Allosaurus (UKRD)

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Review and photographs by Funk, edited by Suspsy

The UKRD dinosaurs were mass-produced back in the early 1990s’, and don’t seem to be particularly sought after today, but some of them appear to have been inspired by John Sibbick’s palaeoart in David Norman’s 1985 Encyclopaedia of Dinosaurs, which I think makes them somewhat interesting. That also seems to be true for the subject of this review, the UKRD Allosaurus. As such, the figure is a standard retro theropod with the typical tripod pose, though the large, three-fingered hands help identify it as an Allosaurus rather than other well-known large theropods of the time.

For whatever reason, the lacrimal crests or horns in front of the eyes of Allosaurus were often depicted as mere bumps or brow ridges, which is the case for Sibbick’s artwork as well as for the toy, and I have never understood why this was the norm for so long. Some older artwork doesn’t even seem to acknowledge these horns at all, and make the head appear very generic and lizard-like. This trend seems to have been reversed at least by Gregory S. Paul in the late 1980s’, who drew the horns much closer to how they are shaped in the fossils (narrow and pointy rather than rounded mounds), as well as emphasising the nasal ridges running in front of them, which are another feature ignored in most earlier depictions.

The person who sculpted this toy certainly doesn’t seem to have used any fossil references, as the horn bumps in front of the eyes stop abruptly at the front, making them look like the blinkers used to limit the vision of a horse when the head is seen from the front or above. The nostrils are also shown as long, horizontal slits exactly as in the Sibbick artwork, and the deep set, hooded eyes are almost identical. The teeth are not individually sculpted, but indicated by lines.

Moving on to the body, the various wrinkles and creases on the skin match those of the Sibbick artwork rather well, and give this figure a natural-looking texture, but also makes its skin look a bit saggy. The head is turned to the right while the tail is curved to the left, which gives a dynamic look to the figure. Strangely enough, the hands aren’t pronated, but the palms actually face towards each other, as is now thought to be correct. In the Sibbick artwork, the left hand is pronated, but the right is not, so points go to the sculptor. Overall, the proportions of this toy match Allosaurus fairly well, although the tail seems too short and skinny. This is perhaps due to the perspective in the Sibbick artwork, which gives this misleading impression by virtue of the tail pointing away from the viewer.

As in other UKRD figures that appear to be based on Sibbick’s art, such as the Ankylosaurus, the colouration disregards said art, and the figure here is entirely orange, apart from a darker wash that fills the wrinkles of the skin, which makes them seem deeper. This entirely orange colouration strikes me as rather inappropriate for a large predator, which would presumably not want to be visible from a far distance, but I guess it can be excused by “just” being a toy for smaller children. Other than that, the teeth are painted white and the pupils are black.

So in conclusion, this figure is another toy that will probably be interesting mainly due to nostalgia (many people my age played with it as kids), but also due to its connection to a specific period in paleoart, and a specific piece of paleoart for that matter. The UKRD toys were made of very durable material; mine almost don’t seem to have weathered at all since I got them. So it is probably possible to get them in good condition for cheap online.