Review and photos by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy.
In 2016, I moved from the hot and humid deciduous forests of Georgia to the hot and dry high deserts of Utah. It wasn’t a stark change for me, though, as I grew up in the hotter and drier Sonoran Desert of Arizona.
Pop quiz: which Upper Jurassic dinosaur from the famous Morrison Formation of North America had two rows of large plates on its back and four long spikes on its tail? I reckon the majority of respondents would immediately say that the answer is Stegosaurus, and of course, they wouldn’t be wrong.
Now here’s something unprecedented from Mattel. No, not a prehistoric pseudosuchian most people have never heard of. Mattel likes those, and this is that too. What makes this one unique is that it represents an animal that lived during the Cenozoic. The era immediately following the Mesozoic and the one in which we’re currently living.
The release of genera such as Metriacanthosaurus, Concavenator, and Irritator in the Hammond Collection line was initially met with controversy. Some collectors were excited to see non-canonical dinosaurs join the prestigious Hammond Collection while others were dismayed, hoping the dinosaurs seen in the films would be given priority.
Protoceratops is a staple of classic dinosaur multimedia. What the “first horned face” lacks in size and ornamentation when compared to later ceratopsian relatives, it makes up for with excellent preservation in the fossil record, its discovery dating back to the Central Asiatic Expeditions of the early 1900s.
The late Cretaceous tyrannosauroid, Dryptosaurus, is a historically significant genus that due to the fragmentary nature of its preserved material has been largely forgotten and ignored. Dryptosaurus aquilunguis was one of the first theropods ever discovered and the first theropod discovered in the Americas.
This fine set of little Battat precursors from Gregory Wenzel has aged impressively well, and any collector who’s found a chance to own the set should find these a delight.
Back in the 1990s, Safari ltd. was still a bold newcomer on the collectibles stage; with their success on the Carnegie Collection line, the company began exploring additional means to grow their brand.
Before we get on with the review, let’s all have a moment of silence for the now extinct Amber Collection. Honestly, I always had my reservations about the Amber Collection and never bothered to get invested in it. I always thought that Mattel should stick with the 3.75” line, and that it was unlikely that anything larger than a Velociraptor would ever be seen in a 6” line.
After the frustration surrounding this toy’s original release, Mattel has provided collectors their best chance yet to add the Jurassic Park super-predator to their collection.
I think we can all agree that Mattel has been doing a solid job with the Jurassic World brand.
