Mattel loves Carnotaurus. Our friends at DinoToyCollector.com have catalogued 22 Carnotaurus figures for Mattel’s Jurassic World line, but that number includes the minis, Snap Squad, and similar toys too, and their various repaints and repackages. Either way, the company has still produced an impressive array of Carnotaurus toys. They’re all really nice too, Mattel does Carnotaurus well and has ever since the original 2018 Action Attack Carnotaurus. I have that original toy and because of that I’ve avoided Mattel’s subsequent Carnotaurus releases, even though some of them have tempted me. However, once the Hammond Collection was launched, I had hoped to see them tackle Carnotaurus and knew I would have to have it if they did. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be a home run, and possibly the best Jurassic franchise toy Mattel has ever made!
The Hammond Collection Carnotaurus comes in a new size class, between the T. rex and medium size figures like the Baryonyx and Ankylosaurus. That fact alone should pique interest as it opens the door to other possible entries into this size class, like a Hammond Collection Stegosaurus or Allosaurus. It measures about 18.5” (47 cm) long and stands about 7” (17.78 cm) tall at the hips. This puts it at about 1/16 in scale when scaled down from the 25’ (7.62 meters) estimated length of the actual Carnotaurus and 1/22 in scale when scaled down from the 34.1’ (10.4 meters) Carnotaurus from Jurassic World.
The figure boasts 18 points of articulation. The mouth can open and close, but the upper and lower jaw are connected and cannot be opened independently of one another. The neck is articulated in two places, at about the halfway point and where it connects to the body. It has a decent range of up and down motion but not much side-to-side, so don’t expect this Carnotaurus to look over its shoulder.
The arms are articulated at the shoulders and elbows with ball joints and while this does make it movie accurate I kind of wish there was no elbow articulation and that the arms were smaller, to better reflect scientific accuracy. The legs are articulated at the hips, knees, and toes, and the tail is articulated at its base and again about a quarter down its length. Past the second point of articulation the tail is rubbery with a bendable wire inside. Overall, the articulation is standard for the Hammond Collection.
Mattel has made a few design choices with this figure that should make many collectors happy. The most noteworthy is the downsizing of the feet. Past releases like the Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus had absurdly large feet and the excuse for this was for stability. Mattel has shrunk them down for this figure, as well as for the upcoming Hammond Collection Blue (Velociraptor). While the figure takes a bit of fenagling to make it stand securely, once in the desired position stability is not an issue. It can even stand on one foot, proof that the larger feet were never really necessary and are hopefully now a thing of the past.
Mattel has also replaced painted eyes with glass eyes. Again, not just on this figure but also with the upcoming Blue. I never had a problem with the painted eyes, but the glass ones do add a touch of realism, provided they’re angled into the light just right. Like with the T. rex, the glass eyes have a fishbowl effect on the pupil that makes it impossible to see from certain angels, and unless the light hits them right, they appear dead and void. Mattel still needs to make improvements here but features like glass eyes and proportionate feet show that Mattel does listen to the fanbase and is willing to adapt.
Like with all of Mattel’s Carnotaurus toys they’ve spared no expense in the detail department here. The entirety of the figure is covered in pebbly scales with larger feature scales scattered about and rows of osteoderms running down the back. Wrinkles and skin folds are most obvious along the neck and underside and tarsal scutes run down the toes.
The head sculpt is particularly magnificent with a wonderful rugose texture between the horns, labial scales around the mouth, and larger scales and osteoderms clustered around the lower jaw and along the margins of the skull. It is about as gnarly as you would want a Carnotaurus to look. The tongue and tissue on the inside of the mouth has a wet looking sheen and is nicely textured. The rubbery teeth are an inserted, separate piece from the mouth, and are appropriately sized and finely sculpted, another improvement from past Hammond Collection toys.
Although Jurassic World has many questionable dinosaur designs the Carnotaurus has always been a standout. It’s a creature that lends itself well to Jurassic World’s aesthetic and thus, Mattel’s too. There have been a few Carnotaurus individuals featured in the franchise, including those in Fallen Kingdom, Toro in Camp Cretaceous, and one in Dominion. This Carnotaurus is modeled after those in Fallen Kingdom. It is easily among the most screen accurate dinosaurs ever made by Mattel.
Like the Fallen Kingdom Carnotaurus, the figure is painted dark red with black patterning. The patterning here runs across the face, down the neck and body, onto the thighs, and down most of the tail. The only portions without the black markings are the arms and lower legs. In the film the patterning does appear to extend down along those bits but I’m not going to take issue with it here. The underside of the lower jaw is white, and the white extends down the neck and along the underside, it does not continue down the tail and once again, it should.
The toenails are painted shiny black, except for the unpainted hallux toe, and the fingernails are not painted at all, but the real Carnotaurus didn’t even have claws. The teeth are white, the inside of the mouth is pink, and the eyes are gold with black pupils. Overall, the paintjob looks fantastic and complete, even if it’s not actually complete.
We’ve about reached the end of the review, but I do want to briefly discuss the plastic used for this figure. The figure is overall surprisingly light weight and the plastic used for the hollow body feels thin and cheap. I was somewhat shocked by this when I first took it out of the packaging. I’ve since gotten over it but since this is a review, I thought it worth mentioning. I don’t know how delicate the plastic is, but I wouldn’t want to press my luck with it, maybe keep dinosaur battles to a minimum with this one.
In the end, the only issues I have with this figure are the just mentioned thin plastic torso, poorly executed glass eyes, limited neck movement, and a slightly unfinished paint app. I consider all of those pretty minor and the figure is otherwise fantastic. It has officially dethroned the Ceratosaurus as my favorite Hammond Collection theropod and it is easily the best figure from Mattel this year, and among their best ever. The Hammond Collection Carnotaurus has just started hitting shelves and is also available online. It retails for about $35. It’s totally worth that price but sales are frequent, I suspect this figure will be easy to find for a long time to come.
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Looks like a home run indeed,much better than the promotional images made it appear. One thing that does always bug me about the JW Carnotaurus is that the horns seem to be placed further back on the skull than they should be?
If Mattel stays on this trajectory they will one day be giving BOTM a run for their money! Imagine Mattel’s catalogue of dino’s all made to this standard. Wow.
very impressive but it still has a very common mistake- a bent elbow. Carno had one of the most reduced front limbs of any large theropod- the forearm was about 1/4 the length of the upper & it was missing its wrist bones. More than likely the limbs were held back to the sides. l also agree w Australo- horn should be more forward. Still a beautiful figure
Out of curiosity, in the pic with the different Hammond Collection figures, are the ‘different size classes’ because they made different sublines in different sizes, or are the dinos to scale?
The different size classes are supposed to keep the dinosaurs in approximate scale with each other but up until now all the dinosaurs have been forced into one of just a few size ranges, even if it doesn’t always work. Like that Dilophosaurus is about the same size as the human and in the movie it’s smaller. Mattel will often scale a dinosaur up or down to fit it into a preexisting size/price bracket. The Carnotaurus is in a new size range that didn’t exist before, that’s why it is exciting. They didn’t scale it up or down. Previously, nothing has been made to fill in the size gap between something like the Ceratosaurus and T. rex. So, not really different sublines, just different sized figures within the same line and this is a new size that collectors have been hoping for. Hope that answers the question.