Velociraptor (Procon/CollectA)

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Review and photos by Nathan Morris (‘Takama’). Edited by Plesiosauria.

Velociraptor is a true staple when it comes to dinosaurs. It has appeared in countless books and visual media, which has caused almost every toy company to produce one at some point in their lifetime. Unfortunately, almost every company churned out another scaly and outdated lizard-like creature. A good example would be CollectA’s earliest reconstruction of the Velociraptor.

CollectA was started by Procon back in the 2006 under the name of ‘Nature’s Wonders’. The Natures Wonders collection had up to 40 different animal figures and six of them were CollectA’s first ever dinosaurs: Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, T. rex, Velociraptor, Triceratops, and Pteranodon. They were a mixed bag in terms of quality. Of CollectA’s first six, only the Stegosaurus and Pteranodon were fairly decent in my opinion. The Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops and Brachiosaurus were flawed abominations that appear to have popped out of some child’s cartoon, and the Velociraptor is an obviously copy of the Jurassic Park characters, only with a duller color scheme and a more cutesy caricature.

Right off the bat, you can clearly see the parts where Jurassic Park was an influence, from the Deinonychus-like head, down to its ver sized ‘bunny hands’ and bare-naked body. Anatomically it is awfully close to the Papo reconstruction – the only difference would be that the CollectA version three times smaller and not as well detailed. The first claw of the foot, which is incorrectly placed right above the ankles (and makes it look like a little bony protrusion coming out of the back of the leg). The tail, which is in a mild upward curve that could break the animals vertebra if it were alive today. The pose is nothing really exciting but I find it very cute. It is crouched down with the end of its tail touching the ground, and its mouth wide open as if letting out a not so “terrifying growl”. Because of its small size I think of it as a cute little baby raptor crying out to its mommy. Come to think of it, CollectA’s Deluxe Velociraptor could work as its mother, and the lack of feathers could mark it as a newborn hatchling.

The colors are disappointing with this figure. The base color is a basic light grey and is crudely highlighted with several little white lines. The claws are the usual black that you see in dinosaur figures, the eyes are yellow, and the teeth are as clean as a blank sheet of paper – no discoloured trace of its last meal – a common mistake.

All in all, this is just another average Jurassic Park inspired Velociraptor. The only difference is that it is very small. It is widely available online on both Amazon and eBay, and can go under the name of Nature’s Wonders at a cheaper price. The figure is identical under both names so it makes no difference if you buy it under either brand.