Guest review by forumite ‘Australovenator‘
CollectA’s lineup of prehistoric figures for 2012 shows a company on the cusp of greatness. Having listened to the criticism of the collectors themselves, the company has upped the quality and indeed accuracy of their mass produced figurines. While this cannot be said for this year’s entire crop (*cough, cough* T. rex with prey *cough cough*) they have undoubtedly improved and look set to take the collectors’ market by storm. New to their line of prehistoric creatures is a group of small dioramas they company calls ‘Dinosaur Families’. These are set to feature groups of dinosaurs too small to otherwise craft scale figurines of. The group I am focusing on today is none other than Koreaceratops.
Koreaceratops is a basal ceratopsian from, you guessed it, Korea. It is unique in that the vertebrae of the animal feature tall spines, creating what appears to have been a sail or fin in the living creature. The exact purpose of this is still something of a mystery, but it was probably used in display.
The toy itself is tiny, and had it not been as nice as it is I would not have forked out the 7 dollars for it. Immediately striking are the colours, for such a small piece of plastic they certainly haven’t skimped on variety. The piece is covered with varying browns, greens, blues and oranges. The painting is almost immaculate on every figure I saw in the store which is surprising considering the size. The piece is well detailed, with the little feet of the dinosaurs clearly defined against the base, their skin suitably lined and scaled, even the smallest figures on the piece are immaculately detailed.
The four Koreaceratops featured in this little diorama are separated by colour. One can assume that the brighter blue creatures with the more defined crests are males, while the drabber and smaller crested orange animals are females. The blue animals also have much more pronounced fins on their tails and backs, further adding to this notion of their masculinity. The dinosaurs are positioned around a conifer feeding. One can see the fallen conifer leaves that litter the suitably muddy base – one of the younger dinosaurs can be seen picking at these fallen treats. The conifer itself is amazingly detailed, appearing about as real as the medium allows, the criss crossed trunk easily distinguished from the rest of the piece.
Overall this is a wonderful piece, for something so small it is clear that a lot of effort has been put in. This is one figure I can highly recommend for any dinosaur collector, it’s crisply detailed and with a fairly reasonable price to boot. Hats off to CollectA.
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[…] due to the amount of detail in such a small toy. It does not have the splash of color that the 2012 Koreaceratops had, but there is nothing wrong that as the paint job looks natural. I would recommend it for […]
Esta figura a mi honesto y humilde entender está más destinada a los coleccionistas que a los niños.
Entiendo que con la familia de Hysilophodones y los árboles prehistóricos estas figuras están encaminadas más bien a la realización de dioramas. Y perdonen por no escribir en inglés ya que por desgracia mi inglés es bastante deficiente.
The size, colors, and attached base of this figure reminds of the tiny deinonychus and protoceratops replicas that Safari made (and has since retired) back when they still did everything 1/40th scale. Pretty nifty little diarama!