Geosternbergia (Jurassic World Legacy Collection)

Mattel has serious distribution problems going as far back as 2004. I collect Batman figures, and I am also a completist, if you haven’t noticed. The final few waves of the Comic Book style Batman series, as well as some figures from The Batman were only released on Europe, and sometimes in Latin America. They were often the best, too. Why do I bring this up? Because Mattel also left out the best or more interesting Jurassic World stuff out of the USA from some reason or another. The Destruct-A-Saur series from the initial Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom figures seemed to be destined for Latin America, and some parts of the Southwestern United States albeit in a very limited quantity. I reviewed their Pteranodon here. The much awaited Legacy Spinosaurus was only ever seen in Europe. And European folx do not get to enjoy Target Exclusives like the Amber Collection, Hammond Collection, and the Legacy Collection, with some exceptions. This is why collectors like I, Emperor Dinobot, often end up shelling out large amounts of money for animals that are certainly not worth the price. The Legacy Geosternbergia, bundled up with the JPIII Female Velociraptor never made it state-side, and after being told to be patient and to keep waiting, I ran out of patience and ended up buying the figure on AliExpress for $60. Thankfully I had a coupon, but this figure is worth less that a fourth of that. Shall we?

Mine was imported from Asia, so the packaging is different from what we would have gotten in the United States, which would have been standard international packaging in English, Spanish and French. Being a loose collector, I got rid of the packaging, and I don’t know if that was a mistake or not. Oh well, it’s not like I plan to sell them.

I thought this was a retool of the other smaller Pteranodon figures from earlier Mattel lines, but this is a completely new mold. The Dominion Legacy line has consisted mostly in retools that have the scan tag on a tab, or different action features, but it also gave us Kosmoceratops, and now this. Completely new molds! This fact alone should give this figure an extra star.

The colors are nice. The wings are cast in a light cream yellow, with brown stripes on the top. The left wing has a tab that flips open to reveal the scan code for the Dinosaur Facts app. It is a bit large, and it was just like that on the Dsungaripterus, and now on the Tupandactylus, which I hope to review soon. Pushing the button makes the wings flap. I would have preferred if they had been ball-jointed like the two I mentioned just now. The body is cast in blue, and it does have the pycnofibers sculpted on the back, which is something the Hammond Collection did not have. But that is where all the fun ends. The jaws have teeth, and this is unacceptable because the pre-production art, and the final shot show that the Pteranodon from The Lost World did not have teeth. They were added in Jurassic Park III. This is not something you just overlook. The HC Geosternbergia, and this figure were released at the same time. It should not have teeth, unless they did a slight remold/re-tool of the smaller Pteranodon figures to raise of the crest. But it looks like a new mold that sadly comes with teeth. This is easily the worst part of an otherwise good toy. It removes everything positive I said about it, and removes not one, but three stars, including the extra one I gave it earlier.

I don’t know why they do this. I know that the HC team is different from the main-line theme, but these animals should be better researched, I mean, they went the extra step and gave it the name Geosternbergia, when it should have been Pteranodon, as I explained here. These were the Pteranodon for The Lost World, and they did NOT HAVE TEETH. Why do they do this? Why do they add teeth to taxa that did not have teeth, and when the Universal figure did have teeth, they remove it? I don’t know. I spent TOO MUCH on this figure because someone at Mattel said they were better for the non US international market, or maybe Target did not want them in their stores because the pegs were full of Legacy stuff (they were not, the final Legacy dinosaurs consisting of Velociraptor, Gallimimus and Dilophosaurus were very uncommon, and usually hidden behind other figures). Good thing I am going to hang it on the ceiling so I don’t have to deal with it or look at its jaws again. Now I will proceed to drop a kidney or two for the JPIII Female Velociraptor on Aliexpress, which is where I found the Pteranodon at a somewhat better price than places like ebay, where it is not even listed.

Don’t forget to scan the code if for some reason you absolutely have to buy this figure. I bet a $10 bill they’ll show up in Target soon. Or not.

Oh no, even the computer graphics image model has teeth on the so called “facts” app. I am so done.