Over the many years since Mattel has had the Jurassic World license, the toy line has seen its fair share of ceratopsians (with a total of 18 genera at the moment), despite a handful featuring in the films (including the new Aquilops). Last year finally introduced one of my favorites, the Chasmosaurus. It’s not the first time Chamosaurus has popped up in a Jurassic toy line, as there was an electronic Chasmosaurus made by Kenner (owned by Hasbro at the time) for The Lost World: Jurassic Park Series 1 toyline in 1997 (which later received a repaint in the Jurassic Park Dinosaurs line). Nearly 30 years since the Kenner one released, we finally have another Chasmosaurus in a Jurassic toy line. As mentioned earlier it released last year, part of the Epic Evolution line up, and is part of the Strike Attack assortment which has simple action (or play) features, aside from the typical articulation.
Chasmosaurus hails from the Dinosaur Park formation of what is now Alberta, Canada. It lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, 77 to 74 ma. Aside from Chasmosaurus, other famous dinosaurs found there include the hadrosaurids Corythosaurus, Lambeosaurus, Parasaurolophus, ceratopsids Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus, ankylosaurs Euoplocephalus and Edmontonia, dromaeosaurid Dromaeosaurus, and the tyrannosaurids Daspletosaurus and Gorgosaurus, among others. There are at least two accepted species of Chasmosaurus, C. russelli, and C. belli, while the former species lived before the latter. The two have different shapes to their skulls as well, with C. russelli having a U shape inside the frill, and curved sides, with C. belli having more of a V shape inside, and straighter sides. C. russelli also has slightly larger facial horns compared with C. belli. There was also skin material present from both an adult and juvenile specimen of C. belli. I did a more extensive breakdown of the skin material in my Beasts of the Mesozoic Medusaceratops (Fan’s Choice) review for anyone interested.
Moving focus onto the figure itself, the skull is adorned with exaggerated large horns, and spikes covering the sides of the frill. The skull is shrinkwrapped with deeply exposed fenestra on the snout and frill, giving it an almost skeletal look. There are two extra large fenestrae on the sides of the frill not present on either species skulls. Hard to pinpoint which species it resembles the most with the exaggerated features, not that this figure was intended to be a scientifically informed reconstruction in any way. Only the beak and facial horns are painted, none of the others are. There is an interesting pattern applied to the front of the frill in black paint. The head and back are colored a rusty orange red color, while the rest is a pale mint green. As expected the number of digits is incorrect, with having only four on the forelimbs, instead of five (digits four and five should also lack claws). As Chasmosaurus is one of the few ceratopsians with skin material preserved, it is a bit unfortunate the scales on the sculpt don’t really resemble it. There are some tiny assorted bumps all over the sculpt, but Chasmosaurus had larger feature scales, which are absent on this figure. The action feature is pretty similar to the previous Savage Strike Styracosaurus. You push the button on the back for it to throw its head back. The sculpt also suffers from the unnecessary scan tab for the corresponding app, added to figures post Dominion (which are back to being absent as of the Rebirth lineup thankfully).
Despite the typical anatomical flaws and/or exaggerated features, and the lack of paint detail, I enjoy having this little fellow in my collection now. It pairs well with the earlier Styracosaurus, although perhaps a bit out of scale. Being out of production now, the best hope to pick this one up is through the aftermarket or any remaining third party sellers. I picked mine up last year in store at a Walmart here in the US. Lastly, perhaps it is worth mentioning its wavemates were a new Gastonia, a repainted Dilophosaurus, and a newly sculpted Monolophosaurus (the third unique sculpt for it in the line).
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