Review and photo by Tomhet, edited by Dinotoyblog.
The Battat Acrocanthosaurus is almost impossible to find nowadays. But there’s a good reason for that: it’s a beautiful replica that puts to shame almost any other version. Chronologically speaking, the Acrocanthosaurus is an appropiate choice for Battat. In 1996, the first reconstructed skeleton of this early Cretaceous theropod (known as ‘Fran’) was unveiled. The Battat version, dated 1996 too, is clearly based on that reconstruction.
The Acrocanthosaurus’ solid body is mostly dark green, with a black pattern on its back. The arms are completely black, too. The claws have a discreet tone of grey, while the eyes are fiery red. The mouth, however, has a very curious shade of purple. Whether the Acrocanthosaurus was an Allosaurid or a Spinosaurid, nobody knows for sure, the debate rages still. But the Battat version does resemble a Spinosaurid because of its long snout. The teeth are delicate, just like the tongue and facial expression. The skin has the trademark Battat wrinkles, which makes it very realistic.
I think the strange sail is the notorious feature of this theropod. Battat’s version has its sail well hidden beneath the skin, which makes this replica unique (unlike Carnegie’s, whose sail is rather crude) Perhaps the only bad thing about it is that the front part of the body is too massive, so it seems a bit disproportionate and it always falls on its snout without proper support. Even so, ‘Fran’ ranks high among my favourites. I really hope some other company re-releases the whole Battat set. This toy is no longer in production, but sometimes become available from www.ebay.com
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A very nice figure. 🙂
Here in Brazil, a collection with model and bonus magazine came out, and some were poor cousins of models you’ve posted. I’ve got this Acrocanthosaurus, only he’s gray, and a bit cruder, with “stubby” ends and all.
What is most weird is that it actually has a great ballance! It rarely falls – I guess the really, really short legs have something to do with that.
The problem with the Battat bipedal dinosaurs is not in the molds, but in quality control. As reported in the Realm of Rubber Dinosaurs website in the Battat section, many of the dinos were taken out of their molds too early, before the rubber had a chance to set properly. This caused warpage in the legs, and even slight leg warpage in the bipedal dinos meant that they would not stand up properly. I have a Battat Acrocanthosaurus and Ceratosaurus that stand up perfectly on their two legs, and the models are perfectly balanced. On the other hand I also have a Battat T-Rex version 3 that does NOT stand up on its own, because the legs are warped (and almost ALL version 3’s stand up on their own). I also have several Battat Pachycephalosauruses, some of them stand on their two feet perfectly without the tail touching the ground, but most have badly warped legs and only stand because the tail touches the ground. Needless to say this warpage problem is hardly ever seen in other company’s dinos – ie Safari, Schleich, Bullyland, Kinto, Papo and Toyway. If another company like Safari ever bought up the old Battat molds and re-released them, then we’d see these fine dinosaurs like they were meant to be seen.
^^^ Yes, thanks for your correction, I forgot to edit that part. Truth be told, I have found out that only dated books considered it a Spinosaurid, since the skeleton had not been mounted at the time. Though I still think it’s too early to say what this beauty really was.
> Whether the Acrocanthosaurus was an
> Allosaurid or a Spinosaurid, nobody > knows for sure, the debate rages
> still.
I think it was either a very late and very derived allosaurid, or an early and basal carcharodontosaurid. Allosaurs are the ancestors of charcharodontosaurs, so perhaps *Acrocanthosaurus* should be considered a transitional form between those two groups. In any case, it seems to have been the ancestor of the giant South American carcharodontosaurids like Giganotosaurus. Giant carnosaurs like allosaurs and carchs disappeared in Laurasia in the mid K, tyrannosaurs took over the apex predator niche there. Perhaps this happened because the carnosaurs favourite prey, sauropods, had become rare. Both giant sauropods and giant carnosaurs survived, however, in South America.
It’s a shame these are so hard to find nowdays. They’re beautiful. Very accurate, even by today’s standards, 10 years later! These guys knew what they were doing.