This week I have been looking at a pair of dinosaurs from Creative Beast studios – a company founded by toy designer David Silva with the aim of creating “unique and dynamic history-inspired products”. The Beasts of the Mesozoic range is designed as realistic recreations of dinosaurs based on current expert thinking. The Dromaeosaurus Albertensis (Running Lizard) – we soon affectionately started calling him ‘Albert’ – is a raptor with 26 points of articulation, a display base and a stand. Albert is 1/6th scale (officially stated as around 12”/30cm which includes the long tail) and has spare feet, with open or closed toes, with a storage area under the base to keep them safe. He also has some extra posing rods, so you can get him into the position of your choice. Diabloceratops Eatoni (Devil Horned Face) – we call her ‘Toni’ – is from the Ceratopsian Series and is 1/18th scale (10”/25 cm long) with 19 points of articulation. Toni uses four legs so is less agile but balances very well without a stand. Placed next to each other, they are around a similar size.
I took some photos of the boxes they came in, but they’re not meant to be displayed in those. There was absolutely no way I was leaving them in a box anyway, so they were soon on my desk, looking as impressive as you would hope a replica dinosaur would look. Depending on what you order, you’ll get some instructions and a small amount of information about your dinosaur. ‘Albert’ had a detailed explanation of how to get his tail out of the packaging, which was useful. It’s a long ‘feathery’ appendage so you didn’t want to accidentally damage it when unpacking.
I was immediately struck with the quality when the models were out of the box. They had some weight about them (Toni is 10.9oz/309g and Albert is a lighter weighing in at around 5.5oz/155g) and a lot of detail for their size. They’re definitely in the quality collectible range of models. The price reflects this, but it is reasonable considering how good the models are.
As you would expect with a quality collectible, the paint and moulding are excellent. They are plastic but the detail on the skin gives them an impressive scaly dinosaur skin appearance. Albert’s feathers are the slightly rubbery flexible plastic, which helps them look real. The paint around the teeth and claws are well finished without and colour bleeding over. Toni has the brightest, most vibrant colours but there’s still a huge amount of detail in Albert’s more muted shades. I spent a long time looking at their eyes and they either have a clear coating or it’s a separate eye inside the head. I suspect it’s a clear varnish but it’s very convincing whatever they’ve done.
The full range (with much better photos) can be viewed at the Creative Beast website and could be the ideal thing for someone who always wanted a realistic dinosaur model or two (three, four…maybe ten) but wasn’t satisfied with the general cheap dinosaur toys.
