Review and photos by Takama, edited by Suspsy
Another day, another Jurassic World review. This time it’s the Walmart exclusive Battle Damage Monolophosaurus that comes with the T. rex I reviewed not too long ago. For those who are new to the community and not up to speed on your dinosaurs, Monolophosaurus was a species of theropod dinosaur that is named after a large crest on its head. It was found in China, grew up to 5 meters long, and the only media appearance I can think of for this dinosaur is a crappy straight-to-DVD movie called Jurassic City (whose makers clearly knew nothing about dinosaurs, as the Monolophosaurus in that movie was incorrectly referred to as Velociraptor). But I think that this dinosaur would have made an interesting species to be included in a Jurassic Park film, simply because it was a carnivore, and had that distinctive crest on its head that makes it easy for general audiences to recognize.
On to the toy. Measuring 8” long, it is a surprisingly good representation of the species, and a fun one to fiddle with. The amount of articulation makes it addicting to play with. The head can be posed to look up or down, the arms can rotate and stretch out to the sides, and the legs can move as well. When it comes to accuracy, there is actually very little to gripe about. The head is not shrink-wrapped and is the right shape for the dinosaur (according to this skeletal diagram by Scott Hartman), and the proportions for the most part are fine. Really, if there is anything I have to find fault with, it would be the oversized feet, which allow the toy to stand on its own without the aid of its tail. Also, the arms may need a little more meat to them, but I’m not really sure that this is an inaccuracy. On the plus side, the hands are not pronated.
Since this is a standard-sized Battle Damage figure from Mattel, it has a piece of skin on its side that can be pushed to reveal a nasty flesh wound. Once the flesh underneath is revealed, it can be covered back up again by pulling up the little lever on the patch. This feature was also present on Hasbro’s Mosasaurus and their medium-sized Indominus Rex, though it was hard to get them to function properly, and thus the execution was done very poorly.
You can see in one of my photos that this Monolophosaurus is able to be posed in such a way that could make it look like a corpse. This is due to the fact that the jaw can open wider then what should be possible for a living animal. The colours on this toy are mostly green. There is a series of stripes on the back that are coloured a dark swampy green. The belly of the animal is in a tan shade, and the animal’s signature crest is colored in a whitish-green hue. When one opens the mouth, you can see that there is red for the tongue a dingy yellow for the teeth. Sadly, the claws are not painted in any different colour then the rest of the body.
Overall, this is surprisingly accurate for a JW toy. Monolophosaurus may not have been featured in any of the movies, and in a way, I see this as a good thing, as it allows the toy to be based more on fact and less on fiction. As of now, the only way you can buy this toy is to get it with the Battle Damage T. rex. However, there may be a chance that it may be released on its own in the future if this image is anything to go by.
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“You can see in one of my photos that this Monolophosaurus is able to be posed in such a way that could make it look like a corpse. This is due to the fact that the jaw can open wider then what should be possible for a living animal.”
In your photo, the jaw seems open about as wide as the maximum possible for a Tyrannosaurus, but less than the maximum possible for an Allosaurus. It appears they would have only opened their jaws so wide rarely, but it was possible while they were alive. This can be seen here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-dinosaur/watch-your-mouth-allosaurus-had-monstrously-gaping-jaws-idUSKCN0ST00320151104
That study isn’t saying how wide an Allo, rex, etc.would open its jaw, only how wide it could sustain it’s jaw being opened (imagine sliding onto oversized wriggling prey)
I don’t seen such a distinction being made in the article I linked to, which says these dinosaurs would be able to open their jaws that wide. I’ve looked at the study itself too, and I don’t see the distinction you made there either… In any case, the point of my comment isn’t affected, which is that there were living dinosaurs that could open their mouths as wide or wider than what appears shown in this review’s photo.
I do hope they release this toy independent of the T. rex, I actually quite like it.
A repaint is scheduled for next year. I believe it’s orange.