Apatosaurus was a large, robust, long-necked, small headed sauropod that lived 152-151 million years ago. When the Safari Carnegie line began in 1989 the adult and baby were part of the original line up, and has been part of the collection until the cancellation of the line in 2015. The baby is not just a companion piece to the adult; it has its own distinct style and personality. This makes sense since the Carnegie museum has on display one of the world’s only juvenile Apatosaurus fossils. There have been three distinct versions of the Apatosaurus baby toy during the Carnegie production run.
The original pose for the Carnegie Apatosaurus baby had the neck twisted and turned so the head would be facing backwards and looking slightly up. It was also biggest and heaviest of the three versions. The original paint job was a boring grey and yellowish tan, which is not a surprise since that many of the original Carnegie were painted alike.
The second version kept the same pose but had a brand new forest camouflage paint job. The third version, the head and neck were changed and it spent a few days on a treadmill or tail whipping a heavy bag and came back slightly leaner. The overall sculpt doesn’t appear to be really different from the original version. The body is a little leaner and the head and neck is repositioned so it is looking to the side instead of behind. They also kept the glossy forest camouflage green paint job.
The toy has the classic Carnegie look and style. Many of the original Carnegies were basically sculpted with interesting elephant wrinkled skin look to them. The head on these models are expressive and have painted on peg like teeth over a mouth line. The original version the mouth is just a line with white teeth, in the later versions the line is painted pink. Of course, on some models the painted on teeth make the Apatosaurus look like a predator with sharp overhanging teeth. The original Apatosaurus baby’s toes are not painted and had a different eye color than the later versions.
As a toy, it works just fine. It is tough and robust so it can handle some rough play. The sculpt has no sharp edges and is safe for children to use. It should look good moving in herd and is at a convenient biting height for predatory dinosaur toys.
Personally I like the toy, I think it has good personality (it’s kind of cute), playability, size, and the color is ok as well. Even though it is a baby, it is treated reverently, unlike the wild safari cute baby dinosaurs, this is a standalone sculpt, that has some heft to it, and can display just as nice as it can be played with. As for the cost, that might be the thing I like most about this toy, it is sold at a low price. It has a classic look, it’s versatile, and at a good price, what’s not to love.
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