A few days ago, the first Columbian mammoth figure was reviewed at the blog, which reminded me how much I love mammoths, so I was inspired to review my oldest mammoth toy; the Dor Mei woolly mammoth. I can’t find much info about it online, other than that it’s supposedly from 1983 and part of a line called “Galaxy Fighters Warriors”, but I have no idea what that means or if it’s even correct.
The woolly mammoth is of course one of the most famous prehistoric animals, and perhaps the most famous prehistoric mammal of all. It is also one of the most completely known prehistoric animals, represented by many frozen specimens from Siberia (and a few from North America), and was depicted by prehistoric humans in surprisingly well-executed artwork. Taken together, we’ve had a pretty complete picture of how this animal would have looked in life for decades, if not centuries, and depictions therefore haven’t varied drastically (save for a few early ones based on half-decayed carcasses).
Another interesting fact that was discovered relatively recently is that the last, isolated woolly mammoth populations died out only 4000 years ago, within historic times, and famously after the Great Pyramid of ancient Egypt was built. And while very similar to modern elephants, their obvious differences give them a bit of an uncanny vibe. To me, all this just makes the woolly mammoth all the more mysterious, like it’s so close, yet still so far… I could go on and on about these fascinating animals (the less said about cloning the better, though), but let’s move on to the figure.
This figure is about 24 cm long from the tip of trunk to the tip of the tail, and 13 cm tall at the dome of the head. It’s instantly recognisable as a woolly mammoth due to the well-made striations that depict its long, brown fur, as well as from the shoulder hump, curvy tusks and small ears. Compared to other Dor Mei figures of prehistoric animals, this is by far the best and most accurate one I’ve seen, probably because it’s hard to go wrong with something as well-known as a woolly mammoth if not deliberately trying. That said, there are some minor inaccuracies which I’ll point out below.
First of all, when seen from the front, the tusks are directed straight down, their curve only being really apparent in side view, whereas they should curve outwards and back towards the middle in semi-circular shapes when seen from the front. This is possibly because the sculptor was referencing artwork depicting the animal from the side. And while being more closely related to the Asian than the African elephants, the woolly mammoth shared with the latter a double-lobed (or “fingered”) trunk-tip, but this figure only has an upper lobe, like the Asian elephant. This feature has long been known, but recently it was discovered that woolly mammoths also had an expansion on the trunk which is thought to have functioned like a “mitten”, wherein the trunk could curl in to protect the non-hairy tip from the cold, and that is of course not present in the figure.
The tail is also somewhat too long; the tail and ears of the woolly mammoth were smaller than in modern elephants to protect from the cold. I’m not entirely up to date about the number of toe nails mammoths had, but this one has four on each foot: they vary a lot among modern elephants, since they do not correspond to the number of underlying toes, so it’s not so obvious. Considering what atrocities Dor Mei otherwise released, these are very minor nitpicks, and I think the figure holds up quite well. The mid-stride posture is also very dynamic and realistic, and while I’m not sure I can pinpoint any specific piece of palaeoart it could be based on, the pose seems similar to Charles R. Knight’s American Museum of Natural History mural from 1916 depicting the species.
The fur has an appropriate reddish brown colour, as indicated by frozen specimens, though this may have been an artifact of bleaching, and colouration may have varied between specimens. The lower part of the fur seems to be lighter than the upper, but if so, it’s very slight, and a very smooth transition. The red eyes seem an odd choice, but the eyes of modern elephants do also look quite unusual with their seemingly black irides. The tusks are white, though they’re more yellowish in modern elephants, and seem to be made of separate pieces of plastic from the body. The fur at the front of the head has a funny middle-parting, but hey, we can’t rule that out, and the fur would have varied in length and density at different seasons.
So all in all, I’m pretty pleased with this old figure (except for the paint that seems to have rubbed onto it in places), I recently dug it out of my mom’s attic, and I think I’ll actually put it on display in my home. It’s pretty large and majestic-looking, and could probably look cool standing on the edge at the top of a book-shelf. I’m sure there are more accurate woolly mammoth figures out there, but I think this one is interesting in being an older, mass-produced, low-end toy which actually looks quite accurate even today.
Addendum: after reading the review of the Dor Mei Brachiosaurus, the issue of lead poisoning from the paint used in these figures came to my attention, so have this in mind and keep them away from children.
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