Erectopus (Animasaurus Collection)

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Review and photos by Nathan ‘Takama’ Morris, edited by amargasaurus cazaui and Suspsy

Well everyone, today’s review is a little special for me, because not only am I reviewing something that is not a toy (not often that I get to do that), but it’s also something I had a hand in bringing into existence. For those who don’t know, I am now the producer of a line of dinosaur models named the Animasaurus Collection. The Animasaurus collection is my dream line of dinosaurs, with models sculpted at a 1:30 scale including creatures that only the most hardcore dinosaur fans have heard of. Though there will be some familiar faces like T. rex and Stegosaurus, most of what I have planned are all obscure genera that were only made by one company (Geoworld or CollectA) or no one at all. All of the models were commissioned by me, and sculpted by the forums very own Brandon DeMoss (who has his own line of models to collect as well).

The first figures made for the Animasaurus Collection were experimental models which I commissioned to see how I liked them. These include a Lurdusaurus and an Einiosaurus sculpted at 1:50 scale. I have since changed my plans for the line and upped the scale to 1:32. The reason for this change was to get a variety of toys all in a consistent scale that lends itself to many different-sized creatures to be compatible with each other. The name of the line is Animasaurus, which means “Soul Lizards” in Latin. The reason I chose this name is because I want each model to have its own soul, to make it seem like they are all living things.

The first wave of figures we are doing for 1:32 Scale include Torvosaurus and Erectopus. The first of these two dinosaurs to be finished is the obscure genus Erectopus superbus. Erectopus was an allosauroid from France, and as far as I know, it is one of the smallest members of its family at around 10 feet long. Unlike its larger and more famous cousin Allosaurus, it likely did not hunt large prey. Instead, it probably tried to hunt down small animals such as mammals and baby dinosaurs.

The model I commissioned for the Animasaurus Collection was conceived due to the fact that the genus has a name that would appear suggestive to those with a filthy mind and was made fun of on a comedy website I frequent which lead me to discover the animal’s existence. In reality, the name of this animal has nothing to do with what the website was suggesting, and it is instead a reference to the upright posture of the legs which is found on all dinosaurs.

Being 10 feet long in real life, the Erectopus model was sculpted to be 3.6 inches long which would put it right at home with the line’s 1:32 scale. The model is based mostly on the proportions of other allosaurs, albeit without any lacrimal crests on its head. The pose was made to represent an individual who came across a dried up water bed, and must dig for water underneath the dirt. This idea came from a scene in Disney’s Dinosaur, and When Dinosaurs Roamed America where the animals arrived at dried up water beds and must dig to get at water that may be hiding under the surface of the earth.

Compared with a human and vehicle of the same scale.

The colors of this model will differ depending on customers’ preferences. For our type model (the one made for me first!) I chose to base the color on a Fiji crested iguana which is another creature I learned about on the same website I discovered this dinosaur. Basing the colors of our models on real animals will not be a common thing in our line, and I will actively be asking various paleoartists if I can use their color schemes for models we will make in the future in order to avoid any possible plagiarism.

The body is decked out with impressive scaling detail that Brandon claims to have done with the help of a little screwdriver. It’s this attention to detail that also made me switch my lines scale from 1:50 to 1:32, which allows for greater details in the sculpt that 1:50 just can’t handle realistically. As an added detail, I have all of our models sculpted with a cloacal opening to make them seem like they are more alive, and not just another constipated figurine.

Overall, it’s up to you to decide if our first 1:32 model is worthy of your collection, We try to make our models as accurate as possible, but if something seems off, we are willing to change things for future products. I hope this review does not come off too much as an advertisement for our line, and I want to thank Dan Liebman for encouraging me to write this. As more models are made for my line you can expect me to review them here, unless someone who owns one of them wishes to tackle it him/herself.

Available at Dan’s Dinosaurs.