Imagine yourself for a moment in a swamp. Not just any particular swamp. There’s mangrove trees with many vines hanging off their branches, tall reeds and cattails, and a strange assortment of prehistoric fauna. There’s a herd of ginormous Paraceratherium feeding on the trees, Phiomia fleeing from ravenous Titanoboa, Baryonyx fishing, and Beelzebufo hopping around. As you try to admire the strange mix of fauna and flora, you suddenly get ambushed by a terrifying leaping crocodyliform launching at you from the waters, that snatches you up in its formidable jaws! Say hello to Kaprosuchus.
That’s been my experience many a time in the video game Ark: Survival Evolved, and despite that, it is one of my favorite early game mounts in the game. Ark aside, it’s also one of my favorite prehistoric pseudosuchians overall, due to its skull’s unique morphology that set it apart from its relatives, and the reason behind its namesake, the “boar croc”. As a result it was on my wishlist from Mattel for quite some time, if not at least since 2020 when they released fellow pseudosuchians the Postosuchus (which I reviewed some time ago) and Sarcosuchus. Thankfully they finally released one last year in their 2024 Strike Attack line, alongside a number of other pseudosuchians including Poposaurus, Gryposuchus, and Rauisuchus.
Kaprosuchus saharicus is only known from a near complete skull and jaws, featuring distinctive horn like structures on the back of the skull, and the distinctive large tusk-like teeth. It was from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of the Echkar Formation in Niger. As no post cranial material has been found, there’s been a bit of inference on the overall appearance, where it is frequently depicted with long limbs. In the 2009 paper initially describing it by Paul Sereno and Hans Larsson, it was postulated that it might have been primarily or exclusively terrestrial due to characteristics in the skull, such as the position and shape of the eyes, and its jaws and teeth. Later papers have recovered it as being primarily semi-aquatic in freshwater (Eric Wellberg et al, 2019, and Jorge Cubo et al, 2020). It’s closest relative is Mahajangasuchus insignis, which does have post cranial material to go by, including osteoderms (Gregory Buckley and Christopher Brochu, 1999, Alan Turner and Gregory Buckley, 2008), and has adaptions for being primarily aquatic. Both are assigned to the family Mahajangasuchidae. Mahajangasuchidae was originally grouped within the clade Neosuchia in the 2009 paper describing Kaprosuchus, but was later found to be among the clade Notosuchia in a 2014 paper (Diego Pol et al).
As far as the usual accuracy stuff here goes, it’s recognizable as Kaprosuchus at the bare minimum with the head, though it gets a few features incorrect. The number of teeth appear to have been simplified. The distinctive pairs of long tusk-like teeth are present, but many of the smaller teeth are omitted, possibly to make the action feature work better. The teeth are also made of a softer plastic, then the more rigid material of the osteoderms on the limbs, to probably be more kid friendly. The horns on the back of the skull have also been omitted, potentially also for safety reasons with the design of the action feature. I can only imagine many poked or pinched fingers were they left in tact. There is some semblance of the bulbous snout tip seen in fossil material, and the large teeth appear to lock together as they do on the skull and jaws. I think the jaws are little too narrow looking at them from above, but not like egregiously. The skull on the figure is about an inch and a half/3.81 cm long, and the figure seems to be about 7 inches/17.78 cm long. The fossil skull was measured to be about 50.7 cm long, giving the figure a scale of about 1:13 scale, give or take, although the head might be a little oversized for the body proportionally, but without post cranial material, who knows. That said, the Mattel Jurassic World mainline is in the 3 and 3/4 scale (or 1/18) so this may still be too big to scale properly regardless.
Without the rest of the body having material, the sculpt is speculative like most of the long limb reconstructions prior. There are four digits, each with claws, on each limb. The forelimbs should have five digits, with the fourth and fifth digits claw-less, which seems to be the norm across Pseudosuchia (and a good bit of Archosauria as well), including the extant members of the group. The feet are digitigrade, like on some of its notosuchian relatives, the tail is probably too short, as typical for Mattel’s Jurassic World figures, and the body covered in many osteoderms and scutes like on extant crocodilians, if not other pseudosuchians (like its relative Mahajangasuchus insignis). As far as the articulation goes, it’s pretty minimal, with only the limbs able to rotate, and the tail. The action feature kind of helps to make up for it a little bit, as it has a satisfying snapping jaw, done so by pressing the forelimbs up (or alternatively pressing down on the back of the figure).
The coloration is simple, but an effective mix of blues, and a cream color. The cream is on the bottom jaw, and continues on the sides in a speckled manner. There is a darker navy blue color on the top of the head running down the tail. A lighter sky blue covers the forelimbs, and belly. The dark navy blue of the back, cream of the lower jaw, and light sky blue of the forelimbs and belly all intermingle on the sides, looking a little bit like camouflage of sorts. There’s also some countershading going on with the darker color on top, and the lighter colors on the bottom. The tail and claws are left unpainted, but each of the teeth are painted, as well as mouth’s tissue in a bright pink. The eyes are orange with slit pupils.
It’s not the most impressive figure Mattel has released, but it makes up in attitude, and I’m finally glad to have a figure of the “boar croc” from them in my collection. The action feature is simple fun, and I find the palette of colors pleasing to look at. As this figure released in last year’s initial wave of Strike Attack figures, the after market is probably your best bet at this point. A quick look at ebay shows the cheapest are going around $40 usd approximately. There’s also a mini Kaprosuchus figure that Mattel released last year, which may be of interest. Its been re-released this year alongside a mini of Bistahieversor which I reviewed previously (alongside the rest of the new 2023 mini sculpts).
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