Review and images by Patrx, edited by Gwangi
Stegosaurus is one of those prehistoric creatures that just seems to have always been there, in the public consciousness. However, like most other dinosaurs, its known remains are never complete enough to assemble a reconstruction without combining several skeletons and trying to adjust them to suit one another. Or rather, almost never. “Sophie”, a subadult Stegosaurus stenops uncovered in 2003 and described in 2015, is relatively complete, allowing us to better understand how the genus really looked. This new figure from Safari, sculpted by Doug Watson, very clearly incorporates what we’ve been able to learn from Sophie, extrapolating its proportions and details into a hypothetical adult Stegosaurus stenops at 1/35 scale.
So, what makes this Stegosaurus so different from what we’ve seen before? It’s certainly recognizable as Stegosaurus, with its massive plates and distinctive thagomizer (tail-spikes), but its back isn’t as sharply arched as you may be used to. The back legs are closer in length to the front legs, and while the torso itself is a little shorter, the neck and tail are slightly longer, with the dorsal plates less crowded together overall. The result is a Stegosaurus that looks less like a bizarre outlier next to other stegosaurids like Kentrosaurus or Miragaia. A little more ordinary, a little more streamlined, but no less iconic than it has ever been.
In addition to Sophie-specific updates, this figure has a few more advantages over the previous Safari Stegosaurus. The structure and appearance of the hands has been corrected, the musculature at the base of the tail has been bulked up, the tail spikes are pointed more outward than upward, the skull is the right size, and an array of tiny subdermal ossicles adorns the throat, down to the base of the neck.
The animal’s tail and head are both posed in an arc to its left, with the right hand lifted slightly. The end of the tail is pointed somewhat downward, another detail inferred from Sophie, and one that implies that those tail spikes were not mere decorations. This pose can be interpreted a number of ways; the animal could be defending itself or its kin, or it could simply be turning around, maybe just looking for predators or uneaten foliage. Personally, I am pleased to see that the mouth is closed as well.
Of course, even if we’d had a complete Stegosaurus skeleton to work with from the beginning, any reconstruction of a fossil animal will require speculation when it comes to some things, usually including soft-tissue anatomy and colouration. The keratin coverings on this Stegosaurus‘ plates and spikes are fairly conservative, and certainly reasonable. The spikes are a bit rounded for the sake of safety, unsurprisingly—this is a toy, after all. The incorporation of other soft tissues is nicely generous, avoiding shrink-wrapping problems entirely. The jaws feature fleshy, superficially “mammalian” cheek-like structures behind the beak, a detail which is the subject of ongoing debate and conversation. Presumably something covered the teeth and kept food inside the mouth, but just what that something looked like or how it was constructed is quite uncertain at this time, making this element of the reconstruction plausible by my estimation.
The figure’s colours are simple, a fairly smooth gradient from a dark, mossy brown dorsally to a pale yellow ventrally, with some shades of beige in-between. The dark brown extends to the ends of the limbs and the tip of the tail, even to the spikes. It might have been neat to have had them delineated somehow from the tail itself; maybe painted black, like the nails. Thankfully, the plates are lovely–vibrant orange with dark triangular markings. On the edges, the dark brown reappears in a nice gradient, so that the plates blend elegantly into the main body without any paint splatter. Unlike its thagomizer, Stegosaurus‘ array of plates most likely did serve a primarily ornamental function, so the bright colours are appreciated here.
Usually, when I say I recommend a figure, I feel obligated to include some kind of qualifier—”pick this one up if you’re especially fond of x clade,” or similar. But on this occasion, it occurs to me that no dinosaur toy collection is complete without a Stegosaurus. And this, folks, really is the toy Stegosaurus for the time! Elegant, up-to-date, and readily-available. I bought mine from Dan’s Dinosaurs.
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quite a new look for stegosaurus. It makes me wonder if Sophie, being somewhat small (5.6 meters long vs 9 meters for the largest Stegosaurus specimens) is fully grown and if not, during her additional growing if some of the proportions might have changed and if so, how significantly We may be seeing what a young teenage Stegosaurus looked like(ie the equivalent of a human 13 or 14 years old) , not a full grown, fully mature adult. Hopefully time will tell with new discoveries.
A beautiful sculpt based on “Sophie.” A good companion for this excellent figure is the book “Stegosaurus, an extraordinary specimen and the secrets it reveals” by Prof, Paul M. Barrett of the London Natural History Museum where “Sophie” resides and where most of the science has been done.
Good review, but I should make a correction. The famous ‘roadkill’ specimen that was found in 1981, i think, is also complete.
https://allosaurusroar.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/univ-of-wyoming-stegosaurus.jpg
I wasn’t too fond of this figure when it was first shown. However having it in hand it reall is one of the best stegosaurus made so far. My only real gripe is the price of the figure. 24.99 vs some of the other 24.99 figures in the line like feathered Rex, Amargasaurus, and the bigger yet cheaper price Camarasaurus. Maybe the the higher costs is because of the the more difficult molding process for the plates and such. Just seems expensive when compared to their larger figures of similar price. But regardless I’m extremely happy with it.
Great review of this new and beautiful figure.
A masterpiece of a toy, no two ways about it. The definitive Stegosaurus for one’s collection, at least for the time being.
As odd as this figure appeared to me at first, there’s no doubt it’s a splendid rendition of what is now the most accurate image of the classic dinosaur yet.
I can’t believe I was only lukewarm on this thing when the pictures were first revealed, it’s an absolute favorite for me now.
I like this figure. It reflects on the new specimen of Stegosaurus and is the most accurate version of it.
Really looking forward to getting hold of one of these (Australia must be at the end of the supply chain or something – we have to wait so long), and it’s good to see a lot of favorable opinions on this figure after some dismissive comments on the initial release.
For me the best scientific figure in absolute terms of the stegosaurus based on “Sophie”. At first I had my prejudices, “I was old-fashioned” in terms of my exaggerated appreciation of the earlier obsolete stegosaurus sculptures, such as Carnegie’s and the old Safari’s that I loved. After informing me on the Internet and with the explanations of Doug Watson, I realized that he is the best stegosaurus figure ever made by a toy brand. I hope it will soon be marketed in Europe. Magnificent figure 5 out of 5.
Pretty much my assessments too, past and present. It’s good to overcome outdated, mistaken presuppositions.