Baryonyx (CollectA standard figure)

Review and photos by Bokisaurus

One of the most famous dinosaurs from Europe, Baryonyx ( Baryonyx walkeri), has seen its fame continues to rise through the decades, and will continue no doubt. It even made an appearance in the hugely successful Jurassic park franchise, a testament to its fame.

Baryonyx, means “heavy claw”, is a genus of Spinosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of England.The holotype is one of the most complete theropod skeletons ever found and is often used to guide scientist when restoring other less complete members of the Spinosaurus clan.I think there is enough review of this species on the blog that covers some of its fascinating history, so I will be skipping most of that and instead focus on the figure.

Baryonyx’s popularity have made it a fairly regular species in various companies’ line of prehistoric toy figures. On the blog, there are currently 17 ( I think) reviews of it including the much larger deluxe version of this figure.Today, we will review the standard size CollectA figure that was released as part of the 2020 release, the latest version.

Why Collecta decided to release a standard version right on the heels of the deluxe from last year is a mystery. There seems to be no easy explanation why certain species gets both a deluxe and a standard figure from CollectA.Either way, despite almost being a straight-out smaller version of the large figure, there are some subtle differences between the two-figure worth mentioning.

The standard figure measure 2.25 “ inches tall (2.5” with base) and almost 8” inches long when stretched out.A common feature of all deluxe CollectA figure is that most of them have an articulated jaw as seen on the larger 1:40 scale figure.This feature, beside the size difference,  is perhaps the most obvious difference between the two. On the standard size figure, the jaw is not articulated so the mouth is permanently fixed in a partially opened pose. 

Like the large figure, the mouth is very well sculpted and full of details despite its small size, something worth noting since any details such as the teeth and scales are often hard to do in such a small size.The snout is appropriately narrow and this figure captures that, and when seen straight on from the front, one can really see just how narrow the snout is. The distinctive notch on the upper jaw is well defined and the teeth are meticulously and individually sculpted with sharp details. On my figure at least, the teeth are precisely painted with no bleeding at all, something not easy to do given the small size and how close to each other the teeth are (my deluxe have some bleeding on the teeth paint application). If you look closely, you can even see the tongue inside the mouth.

Both the deluxe and this standard size figure have a skull that is pretty faithful to that of the fossil material.The face and head of the deluxe figure is painted two-tone, a darker rust brown on the upper jaw and a lighter yellow on the lower one with the tip sporting the same color as the upper one. This lighter patch on the head is punctuated by five spots of the same rust brown color; two on the lower jaw and three on the upper.

On this figure, the entire face is pretty much yellow, which is a shame since it washed out some of the delicate details. There are spots on the head as well with one of the upper ones turning into horizontal Y shape that frames the eyes. The number of spots on the head on this figure varies on each side. On the left side there are five just like the large figure, but on the right side there are seven spots.The eyes are appropriately small and is encircled by very fine details such as wrinkles and scales, so small that they are hard to see or capture in a photo, but they are there. These details are best appreciated and seen in person. The small eyes are painted black which works well and contrast with the light-yellow head. Even the tiny nostrils are delicately sculpted and is visible.

On top of the head is the triangular crest. Here is another slight difference between the two figures. On the deluxe version, this crest is colored yellow-orange to stand out against the rusty-brown color. On this figure, the crest is bright red to stand out against the light-yellow color of the head.Another difference between the two sizes is how the head is oriented. On the deluxe, it’s pretty much straight on, but as you can see, in this figure the head is clearly tilted to one side.

Coloration are identical to the larger figure with the rust-brown being the main one for the body on both figures. The lighter yellow is used for the underside of the body, throat area, as well as used as highlights.The body spots and tail stripes are a much darker shade of the rust-brown so it contrasts nicely without being to colorful. On this figure, there is also a slight difference on the neck color, there is a darker shade of brown on the entire neck that not seen on the larger one.The spines on the back are identical to the larger figure and colored the same.

The body on both figures are the same shape; you can see the distinctive “hump-like” curve of the back spines that is unique to CollectA’s newer version and not seen in any other Baryonyx toy figures from other brand.Although not a 100% certain that Baryonyx had this hump-like back curve, CollectA, inspired by fossil find consisting of isolated vertebrae from a baryonychine therapod that may have suggested raised hump on the back, based their design on that for this and the deluxe figure. As speculative as this is, it surely gives these CollectA figures a very distinctive look.

Another slight differences between the two are the orientation of the arms. On this figure, the left arm is slightly lowered and fingers more splayed than that of the deluxe. Other than that, the arms and nail sculpt are pretty much identical right down to those famous claws.The tail is long, perhaps longer in proportion to the body compared to the deluxe figure. It has a thick and muscular tail base as it should. The tail on this figure also has a more pronounced “S” curve to it giving it more of a sense of movement when compared to the deluxe tail that is just straight.

The body detail, all those beautiful skin wrinkles, scales, and scutes are all present in this figure, just scaled down, but still very detailed and nicely done.The legs look proportionately more muscular in this scaled-down version than that of the deluxe which looks a little under-muscled. The position of the legs is also different in these figures. In the deluxe one, the legs are closer to each other and the right one pushed forward. In this figure, it’s the reverse in that the right leg is pushed back and left forward and slight farther apart.Both figures come with a base to better stabilize the figure and give it a more dynamic and proportioned feet.Unlike previous bases, this time the base is thick and has a lot of texture and details.

That pretty much covers the differences between these two figures, subtle but definitely noticeable.This smaller standard size makes a good companion for the deluxe and they display really well together. It can even be a younger animal.It’s nice to see an updated sculpt of this species from CollectA and they are light years away from their earlier versions.

No doubt that Baryonyx’s popularity will continue to rise, as it is, it is already the second most popular species from the family, only second to Spinosaurus. It will be interesting to see if any of the other brands will one day make a figure that also exhibits the hump seen in these two figures. Until then, these two are so distinctive that they really stand out from all other Baryonyx figure currently out there.

I find this standard version to be charming and full of incredible details that must be seen in person be fully appreciated. It is small so if space is an issue, this is definitely not going to take up much room.It is also nice to get a different take on how Baryonyx may have looked like. The speculative but unique hump-like seen on these figure’s back may or may not hold up in time. But that’s just how science go. If it does turn out to be invalid, then these two figures will make a nice time capsule that capture in toy form this current possibility.

This willingness to take risk, no matter how speculative they may be, is one thing that excites me about CollectA figures. They never fail to surprise, and offer an opportunity to capture in plastic form these current consensus or theories, and in the future, be able to look back at all  these various evolution of our knowledge about these animals and how they may have looked like in life.

I hope you like the review, thanks for reading. Until next time, stay safe and healthy! Cheers!