Many of the most vibrantly coloured vertebrates living on the planet today are reptiles, particularly squamates such as the gold dust day gecko, the collared lizard, the rainbow boa, and the eastern coral snake. Certain testudines including the red-eared slider, the eastern box turtle, and the northern river terrapin also feature bold patterning and coloration. Extant pseudosuchians, on the other hand, tend be either dull black, yellowish-brown, or olive green in colour. As such, companies like CollectA, Papo, PNSO, and Safari Ltd. have generally coloured their extinct pseudosuchians along these lines, as seen below.
Mattel, on the other hand, bucked the trend back in 2021 when they repainted their Jurassic World: Massive Biters Sarcosuchus in some rather striking shades that definitely made it jump out more from the sales racks than the original release. That’s almost always the case with repaints, isn’t it?
There’s not a whole lot I can add to the review of the original version, but I will say that I like how, in spite of the extremely oversized head and reduced tail, there’s absolutely no mistaking this beast for anything other than Sarcosuchus. That may sound like a trivial thing, but I’ve noticed lately that some of Mattel’s theropods have become disappointingly generic in appearance. The designer clearly put some loving effort into sculpting the head on this toy. It’s definitely one of the scariest-looking beasts in the entire Mattel JW line.
I also really love the action feature. The chomping jaws and turning head really do seem realistic and make the toy come to life. And because the head is so huge, it can actually pick up and grip smaller toys with ease. Out of all the Massive Biter toys, the Sarcosuchus is definitely the most fun to play with as far as I’m concerned.
The base colour on this toy is blue-grey with tiny flecks of dark maroon. Dark maroon is also used for the upper portion of the skull, the neck, the back, and all the way down to the tip of the tail. Splashes of dark red and bright orange have been applied to the flanks and there is a visible dark red streak along the top of the snout. The eyes are bright yellow, the inside of the mouth is glossy salmon pink, and the teeth are a very pale yellow. Needless to say, this is a striking contrast from the original version and that lot of pseudosuchians you saw at the beginning of this review! But it does work. The blue-grey and the maroon complement each other rather well and the splashes of orange are vivid, but not loud. If I were a child who came across both versions of the Sarcosuchus in a toy store, I would definitely go with this one.
Is there any plausibility at all to such a colour scheme? Well, as I mentioned at the start, the majority of modern alligators, caimans, crocodiles, and the gharial are relatively drab in colour, but there is one recently discovered exception. Deep within the Abanda Caves of Gabon, Africa, dwells a small population of dwarf crocodiles (Osteolaemus tetraspis) with distinctly orange-hued skin. These crocodiles feed on bats and cave crickets that reside in the caves with them. Their coloration is thought to be a result of swimming in warm alkaline water mixed with plenty of bat guano, bleaching their skin orange. But these dwarf crocodiles only grow up to 1.5 metres long, whereas Sarcosuchus is estimated to been up to 9.5 metres long. It seems highly unlikely that an animal that large would be dwelling in caves, even if there were ones big enough for it to roam around in. Not to mention the total absence of bats (it’s unknown if any pterosaurs resided in caves, or if their guano had colour-changing properties). No, in all likelihood, the real Sarcosuchus was coloured more like a mugger or a Nile crocodile.
But you know what? To heck with plausibility, I say! This is a really fun and very cool-looking toy, one that I can’t imagine any youngster being disappointed with. My boys have had a ball with it. You’re unlikely to come across the Sarcosuchus in brick and mortar stores nowadays, but you can probably still find it for sale online.
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Thanks for the review. Mine are under my Legacy Brachiosaurus’ tummy. It’s just a fun monster toy, and any time Mattel gives us non-dino, non-pterosaur prehistoric figures, I’m more than happy to own them.
This is definitely the more eye-catching variant of the figure; I’m glad it’s the one I found. I was not expecting the play feature to be as fun as it is! Mattel scored well on this toy.
This remains among the most popular Mattel toys in my household. I also prefer this color variant, though not enough to pursue it. The original looks a lot like the original Albertosaurus, another toy that ended up getting a better repaint. That seems to happen often with Mattel.
This was a technically part of the 2020 Primal Attack line. It was part of the wave with the green Albertosaurus. That said I can’t recall if it was actually in stores before 2021 though. I do recall finding these pretty early in 2021 in my local Best Buy. Both this Sarcosuchus variant, and its wavemate Albertosaurus have received minis this year as well. I have the original figure and adore it, but this repaint has been growing on me since (same with the vivid green and orange Albertosaurus). Not sure how much they go for now though since it has been quite a while from when they first released.
Nearly lost my drink on the keyboard when I got to the first photo of that over-sized snout. :>)
LOL LOL LOL :>)
What a GREAT toy. I give it 5 stars on that basis alone. Obviously its not meant to be more than generally accurate, so I don’t look at it that way at all.
Its just all-around AWESOME looking. Props for the “biting” photos of various victims.
GREAT review!!!
Thanks!