Who makes it? Safari Ltd from their Prehistoric World Series. Item number 100082
When did it come out? 2018
Still available? It better be. It came out just over a year ago!
But look at that handsome face.
Where can it be found in my displays? On the big cool prehistoric mammal shelf, Hemnes4Aγ. To be fair, that’s just one of the prehistoric mammal shelves.
How does it fit in the collection? Cool prehistoric mammals are one of my favorite things to collect. Of course I would have this one. But more than that, I love entelodonts…and until recently, they weren’t easy figures to get…
Any story behind it? Well, maybe not this particular one. But I have been intrigued by entelodonts overall since my grad school days–I even found some fossil teeth! Back then we called it Dinohyus, but now it’s Daeodon. More than that, part of my studies meant travelling to some midwest museums where I had the opportunity to see some pretty big, impressive skeletal mounts. For a while, I struggled to find anything for my collection, but now I have a small entelodont herd; in recent years, many of the big companies have made versions (AAA was first, then Mojo, then CollectA) plus there are some…less conventional ones. And with just one exception I think they might all be Daeodon.
Notable remarks about this figure (a review that isn’t really a review): Well, first off, it’s a big figure. Something about Daeodon just requires a large model (although I do have exceptions!) It is roughly 1:24 scale, pretty in line with many prehistoric mammal models. As for its appearance, I think it may balance between ‘prehistoric nightmare beast’ and ‘real, living animal’ better than other models out there. It shows the massive, muscular body in an almost bison-like form without reaching ridiculous masses; after all, these animals had to move and live. And this figure definitely shows how active these animals probably were–with long legs like that, these were animals that traveled all over their version of the plains eating, just, everything.
And speaking of, nothing is as remarkable as the entelodont skull, with those huge, flared skull bones. In this Safari model, I personally think they did a good job of putting flesh on the bones. Some models tend to shrink-wrap those bones, giving the head a spiked and monstrous appearance; the Safari model appears to have incorporated those same bones as obvious muscle attachments. The flanges do stick out a bit (one hypothesis is that the flanges protected the face when other entelodonts were biting them!) but overall there is clearly flesh and muscle all around them, giving these big beasts a big bite but still giving them a somewhat familiar face–a big, weird pig face!
Alternative caption: the Miocene equivalent of modern visitors to National Parks that prod or provoke large mammals like bison, elk and bears. That is so not a good idea.
Would I recommend it? Wholeheartedly, yes. I don’t think there are enough prehistoric mammal figures, and I don’t think enough of the unusual ones are seen in figure form. If you really just need the one Daeodon model, this would be a good choice. Plus, it’s a fun and active model and stands out from all the mammoths and Smilodon! I often say more here but really, for fans of prehistoric mammals it’s a must have!
Plus, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I actually do still have some in stock. In case I manage to convince you right now!
