Compsognathus (Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary, Captivz by ToyMonster)

Compsognathus longipes was a small late Jurassic theropod discovered in Europe and the first theropod known from mostly complete remains. For a time, it was also the smallest dinosaur ever discovered. Compsognathus doesn’t really need an introduction, however, we all know it from the Jurassic Park franchise. It made its debut in The Lost World: Jurassic Park where it is used in place of Procompsognathus triassicus, a small Triassic theropod from Europe that featured in the Jurassic Park novels. Although they’re distantly related genera, separated by millions of years, they’re both referred to as “compies” in their respective media and resemble each other in many respects. Why did the films switch the dinosaur from the novel’s Procompsognathus to Compsognathus? Who knows? But The Lost World does make a goof in combining the two animals by using the genus name Compsognathus with the species name triassicus. Likewise, it is stated in the film that Compsognathus was described by “Fraas in Bavaria in 1913” which applies to Procompsognathus, not Compsognathus. It makes you wonder if the film’s dinosaur was ever meant to be Compsognathus at all.

Today we’re looking at the Captivz Compsognathus, produced for their JP30 line of figures. The JP30 line differs from past Captivz lines in that all the figures represent animals from the first three Jurassic Park films and come with a small trading card inspired by the Kenner cards of the 90’s. The Captivz toys are blind bag style toys that come in a plastic egg along with a bag of slime. The figures themselves are mostly excellent and since my Walmart has a healthy stock of them, I’ve acquired quite a few. Perhaps the most exciting figure in the series is the Compsognathus, because it is easily the best small-scale Compsognathus ever produced for the franchise. Mattel made some small rubber compies that came along with the human action figures but they’re no longer in production. I personally think Mattel should release a small crate or cage-like stylized box full of rubber compies, but I digress.

Although I initially thought the Captivz Compsognathus would scale well with Mattel’s figures it really doesn’t. The toy itself stands 2” tall to the top of the head and when measured along the midline of the back has a total length of about 4.5”. The compies in Jurassic Park are said to measure 1 meter in length which puts the figure at about 1/8 in scale. Obviously, this does not scale well with the 1/18 humans, but it still looks decent enough amongst most of the Mattel dinosaurs. I suppose they would scale well with the Amber Collection humans, if you have them.

The Captivz Compsognathus is presented in a tripod pose, supported by an incredibly long tail that comes detached from the rest of the figure. It is sufficiently faithful to the franchise’s compies with a thin, lithe build, and pronated 3-fingered hands with one of the fingers being reduced and vestigial. Of course, features like the pronated hands and lack of feathers make it an inaccurate representation of the real animal.

The paintjob is rather spectacular for a figure of this size and price point. The body is a combination of pale green and yellow with black stripes along the back, a black tipped tail, and a whitewash over the belly region and most of the tail.

The eyes are yellow with black pupils. The teeth are white and there’s some pink coloration in and around the mouth. Toenails are not painted but overall, this paintjob is far more ambitious than what Mattel does with their minis, or many of their mainline toys for that matter. The paint application is decent enough with the paint on the teeth being the only sloppy portion on my copy.

If you need a small Jurassic Park Compsognathus then this is the one to get. It doesn’t scale well with the human figures but it’s probably the best you’re going to get since Mattel doesn’t make theirs anymore and they were quite crude anyway. The JP30 Captivz are currently in production and can be found in various stores or online. If you want a guaranteed Compsognathus then eBay would be the place to look for that.