One of my favorite figures in the Mattel Jurassic World line to this day has been the 2019 Dino Rivals Amargasaurus. Strangely it has yet to receive a review for the blog here in all this time (short of the mini I took a look at in 2023), so here I am to rectify that. Despite the abundance of sauropods in the line now, when this first released in 2019, they were only just getting started then, with this figure, the Legacy Collection Brachiosaurus, and the Attack Pack Mussaurus (technically a sauropodomorph, rather than a sauropod proper, but still worth mentioning). The Amargasaurus was part of the second wave of Mega Dual Attack figures, and its wave-mate was the Quetzalcoatlus.
Amargasaurus cazaui is one of my favorite sauropods, and that’s in part from its iconic pair of long spines running down its neck. Of course like many things in paleontology, there has been quite a bit of back and forth on rather they formed sails or not. Before addressing that, it’s worth giving a brief rundown on the history. It was first named in 1991, the year I was born, by Leonardo Salgado and José F. Bonaparte, though the fossil material (a near complete skeleton) was initially discovered several years prior, in 1984 by Guillermo Rougier on an expedition led by Bonaparte (this same expedition also yielded Carnotaurus, albeit from the La Colonia Formation). The genus name is in reference to the locality it was discovered in, the La Amarga Arroyo located in the Neuquén Province of Argentina. This locality shares the name of the Early Cretaceous formation where it hails from, the La Amarga Formation. The species name is in tribute to Luis B. Cazau for his contributions regarding the formation. The La Amarga Formation was home to several other sauropods (Amargatitanis, Zapalasaurus), other dinosaurs (theropod Ligabueino, and an unnamed stegosaur), and other animals (crocodylomorph Amargasuchus, an unnamed pterosaur, and mammal Vincelestes). Amargasaurus is also in the family Dicraeosauridae, which was named after the genus Dicraeosaurus from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania.
As far as the spines goes, Salgado and Bonaparte first postulated that they were used for defensive purposes (but possibly as a social structure to intimidate or impress). In 1994 Gregory S. Paul suggested they would have been covered by horn covering and formed spikes, not sails. Jack Bailey in 1997 suggested they could have formed sails, or a bison-like hump. By 2007 Schwarz et al suggested the spines did not support sail structures, but were covered in either keratin or skin. This consensus carried over with the description of the related Bajadasaurus pronuspinax in 2019, the same year this figure released, where sails were once again found to be unlikely. The fact this figure sports sails would possibly have been seen as inaccurate back then. However a 2022 paper by Cerda et al put sails back in the spotlight however, which bodes well for this figure’s favor, at least for the time being.
Granted like any Mattel Jurassic World figure, it isn’t scientifically rigorous in its reconstruction, but neither was it intended to be. That said the first elongated spine on the neck is depicted as being paired when it should be singular. From what I can tell, the sail has two extra pairs of long spines (including the first one, which again should not be paired), 12 instead of 10. There are claws on the forelimbs and hind limbs where there shouldn’t be (although they are painted, which is rather rare to see outside of the Hammond Collection mostly), and the tall spines on the back and tail have been exaggerated into having a sail-like structure as on the neck (and similar in shape to that of the 2018 Fallen Kingdom Action Attack Suchomimus). The shape of the head seems reasonable enough, considering most dicraeosaurid skull material prior to Bajadasaurus was rather fragmentary (Kaatedocus may potentially be a basal dicraeosaurid per Whitlock and Wilson, 2020, and also has decent skull material). The tail is also of course far too short, as typical in the line.
The coloration of the figure seems similar to the prior Chap Mei Stone Age Dinosaurs Amargasaurus, with its mix of black markings, tan body color, and red sails. The sculpt has minimal articulation, at the shoulders, hips, and a ball joint for the head. Being part of the Mega Dual Attack assortment this has two action features operated by two buttons on the back. The first button drops the neck down pretty low, and the second button makes it swing its tail, similar to the many Mattel Jurassic World Stegosaurus figures. The range of motion for the neck feature seems in line with what was reconstructed in a 2014 paper by Carabajal et al, more or less. The figure is about roughly 35.6 cm (14 inches) long, and 12.7 cm (5 inches) tall at the hips (excluding the sail). Amargasaurus was about 9 to 13 meters long, putting it around 1:25 to 1:36 in scale (although of course without accounting for the too short tail). However using the measurement of the neck (2.39 meters), which is about 10.16 cm (4 inches) long on the figure, gives a scale of around 1:23, more or less.
Overall this is a decent enough take on this animal, well at least a Jurassic World take on it. The figure is long out of production so the only way to get one is through the aftermarket. Worth noting it had pretty poor distribution back then as well (same with the Quetzalcoatlus). I am surprised it has yet to receive a retool after all this time since it is one of the more popular, and smaller sauropods. As mentioned before there is also the mini, and strangely enough from Takara Tomy, an Ania Jurassic World figure released in 2021 based on Mattel’s take here. When altogether they make for an interesting little family unit, ignoring the near-identical proportions. Oh and one last thing to mention is that like all of the Dino Rivals figures, this figure released with a collector’s card (which you can see in my image below, which was taken quite a number of years back).
All articles on the Dinosaur Toy Blog are written without the use of 'AI'
