Review and photos by Griffin
Dimetrodon is probably one of the most well known non dinosaur prehistoric creatures of all time. It lived during the early to middle Permian era way before any dinosaur and is actually more closely related to us mammals than it is to other kinds of reptiles. It would have been the ruler of its day and probably hunted such contemporaries as the fellow Pelycosaur, Edaphosaurus and the amphibians, Eryops and Diplocaulus.
Carnegie’s original model of Dimetrodon is one of the oldest sculpts in its collection. To be honest there is really nothing obviously scientifically inaccurate about it. The only issue that I have with it is the fact that it lacks a lot of detail. The feet are rather crudely sculpted and the mouth seems to be devoid of all teeth. This is especially sad since the famous fin back reptile is known for having exceptionally large pointy teeth. Heck, its name even means “two kinds of teeth”.
The colors are rather boring if you ask me. The whole body is the same dull green color with a little bit of pattern on the back and down the sides in the form of some darker green stripes and some gray blotches. I kind of wish its sail had some pattern too or maybe be a different color. The paint application is pretty terrible especially on the head. Like a lot of Carnegie’s older models, the color for the eye, which in this case is yellow, seems to encompass not only the eye itself, but some of the area around the eye as well. The mouth color is a dark gray and again, manages to be present not just in the mouth itself, but that whole general vicinity on the face as well.
When all is said and done, one needs to remember that this little guy is amongst Carnegie’s first dinosaur models, so one can’t really bash it too hard for its flaws. It was one of the first Carnegies I ever received as a gift from when I was a small child so it will always have a place in my heart. Another nice thing about it, unlike Carnegie’s newer Dimetrodon, is that it’s actually in 1:40 scale so it’s pretty tiny given the fact that the actual animal was about ten feet long. Don’t expect to find it too easily since it went out of production a while ago. There is always a chance to find it on ebay, however.
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Of course when these first came out the dominant company had been Marx (yes, I know they went oob 10 years or so earlier) and their philosophy had nothing to do with keeping everything in scale. The Invicta (1974) and subsequent Carnegie (1988) collections had as their selling points both larger size and everything in the same scale.
I loved those Dienonychus trios, btw.
I too would like to see PAPO produce a jaw-dropping Dimetrodon.
Not my choice, but nowadays things have evolved into true miniatures, so the choice is way bigger now.
I haven’t come across a dimetrodon in the quality of papo’s allosaur though.
That would be nice, because Dimetrodon is an icon in itself.
Great opportunity for e.g papo.
On the close-up of the head it appears that this model did have teeth at one point, but as the moulds degraded they didn’t bother painting them on anymore. You might bemoan the fact that it’s not in 1:40 scale, but the new sculpt is a LOT better. It wasn’t a contemporary of any of the other Carnegie line animals anyway. The sail on this one makes it look more like Edaphosaurus…
I don’t know if its the mold degrading since I got this model in like 1990. It was still fairly new at that point. I never said it was better than the new sculpt at all. Its just one strength it has. Being smaller (1:40) also means that its more affordable (not anymore of course but at the time). My parents were much happier to buy me this guy, protoceratops or deinonychus (which they did haha) than they were the Apato or rex (which they didn’t) lets just put it that way.
I don’t think the mold degraded but it was definitely retooled. I have an apparently earlier version with a much crisper sculpt and sharper paint application. But still no paint on the teeth. https://carnegiecollection.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-carnegie-collection-dimetrodon-1988.html?m=1
It’s fairly apparent why it is out of production. The feet look like clubs. Those early Carnegie figures were pretty crude when compared to contemporary Dinosaur toys. The Dienonychus trio went the same way this guy did and I miss them. I had never seen this figure before. Pretty cool.