Compsognathus corallestris (Monster in my Pocket by Matchbox)

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I have a doozy for you today, a remarkable figure of C. corallestris, a semi-aquatic species of Compsognathus with fin-like hands. At least, that’s what palaeontologists thought when they described the type specimen in 1972. The interpretation didn’t last long though. The flippers were formally dismissed and reinterpreted as ‘normal’ hands in 1978, and ‘C. corallestris’ was later subsumed into C. longipes in 2006. But the fin-handed Composgnathus had already established itself in palaeo pop-culture.

Palaeontologist Mike ‘Sauropod’ Taylor has posted some examples of palaeoart restorations of this unusual interpretation on his website. I presume one or more of these artworks inspired this Monster in My Pocket figure. We can’t say for sure if the designers knew it was wrong in 1993, but I suspect they didn’t – it would be easy for the toy designers to flip through the pages of an old dinosaur book and pick out an unusual creature like ‘C. corallestris‘ at face value.

This is monster #226, part of a very late supplemental wave (in 1993) to the earlier MIMP Series 6 dinosaurs line in the early 1990s. The number series is non-consecutive from the other dinosaurs – the ‘Later Dinosaurs’ are separated sequentially by Series 7 (aliens) and others. So, sometimes the ‘Later Dinosaurs’ are regarded as a ‘Series 8’ rather than part of Series 6. It was difficult to pin down any concrete information about this small sub-set, which had a very limited distribution, and is rare, but the best resource I’ve found for MIMP info is ‘Behemoth’s Monster in my Pocket Collective’. Their page for the MIMP Late Dinosaurs says they were “released as a 4 pack with a Dinosaur Hologram Watch” and “their bios are listed on the back of the holo watch box.” The packaging style is described as identical to Series 6.

Even if there were no such source to back it up, I think we could be confident it really is ‘C. corallestris‘ based on the unique anatomy. The Monster in my Pocket Wiki tentatively listed this toy as a plesiosaur, and as a plesiosaur toy completist, that’s partly what prompted me to acquire this figure in the first place. But that was just a guess.

The iconic but erroneous flipper-like hands are very clear, but apart from that you’d be hard-pushed to identify this as a supposed species of Compsognathus. It has a rotund body making it the fattest compy you’ll ever see. It has webbed feet, again in keeping with the erroneous interpretation of this species as semi-aquatic. It has an unusual tail with ring-like bands, which are more reminiscent of a glyptodont than a dinosaur. There are no such bands in any palaeoart depiction I could find that might justify this inexplicable flourish. Overall, it’s really odd, but so are all of the MIMP dinosaurs.

The toy is painted with purple over a green base plastic, with the eyes marked in black. There is also a second colour variant. The underside is marked with the “MEG 1993, CHINA, NBM 226”. MEG seems to be a brand associated with Matchbox. This MIMP figure has a points value of 200, embossed on its left flank. This means it could absolutely destroy the measly 25 point MIMP T. rex in a battle, and could even take out the 150 point MIMP Spinosaurus!