As per tradition, Everything Dinosaur’s Blog revealed the first CollectA 2023 releases on the first Friday of November. Throughout the month, a group of figures will be unveiled every Friday.
It seems that Anthony Beeson, long-time supervisor of the prehistoric line, was able to make his contribution to this series before his passing in April.
The three additions announced today are part of the “Popular Age of Dinosaurs” range, smaller and cheaper.
Triceratops horridus confronting (Age of Dinosaurs Popular) is expected to be available in early 2023.
Hadrosaurus foulkii (Age of Dinosaurs Popular) will be available in early 2023.
Ceratosuchops inferodios fishing (Age of Dinosaurs Popular) will be available in early 2023.
Triceratops horridus confronting (Age of Dinosaurs Popular)
Triceratops is the smaller version of the deluxe figure released this year: as often happens in these cases, in addition to the smaller size, the main differences are a more active pose, the lack of articulation, and a less extravagant coloring, features that often benefit the final result. Other than that, all the elements introduced in the deluxe version seem to have been incorporated into the sculpt, skin texture included.
Hadrosaurus foulkii (Age of Dinosaurs Popular)
Despite giving its name to the Hadrosauridae family, until now only Marx, Nabisco e DeAgostini had made figures of this North American ornithischian, so it’s nice to see an updated version. Again, elements introduced in a deluxe figure seem to have been incorporated into the sculpt, although from a different genus: in fact, we can see the presence of large scales on the neck as in Edmontosaurus regalis, the squared dermal spines and the “hooves” of the front limbs. Fortunately, the skin on the rest of the body doesn’t look like armor. It must be said that the color is very reminiscent of Kamuysaurus, even if in less brilliant shades.
Ceratosuchops inferodios fishing (Age of Dinosaurs Popular)
Finally, in total CollectA style, we have a dinosaur described only recently: Ceratosuchops inferodios, one of the two baryonychinae spinosaurids discovered in the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight (here’s the link to a post by Andrea Cau, one of the authors of the paper) and described in 2021.
Perhaps because of the name, Ceratosuchops immediately became more popular than Riparovenator milnerae, with which it forms the the Ceratosuchopsini clade, so a figure of this animal was highly anticipated.
The figure was sculpted in a fishing pose, like a proper “hell heron”, and the ornamentation on the top of the braincase area has been enhanced with bright orange.
He is also the first figure in the Popular line to have an articulated jaw, so we are curious to see the result.
