The carcass is days old, decaying, and beset with insects, but that means nothing to the marauder. He seizes the prize in his monstrous jaws and crunches down decisively. Bone fragments, crushed marrow, rancid meat, and still-wiggling maggots all disappear down his throat. He pauses only to emit a wet belch before resuming his feast.
Daeodon was the largest of the entelodonts, a frightful family of omnivorous artiodactyls known for their resemblance to wild pigs. Its name means “dreadful teeth,” and one need only glimpse at this representation to grasp the appropriateness of it. From snout to tail tip, the CollectA Daeodon measures 16 cm long and stands 9 cm tall. Its body is coloured black and muddy brown with a whitish underbelly and black hooves. The head features white and light brown markings, black eyes and nose, off-white teeth and dull pink for the inside of the mouth.
This individual is in a walking pose with its tail raised, its huge head turned to the right, and its pointy ears perked. Its mouth is open, revealing an array of savage teeth. Looking at it, one can almost hear the sound of snarling and grunting. The white facial markings and the bony knobs protruding from the cheeks and lower jaw make the Daeodon appear downright demonic.
The sculpting on this toy is first rate. The fur on the body ranges from relatively thin on the face to thicker on the main body and then thickest on the mane. The legs are thin compared to the head and body, but are covered in powerful muscles. Oh, and a quick glance at the underside of the toy reveals that this is a male Daeodon. At least it’s not as glaring as the Megacerops.
Accuracy-wise, the Daeodon is great for the most part. The skull and teeth are correct, and so is the body. But then we come to the hooves. Each one has four toes just like on an extant wild boar or a warthog. The problem is, despite entelodonts’ popular reputation as “terminator pigs” or “hogs from hell,” they were not closely related to pigs. And although Daeodon and other entelodonts did have four toes on each hoof, two of them were vestigial. They would not have been so large and visible as they are on this toy.
Despite the inaccurate hooves, the CollectA Daeodon is still a great toy. Excellent detailing, good colours, and a real attitude about it. Hands down the best entelodont toy to date.
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A definite must have however, I cannot get past that the head looks so similar to Archeotherium, with those huge cheek flanges, the sharp teeth, and that tapered snout is strikingly similar to the actual skull of Archeotherium when compared to Daeodon’s. Perhaps it’s just me but I would invite anyone to simply Google search and compare for yourself each skull and decide.
[…] increase in the production of prehistoric mammal toys. CollectA released a large and well-crafted Daeodon last year and in 2013 Mojö Fun released an Entelodon alongside several other prehistoric […]
There’s something off about that mouth – I just don’t get the impression that the animal could close it properly, and the whole thing looks sort of angular. In any case, I’m fortunate to have the FaunaCasts Daeodon, making this rendition unnecessary.
The mouth looks perfectly capable of closing to me.
Oh man, where’d you get it? I’m still waiting for Everything dinosaur to have it in stock… CollectA makes the best prehistoric mammals!!!
I got it from Minizoo.