Carnotaurus (Disney’s Dinosaur by Thinkway)

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This might seem like Déjà vu, but it isn’t. We recently reviewed a Disney’s Dinosaur Carnotaurus by Mattel here but savvy Disney didn’t put all their dinosaur eggs into one basket. They licensed ‘Disney’s Dinosaur’ to an array of different manufacturers, which means there are more versions of the Disney Carnotaurus than you can throw a family of lemurs at. The one under examination today is by Thinkway, but it is only one of several Disney Carnotaurus products Thinkway released. We can only take these many Carnotaurus toys one at a time until we run out of things to say about each doppelgänger.

I bought this one back when the film was released in 2000 and didn’t keep the box, so I’ve had to do a bit of sleuthing on the interwebs. My understanding is that this version was marketed in some countries as “Carnotaur Combatand Interactif”, or translated into English, the “Interactive Combat Carnosaur”. But I could be wrong about this. I wish I still had the box.

This might seem like Déjà vu, but it isn’t. The Thinkway figure looks similar to the Mattel toy, as you would expect for a product based on the same original design, but there are some notable differences. The Thinkway is more slender than the Mattel version, and is considerably larger at 14 inches or 36 cm long. It also has different points of articulation.

In particular, it has the advantage of articulated knees, but the disadvantage of unarticulated arms. It also has two additional articulations in its tail, but these just rotate and are rather pointless. The double-jointed legs, however, provide great opportunities for creative posing. The jaw is articulated, but isn’t activated by a button on the back as is the Mattel version.

This might seem like Déjà vu, but it isn’t. The distal part of the tail was packaged disarticulated from the rest of the toy to save on box space. The same trick is being used today for some Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom action figures. For some inexplicable reason, the tip of the tail isn’t the only part of the animal that can be detached. A moderate tug on the head, legs, and tail, and they come loose. An excellent play feature if you want to explode your dinosaurs, but I don’t remember that scene in Disney’s Dinosaur.

Despite this unusual feature, the constructed toy has pleasingly rigid joints and stands perfectly balanced. The joints are all rather obvious, which detracts a little for the overall impression. Another visual distraction is visible screw holes on the inside of the legs. The outside of the legs, and the entire rest of the body for that matter, are thankfully free of screw holes.

This might seem like Déjà vu, but it isn’t. The Thinkway figure is composed of two types of plastic. Most of the body is a hard durable material, while the tip of the tail is a softer material with a bit of bend to it. The brow horns, which have clearly been moulded separate to the rest of the head and fixed into place in a recess, also seem to be consist of this softer material. Presumably the pointy horns and tail were deemed to dangerously pointy for hard plastic.

This might seem like Déjà vu, but it isn’t. Just like the Mattel figure, the Thinkway figure is electronic, but the position and style of activation button is different. This figure has a small peg that protrudes on the midline between the hips. Also, the electronic feature is much more tastefully done in this toy. The eyes do not light up, and instead, are neatly painted. The batteries are dead so I can’t be sure what sound it makes, but if memory serves, it reproduces some film-accurate bellows and roars. The sounds emanate through three tiny holes on each side of the ribcage.

This might seem like Déjà vu, but it isn’t. I’ll refrain from talking about accuracy as I’ll just be repeating what has been said before, and I’m firmly against repeating myself. Basically, the detail is very fine, the animal is highly movie-accurate but not palaeontology-accurate. This is one of my favourite figures because it looks so mean, grizzly, and awesome. I prefer it to the Mattel action figure because this one has a more gracile frame and painted eyes.

Of course, this toy has been out of production for just shy of two decades, so Ebay is your best bet. Also, this exact toy seems to be one of the rarer versions of the many Disney’s Dinosaur Carnotauruses out there. If anyone else has this exact version, perhaps you can confirm the English branding on the box? So, that’s another Disney’s Dinosaur Carnotaurus ticked off the list, I wonder which version we will review next?