Abelisaurus, which joins the distinguished likes of Ankylosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, Mosasaurus, Plesiosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex in having an entire group of animals named after it, is presently known from only an incomplete skull. But based on what we have learned about other abelisaurs such as Rajasaurus, Majungasaurus, and, of course, Carnotaurus, we have a reasonably good idea of what Abelisaurus looked like: a stocky brute with a boxy head, muscle-bound legs, and itsy-bitsy arms.
Meet Martin the Abelisaurus, courtesy of PNSO. He is posed with his powerful tail swinging to the left, his right foot forward, and his head raised high, as though he is staring up at one of the huge titanosaurs that inhabited Patagonia alongside him during the Cretaceous more than 80 million years ago. This gives him a height of 4 cm and a length of 8.5 cm. Like all other miniature PNSO theropods, his mouth is sculpted shut.
Martin’s main colours are medium orange and orange-yellow with a grey underbelly, black stripes, a darkened muzzle, and yellow eyes. This gives him a very tiger-like appearance, fitting for any predatory dinosaur. There is a solid black patch over his right eye, which is quite possibly a factory error, but I choose to think that it gives him a bit of character. His rocky base is orange-yellow airbrushed with muddy grey. Unfortunately, Martin’s feet have been airbrushed as well. You could interpret this as his feet being muddy, but I do wish a little more care was taken with the painting of these miniatures. The grey on his underbelly is also rather sloppily applied.
Happily, no complaints can be made about Martin’s sculpting. His skin texture is a fine combination of wrinkles and scales and his legs and tail are appropriately beefy. His arms look fairly large by abelisaur standards, but they’re a definite improvement from the oversized ones on Seia the Majungasaurus. His head features sculpted teeth, but they’re unpainted and nearly impossible to see unless you look very closely under a good light source. It should also be pointed out that Martin’s head looks to be a little too short compared to the real deal.
Overall, I’m very fond of Martin the Abelisaurus, although I freely admit that, as with Yiyi the Yi qi, at least some of that affection has to with the fact that his species is sorely underrepresented in the world of prehistoric toys. His paint job could be better, but he’s a solid purchase that you are unlikely to regret. In closing, I will say that, considering how impressive PNSO’s recent larger products have been, it would be really terrific if they made an upsized version of Martin. Fingers crossed!
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Love the blog idea, keep it up!