Pteranodons (Basic)(Jurassic World by Mattel)

Review and photos by EmperorDinobot, edited by Suspsy

Being a completist, I, Emperor Dinobot have to make some difficult choices once in a while. You see, in my yet-to-be-finished display, I am building a sort of aviary, where all pterosaurs big and small can roam around my room’s ceiling. So far it is impressive thanks to the sheer number of pterosaurs Mattel has provided us in recent years. Among those are these Basic Pteranodon toys, which are made of cheap plastic, are cheaply made, and all come in these plastic, shampoo bottle-looking boxes. I said it was a difficult choice because there is not much to be said about them, so I will try my best to describe them here.

At 11 inches long, and with a wingspan of a whopping 19 inches, these figures are some of the biggest pterosaur toys around, but that is really all they have going for them. They are a simplified version of the same Mattel mold, which comes in three sizes: Basic-sized as seen here (Basics also include an assortment of smaller-sized figures, also packaged in plastic boxes, but no Pteranodons are to be found yet), Regular-sized, and Minis. They are all literally the same.

They are pretty detailed, but the cheap feeling is inescapable. They have articulated hips, ball-jointed wings, a ball-jointed neck with limited articulation, and a hinged jaw. The jaws have unpainted teeth. Their claws are also unpainted.

These were sold under the regular Jurassic World assortment, and now under the Dominion assortment. They are made to be sold at retail in outlets and other similar kinds of stores, but they can be found elsewhere. Do not let them fool you though. They retail at a $13.99 US price point, which is far too much for these figures in my opinion, and they are price gouged on the secondary market for some reason. And apparently, they are harder to find in some areas where big box stores are not too common, or are too far away. I had to get mine online even though I had seen them in the wild, but only the Dominion one was still being sold by the time I took these pictures.

As for the packaging, it is just a plastic box with some cardboard inserts depicting other Basic-sized figures, manufacturer information, instructions on how to plug in their wings (which fall out more often than not), and eye-catching decorative CGI paintings on the backgrounds to help catch your eye.

Let’s have a closer look at the figures themselves, shall we? These are supposed to represent the ugly theme park monsters that they are. They are not Pteranodon. They are ugly on screen, and they are horrible in action figure form, especially when they don’t do anything. You can buy a main line Pteranodon figure with twice as many features for a few dollars more, unless they have crossed into the secondary market, that is. Their bodies are unnaturally shrink-wrapped, their jaws have teeth, and are just ugly. They are fun to swoosh around though, if the wings don’t fall apart.

The main Jurassic World ones came in ochre brown and grass green, and the Dominion one is beige in color. The brown one here has some light brown detailing on the tips of its wings on the top halves, and the crest has a reddish-orange streak. Their bottom parts are unpainted, which is bad if you are planning to hang them, as I did.

The green one is the same, except that it has yellow detailing on the wings, and yellow stripes on the crest.

I like the Dominion one best because of the shiny dark aqua blue detailing on the wings and on the crest.

I will say one final thing. Due to their size, they do look impressive in my setup. I hope to finish that soon, and those pictures will accompany one of my future Mattel pterosaur reviews.

Get them ONLY if you have to.