Plesiosaurus (Jurassic World Battle Damage by Mattel)

Review and photos by Faelrin, edited by Suspsy

If you had to ask me what my favorite prehistoric marine reptiles are, there’s probably only about a handful or two of them compared to the dinosaurs that they shared the Mesozoic with (and which they often are assumed to be, unfortunately). Of those, Plesiosaurus was probably the first one I was introduced to growing up, although I can’t even recall how I came to find out about it. Perhaps it was from hearing about Nessie, the Loch Ness monster that is often described as a surviving plesiosaur of sorts. Plesiosaurus itself was from the Early Jurassic period, was found in the Lias Group in England, and was originally discovered by Mary Anning in 1823. It was also the very first plesiosaur to be discovered, which may help to explain my familiarity with it. And it was rather small, only about 3.5 meters (11 feet) long.

The Mattel Jurassic World line would see the release of not one, but two Plesiosaurus figures last year in both the Battle Damage and Savage Strike assortments, the second marine reptile in their line, after the gargantuan Mosasaurus. Although it must be said that there was terrible global distribution (to put it bluntly) regarding both of these toys. The Battle Damage variant is the one that interested me the most (but I did get my hands on the Savage Strike variant as well later on, courtesy of my friend in Germany), and is the subject of this review.

Before focusing on the figure itself, I should mention how I came to obtain this figure, what with how poorly distributed it was. Despite being a Walmart exclusive in the US, this figure was nowhere to be seen until a rather limited and much later release on their website only at the end of the year, with a few also being spotted in Ross stores as well. If I recall correctly, Amazon also had it in stock (if not some third party retailers) around that time as well. By the summer, I was already beginning to fear this toy would not be hitting the States at all, as stores were still excessively backed up on the previous year’s assortments of Battle Damage figures. Luckily, I was able to spot one of these going for sale from someone in Guatemala while browsing on Instagram one morning. After that lucky encounter, not only was I able to finally get my hands on this figure, but I also made a great friend whom I still talk with from time to time, and I help him get figures as well.

Once I finally had this toy in my hands, it easily became one of my favorites, and that has not changed one bit for me. To start with, there are relatively few figures of Plesiosaurus out there, despite its completeness and the length of time we’ve known about it, so aside from it being a part of the Mattel line, it finally gave me a chance to add a figure of this genus to my collection. And second, the figure has loads of articulation, so it can be posed in a more retro or classic neck up pose, or a more anatomically accurate, stiffened neck pose. The jaws can open and close, the head can be rotated or moved up and down, the neck can move up and down, and the fins can be rotated or moved up and down. The only thing it seems to be missing is articulation at the tail, which the Savage Strike variant features. The Battle Damage feature is like many of the others in the line, where there is a little spot that can be pushed on to reveal some red flesh, with a small tab to close it back up again. The color scheme is rather simple. Really, there’s only one application of paint on the toy, aside from the eyes, teeth, and inside of the mouth. It works well enough, I think. The top of the toy, from the back of its head to the body, and ending at the fins and tail, is covered in a navy blue striped and speckled pattern of some sort. The rest of the toy is made in a seafoam green plastic. It gives the figure countershading, which seems likely based on not only modern marine animals, but also evidence from some marine reptile fossils, and also would be likely considering Plesiosaurus’ lifestyle as a predator.

While Mattel is not striving for accuracy with their Jurassic World line, I think it is still important to discuss the anatomy of the toys, and how well (or not) they hold up to the available fossil evidence. At first glance, the toy is certainly recognizable as a Plesiosaurus. However, there are a few anatomical issues worth pointing out. Starting with the head, perhaps aside from the simplified and blunted teeth, I have not been able to find the placement of the nostrils, and it seems they may not have been included, although it is possible they are present and have just been covered in paint so that I cannot find them. The placement of the eyes seem to be too high up on the skull, and are perhaps too small, if not also a bit too far back. From above, the snout does seem to correctly have the U-shape, which widens out closer to the neck. There is also a dewlap of sorts on the underside where the jaw meets the neck. In regards to the neck, again, depending on how one chooses to pose it, the neck can be in an anatomically accurate posture or not. The proportions at a glance seem to be generally right when viewed from above, with the exception of the paddles being too large. Particularly the front pair, which should be more or less about the same size as the hind pair. I’m not entirely sure if the exact shape of the paddles are correct, however, there are a few relatives of Plesiosaurus that have been preserved with soft tissue traces which suggest that such a shape is plausible or likely. The tail seems to be broad and flattened, and ending in a point which may or may not be a fluke of sorts. It may be incorrect regardless, if it were to have had a possible vertical fluke in life like Seeleyosaurus seems to exhibit. The body, when viewed from the side, and above to some extent, seems have been given a fair or extensive amount of soft tissue, making it appear a bit well fed at least, which is a plus, as the recent discovery of relative Mauriciosaurus seems to suggest that at least some plesiosaurs had extensive soft tissue, or at least fat deposits alongside the body. It also had some alongside the tail, but that may or may not be applicable to Plesiosaurus itself, so I can’t particularly fault the toy for not going that route, and getting that wrong per se.

Anyways, I am certainly glad to have both this version and the Savage Strike one of this little marine reptile in my collection, and again, it is certainly one of my top favorites in the line thus far. I can only hope they branch out to include some of my other favorite marine reptiles in the future, such as Elasmosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, Liopleurodon, Kronosaurus, etc. I also hope to see this repackaged or repainted in the future, as the terrible distribution of both versions has made them difficult, if not expensive for collectors to obtain. Granted, I also hope the distribution of this line improves, but, well, I won’t be holding my breath.

Also, special thanks to Dr. Admin and his extremely helpful Plesiosaur Directory and Mark Witton’s blog post on the subject, both of which I made use of while researching Plesiosaurus to help write this review. Definitely go check both of those sites out.