Who makes it? Nayab (or Lontic…it’s one of those companies…). It was part of a pair of dino-themed box sets with a…variety…of dinos. Some better than others, none great.
When did it come out? I purchased it in about 2010. Possibly around that time, probably sooner than that.
Still available? As with many of these..no idea. Probably. The moulds for figures and sets like these often circulate around, getting recast into different sets here and there. So it probably would be at some point.
Where can it be found in my displays? I believe it’s in one of the bottom shelves of randomness. Featuring figures that don’t really have homes elsewhere, or I don’t want to feature to highly.
How does it fit in the collection? Non-dinosaur prehistoric reptiles are so cool, and Postosuchus was pushed into the spotlight because of Walking with Dinosaurs. So I pretty much make sure to pick up all Postosuchus toys that I can get (and other non-dinos…there aren’t that many, and there should be). I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to get it, but I lucked out.
Any story behind it? Just that it was one of those lucky moments when a set I had heard of showed up in the next town over (I was living in a super small town at the time). It was at a Bargain Shop! They had a lot of low-quality merchandise, but at least once they had an interesting dinosaur set. I don’t think I have more than a couple of them anymore.
Notable remarks about this figure (a review that isn’t really a review): I think I make it clear, many times, that I am no expert on the physiology of most of the animals that I have as figures, and rauisuchids like Postosuchus are another one. I can say that the figure has a lot of detail packed onto it–scutes, ridges, all kinds of texture. Not sure how accurate that is, but it’s interesting. There are a lot of depictions now, thanks to WwD, and also a fair number of figures, and they all have very different interpretations. This Nayab one seems to short-bodied, and the limbs seem too even; the skeleton shows that the forelegs are much less robust (leading to some interpretations of a bipedal animal…never seen that in a figure). The head is appropriately big and heavy although the teeth are generic; the tail seems too short. In terms of colour it’s kind of uninspired–dark yellow with green splotches. At least it’s reasonable (some of the other figures were far more outlandish. And if there’s one thing that bugs me…the back feet. I don’t know what’s happening there. They kind of look like the images of possible rauisuchid tracks but…that not what the feet should look like (I don’t think so, anyway). The toes are just so awkwardly bent and splayed, an they kind of radiate out from the end of the leg, instead of sticking out from an actual foot.
Would I recommend it? It’s not great–not the best one out there (among the few) but if you can find it, I would say go for it. There’s also a mini version that I’ve never found, same pose but probably different paint. There needs to be more variety of archosaurs in toy boxes and collections, and sometimes there are gems even among companies that would never be described as museum-quality. Plus, these are clearly meant for toys, so they’d be great for kids to mix up their games. And unlike bipedal theropods this one won’t tip over easily!
