Triceratops (2022)(Deluxe by CollectA)

Tolerance and understanding mean little to the bitty brain of a belligerent brawler like Donnybrook. So naturally, when he happened upon a nesting group of edmontosaurs, he thought nothing of blundering directly through their midst instead of diverting around them. The females sitting next to their nests honked in anger and alarm, yet he merely bellowed back at them and waved his menacing head. But then the larger males rose to their feet and approached him, rearing up on their hind legs and honking even louder. The bout was on! 

The nearest male unleashes with a combination of quick jabs to the frill, but Donnybrook swings his head in a full force hook and the palooka tastes dirt! It’s a flash knockdown, however, and as the first opponent struggles to get back to his feet, a second one lands a hard southpaw to Donnybrook’s ribs! Donnybrook retaliates with a double horn uppercut that sends the second male backpedaling in pain and gushing from the chest! But now a third edmontosaur, the biggest one yet, swings his tail with all his might to land one helluva haymaker right to Donnybrook’s nose, fracturing bone and sending him spinning! The edmontosaur doesn’t let up, delivering a second haymaker to Donnybrook’s hip! More males are closing in, including the two injured ones, and boy, are they ever blue in the face now! It’s all Donnybrook can do to turn tail and stagger off in defeat before going down for the count! 

Bitty though Donnybrook’s brain may be, he knows now not to pull that stunt again . . . 

Is it that time again already? By golly, it is! It’s yet another milestone in my DTB ”career”: Review #250! And my subject this time is CollectA’s 2022 Deluxe Triceratops, whom I’ve affectionately named Donnybrook. He’s a much needed replacement for the original Deluxe toy that was first released back in 2010 and then repainted for 2012. But how does he measure up against other recent renditions of the most famous of all ceratopsians? Read on and see.

First off, Donnybrook is considerably larger than most other Triceratops figures. From the front of his beak to the end of his tail, he measures around 29 cm long and stands 13 cm tall at the tips of his brow horns. He is sculpted in a fluid walking pose with his right front leg stepping forward, his right hind leg extended back, his great head raised high and tilting slightly to the right, and the tip of his tail pointing to the left. He looks proud, confident, and strong, and certainly not a beast to be trifled with. Triceratops, along with all other herbivorous dinosaurs from Parasaurolophus to Patagotitan, is frequently perceived and depicted as being peaceful and loathe to violence, but if the modern animal kingdom is any indication, that’s a load of romantic bunk. Elephants, rhinos, hippos, buffalo, bison, and moose have attacked, injured, and killed far more humans than lions, tigers, bears, hyenas, wolves, and crocodilians. They will also not hesitate to attack one another should they feel angered or threatened. Mesozoic herbivores were probably no different. Camarasaurus could have used its superior size to bully Camptosaurus and Stegosaurus out of the way at a watering hole, Euoplocephalus could have crossed clubs with Scolosaurus over a ripe berry patch, and Edmontosaurus parents could have fiercely defend their nesting ground against an intruding Triceratops as in the opening vignette. And absolutely none of these animals would have taken kindly to a time-travelling human seeking to pet them or take a selfie.

The main colour on Donnybrook’s body is light brown with an airbrushed white underbelly. Medium brown stripes run from his neck to the end of his tail, along with some subtle dull brown patches. His claws are flat grey and there’s also some flat grey wash applied to his lower limbs and tail. Black is used for the filaments on his rump and for certain of the osteoderms dotting his hide.

The front part of Donnybrook’s head is medium brown with dark grey for his horns and beak and glossy black for his eyes. Streaks of light brown and white run horizontally from his beak to his frill, which is done up in alternating streaks light brown and white with black osteoderms and epoccipitals. Finally, his teeth are beige and his tongue is pink. Some have referred to this toy as the ”cookies and cream” Triceratops, and it’s easy to see why. Me, I like the colour scheme overall. What I don’t like, however, is that the black paint on the osteoderms has been applied rather poorly, with some applications on the left side having missed their targets entirely. It’s also a bit odd how there are more black osteoderms on the right side. But worst of all is the fact that the tongue is only partially painted and the inside of the mouth has not been painted, period. I do hope that this is merely an unfortunate fluke and not the norm.

