Formerly known as Brontosaurus, Apatosaurus is perhaps one of the most famous and easily recognizable dinosaurs. Such fame and popularity guarantees its presence in many dinosaur toy lines. However, most of these figures tend to be on the larger side, and some of them are not quite accurate, with the hands often being inaccurate. The Apatosaurus from Kaiyodo Dinotales Series 3 offers a nice figure for nitpicky sauropod fans that are stressed for space.
The amount of accuracy in this figure is sure to please any collector. All the proportions are perfectly correct, with the neck and tail correctly sized compared to the body. The unusual vertebrae of Apatosaurus are illustrated beautifully in the neck, and even the bottom of the neck is flat. As it should be, the neck is somewhat triangular in cross section. Sauropod foot fetishists will be glad to hear that the hands of this figure are banana shaped and not completely round. Even though the shaping on them is a bit off, most sauropod figure manufacturers can’t even get past the fact that the hands were not round in shape.
This figure has some very nice detailing, but it could be better. The neck is very well done, with the unique vertebrae shown off nicely. On the limbs and tail, nice musculature can be seen, showing this was a powerful animal. Wrinkles make up most of the other details. Elephantine wrinkles seem to be a stereotype among sauropod figures. As archosaurs, sauropods had scales on their skin, not just elephantine wrinkles. Just because they were big doesn’t mean that they were like elephants!
As for the paint job, it is unfortunately a bit lacking. It is basically just varying hues of tan with dark brown striping, with some white on the tail. Sadly, simple, dull, and brownish color schemes are another sauropod stereotype. Pretty much all the Apatosaurus figures out on the market have dull color schemes, and this offering by Kaiyodo is no different. Also, the claws are a wee bit sloppily painted, and the eyes are on the large side, but as one of the earlier Dinotales figures these few exceptions of the usual Dinotales rule of super precise painting can be excused.
A better example of an Apatosaurus figure, the Dinotales Apatosaurus is worth getting despite its stereotypical setbacks. The accuracy is pretty much spot on, the details are nice but could be more scaly, and the paint job is nice but a bit dull. As part of the third series of Dinotales figures, the Apatosaurus was in fact available in America for a brief period of time. When sold in America, the line was called DinoMania instead of Dinotales, and came with chocolates. However, they were only available in limited quantities and there was no way to be sure which one you would get. Nowadays, they are no longer sold in American stores but can be found on eBay for only a few dollars. At the time of writing, Link & Pin Hobbies has only 4 of them for sale, leftovers from the times of DinoMania.
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I agree with the commenters above that the color scheme actually looks very nice. The individual hues might be plain, but they’re utilized to great effect together in forming striking patterns. It looks like something one could see on a living reptile or bird today.
[…] as the models come in parts that have to be put together manually, can sometimes be quite obvious (Apatosaurus, for example). After a fair bit of search on ebay I located a seller in Hong Kong and deceided to […]
From what I see on the pictures, the paintjob looks gorgeous. 😮 I love the contrast of black and the brown/olive, and especially since most toys I have seen on here don’t really try to have interesting patterns…
Anyway, the coloring is inspiring in my opinion. <:V
There could be larger scales on the back or legs or something. The paint is a bit more bold than average, but still very brownish.
I actually think the colors are pretty bold for a sauropod. The paint scheme reminds me of a gazelle’s coloration.
At this small scale would it really be possible for it to have visible scales sculpted on?