Review and photos by Takama, edited by Dinotoyblog
With Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom now available on home media, I decided to review another mini dinosaur from the film’s toy line. This time it’s Baryonyx, a dinosaur I grew to like thanks to its big screen debut in the movie. The Baryonyx in the film was not very accurate, however, an illustration of the creature appeared on the first Jurassic World website back in 2015, which had a much more accurate appearance. Interestingly, the creators of JW:FK toy line at Mattel seem to have opted to base their replicas on this illustration, while keeping the colors of the film depiction.
The Mattel Mini Action Dino Baryonyx is a decent little replica of the species and one of my favorite minis. In terms of accuracy it is not too bad, though there really is not too much to talk about. The skull looks like that of the real animal, complete with a notch in the upper jawline, and that’s about as much as you can ask for from a toy of this size from a line made for movie that never really cared about scientific accuracy. While on I’m on the skull I should mention that it appears to be shrink wrapped. Moving on down the body, the hands do have the animal’s signature ‘fish hook claws’ but they’re not elongated. Instead they appear to be moulded as if they were big fat fingers. Moving on down the legs we can see that the toy also suffers from ‘clown foot syndrome’, but I imagine that the figure would have a tough time standing if they were more accurately sized.
There are not many details to talk about. Like its ‘Roarivores’ counterpart, the back is decked out with crocodile-like scutes. The bottom of the figure has some tiny scales sculpted on, and the articulated jaw has a tongue sculpted onto it. When it comes to colors, only four are present on the entire model. The bottom of the figures is painted in a light grey, while the middle part of the figure is painted in a dark grey, and the back of the figure is painted in a dark blue. The only other color present on the figure is in the eyes, and they are simply black spots.
Overall, this is an okay replica of the real Baryonyx animal, but an inaccurate replica of its movie counterpart. It is one of three spinosaurs in the entire Minis collection and was only released as a part of the first series of models, which are getting harder to find after the release of the second and third series. Fortunately, this figure is available in the same three pack that contains the Ankylosaurus I recently reviewed, and it may even pop up on Ebay and Amazon individually from time to time.
Disclaimer: links to Ebay and Amazon on the DinoToyBlog are affiliate links, so we make a small commission if you use them. Thanks for supporting us!