One of the very first ornithopods I ever learned about as a small child was Camptosaurus, a mid-sized member of the iguanodontian clade hailing from Late Jurassic North America. Due to its utter lack of horns, spikes, and armour, it has long been depicted in books and museum displays as “stock fodder,” either fleeing from or being eaten alive by the merciless Allosaurus. In reality, of course, predators are vastly outnumbered by prey animals in any ecosystem, so Camptosaurus would really have spent most of its time doing what modern herbivores do: wandering, eating, mating, rearing offspring, or resting comfortably.
Sadly, but not surprisingly given its plant diet, its aforementioned lack of horns, spikes, and armour, and also its total lack of a head crest, very few toys of Camptosaurus exist. One such toy is from CollectA’s 2010 assortment. At just 14.5 cm long, it is one of their smallest ornithopods. It is also one of the most dull-looking due to its main colour being flat brown. The underbelly is slightly grey and dark brown stripes adorn the body. The eyes are light brown, the mouth is pink, and the claws are black.
This Camptosaurus is posed in a quadrupedal stance with its head turned to the left. The wide eyes make it look as though it’s been caught by surprise in the midst of strolling or feeding. The sculpting is so-so: a basic blend of large scales and wrinkles and reasonably defined limbs. As with the colour scheme, it’s really nothing to write home about.
The toy also rates poorly in terms of accuracy. While Camptosaurus was once believed to have been quadrupedal, it is now thought to have been bipedal. The muzzle should have a more triangular profile and a beak. And finally, there ought to be small spurs on the thumbs, precursors to the spikes on later iguanodontids like Muttaburrasaurus and Iguanodon itself.
Overall, this Camptosaurus is by no means a great toy, but I’ve seen worse ones from CollectA’s early years. And again, it’s definitely got the uniqueness factor going for it. Worth getting if you’re a big fan of ornithopods, or need something for your Allosaurus toys to chase after. With any luck, CollectA or another company will produce a superior rendition of this species sometime in the future.
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He is a pioneer figure of this rare dinosaur that unfortunately has very little success when it comes to marketing it in the toy dinosaur market. It is appreciated that as always Collecta always gives some opportunity to rare or better cursed figures among the brands of the toy dinosaur. It is a dinosaur that is neither very pretty nor very ugly from my point of view, but because that species of dinosaur is uninteresting from the point of view of an amateur like me, even if it were perfectly made it would not be as attractive as other species of dinosaurs. like ceratopsids to give an example or even like most theropods especially if they are large theropods.
I really like the conservative and realistic colors of this camptosaur and on the other hand the sculpture is good, what perhaps spoils the figure is the forced posture that Collecta has put to said dinosaur. From my humble and honest point of view it is in the middle range of toy dinosaur figures.
Yes, it is a shame how this is currently the best Camptosaurus toy in existence despite its shortcomings. Safari or PNSO needs to remedy that. Or perhaps CollectA will eventually release a new version.
Haha, I still have pics which I prepared for a review back in 2016. Now, finally you reviewed that forgotten but fair figure, its uniqueness being quite a shame for such a well documented species.