Review by Libraraptor, photographs by Zachary Perry (ZoPteryx)
Scelidosaurus was a Lower Jurassic thyreophoran from England. Discovered in the middle of the 19th century in Dorset and described by Richard Owen himself, this 4 m long, bird-hipped dinosaur is standing at the changeover from small bipedal ornithopods to quadrupedal ankylosaurs or stegosaurs.
CollectA Scelidosaurus is a nice figure to have, if it wasn’t for the cost/performance ratio. I payed 19,99 € for it, while some Schleichs of similar size are much cheaper. (“Dollecta?”) Maybe it is this expensive because it is declared as a “Deluxe” dinosaur.
To be honest, this is a promise the CollectA Scelidosaurus can’t really live up to, although it is really neat. The CollectA Scelidosaurus is 23 cm long, 7 cm tall and of a really heavy touch. The back and the many scales and spikes of different sizes are all painted tan and beige. The shoulder spines make an exception: These eye-catchers are light red. The belly is grey.
The animal has been caught at quick pace, mouth open. It seems as if it’s running away from a predator.
The head and neck reveal some cool details: The neck is laced with overlapping scales, the head has horns who face backward, making them look like ears, which is a little annoying, I must admit. Also annoying is the fact that the front legs´ outer toe points backwards. I´m also not sure if the number of toes was really five.
All in all I recommend CollectA Scelidosaurus to every collector with a wider span of species and companies.
Two questions remain unanswered: Did CollectA exaggerate by providing the animal with so many scales and horns? And isn’t the overall approach too clumsy? Looking at this figure, one could think Scelidosaurus was 10 or so metres long. But it was much smaller and probably more slender and agile.
Bonus:
As far as I know, currently there are only two scelidosaur figures out there: this one and the Invicta version, dating back to 1975. [Editors note, added September 2019 – this was true when the review was first published, but there are other Scelidosaurus models now]. You can’t really compare these two to each other. They each represent a different period of regarding dinosaurs generally. The Invicta, the “tail-dragging reptile”-time, this one the “erect tail cow-style” time.
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[…] fact, the only other ones that come to my mind are the retro Invicta version, and the more recent CollectA version. The model I’m reviewing today was one I commissioned Jesús to do, because I felt it would […]
Starlux also has one
There is actually a third Scelidosaurus figure available. It’s a funny toy that’s sort of like a Transformer, in that it transforms from an egg to a dinosaur and back. It’s status as a Scelidosaurus is incredibly dubious, though, because it’s a mould repurposed from an older toyline, in which it was a crocodile!
So it looks nothing like Scelidosaurus.
Good stuff here. Will definately be useful for me so I will have to sign up and see what I can get to help me. Thank for this.
I want to like this, but it’s got those softened cutesy lines and the slightly ‘gumdrop’ translucency of the plastic working against it.
I wish it actually looked like a Scelidosaurus. I have no idea where those giant spines came from:
http://web.me.com/dinoruss/jim-robins-art/Scelidosaurus.gif
http://www.dinooption.co.kr/img05/Scelidosaurus01.jpg