess around with hybrids again? Dinotoyforum member Flaffy actually might have found a more mundane explanation for this bizarre reconstruction: Among the online search results for Rugops, there are at least two feathered models that, from certain angles do give the impression of the animal only having two fingers and a singular crest. So it seems the sculptor may just have chosen that one as their reference.

So, now for my general verdict. You may think that I dislike this model after this review showcasing its fair share of issues, but the truth is that I do actually like it. Yes, the color scheme is far from exciting and yes, if you’re looking for an accurate Rugops you may be better off trying to track down the CollectA one, which may not be perfect, but at least has the correct amount of digits and no feathers.

But still, there is a certain charm to this model, slightly reminiscent of the old Chap Mei models and it is a fun toy itself. And personally, I am also really glad that Mattel is giving us so many rarely represented species. Usually, a company will release Carnotaurus and be done with it in terms of abelisaurids, but in 2022 alone, Mattel has given us Rugops, Rajasaurus, Skorpiovenator, and soon Quilmesaurus as well (the last one still puzzles me cause it’s only known from leg bones). Of course, those are no museum quality models and they’re far from perfect, but you still gotta hand it to Mattel. It’s nice that this interesting group of theropods finally gets some time in the spotlight. Let’s just hope that if they make more, they’ll look at more references. You can currently find the Rugops anywhere where Jurassic World toys are sold.