It’s all prehistoric megafauna today! From the Jurassic to the Pleistocene. As far as the figures, well…one if them is really nice. One of them is very okay. Two of them are very basic but ones that are probably pretty easy to get!
Wild Republic/Imperial/random ‘Megalosaurus’
Our first figure is actually several versions of the same model, from a number of different sources. I don’t even know when they first showed up, but my first of these Megalosaurus figures came from a bag of small figures from Imperial. Two others showed up as random figures in bins or…something. That two-tone one was re-released by Wild Republic with a truck+dinosaurs set. In every case, it’s pretty much the same other than colour. I would call it Megalosaurus based on it’s similarity to several early 50s-70s depictions of the theropod. In particular, the odd choice of crocodile-like plates along the back; this same feature even shows up on the Invicta Megalosaurus of the late 70s. As far as I know, these plates are conjecture, since this kind of armor isn’t actually known on theropod dinosaurs. Overall, the figure is pretty basic (although it can actually stand bipedally!) and not worth hunting down. The only caveat is that the back plates, posture, and heavy head could make it a decent stand in for some kind of bipedal paracrocodylomorph like a poposaur or rauisuchian. But that’s still a bit of a stretch.
Playmates Dinosaur King Series 1 Amargasaurus
Our second dinosaur is another series 1 Dinosaur King figure from Playmates. This time it is their Amargasaurus in their very distinctive style. So distinctive that it’s obvious when it gets copied! As always the case with these figures, they’re hard to find now, and weren’t all that easy to find when they came out. They’re also pleasingly colourful and look neat on a shelf. And of course, the morphology is a little off…in this case, the spines along the neck only indicate a single row which is incorrect, but does look neat. An interesting figure, one that would be tricky to track down, but might be worth it for fans of the design.
Starlux Moeritherium
Definitely the most interesting of the figures today, we have the Starlux Moeritherium. It’s great to have a model of this early, tapir-like probiscidean relative. Best of all, unlike many of their reptiles and other dinosaurs, it holds up fairly well against against most modern interpretations. I am lucky that mine is even in pretty good shape, since both the paint and the production material on these figures is pretty prone to damage. The figure does show up from time to time in auctions (especially in Europe) and is definitely one that belongs in a collection of prehistoric mammals. Not sure how expensive it would be…they’re of course out of production, but don’t seem to be as easily damaged, so maybe more of them have survived to the present!?
Mech Woolly Rhino (Coelodonta)
And now a small figure of a big mammal, the small Mech Coelodonta, the Woolly Rhino. As with most of the series of small prehistoric figures, they’re pretty rough and simplistic, but it’s not a terrible model. They are pretty detailed for the size, even if the animal seems a little thin and the actual production is a little sloppy. Like the Megalosaurus above, this is a figure that has been available in a number of different sets and collections. I got mine packed with a bunch of stickers for a sticker album–I think this is how many people come across them! I will also admit that I was older then some might expect when first got them, but hey, they came out when I was in university, so I had to get them! It’s not a great figure…but would probably appeal to kids at least–and it’s not one that would cost a lot to get!
