Review and Photos by Rugops
This model holds a special place for me, being my first museum quality figure, and the one that started off my collecting spree seven years ago. It is a really nice spino model, certainly nicer than the Wild Safari Suchomimus, the Carnegie Baryonyx, or the preceding Carnegie Spinosaur which had that ill fated head of an Allosaurus. One down side for people who like things in scale about this sculpt is that it’s in 1:80th scale and smaller than it should be compared to most other Safari models. Other than that it’s a pretty pleasing model.
The overall detail on the figure is excellent. The skin is very wrinkly, and full of bumps and folds giving the model a very rough texture. There is even a row of spikes running down the back of the figure adding to its appearance. The head could probably be a bit longer and less robust, but it’s still okay, and it doesn’t have the JPIII double crest either. An odd feature of the sail is that it’s not the normal semi circle, and instead reaches its extremity at the back end and curves sharply downward, similar to Stromer’s reconstruction from 1915. The sail does have nice vertical bumps for the spines. The legs are satisfactory. However, the right arm is warped and has a pronated hand, which brings us to the most peculiar part of this figure; that the hands on both forelimbs have four large digits. Perhaps Safari did this because Stromer’s restoration also shows four fingers. But it does take a little from the model, and the fourth fingers in the 1915 restoration were far smaller than these fourth fingers. Another weird feature is that it appears to have crocodile scutes on the bottom of the tail, which is silly if they were trying to make the figure more crocodile like.
A bright orange color really looks good on the model, along with the yellow, lateral, stripes and the black spots and stripes all over it. The coloring reminds me slightly of the one from JPIII. The claws are painted black, the teeth are some what sloppily painted white, and the inside of the mouth is pink with the tongue painted a darker pink.
It’s not a tripod, but it’s hard to know if the quadrupedal pose is an accurate way to depict the figure. The pose isn’t that dynamic; the figure is just resting on all fours with its head turned slightly to the right, and the mouth opened aggressively. Stagnant but good enough.
If you like spinosaurus, take it because it’s a very nice rendering. Safari still sells it so you can easily find it at their shop or just about anywhere.
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Is it just me, or does this figure seem weirdly prescient now in the wake of Ibrahim’s research? The quadrupedal pose and the general shape of the sail both seem to accidentally predict the “New Spinosaurus”.
It is oddly similar.
Yes, the four fingers is VERY strange.
The four-fingered hand was a quirk present in many Spinosaurus restorations for years. It’s a shame. What with there being a new Wild Safari Tyrannosaurus in the pipeline, hopefully we’ll see a new Spinosaurus sculpt too.