Velociraptor (2024)(Deluxe by CollectA)

Sniffing silently at the entrance of the small hole in the ground, Mammock decisively detects dinner. She raises her head and glances toward her mate, Mangle, who has located a second hole a dozen metres away. The two bob and jerk their heads in silent argument before Mammock finally snorts in irritation and begins clawing and scraping at the hole, sending dirt and pebbles flying in all directions. She pauses, places the tip of her snout at the widened hole, and lets out a long, deep, chilling hiss. Then she resumes digging again.

As anticipated, the terrified fuzzy residents of the burrow begin to emerge from the second hole, whereupon Mangle pounces and seizes one in his jaws. He shakes it to death, then drops the corpse and seizes a second victim. As the remaining mammals flee for their lives, Mammock rushes over to pursue them. After all, Mangle may be a reliable hunting partner, but sharing is not among his strengths . . .

Like most prehistoric toy companies, CollectA has made a point of tackling that most famous of dromaeosaurs, Velociraptor. Their first figure came all the way back in their inaugural year of 2006, and if we are to be perfectly and brutally frank, it is a most piddling product. The second, a Deluxe, was released in 2010, and while it was a decided improvement at the time, it too now pales in comparison to CollectA’s current wares. And so it is that we come to their 2024 Deluxe rendition of the prompt purloiner. I have chosen to name her Mammock.

Like her predecessor, Mammock is quite a large dromaeosaur, measuring about 32 cm long and standing 11 cm tall at the head and 15 cm tall at the tip of her tail. She has been sculpted with her head, body, and tail pivoted to the left. Her right foot is firmly planted and her left leg is extended behind her with only the tips of her toes touching down. Her left wing is lowered so that the tip acts as a third limb while her right one is raised higher and spread wide. While at first she may seem to be in a walking pose, the fact that her fingers are spread wide apart and the infamous killing claws on her feet are raised could well indicate that she is primed to pounce on some unfortunate victim. She looks quite lifelike this way, somewhat reminiscent of a roadrunner, I’d say, which is a swift and voracious desert predator in its own right. 

Mammock’s not as colourful as a roadrunner, however. Indeed, compared to some of CollectA’s previous feathered theropods, she’s pretty drab. Her main colour is medium brown with faint streaks of dark grey as well as beige and light grey wash to bring out her feathers. The dorsal side of her tail is dark grey with beige wash running down the middle and light grey on the edges of her larger feathers. Glossy black is used to outline the feathers on her wings, which are light brown on the ventral sides. Her underbelly is a very pale grey with faint black markings and her claws are medium grey. The crest on the back of her head is dark brown, her eyes are glossy brown with black pupils, and her mouth is pink with white teeth. Overall, it’s a far cry from Creative Beast Studio’s Beasts of the Mesozoic raptors, that’s for sure. But keep in mind that Velociraptor lived in a dry, desert environment, not lush woodland or tropical jungle. Colouration such as this would have suited the real animal perfectly well, especially when it came to sneaking up on prey. And who knows, maybe CollectA really did intend for this toy to represent a female individual. Female birds are very often less colourful than males. 

Typical of CollectA’s Deluxe-sized carnivores, Mammock features an articulated lower jaw. Her mouth does not close all the way, but it does open to the standard 30 degree angle, revealing small, sharp teeth that are angled back to allow for a firmer grip on struggling prey. It’s also well worth noting that she possesses lips, thereby continuing that recent trend in CollectA theropods. Her snout is covered in tiny scales, as are her hands and her feet. The rest of her, however, is decked out in feathers of varying shape and size. Naturally, the very largest ones are the remiges on her wings and the rectrices on her tail, while her neck, torso, and hind limbs feature smaller contour feathers.

The sculpting quality on all of this plumage definitely matches anything by Creative Beast or Safari Ltd. Indeed, between that and her size, Mammock fits right in among the raptors from the former company, as shown by the comparison shot below with the Saurornitholestes. She’s significantly lighter and more durable than those pieces too. Her wings and tail in particular are rather flexible, so you needn’t ever worry about Mammock suffering any damage from an accidental fall off the shelf, save maybe a scuff or two.

Mammock’s skull is the correct shape for a Velociraptor, with a pronounced sloping muzzle and large orbits. Her neck, arms, legs, and tail also appear to be of proper proportion, and while the curved claws on her hands and feet aren’t super sharp at the tips, they still look quite lethal. Her wings and her tail fan are nice and big, considerably bigger those of say, the Carnegie Collection and Papo toys. An episode of AppleTV’s Prehistoric Planet even depicted Velociraptor using its wings and tail to slow down its descent from a near-vertical rockface in pursuity of a pterosaur, and it’s not difficulty to envision Mammock here being able to pull off the same feat.

There are, however, a couple of noteworthy anatomical flaws on her. First, her pubis looks to be somewhat undersized. It really ought to be hanging down lower.

The second flaw requires a bit more explanation. Thanks to the discovery of exquisitely preserved specimens of Changyuraptor, Microraptor, and Zhenyuanlong among others, we in fact have a very clear idea of what dromaeosaur wings were like. They would have looked pretty much like the wings of modern flying birds, in spite of the fact that most dromaeosaurs were incapable of flight. The dorsal sides of Mammock’s wings look very good in this regard. She has secondary feathers running down the length of her arms and then larger and longer primary feathers extending from her wrists and along her middle fingers. These are overlapped with plenty of smaller covert feathers. She also has visible propatagium extending from her shoulders to her wrists. So far, so good.

However, the inner sides of Mammock’s wings are practically devoid of coverts. Instead, you’ve got the primaries and secondaries hanging down from the fuzzy arms and that’s about it. That’s just not how they would have looked on Velociraptor. They would have been this way instead.

So, with all that being said, is it reasonable to conclude that this is a poor toy? No, I do not believe that at all. On the contrary, I firmly believe that Mammock is still a very good toy in spite of her anatomical flaws. Her sculpting is top notch, she’s got a realistic paint job, she’s fun to play with, and she’s big and definitely looks impressive whether displayed all on her own or in the company of other dromaeosaur toys. She’s easily superior to CollectA’s previous Velociraptors and along with the Deluxe Microraptor (which does have correct wings), she’s their best feathered dinosaur to date. And let’s be perfectly frank here: very few children and adults outside of those who have seriously read up on bird and dinosaur anatomy are going to notice the inaccurate wings and pubis, let alone care that much about them. Indeed, I think that we collectors sometimes get a little bit too hung up on scientific accuracy and let it get in the way of enjoying our toys. As well, I’ve often noted that the world needs more awareness about feathered dinosaurs, so my inclination is to warmly welcome any such toy. I would totally bring Mammock into a classroom to teach students about what Velociraptor really looked like, and I’m sure many of them would want one for themselves.

Finally, I will surmise that, given how many times CollectA has made both Deluxe and Popular-sized versions of certain prehistoric species, it is quite possible we will see a new Velociraptor in the latter size category next year. Perhaps it will even be more colourful and can be construed as a male. And, of course, there’s scores of other dromaeosaurs that deserve toys, from Austroraptor to Dineobellator. In the mean time, my deepest thank you to CollectA for sending me Mammock. 🙂