Tenontosaurus (Collecta/Procon)

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Review and photos by Griffin

Tenontosaurus was an Iguanodontid ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Western United States during the early Cretacious period. In life it would have co-existed with dinosaurs like Iguanodon, Dienonychus, Utahraptor and Acrocanthosaurus. Thanks to a Tenontosaurus skeleton discovered with Dienonychus chew marks on its bones in addition to Dienonychus skeletons nearby, the idea of pack-hunting Dromaeosaurs is now widely accepted.  Unfortunately this has also lead to the image of poor Tenontosaurus to ALWAYS be the prey item for Deinonychus.  (Seriously, google image search “Tenontosaurus”.  Like 80% of the images that pop up will be of it being attacked and/or eaten by the Deinonychus.)  Medullary bone tissue, which is used by modern birds for laying eggs, has also been found on the bones of Tenontosaurus fossils.

From what I have seen from Procon, I have never been impressed really. I much rather prefer Wild Safari and Carnegie when it comes to “museum quality” dinosaur models. I happened to have obtained this little fellow for free courtesy of Dan’s Dinosaurs and I must say that despite my previous attitude I have warmed up to the figure.

This is one of procon’s models that doesn’t suffer from any glaring inaccuracies nor any serious lack of sculpt quality.
The sculpt itself is quite accurate. It has a tail that makes up half of its total body length which is correct. This dinosaur’s defining characteristic is its long tail. It has the right number of fingers and toes and the limbs themselves seem to be the right proportions. The skin has plenty of wrinkles and creases in it as well.

The pose is pretty cool. It’s on all fours with its head tilted to the right as if it just noticed a pack of hungry Dromies stalking it. The pose isn’t boring but it’s not too aggressive either.
The colors are probably what I noticed first about this model. Before opening the package in my mail that contained this figure, I had only seen the catalog image of it. The colors in person are actually much darker and more natural looking than it is portrayed in the catalog. This is a plus in my book when pertaining to this particular figure. It is a light olive green with very slight darker hues going down the spine and on the outermost parts of its limbs like the thighs, ribs and shoulders. It also has darker patches over its feet, hands, eyes and mouth. It’s underbelly is painted a very light tan. The eyes are orange with black pupils and the inside of the mouth is neatly painted pink.

Overall I have to say this is a very neat little figure despite my normal distaste for Procon. It’s also a species of dinosaur that until now, I have never personally seen in toy form. On top of this it is indeed about 1:40 scale which is a huge plus for me and for a lot of others as well. If you want a model of an unusual dinosaur at a low price that is accurate, I highly recommend Procon’s Tenontosaurus.