Aside from Tyrannosaurus rex, not very many prehistoric animals can rightly lay claim to the status of pop culture icon, but Brontosaurus is most definitely one of them. It is by no means the biggest sauropod, nor is it the most unusual, but it is blessed with a name that always rolls off one’s tongue in a most satisfyingly smooth way. For a majority of people around the world, it is and always will be the quintessential long-necked, long-tailed, big-bodied, and big-footed dinosaur. It has been a regular subject of paleoart, it has been a corporate logo, it has appeared in many movies, including both the 1933 and 2005 versions of King Kong, and it was the very first dinosaur to appear in a cartoon. Growing up as a child, I knew it as one of the Classic Big Four, a quartet that also includes T. rex, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus. I also knew, annoyingly, that it had long ago been taxonomically synonymised with Apatosaurus, whose name simply does not sound anywhere near as cool. And plenty of folks clearly agreed with me, because they went right on calling it Brontosaurus, paleontological correctness be damned. That includes the United States Postal Service back in 1989 when they issued a postage stamp featuring Brontosaurus, and defended their decision by stating that, “Although now recognized by the scientific community as Apatosaurus, the name Brontosaurus was used for the stamp because it is more familiar to the general population.”
And fate itself seemed to agree as well. In 2015, a study on diplodocid relationships came to the momentous conclusion that Brontosaurus was distinctive enough from Apatosaurus to be considered a unique species. CollectA (naturally) was the first prehistoric toy company to capitalise on this news in 2018, and again in 2021. Mojo Fun and Schleich eventually followed suit. And now, a decade after that most welcome news broke, it is my great pleasure to present you the Haolonggood Brontosaurus.
The mighty thunder lizard is sculpted in a realistic and relaxed walking pose with its right front leg raised in midstep. Mine is a tiny bit wobbly, but there’s no risk of it ever toppling over. The great neck is raised high and the head is turning sharply to look to the right. The long, tapering tail is raised well off the ground and swaying, with the very spindly tip curled in a loop, which makes it look uncommonly like a writhing octopus tentacle. There is a palpable air of strength, confidence, and majesty about this animal. As a juvenile, it would have had to run and survive many deadly gauntlets, mostly in the form of predatory theropods. Now that it’s a mature adult, it has little to fear from those same hungry humgruffins. And it darn well knows that.
This Brontosaurus may not be the biggest Haolonggood sauropod, but it’s a titan of a toy nonetheless. It measures a good 45 cm long and 19 cm tall at the head. And it weighs in at a solid 717 g, compared to 659 g for the PNSO Alamosaurus, 506 g for the CollectA Ruyangosaurus, and 469 g for the Eofauna Atlasaurus shown with it below. That makes it the most massive sauropod toy in my collection (and probably the most massive one I’ll ever own).
This is the “Xie Ying Deng” colour scheme, the other being the “Du Weng Zhong.” Its base colour is a light orange with a piggish shade of pink on its underbelly. The legs are airbrushed with dark brown and the feet are entirely dark brown with even darker claws. Dark brown is also used for the many markings on the neck, torso, and tail. The tail eventually transitions to a pale beige, then the tip becomes decked out in alternating bands of bright orange and dark blue. Meanwhile, the neck gradually transitions to a pleasing purple blue. The head is blue with a medium brown muzzle and light orange eyes. And literally topping everything off is a row of red-orange triangular spines that run down the vertebrae to about a third of the way down the tail. It’s a fabulous colour scheme in my book and it really makes this toy stand out among my other sauropods.
No Brontosaurus skull has been found as of this writing, but there is no reason to think that it was not very similar to that of Apatosaurus. The one on this toy is small with a long, squared off snout. The eyes are wide and alert. The nasal openings are located close to the front of the snout, whereas on older diplodocid depictions, they were positioned much farther back, right between the orbits. Faint scales, wrinkles, and grooves give the head a leathery appearance and feel.
The neck is long, but also quite robust. It too is scaly, with the aforementioned row of spines and lots of thicker, more visible wrinkles. Tiny rows of rounded osteoderms can also be seen on either side of the spines. And on the underside of the neck are two rows of keeled spikes. The cervical ribs of Brontosaurus had round, prominent processes on their ventral sides that could have been attachments for such spikes. These could have been used for intraspecific combat in which two individuals would slam their strong, spiky necks together, or perhaps against each other’s flanks, until one of them gave up or suffered a serious injury. A “Brontosmash,” as shown in this lovely piece by John Conway.
The torso is appropriately very wide, very deep, and very solid. Even more rows of small osteoderms are visible on the back. The spines are at their thickest and varying in height, which adds to the realistic appearance. So do the many wrinkles around the midsection and the heavy skin folds on the flanks. The smaller front limbs terminate in crescent-shaped feet with a single curved claw facing inward. The purposes of these claws is still debated: they may have been used for fighting or defence, or they may have been used to help steady their owner against the trunks of trees when rearing to browse. The larger hind limbs have much larger, rounder feet with three outward facing claws. The musculature in all four limbs are nicely defined.
And then there is the tail, accounting for an estimated 56% of Brontosaurus‘ length. It is along here that the spines terminate about midway, and the same areas has the smoothest texture anywhere on the toy, with tiny scales and barely any wrinkles at all. But when we come to the long, tapering tip, we see that it is covered in small, conical osteoderms, making it somewhat resemble the tail of a nodosaur. That’s an interesting and cool touch right there, that is. Brontosaurus and other diplodocids have long been portrayed as using their tails like whips for defence against theropods, but they may have been too fragile for that. Instead, the tails may have been used for tactile communication while the animals were travelling together in herds. We may never know. But regardless of its function, the tail on this Brontosaurus looks positively marvellous, just like the rest of it. Oh, and as to whether it represents B. excelsus or B. parvus, I’d say it can be whichever one you want.
But we’re not finished just yet. Haolonggood has also taken the step of randomly including a display base with certain of their thunder lizards, and I was one of the fortunate recipients. Now, personally, I’m not all that big a fan of bases, mainly due to the fact that they take up more space on shelves. But there can be no question that this base is pretty darned nice. It’s quite large, not surprisingly, measuring about 21.5 cm long, 9 cm at its widest, and up to 3.5 cm high not including the plant.
The base is sculpted to simulate rocky terrain, and as such it is mostly dark and taupe grey with light grey wash here and there, and grassy green to simulate patches of vegetation. There is also a small, clear pool with rocks at the bottom (it doubtless would have been too complicated and costly to insert a small aquatic vertebrate in there). And there is a large green and yellow fern growing next to the pool. It is made of soft, flexible plastic and can be removed from the base. Oh, and curiously, there are a number of tracks sculpted into the surface of the base which resemble those of ceratopsians more than anything else.
The Brontosaurus does not attach to the base. Instead, there is a faint imprint next to the pool for the toy’s left front foot. Although really, you can just as easily position it going in the opposite direction if you wish. The base’s uneven surface means that quadrupedal toys are best-suited for display atop it, but a number of bipedal ones can manage it as well as long as you’re careful enough.
Brontosaurus has always occupied a special place in my heart, as it was one of the very first dinosaurs I ever learned about way, way, way back in kindergarten, along with T. rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Ankylosaurus. It was a thrill when it made its triumphant comeback a decade ago and it’s a thrill now to own this toy. Haolonggood’s thunder lizard is delightfully huge, painstakingly sculpted, strikingly painted, and about as lifelike and accurate as one can get with a toy this size. Naturally, it costs a pretty penny, but I certainly do feel that it was worth it. As the late Stephen Jay Gould once noted, bully for Brontosaurus!
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