Styracosaurus (ANIA by Takara Tomy)

Takara Tomy is a brand stretching a wide range across toy production, from miniature cars to blockbuster IP tie-ins, to wildlife and extinct life replicas. Beginning in the early 2010s, Tomy began releasing the ANIA “Animal Adventure” series, a line of palm-sized action figures featuring extant and extinct animal life. The ANIA line is primarily split under small (AS) and large (AL) categories, with the AL category mostly populated the prehistoric animals, the majority of which are dinosaurs. Number 17 of the AL category, the ceratopsian Styracosaurus, was introduced around January of 2019 and the first horned dinosaur since the Triceratops back in no. 02 of the series.

The Styracosaurus comes packaged in the standard box seen in the ANIA line; the box is small but sturdy, displaying a photo of the figurine on the front and a fact sheet + artwork of the dinosaur on the back. The figurine fits snugly inside without need for assembly, and is protected by additional cardboard and plastic sleeves. All text on the box, naturally, is in Japanese; however there is a pair of fact cards also included inside the box, one of which is translated to English.

The figurine measures 10.5 cm (4.12 in) long, which would put it at 1:50 scale for 5.25-meter individual (this is within the maximum known size range for the genus). The figurine is posed mostly static, with its left front foot raised and the neck appearing to hunch forward. The mouth is open, perhaps reaching for food or vocalizing in defense against an opponent. A total of eight spines and six knobs array the large frill, which is reasonable ornamentation for a dinosaur known to display a variety in frill morphology. Each of the horns and spines are sized well, and are neatly painted in cream-white to stand out. A pair of orange eye spots on the frill give extra personality to the figurine; curiously, the yellow eyes appear to have slit pupils, which I’m not used to seeing in ceratopsian depictions. The inside of the mouth is a saturated pink, and some darker shading emphasizes the beak and the eyes.

General body proportions look good, conveying the typical stout ceratopsian anatomy; one quibble I could make is that the back should probably have a more rounded and centered arch, rather than the squared-off appearance it has. The legs are tucked under the body in the traditional dinosaur fashion, and the feet thankfully avoid the cliché of bearing stubby elephantine toes, instead being separate and spread apart with accurate digit counts. The skin texture and coloration might be more reminiscent of an elephant, though, being predominantly gray and having a bumpy, cracked sort of texture.

Articulation varies between ANIA figures, although it’s usually pretty minimal. Styracosaurus features a single swivel hinge joint in the neck, allowing the dinosaur to look straight ahead or bow its head to aim its nasal horn. With some maneuvering, one can also orient the joint to turn the head side to side instead, if one prefers. While one or two more joints in, say, the front legs would have been nice, the neck joint does its job at providing a little extra playability where most of the “action” would take place for the animal.

Takara Tomy’s Styracosaurus isn’t a knockout collectible, but for a small 700-yen kids’ toy it’s still pretty good and will serve its purpose well for playtime or for display in a smaller-scale collection. Regrettably, the spiked reptile appears to be one of the ANIA series no longer in production, although it should still be available to find through marketplaces like eBay and Mercari at reasonable aftermarket prices.