If there’s one thing that young prehistory fans enjoy, it’s randomly pitting their toys against one another in savage battles, geography and time be blowed. And if there’s another thing that young children in general are entertained by, it’s seeing things change colour by immersing them in water. That’s precisely why Mattel’s two biggest properties, Barbie and Hot Wheels, have long included colour changing toys. And it’s why their Jurassic World line includes them as well. Here today is the Dino Reveal Battle Pack, containing the Late Cretaceous North American pachycephalosaur Stygimoloch (or if you prefer, a young Pachycephalosaurus) and the Middle Triassic South American pseudosuchian Prestosuchus. The front of the box depicts the two about to do battle, seemingly oblivious of their melanosomes undergoing drastic change.
The box’s contents consist of the two archosaurs, a small sponge, and a grey dunking tank sculpted to resemble a miniature containment facility, complete with a front gate. The tank is made out of thin, cheap plastic, of the sort used for blister packaging or inserts.
The Stygimoloch appears to be the same sculpt as the one from the 2024 Chaos Theory Darius Adventure Pack. Upon removing it from its package, one sees that it is painted over entirely in military green.
Similarly, the Prestosuchus is painted over in a rather unattractive shade of orange-yellow, except for the inside of its mouth. It uses the sculpt from the 2023 Strike Attack toy.
Changing the toys’ colours is easy, albeit a little messy. Simply fill the tank with water, place the toys in the tank, and then gaze in awe as the water-based paint coatings quickly dissolve, revealing the real paint jobs underneath. You will need to swish them around a bit, naturally.
Of course, you can always skip the tank altogether and just run the toys under a faucet. Best to do that anyway after their bath in order to remove any remaining spots. Also good to let them dry out overnight so that they don’t drip from their joints.
And now that that’s over with, we can take a proper look at these toys. The Stygimoloch measures 19 cm long and 9 cm tall. It is sculpted in a standing pose with its tail swinging to the right, its right foot placed forward, and its head raised. Articulation is as basic as it gets: the head, shoulders, hips, and tail all rotate.
The skin is covered all over in faint wrinkles and there are multiple rows of tiny osteoderms running along the back and the tail. The head is properly adorned with scores of tiny knobs, plus the large cranial dome and the long spikes protruding from the back. The arms are nice and puny, and have the correct number of digits, but the feet are oversized and the tail is too short. Still, that’s nothing out of the ordinary for Mattel. The JW logo is sculpted on the sole of the right foot, but there is no scan code anywhere.
The main colour is dark red, with very dark grey for the stripes on the back and the patches around the light green eyes. The spikes are a lighter dark grey and the dome is medium grey. As usual, the claws are unpainted. It’s an alright colour scheme, but it’s nothing remarkable. In fact, compared to other Mattel Stygimoloch toys, it’s kind of dull.
Applying warm water to the toy’s right flank will reveal a large, raspberry red wound, complete with grey jagged streaks that may represent ribs. Applying cold water or simply allowing the toy to dry off causes the wound to disappear pretty quickly. Only partially, however.
The Prestosuchus is in a walking pose with its head facing forward, its right front limb extended forward, its left hind limb extended back. and its tail raised high. It measures 20 cm long and stands 6.5 cm high at the hips. Although it is the same mould as the Strike Attack version, the action gimmick has been omitted, sadly. Instead, the lower jaw is on a standard hinge, opening to 40 degrees. Plus the legs rotate at the shoulders and hips and the tail rotates at the base (pointlessly as always).
The main colours are sage green and very dark green, with pea green for the lower jaw. The eyes are yellow and surrounded by dark red patches. The teeth are off white and the tongue is glossy dark pink. It is definitely the better colour scheme of the two toys in this set, and arguably on par with the Strike Attack version’s.
The head is appropriately large and certainly looks frightful, what with its many sharp teeth and pointy knobs atop the snout and orbitals. The skin is covered in an array of round scales and osteoderms. The feet all end in five digits, with the JW logo sculpted on the right hind sole.
Being a Mattel product, the proportions are again off. The tail is too short and the front limbs are too small. The skull ought to be longer, the teeth are too few, and six of the ones in the lower jaw are jutting out to the sides. They all ought to be covered by lips instead. But the most glaring inaccuracy of all is the fin running down the back and the tail, and the second fin running along the underside of the tail. There is no evidence of such features, plus they make this Prestosuchus seem like an aquatic animal as opposed to a terrestrial one.
Overall, I can’t say that I love this set. The Stygimoloch looks duller than previous releases, although it’s not a bad toy. The Prestosuchus certainly has rarity going for it, but the absence of the action feature greatly reduces the toy’s fun factor, and those fishy fins are just silly-looking. That all being said, I am not the target audience for this set, and I can definitely see children enjoying the colour-changing aspect on top of the toys themselves. This set can still be found at certain Walmarts and other brick and mortar stores (and often at reduced price), so if you missed out on the Strike Attack Prestosuchus, this is the next best thing.
All articles on the Dinosaur Toy Blog are written without the use of 'AI'
