Torvoneustes (Jurassic World: Frenzy Pack by Mattel)

The metriorhynchid Torvoneustes swam the savage seas during the Late Jurassic period around 145 million years ago. It was about 4.7 metres long, the same length as a very large American alligator and would have been a deadly predator of cephalopods, fish, and other marine reptiles—although like most other metriorhynchids, it would have in turn fallen victim to bigger pliosaurs.

A Torvoneustes is the second sea crocodile to be released by Mattel. The first one was Dakosaurus, released back in 2023, although as far as I am aware, it never showed up anywhere in Canada. This one was easy to find at Walmart, and it is my third metriorhynchid review here on the DTB. I have rather a fondness for thalattosuchians, you see; I’d love to see someone produce a teleosauroid toy like Machimosaurus in the future. 

Anyhoo, this Torvoneustes measures 19 cm long and 11.7 cm wide at the tips of its hind flippers. Its main colour is a dark shade of blue-green with dark green markings on the head and back, pale blue green for the front flippers and underbelly, dark yellow eyes, off white teeth, and burnt salmon pink for the tongue and mouth tissue. A fitting marine colour scheme, and despite my initial concern, it is a darker shade of blue-green from the Elasmosaurus.  

This is a pleasingly poseable toy. All four limbs have universal joints, and the joints are stiff enough for the Torvoneustes to be posed on the very tips of its flippers, as you can see. The head can pivot up or down and the jaws open to about 40 degrees. And the tail rotates at the base, but as always, it doesn’t look good when you do it.

The Torvoneustes’ hide is covered in tiny pebbled scales. There are also a few small osteoderms on top of the head and neck, although it’s difficult to see them due to the green stripes. The large ridges above the eyes give the animal a perpetually angry-looking appearance. The palate is ribbed and the many teeth are fairly sharp. There are also visible scars on the head and the body, which makes sense considering how many modern marine predators bear scars. The flippers and tail fluke are very wrinkled and frayed, and all but the left front flipper have holes in them. The Jurassic World logo and the scan code are located on the underside of the hind flippers, and I must note how pleased I am that Mattel finally did away with those slide-out tabs. I never liked them.

This toy really doesn’t score too highly on the accuracy scale. Granted, the head is pretty good, featuring a long and narrow snout and a flattened cranium. However, the nostril openings are on a raised bulge, like on a modern crocodile, whereas in reality Torvoneustes had a smooth snout. The flippers ought to be more fleshed out, like a whale’s. Finally, the torso and tail are far too short and the latter looks much more like the tail of a fish than a proper metriorhynchid’s, which has a triangular fluke atop a downward bending tip. The aforementioned Dakosaurus definitely wins out in this category.

That all being said, I quite like this toy. It’s nicely sculpted, it looks ferocious, and it’s poseable and a good deal of fun to play with. And of course, it’s good that Mattel is introducing children to a wider variety of ancient sea reptiles than just plesiosaurs and mosasaurs (although really, they’ve still only tackled a single species of the latter). Who knows, maybe next year there’ll finally be an ichthyosaur toy. The Torvoneustes is currently available wherever Jurassic World toys are sold.