Mattel isn’t the only company producing Jurassic World toys and for this review we’re changing things up and introducing Captivz by ToyMonster to the blog. The Jurassic World Captivz are blind bag style toys originally released in Australia that started showing up in the US a couple years ago, with their Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous set. They’re packaged in a plastic egg with a bag of slime, figurine, checklist, and token with the toy’s battle stats. Thankfully the slime and toy come packaged separately, so you don’t have to fish the figure out of there and clean it off.
I don’t normally get into blind bag toys. In fact, I kind of hate them. But I decided to get a few of these and give them a try, kind of hoping I might find a Lystrosaurus. There are some other decent ones too, like the Quetzalcoatlus and Pyroraptor, so I figured my odds were good enough. I ended up with the Dimetrodon and I consider that a win. I also got the Giganotosaurus (meh) and a glow-in-the-dark Parasaurolophus that I wasn’t particularly thrilled with. You win some, you lose some. At least I didn’t get a repeat and my daughter really likes the slime. We’re going to look at the Dimetrodon, the best of my particular lot.
The Captivz figures, known as Pop N Lock Dinos, require some assembly. The tail is unattached in this case. They’re about as close to Kaiyodo/gashapon style dinosaurs as you’re going to find in the United States. Upon inspection I was initially surprised by the quality of the plastic used and the attention to detail, both of which are far superior to the Mattel Jurassic World minis. The plastic is somewhat rigid with a small degree of give and not at all brittle.
The figure has some nice detail work, including defined spines along the back to support the sail, five distinct digits on each limb, and miniscule, differentiated teeth. There are nice skin folds and creases along the limb joints and torso and rows of scutes run along the back. Overall, these little Captivz are far more realistic and screen accurate than any Mattel toy.
The paint job on these figures is admirable too. Probably better than they rightfully should be. There is no obvious paint runoff or bad application. This Dimetrodon is mottled brown with a dark brown back. The sail is red with darker red bands running across it horizontally. The inside of the mouth is pink, teeth white, and eyes black.
Measured down the back and around the curve of the tail this Dimetrodon is about 4” in length. If we scale the figure down from a length of 13’ it comes out at about 1/40 in scale, making this Dimetrodon a great option for the scale conscious collector.
Although the creature designs in Jurassic World: Dominion are hit and miss the Dimetrodon proved to be decent enough that a figure of it is still worth seeking out, even if you didn’t like the movie itself. All the better if you do like the movies though, as the rest of the figures are all pretty faithful to their on-screen counterparts.
This figure is part of the Jurassic World: Dominion set from last year but I’m still seeing these Dominion Captivz in stores. If you’re not the gambling type and just want the Dimetrodon you’ll have to head off to eBay where they seem to go for about $10. That’s about the same price as two Captivz eggs with the added guarantee of getting what you want.
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These are so much nicer than the Mattel minis. The drawbacks, as you point out, are that they’re blind-packed and that they come with a bunch of unnecessary stuff that will end up in the landfill. I ended up buying the few that I have from eBay because I figured it would cost less than trying to get them by gambling on eggs at retail.
Not bad for a small figure!