Daspletosaurus (Wild Safari by Safari Ltd.)

Every fall, Safari Ltd announces their releases for the upcoming year. Understandably, probably owing to the pandemic and the attendant slowdown in trade, their announcements for 2021 were pretty limited, only three new items in the core dinosaur range. I confess I was a bit disappointed that all three were theropods, not being a particular fan of the clade (or at least not of the apex predators in the clade). Nevertheless, they are well-made theropods, and to my mind the best of the lot is this Daspletosaurus. 

Avid dinosaur collectors are fond of listing taxa that they hope their favorite companies will make (just type “hopes and dreams” into the search bar on the Dinosaur Toy Forum to see what I mean). Non-Tyrannosaurus tyrannosaurs such as Daspletosaurus are a very common feature of such lists, often accompanied with some suggestion that they are overlooked. With at least 60 or so figures over the years, they aren’t especially neglected (for context, fewer figures of fossil mollusks exist, despite more than 60 thousand known species), but compared to the constant torrent of Tyrannosaurus figures, it’s understandable why it might seem that way.

Still, existing figures of Daspletosaurus, specifically, definitely left room for improvement, and this new figure from Safari duly filled up that room, no doubt delighting many tyrannosaur fans. Sculptor Doug Watson’s careful research and consultation with experts shines through here. Watson has specified that he modeled this figure after the type species, D. torosus, although the differences between the species mostly wouldn’t be discernible at this scale anyway. Daspletosaurus torosus hails from the Campanian of Laramidia, in a region that is now Alberta, Canada. It differed from its close relatives in having proportionally longer arms, although still pretty small. Considering that so many T. rex toys have too-long arms, and are too lithe, many of them might have made better Daspletosaurus figures. 

The figure is mostly a tawny yellow color, with an airbrushed mantle of dark piney green. My copy was incautiously packaged for shipping and has a few spots where the paint is slightly scuffed. The color scheme, by coincidence, is a little bit like the Sue painting by John Gurche at the Field Museum in Chicago, but differs in the earthier shades chosen and the inclusion of stripes (horizontal on the thigh, vertical along the tail). The claws, nostrils, and ear openings are all highlighted in matte black. The teeth are just slightly off-white and the mouth is a dark pink. The paint on my copy is generally neatly applied, with minor slop around the claws and just a bit of the homogenization of the teeth that you expect with an affordable figure by Safari. The figure has slightly fewer teeth than the holotype of D. torosus, although it matches the tooth counts in the specimen held at the Field Museum.

The underside bears the usual markings, with the genus name, “Safari Ltd, Miami FL,” the year 2021, and a line specifying that it was made in Dongguan (in the gigantic Guangzhou urban area). The lizard-like cloaca is highlighted with a thin line of darker paint.

This Daspletosaurus is sculpted with its head up and mouth open. The head is probably at too high an angle to be attacking, so I interpret it as yelling at a neighbor to scram (it’s tempting to say ‘roaring,’ but we don’t have any idea what sounds it might have made: screeches, honks, belches approximating the alphabet, who knows). The texture on the body is subtle, with fine scales interspersed with slightly larger ones, and wrinkles where range of motion would demand a bit of give. The long, well-muscled tail counterbalances well, and my figure has stood stably on my shelf, unassisted, for about 5 months now. 

The head features small crests on the lacrimal and postorbital, which frame the bright blue eyes nicely, as well as a bit of ornamentation on the snout. The crests are conservative embellishments of actual protrusions on the skull. The eyes are oriented obliquely, not quite as forward-facing as you would see in Tyrannosaurus. There is clear soft tissue around the mouth that would conceal the teeth if the gape were closed. A study of the facial bones of Daspletosaurus horneri interpreted their texture and histology as supporting large crocodile-like scales (some refuse to call these scales, but in this context I’m not making any homology claims by calling them scales, so I counsel the pedants to relax). The scales on this model are larger on the face than elsewhere on the body, consistent with this study. Many have concluded that crocodile-like scales imply exposed teeth, although I don’t think this logically follows. I think “lips,” broadly construed, remain a plausible feature of tyrannosaur faces. But please understand that I find the ‘did theropods have lips’ debate to be the most tedious in all of paleobiology, and those who decide to contest it in the comments will be talking among themselves. 

This figure is well-proportioned and works out to about 1:35 scale. This puts it reasonably in scale with a few contemporaries, such as Papo’s Gorgosaurus and Safari’s Gryposaurus (both of which I own but couldn’t dig up for photo day). If you’re in the market for a Daspletosaurus specifically you’re not going to do better than this. It’s a high quality figure at an affordable price, and can help round out a Campanian diorama.

Despite my low enthusiasm for theropods, I have to say that this is an excellent toy. Best wishes to Safari Ltd, who I hope will bounce back with a strong 2022, maybe with a slate of releases that is less than 100% theropod!