Can you believe we haven’t covered this figure yet? One of the first truly lo-o-ong dinosaur toys, the Invicta Diplodocus dates back to 1974. It was a simpler time, when sauropods were kind enough to drag their tails around for allosaurs to snack on at their convenience, and some of our more aged forum members were yet to become the embittered, black-hearted old cranks that they are today. This lovely, along with the other Invicta sauropods, showed that Invicta weren’t going to go all flakey and produce their sauropods at a different scale to their other dinosaurs, thus setting the precedent for the many giant plastic hulks that now adorn the houses of dinosaur-collecting geeks.
Diplodocus was a very fitting dinosaur for Invicta’s Natural History Museum line, as a Diplodocus carnegii cast (named ‘Dippy’, which someone should tell them isn’t at all funny) dominates the museum’s main hall and was the first Diplodocus skeleton to be mounted in 1905. With its grey colour and ultra-wrinkled skin, Invicta seemingly followed the pre-Dino Renaissance tradition of making sauropods look elephantine (because, with their enormously long necks and tails and proportionately tiny heads, they looked exactly like elephants). I despise wrinkle-tastic sauropods, but I suppose it’s just reflective of the time it was sculpted.
Elsewhere there’s quite a lot to like, as usual with Invicta. Of course, a number of features – most obviously the dragged tail and the feet – are horribly out of date, as anything would be that hasn’t updated its look since the 1970s (like Noel Edmonds – one for my fellow countrymen there). Also, the forelimbs are too short, resulting in far too much of a humped back. However, at least the animal isn’t an horrendously obese fatso, as many sauropods in paleoart in the early 1970s continued to be – it gives a good indication of the gracile nature of Diplodocus. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the neck posture either – it emerges horizontally from the spine and gently curves upwards, with the head in a downward-facing neutral positon. It looks elegant.
The figure’s elegance is further enhanced by the well-sculpted limbs that clearly show musculature and skin folds where the animal is in motion. I would say that it’s superior in this regard to some of the other Invicta sauropods, like the Brachiosaurus. Much as some features make it look like an antique, this sculpt definitely has a naturalistic, believable look, which is true for most of the Invictas – they’re like the best vintage paleoart in three dimensions. Ignore the dragging tail for a moment (which can make this thing very awkward to display) and what you see is an animal that’s actually quite dynamic, with muscular, striding legs taking long strides forward with intent. As I noted with the Tyrannosaurus, one can imagine it as being indicative of a transitional phase in paleoart, with the old swamp-dwellers giving way to today’s leaner, meaner versions, this representing a step somewhere in between. And there aren’t many plastic dinosaur toys you can be that pretentious about.
Of course, if you want one then you’ll have to go to eBay, or else get lucky in a charity shop or somesuch. Unfortunately these slender, but very long figures often get battered and bruised – as you can see with mine – and occasionally have the ends of their tails missing. Avoid those, for what is Diplodocus without its famous whiplash tail? (Maybe they should call the Natural History Museum Diplodocus Mr Whippy.) More fortunately they aren’t particularly rare or expensive. In spite of its age it makes a great companion to the more recent Carnegie Diplodocus and is a lovely sculpt overall – just make sure you have room for the tail!
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I hope I am not the only one who noticed this figure(along with it’s Brachiosaurus companion) in Ready Player One.
Well, shoot, now I REALLY need to see the film again – I missed that easter egg entirely!
[…] R. McNeill Alexander (1985, 1989) did estimate the mass of the neck of Diplodocus, based on the old Invicta model and assuming a specific gravity of 1.0. Which was a start, and waaay better than no estimate at […]
[…] This giant is densely decorated with rich surface detail. This is an area where mass production often falters, or at least yields inconsistent results. Luckily, the replication of these details has been very well done for Apatosaurus. No matter how one feels about the paint application, the sculptural detail is actually so impressive, it overwhelms any minor flaws in the paint. If you spend considerable time admiring the details in a sculpture like this, prepare to reschedule your day, as Jorge has packed plenty of texture work into this colossal canvas. Unlike Jorge’s Stegosaurus or Protoceratops, the Apatosaurus bears little in the way of scales and scutes. Instead, the animal struts proudly in a wrinkled, elephantine skin that bags and sags, bunches and folds in all places demanded by the laws of physics. Granted, scales wouldn’t necessarily be visible in a scaled down sauropod – hard as it may be to remind ourselves this is a scaled down model – and the effect recalls the timeless grace of a sauropod from the Invicta line. […]
Yeah, Blackdanter, curse Safari and their, er, accuracy! Sometimes I wonder what you’re on (presumably it’s the stuff that blackened your heart). Still, I do agree that this is a fine figure!
“embittered, black-hearted old cranks” In my day you’d have gotten a dry slap and sent to bed without any tea for that boy! You’ll wind up elephantine and wrinkled too, only another 15 years or so. This is a fine figure tho, exuding style and elegance. Oh the days before Safari ravaged the dino toy world with their brand of characterless fashionable accuracy. Monculture akin to virulent spread of MacDonalds but without the heart disease and litter problem.
Es, a pesar de haber pasado 40 años una de mis dinosaurios preferidos, incluso aventaja al Diplodocus de Carnegie. A ver si se llega a superar, porque la verdad pone en vergüenza a las compañías que han tratado de imitarle, a pesar de lo obsoleto del material.