Tsaagan (Beasts of the Mesozoic: Raptor Series by Creative Beast Studio)

Review and photos by EmperorDinobot, edited by Suspsy

Hello, fellow dinosaur figure lovers! Today we get to celebrate our love for raptors and David Silva’s Beasts of the Mesozoic by Creative Beast Studios by taking a look at Tsaagan mangas, a close cousin to Velociraptor! This will be a quick review, as I will be focusing mostly on the differences between this model from the other raptors in the series. I have acquired 60% of them, but not all. I can, however tell you about what sets Tsaagan apart from others. Discovered in 1996, Tsaagan was originally described as a Velociraptor, but there were sufficient differences in its skull and cervicals to differentiate it from the latter. Its sister taxon is Linheraptor, which also has a BOTM figure, and has already been reviewed on this site.

As with every raptor in this line, the Tsaagan features extensive articulation, a stand, a clear plastic rod to support it, and an extra pair of toes. And like all others, this figure comes in a box with a clear plastic bubble so that you can clearly see what you are getting.

The back of the box shows you a checklist of all the regular releases, as well as a sleeve that can be slid across to reveal the instructions. The sleeve has a painting of Tsaagan by Jonathan Kuo and facts about the dinosaur.
In this case it reads:

Tsaagan mangas (white monster)
Length: 2m (6.6 ft long)
Location: Horseshoe Canyon Formation, SW Canada (this was a printing error, it should say Djadokhta Formation, Mongolia).
Time Period: 75 Million Years Ago, Campanian Age, Late Cretaceous Period.
Habitat: Mongolian Gobi Desert, Northern China.
Distinguishing characteristics: Known from a single skull and neck. vertebrae, Tsaagan was originally identified as a species of Velociraptor until being placed in its own genus and species.

Every raptor has its own background insert, and here you can see that the Tsaagan‘s features a desert with cliffs.

Tsaagan’s colors are based on the Egyptian vulture. It features a heavy gray and light brown color, while the beak and legs are light orange. It has its own unique head and neck, but it is also another mix and match figure with differing but similar parts. The wings are bigger than the Velociraptor‘s but smaller than the Balaur‘s or the Zhenyuanlong’s wings.

As you can see, the base and support rod do a good job at sustaining almost any pose you can think of.

I apologize for not having very much to say about this figure. You see, the more BotM raptors you get, the more they all start looking alike. I might have to acquire one of the Build-a-Raptor sets in order to de-classify the different parts that go into making a specific raptor, because I’m starting to realize that they are all kind of the same, but with unique heads, tails whenever a certain species demands an unique tail, and so forth. There’s not much evidence to indicate that Tsaagan looked like this exactly, but it is still another lovely addition to your collection. I wish I had a Linheraptor so it can join its sister.