Allosaurus (Wild Safari by Safari Ltd.)

Buy on

Buy on

Buy on

This little Allosaurus comes from Safari’s ‘Wild Safari’ line which, although not intended as a museum-quality line (and not set to a certain scale), has seen a huge leap in the quality of its prehistoric creature toys in recent years. Models like this one, the Stegosaurus, Dunkleosteus and Postosuchus have become very popular with collectors as they feature excellent detailing at a very low price. At about 20cm long, it’s around 1:50 scale. (I hope you enjoy the cute little volcano-display thing – a piece of prime eBay tat.)

Yes, this toy is a tripod – it is rearing up slightly and leans on a point near the end of its tail. In this respect it is reminiscent of some of the Carnegie-line theropods, such as Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus (the Carnegie Allosaurus being more upright), and it could be worse. It is possible, much as with the WS Dilophosaurus, to stand the toy on a shelf on two legs with its tail hanging over the edge, clear of the ground – maybe they share the same sculptor. Said tail is perhaps a little too long, although everything else is quite well proportioned. It’s a little irritating to see that the large Allosaurus thumb has been missed again, but it’s not a big deal. At least the palms are facing each other.

One of the best features of this model is the head, which features sculpted nostrils, ear holes, small horns (highlighted in yellow), fenestrae and tiny, tiny black eyes (complete with eyelids, which make the eyes look larger in the photos). It’s great to see a model in which the externally visible eye doesn’t engulf the whole orbit. The scales are individually sculpted here too. The detail is fantastic, if a little let down by a slightly sloppy paint job – although you can hardly blame the poor souls who probably have to paint scores of these things in a day…

The rest of the body features scales, wrinkles and skin folds. The muscles are well-defined and the legs are very birdlike. All the claws are painted black, including on the hallux toes. Unfortunately the colour scheme on the body is otherwise a bit of a letdown – it’s rather uninspired, featuring only graduating greens. Naturalistic maybe, but a bit bland, especially when compared with the WS Stegosaurus. For those who are so inclined, this would be a prime candidate for a repaint.

Overall a great model for the price that really shows up the Carnegie version (scale this up a bit, Carnegie sculptors, and you’re pretty much done!). It’s also still readily available from your local Safari seller (or favoured website, if you are unfortunate enough to live in Europe as I do). When will I ever get to write a negative review? One day…

Review & photos by Marc (‘Horridus’) with apologies for the page layout…

Available from Safari.com (here) and Amazon.com (here)