Saber-toothed Squirrel ( Mattel, Inc.)

Photos and review by Bokisaurus

Hello Dinofans! This review marks my 40th review for the blog! It took years to get to this number. So I wanted to celebrate the occasion by doing something different, fun and really silly, but also relevant to the blog.
Choosing a subject for the occasion was hard, but I ultimately decided to highlight our little furry friend.

So why choose him? Well, its different and I felt that he actually have some interesting facts that fascinated me. I also wanted something that is not too serious and be silly for a change, and unpredictable. So this was the perfect subject.

As you may have noticed, starting last year, I decided that moving forward, I wanted to add a little something to all of my review. I wanted something that would add a little element of humor to balance the often serious tone of a review. At the same time, I wanted something that would not overpower the review subject.

So I did a casting call, and there were many that auditioned and were considered for the role of my review guide.
After evaluating the many possibilities and trying out photo shoot with each one, I made the decision.
I casted this little figure of Scrat, that little supporting creature from the Ice Age movie franchise. I’m sure that you all heard of that movie. To date, he has appeared in 18 of my review. As a fun tribute,I decided to photograph him with all of the figures he accompanied… and more, sorta like a behind the scenes.

The original Ice Age film was released in 2002 by Blue Sky Studios. It was so successful that it spawned many sequels.
The movie centered on a group of prehistoric mammals, their unlikely friendships and alliance, as well as their journey to the south in search of better pasture.

As expected, it starred a woolly mammoth, a Smilodon, and a Giant Ground Sloth as the main characters. Along their adventures, they meet up with lots of other interesting animals.
This was one of the few films that really focused on prehistoric mammals and not dinosaurs, although dinosaurs will make an appearance in one of the later sequel.

Although very successful at the box office, the film was heavily criticized for its inaccurate depiction of the fauna that lived at that time. They often mixed animals from different times, as well as locations.
But this didn’t stop the film from being one of the highest grossing animated film ever produced.

As the movies unfolds, you see a little furry squires-like animal that is chasing obsessively for his ever disappearing acorn. This little guy is Scrat, a Saber-toothed Squirrel. See? The saber-tooth design was so successful that even a rodent adapted it!
But is he real? Well, the story is actually very fascinating, but to start, No, Scrat is a fictional character… but with a twist.

At first, I was not sure if a fictional animal is something that is worthy of a blog review. But having seen reviews of JP Indominus rex, a fictional mutant, on the blog, I figured why not do a  review of this little guy? After all he is much closer to reality than the mutant Indominus.

Scrat is a work of fiction, generated by computer artist  in Hollywood… or at least it seems. Officially listed as a Saber toothed squirrel, Scrat has that distinctive long snout and bushy tail seen on squirrels.

On the tip of its long snout, you see a pair of enlarge fangs, hence the name Saber tooth. Its diet consist of acorn which were in very short supply. Scrat spends his every waking hour chasing after his acorn. He doesn’t seem to be able to keep it for long as it constantly rolls, fall, bounce, and disappears. 

The figure measures 2.5” inches long from snout tip to tail tip and is about and inch tall, half an inch shorter than that Schleich or CollectA 1:40 scale human figure we often use for size comparison.
For such a small figure, it is actually very detailed.

The snout is very long, and you can see the saber-like teeth on the end, if you look under, you will also see some smaller exposed teeth just behind the fangs.
The nose is big, better to smell and track down acorns, and is painted black.
The eyes are huge and bulging as if the animal is in constant state of shock or amazement!

His ears are big, floppy, and drops/pulled back as if the animal is scared. He has a long tuft of hairs on the sides of his face as well. The figure is posed as if its scared of something. Its small hands are folded on its chest. His legs are tucked under in a sitting position. If you look under, you can see its tiny and slender little legs.

The long and busy tail is held straight back. The fur details on this small figure is nice. Long streaks running towards the back and sides. the tail has bigger lines to emphasize just how busy it is.
The color is gray-brown all over the body. There are rusty colored highlights on the face, ears, and legs. A darker gray stripes is seen on the back and also on the tail

In 2002, just as the move Ice Age was released and enjoying box-office success, paleontologist in Argentina discovered a small fossil skull encased in hard rock. They had no idea what it was or what it looked like, or how significant the find was.
It would bee years later before this fossil is eventually be freed from its rocky encasing and be studies and described.

As it turned out, the skull was from a small squirrel-like mammal that lived in the late Cretaceous of South America.
This new species was given the name Cronopio dentiactus. It was described as being squirrel-like it size, with big eyes, a long snout, and with canine fangs that was long ( thus the sabertooth).

The descriptions sound so much like our little friend Scrat. In fact, the scientist who discovered and studied it made the remark about how much this animal resembled Scrat the fictional character from the Ice Age movie.
So, as it turned out, Scrat may not be purely fictional after all. What is interesting is that usually, fictional creatures are based on real animals and not the other way around like in this case.
It just shows how reality can be as bizarre as one conjured up by Hollywood’s imagination.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed this review of our little guide. The figure is still available, often in sets along with his co-starts.
He may not be a real animal, but his resemblance to a real one and his fascinating story makes him well worth acquiring, plus he is very cute!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all will continue to follow our little guy as he meets more fascinating prehistoric creatures in future reviews.

Take care, until we meet agin on the next (regular) review. Cheers!