Diabloceratops (Beasts of the Mesozoic by Creative Beast Studios)

Diabloceratops is a dinosaur in a curious position. Despite relatively little fame or pop culture presence, the “devil-horned face” has been a popular choice of genus for toy companies; Safari ltd., Collecta, Schleich, Mattel, and recently Haolonggood, among still others, have all taken a crack at the animal, with surprisingly good results in general. With the advent of the Beasts of the Mesozoic Ceratopsian series in 2020, collectors saw yet another prominent company in the dinosaur toy sphere enter the ring of Diabloceratops figurines, delivering one the biggest, most dynamic, and possibly most accurate iterations to date.

First discovered in 2002 from the Wahweap Formation of Grand Staircase Escalante Monument, Utah, Diabloceratops eatoni was officially described by James Kirkland and his team in 2010. Dating to 79.9 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous, this ceratopsian was a mid-sized herbivore in its environment, coexisting with various other plant-eating dinosaurs and avoiding predation from large theropods like the tyrannosaur Lythronax. Most of these facts are included on the box sleeve and collectible card featured as part of the product & package for the Beasts of the Mesozoic figure. Diabloceratops is no. 06 of the Ceratopsian series, billed as one of the 1/18th scale action figures. Apart from the instructions and background insert, no other supplemental features (ie stands, alternate feet) are included. The tail comes detached in the plastic shell, but can easily be attached and detached again, possibly with help from hot water or a blow dryer.

Upper estimates for the size of Diabloceratops reach 5.5 meters (18 ft) in length. The BotM action figure measures 27 cm (10.6 in) from nose to tail, placing the figure at 1/18th scale as advertised for a specimen just under 5 meters – however for a fully-grown individual it’s closer to 1/20. Granted, a lot of speculation has to go into these estimates, since we literally have only the animal’s skull to work from. Most of the Ceratopsian Series share parts between figures – a cost-cutting measure Silva could get away with due to consistencies in anatomy between related genera. The Diabloceratops shares many of its body parts with other centrosaurines in the medium-size range, including Avaceratops, Einiosaurus, and the juvenile Centrosaurus, all of which are known from more substantial fossils. The torso is stout, with a fairly level spine as opposed to the more arched backs of chasmosaurines. The hip region is fairly large, with a lengthy section of straight sacral vertebrae (the fused backbones between the hip bones). The limbs and tail are longer in proportion to the body than in the largest ceratopsians, though still very modest compared to other, less “armored” dinosaur groups.

Since we know Diabloceratops exclusively by its skull, the creative team behind the sculpt – consisting of David Silva himself, Simon Panek, and Raul Ramos – made sure to do an A-grade job at capturing the likeness of the animal’s face, reconstructing every detail of the skull essentially to perfection. A few variations are made to the horns, giving the dual frill horns a sharper bend outwards halfway up and a slight swoop upwards again at the tips. The brow horns are enhanced in size, and a tiny psuedo-horn sits atop the bridge of the nose in front of the eyes. These are all entirely reasonable artistic touches, since the keratinous reinforcements of the horns and facial features would have contributed to more presentation and variation in living specimens. The distinctly bulbous nasal chamber is in full display, as well as the jugal horns and short but sharply-curved frill.

As one might expect, only a few figures of the “devil-horned face” have avoided the predictable red color motifs. While the Beasts of the Mesozoic Diabloceratops does concede the red theme, the application is very balanced and stylish. The colors are based on the Peninsular rock agama lizard, with predominant red and black reverse countershading. Additional flourishes of teal and light orange break up the silhouette and draw attention to different areas of the body without becoming messy – although the orange/yellow striping isn’t consistently painted across body parts, which does end up looking a bit sloppy in appearance. Overall, though, the color scheme is coy but cleverly adapted from the real-life reference into something more unique for the figurine.

There are 19 advertised points of articulation to the figure, as is standard for the Ceratopsian figures; most of the articulation works great, which may be an advantage to the more gracile body plan. The head can turn about 30 degrees in all directions, with probably about half again from the base of the neck. The mouth can open a modest range, enough to fit a fingertip in or maybe to nip at the ankles of a tyrannosaur; however like most figures in the series the beak cannot fully close. The shoulders and feet use ball sockets, while the hips are strictly swivel-jointed. The elbows, knees, and ankles are swiveled hinges, with a single ball joint for the torso and the tail each. While most of the joints have good range, the bulk of the work for dynamic posing lies in the head and forelimbs, which have the most range and carry nearly all of the expression. Diabloceratops carries a lot of personality with its sculpt and color patterns, and with a little working of the joints this figure can get some great shots.

We are now 3+ years out from the Ceratopsian series hitting retailers, but figures like Diabloceratops continue to be a pleasure handling and displaying. Coupled with the nestlings mini pack, or posed in combat with the Tyrannosaur series Lythronax, this is an action figure with lots of mileage to it, and a terrific representation of a most striking horned dinosaur.

Diabloceratops, along with other Beasts of the Mesozoic Ceratopsian figures, can be purchased directly from the Creative Beast website, in addition to other retailers including Dan’s Dinosaurs and Everything Dinosaur.