Euoplocephalus (Starlux)

The air was hot and humid as the midday sun radiated down from a clear blue sky. An old Euoplocephalus was feeling the heat on her back from the glaring sun. While she was drinking at the edge of a small, shallow creek, she was surrounded by a group Edmontosaurus. By growing up in tyrannosaurid country she knew there is always danger when heading to a water source. Despite the danger she felt safe. During her life she has relied on her armor more than once and it had yet to fail her.

After a quick drink she ambled toward the forest edge when suddenly she notice some movement to her left side. Less than 15 feet away there was an Albertosaurus peering out of the brush. Instinctively she assumed a defensive posture by lowering her body down and tensing her tail. The Albertosaurus ignored her and rushed toward the creek. She turned her body and watched as the Albertosaurus charged into the heard. The Edmontosaurus lifted their heads and cried out in alarm. As the group turned to run, a small one slipped at the edge of the creek and fell down. By the time it got back up, it was too late as the Albertosaurus bit down hard on its neck. Realizing their was no danger to her, she continued on her way to find some shade from the hot sun above and to forage on the plants the grew at the forest edge.

Euoplocephalus was the size of a small personal truck and as armored as a medieval knight. It lived in North America 76-75 mya. It is the dinosaur most people picture when they think of an ankylosaur, partly due to the fact that plastic toys of Ankylosaurus are often modeled after Euoplocephalus.

This 1979 Ankylosaurid from Starlux is, depending on your opinion, either a cute or an unattractive mix between an armadillo and a sloth. It is a small figure at 4 in (10.5 cm) long and 1.5 in (4 cm) high. This figure has many scientific inaccuracies that are typical of the toy line. It would take a long time to mention them all in full detail but I’ll try to do a quick overview.

When looking down from above you see the first problems with this figure. It should be much wider and rounder at the mid point of the body, instead this toy is rather thin and streamlined. You can also see that the armor is wrong. Their are no spikes on it and the scutes are many and egg shaped. The scutes are too uniform in shape and while it is in rows, the banding is wrong. Their should be a wide sacral band or shield over the hips as well. If you choose to we could excuse the armor issues due to its small size.

Continuing with issues the tail is too short but at least it is stiff. It would be hard for this figure to fend off nasty predators with it. The neck looks too short as well. The head has a triangle shape to it but the armor is all wrong on it. The mouth is missing the beak, cheeks, and amazingly the trade mark back word facing horns on the head. On a good note it does appear that the front legs do splay out a little and have some thickness to them. Chances are the wrists would be thinner but that might be knit picking just a little.

There is a clear delineation between the armored upper half and unarmored lower half of the body. The lower half shows skin folds along the body and neck. The colors are simple. The armor is light brown, the rest is brown. The eyes and toes are white and the mouth is pink.

This is not the best example of Euoplocephalus made into toy form. I would recommend the Battat or even the old cute Carnegie version over this one but, guess what, this figure is 40 years old. There is some nostalgia charm to the toy as most Starlux prehistoric toys have. Even with that charm it does not mean that this is a must have figure. What do you think? Is it cute or is it an ugly armadillo? As always if you like it, head off to e-bay and happy hunting.