Review and photos by Emperor Dinobot, edited by Suspsy
Hello readers! This is Emperor Dinobot, and those who know me know that I respect highly articulated dinosaur toys. So today, we are going to review one of my favourite dinosaurs, Stegosaurus, from my favorite line: Carnage by ReSaurus!
This is an amazing figure, sporting a vivid colour palette, although it is perhaps stereotypical for a Stegosaurus. Stegosaurus figures are often painted in a yellow and red or orange mix, but this figure manages to make it interesting with a nice red back and a nice orange bottom with orange arms, separated by a striking black line and green spots. The plates also have four colours. The mix between red and black at the base of the plates gives off a dark wine colour, or burgundy, that looks extremely nice. Of course, the keratinous beak and claws are painted in grey, as is the thagomizer. The bases of each keratinous part has a nice black, sandy detail to them.
This figure looks regal from any angle. Stegosaurus, the “roofed reptile” is known by its diamond-shaped plates. But I feel like the sculptor took the “diamond plates” aesthetic a bit too seriously, because these plates are almost symmetrically diamond-shaped, when we know Stegosaurus had plates in a sort of slanted, trapezoidal way. Diamond-shaped, but not literally. This is a very stereotypical figure of Stegosaurus, but it still manages to look amazing. Unfortunately, its digits are inaccurate. It should have five on each front foot and three on each hind one.
Did I mention it is articulated? The tail has an inner wire that allows it to be posed in different forms, and it has shoulder, elbow, hip, and knee articulation. While the body is slightly rubbery, the neck is NOT articulated, so do not try to bend it! It can even carry out that famous standing pose. It has been suggested that Stegosaurus was able to raise itself up on its rear legs to munch on taller plants, and even walk around for a little bit of time.
The belly has a nice paint job to it. It’s cream-coloured but also has a thin, transparent brown covering to it, giving off a nice effect. As the rest of the figure, this mould is extremely detailed, featuring skin folds, scales and more, which give it a reptilian yet elephantine look.
Luckily, I still have the base. Every Carnage ReSaurus dinosaur came with a highly detailed base, though they are all the same mold depending on whether your dinosaur is herbivorous or carnivorous. The only difference is the name print.
These toys were released and re-released throughout the 1990s’ under different company names. My history of them is quite muddled, and as expected, there are colour variations, such as this darker figure with a darker wine red covering its back, and with a slightly different black line. Every dinosaur was very clearly hand-painted.
The best part of these figures is that, at least in the case of the herbivores (except for Protoceratops), they are in scale with my Kenner Jurassic Park toys. This allows them to blend in with my JP/TLW collection, and thus are part of the family. But they are not in scale with one another, as they are all roughly the same length.
I hope you enjoyed this review and let me know if you have any questions!
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[…] This is your friendly neighborhood EmperorDinobot with another review! As you saw from my previous review, I absolutely love ReSaurus’ Carnage dinosaurs. It took me ten years to find most of them, […]
These toys were made in three different releases. The originals are marked Resaurus Carnage Action Figures on their tails. The later versions were released as the Wild Adventure line in the same form and colors, but with minor paint differences, and the base is hollow rather than solid, and it has the printed name vs a sticker. I forget the name of the third release, but they came in a blue colored box. They are all great quality figures with the first two releases being pretty much equal to each other, with the originals being the absolute best. In my experience (I have the entire collection) The Resaurus and Wild Adventure dinosaurs are of equal awesome quality
Thank you so much for explaining the history. I have a hard time with this since I can’t seem to find much info and I just draw from memory from the very few encounters I had with these figures in the wild.
The first version of the WS Stegosaurus was released in 1996 and bears only a passing resemblance to this toy. The second version, which does have a strong resemblance, came out in 2008, around a decade after the ReSaurus. So no, this is NOT a ripoff.
You know, I never realized it. It does look a lot like the WS version. I also forgot to add that it is not accurate, as it should have 5 digits on the forelimbs and 3 on the hindlimbs.
I’d say it’s more a direct ripoff of the Wild Safari figure than “stereotypical”