Review and photos by Brandon, edited by Dinotoyblog
Although Diplodocus was discovered in the 19th century by Samuel Wendell Williston and Benjamin Mudge, and named by Othniel Charles Marsh, a new and large specimen belonging to a new species of Diplodocus was found in the late 1980s. This specimen was originally described in 1991 by David D. Gillette as a new family member of the Diplodocidae. It was the longest of all the sauropods and called Seismosaurus “Earthquake Lizard” halli.
Shortly after, in the 2000s, Seismosaurus was determined to be just another Diplodocus species and was named Diplodocus hallorum. The Kabaya figure of the former Seismosaurus was similar to Hasbro’s Marvel Legends “build a figure” or Mattel’s DC Universe “collect and connect” figure, in which a piece of the figure was provided in the box of each of the other figures in the series. It wasn’t necessarily a chase, but you’d have to collect all of the figures in order to have the Seimosaurus – a cool and fun thing to do provided you wanted all of the figures!
The sculpting of the Seismosaurus is just phenomenal, nothing more, nothing less! The appearance of the figure appears inspired by David Peters’ work. It has a huge body with a very long neck and tail. The equine-like head is small with tiny eyes and the nostrils are sculpted away from the snout. The neck and tail seems right on the tick.
One might imagine a sauropod having skin like a species of the Proboscidea, such as the modern African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana). The entire body of the Seismosaurus figure is indeed very weathered and the texturing effect works well, especially underneath the long neck and stomach and tail. The figure has the pillar-like legs with the front being the short and the back being the longer legs. The hoove-like manus or front foot of the Seismosaurus is quite accurate, with the singled clawed-finger. The back feet are far different being three-clawed. The fiure has protruding osteoderms near his head reaching all the way down to his tail. He has no stand and really he doesn’t need one.
This figure must be assembled once you get all of his parts, these consist of the neck, two halves of the body, and the tail. You place the thick peg of the neck and the thick peg of the tail in either side of one of the body and you place the other half of the body onto small pegs in the holes, and voila!, you got your self a Seismosaurus!
The paint is arguably the best of this entire Kabaya set. Really nothing even minor that I noticed! I just love his eyes and the overall gray color scale! This Seismosaurus, or rather D. hallorum, is a tremendous figure, one of the best sculpted I’ve ever seen and is a definite example of how graceful the sauropods were! Truly a marvel and a must have!
I purchased the Kabaya set of five on eBay here and it is still sometimes available, but can be scarce.
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A very nice Diplodocus – I wouldn’t mind one for myself!