Speaking of the mouth, Donnybrook is the second ceratopsian from CollectA to feature an articulated lower jaw, the first one being the Deluxe Protoceratops. But whereas that one could open its mouth fairly wide, Donnybrook’s only opens slightly. And given the aforementioned lack of paint inside the mouth, I prefer to keep it shut anyway. There’s also some visible seam lines on the throat, which wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for the articulated jaw.

And now let’s address what I suspect is the most divisive characteristic about this toy: the speculative single row of filaments running from the top of Donnybrook’s hips to halfway down his tail. CollectA has been putting these filaments on all of their ceratopsians for a decade now, and frankly, it’s pretty understandable given how prevalent they are in paleoart. We know for a fact that Psittacosaurus possessed filaments, and it strikes me as very possible that other small and basal ceratopsians like Aquilops and Yinlong had them as well. Perhaps the same even went for much younger small ceratopsians like Leptoceratops. But if you wish to deal strictly in terms of hard evidence, then the plain and simple fact of the matter is that there really isn’t any whatsoever to indicate that Triceratops, Styracosaurus, Einiosaurus, or any other ceratopsids possessed filaments on their rear ends. At least not at the present time. This debate is unlikely to ever die out, not unless some remarkable future fossil discovery settles it once and for all (and I wouldn’t hold my breath on that). In the mean time, while I personally prefer my ceratopsid toys without filaments, I’m also willing to look past the ones on Donnybrook and his CollectA brethren. It’s up to you to make up your decision about them.

Donnybrook can easily be recognized as a specimen of Triceratops horridus thanks to his relatively small, triangular nasal horn. The other, younger species, T. prorsus, had a bigger, more curved nasal horn (and is sorely underrepresented in the world of prehistoric toys). His twin brow horns are long, forward-facing, curving upward at the tips, majestic, and quite formidable-looking. His frill, which despite its size is proportionally one of the shortest of all the chasmosaurine ceratopsids, is lined with small epocippitals with rounded tips. There are also rows of small round osteoderms running across the front surface of the frill, which I believe is something we haven’t seen on a Triceratops toy before. The skin texture on the head consists of fine rounded scales that vary in size from small ones on the muzzle to larger ones on the frill. The horns and beak have faint, minimal grooves in them. I much prefer smoother ceratopsian horns like these as opposed to overtextured ones like on the Papo and Mattel Hammond Collection versions.

The skin texture on Donnybrook’s torso is even more elaborate. The rounded scales covering the underbelly, the tail, and the lower sections of the limbs are relatively uniform, but the ones on the upper limb sections and the flanks vary greatly in terms of size. Some are very small, some are medium, some are large and roughly hexagonal, and some large hexagonal scales have raised projections in the centre. Kind of like nipples for lack of a more familiar comparison. These scale patterns are based on direct fossil evidence. Many of you have probably heard of the ‘Lane’ Triceratops specimen, whose skin impressions are just like Donnybrook’s. Another specimen now housed at the Melbourne Museum in Australia is said to be 87% complete and includes similar skin impressions.

It is also worth noting that the Eofauna and the most recent Wild Safari Triceratops toys also boast similar skin textures, but of the three, Donnybrook’s really is the most elaborately sculpted. It certainly helps that he’s significantly larger than those other two. Size really does matter in this regard.

Donnybrook’s limbs are stout and muscular, and more importantly, terminate in anatomically correct feet. The hind feet have four digits, all of them with rounded claws, while the front ones have five digits with claws only on the first, second, and third one. Moreover, the tiny fifth digit is visibly raised off the ground so that it wouldn’t leave any imprint as the animal walks. Such details may be small, but they do mean a lot to ceratopsian lovers.

It’s been noted here on the DTB many, many times already, but CollectA really has come a very long way since their inception. Donnybrook the Deluxe Triceratops is definitely their best ceratopsian yet. Sure, his articulated jaw and his filaments are bound to be divisive points, but other than that, I find him to be magnificent. The sculpting detail on his body is truly top notch and a prime example of a company paying close attention to the most recent fossil findings. On top of that, his sheer size guarantees shelf presence. To be honest, when this toy was first revealed last November, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted another Triceratops in my collection, but I am very happy now to own it. 🙂

And that wraps up Review #250. As always, I wish to extend my thanks to all followers of the Dinosaur Toy Blog and to my dear follow reviewers and the owner Adam S. Smith. It is as much of a pleasure now as it was at the very beginning to be here. Onward now to Review #300!