It has gotten to the point where I wince a little whenever Mattel announces a new giant sauropod toy. It wasn’t that long ago that the Legacy Brachiosaurus was released, and I naively thought that such an enormous toy was a one-off release. Then came Apatosaurus, Dreadnoughtus, and Mamenchisaurus, and although I initially wrote off the Apatosaurus and Mamenchisaurus (the weakest two of the lot) I still ended up with them anyway, thanks to sales that I couldn’t ignore. I again, perhaps naively, thought that 2023’s Mamenchisaurus would be the end of the giant sauropods because with those four we now had all the sauropods that appeared in the Jurassic franchise. To be honest, that was wishful thinking on my part.
In 2024, much to my horror, Mattel made it clear that a lack of onscreen presence wasn’t going to stop them from keeping the sauropod train going and released a Diplodocus that I simply could not ignore. Astute fans will point out that the Diplodocus is a canon dinosaur in the franchise, because it appears in a diorama in the Lockwood mansion in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. I don’t think that matters, I think that these sauropod toys are simply too popular for Mattel to arbitrarily limit themselves to what appears in the films.
The Mattel Diplodocus is advertised as measuring 56” (142 cm) which makes it the second longest Mattel sauropod, outsized only by the Dreadnoughtus, and not by much. The tail alone counts for 30” (76.2 cm) of the toy’s length. With the neck lifted to its maximum height the toy stands 21.5” (54.61 cm) tall. The toy comes out to be 1/18 in scale when scaled down from the maximum estimated length of 85’ (26 meters) for D. carnegii.
The Diplodocus comes in 6 separate pieces: 2 for the head and neck, one for the torso and legs, and 3 for the tail. It is articulated in most of the same ways that the other Mattel sauropods are. The head is on a ball joint that allows it to swivel about and the jaw is articulated. The neck can swivel up and down and twist around at its base but doesn’t have the side-to-side motion of the Dreadnoughtus. The legs can rotate somewhat at the shoulders and hips but are limited by the bulk of the torso and don’t pivot outwards. The tail can rotate at its base and tip. Target reviews claim that the tail doesn’t stay attached but mine doesn’t have this problem.
In posture, proportions, and profile, this is Mattel’s best and most accurate large sauropod to date. The head is appropriately small and “horse-like” with small peg-shaped teeth that extend too far into the back of the jaw but aren’t worth quibbling about. The nostrils are correctly placed on the snout instead of atop the head (a first for Mattel) and earholes are present behind the eyes. The neck gradually thickens towards its base and a row of spines runs from the nape to about halfway down the tail. Most of the spines are soft and rubbery but some are hard plastic.
The dainty forelimbs are shorter than the hindlimbs and the tail base is thick and muscular with a gradual tapering off towards the tip, to a diameter about as thin as you could reasonably expect it to be. I love the high arch created by the hips and tail, that steadily arches downward as you move along the tail’s absurd length.
Really, the only glaring inaccuracy is the anatomy of the hands and feet. You know the drill. Diplodocus should have a single clawed digit on a horseshoe shaped manus and three visible claws on each hindfoot. Here, we have generic five-clawed feet. I wouldn’t expect anything else from Mattel, who did this to the Apatosaurus despite the movie’s counterpart being more accurate. All-in-all though, this toy beautifully captures the elegance of these sauropods, and that’s what matters most.
The toy is covered in a cross-hatched cracked texture that convincingly looks like scales in some places, like on the torso, but doesn’t look much like the skin impressions we have for Diplodocus. It’s roughly the same as what we see on the other Mattel sauropods but amped up a notch, delivering the most detailed big sauropod from Mattel yet.
There are protuberances randomly placed along the neck and torso, which adds some nice texture. There are plenty of wrinkled skin folds too, especially along the underside of the neck, torso, and tail, with the folds of skin being thickest along the tail base. Waves of wrinkles run down the limbs and the underside is mostly smooth.
The paintjob is the most appealing one that I’ve seen on one of these sauropods so far. The base color is dull orange with a smattering of brown specks over most of its surface. The head is black with pale gray warpaint over the face and the black gradually tapers off down along the neck. The tail is also tipped in black. Broken pale gray stripes run down the back, about halfway down the neck to halfway down the tail, with a gap over the hips and tail base. The jaw, underside of the neck, and belly are pale gray. The teeth are white, and the inside of the mouth is pink. The eyes are yellow with black pupils.
This color scheme reminds me of the black-headed python, which I enjoy. Although still simplified in places (claws aren’t painted) it still appears complete overall and makes the figure standout among its peers. My only complaint is that where the neck pieces meet the black coloration doesn’t line up right, but this might not be a widespread problem.
It’s hard to quit these sauropods when Mattel keeps raising the bar on them. With an attractive paintjob, decent level of accuracy, handsome form, and high level of detail, the Mattel Diplodocus is my favorite of these sauropods so far. We’ll see if it holds that title with the incoming release of yet another behemoth, the Mattel Titanosaurus, which looks quite impressive indeed! I’m not going to lie to myself about that one, I’m definitely getting it and praying that it’ll be the last of these shelf-space killers.
The Mattel Diplodocus is currently available for about $65 at Target but keep an eye open for sales. With patience I was able to get mine for $35 but I was also afraid that I might miss out on it if I waited too long. In any case, it will likely be going on clearance soon, with Jurassic World: Rebirth on the horizon. Get it while you can.
Trending Products
