After the woolly mammoth and Smilodon, the third most famous prehistoric mammal is arguably Megatherium americanum, the original giant ground sloth of Pleistocene South America. Discovered in 1787 and named in 1796 by none other than George Cuvier himself, Megatherium was of the most popular museum draws during the 19th century–until it was muscled out of the spotlight by dinosaurs. Nevertheless, it remains one of the icons of the Cenozoic, a mainstay of prehistory books, and to see a mounted skeleton of one is always a thrill. But for some strange reason, it hasn’t received very much attention at all from toy companies, at least not in the last twenty or so years. The Safari Ltd. toy dates all the way back to 2004 and the Schleich one dates to 2003. You’d think that CollectA would have done one by now, but that’s a negative. PNSO has yet to really break into the prehistoric mammal realm (they did do a Basilosaurus years ago, but nothing since then). Eofauna and Haolonggood may also deliver us one in the future, but who knows when?
And that brings us to this toy, the 2025 Megatherium by TNG. TNG is still currently a relatively small player in the prehistoric toy game, but they’ve shown a good bit of promise thus far, particularly their mammals.
Whether in books or as museum mounts, Megatherium is frequently depicted rearing up on its hind legs. This one, however, is in a quadrupedal stance. Or more accurately, a tripod stance, for it is resting on both hind feet and the knuckles of its left hand. The right arm is raised well off the ground and the digits are straightened, exposing the claws. The head is turned to look to the left, the mouth is open, and the tongue is dangling out, which offsets the otherwise aggressive-looking appearance of this beast. Is it gearing up to defend itself against a hungry Arctotherium? Or about to duke it out with another sloth? Or perhaps it’s digging into a termite mound to add some protein to its diet (sloths are related to anteaters, after all)? Ah well, it definitely looks neat this way.
At six metres in length and 4.5 tons in weight, Megatherium was one of the biggest sloths of all time, rivalled only by Eremotherium. Accordingly, this is a pretty big toy, measuring about 19 cm long from nose to tail tip and 8.5 cm high. There’s been plenty of speculation in recent years about whether Megatherium had a thick coat of fur as traditionally depicted, or had very sparse hair on its body like an elephant. As you can plainly see, TNG has opted to go with the former.
The base colour is medium brown with light brown wash and very dark brown streaks. Dark brown is used for all four paws, which feature sand brown claws. The head is reddish brown with very dark brown for the ears and the muzzle. The nose and the inside of the mouth are dark pink, the tongue is maroon, and the eyes are light brown with black pupils. It’s the standard giant sloth colour scheme that we all grew up seeing in books, and it’s quite fine and unobjectionable.
The fur on the Megatherium‘s body looks thick and shaggy, and not unlike what you’d see on a grizzly bear. The detailing is truly excellent, easily equivalent to what you’d see on a mammal sculpted by Doug Watson. The fur on the head is much shorter and finer. The palms of the hands and the soles of the feet have a leathery, calloused appearance and the claws are grooved. Five out of five stars for the sculpting work.
The head features small ears, a tapering snout with a large nose, and a very deep lower jaw. No teeth are visible in the open mouth, which makes sense given that Megatherium‘s were set far back in its jaws. The long, protruding tongue has been depicted in paleoart quite often, however, the rigidity of the hyoid bones and the short distance between the hyoid and the mandibular symphysis indicate that the animal did not in fact possess such a feature.
The arms are massive and muscular, and one can easily envision this animal pulling down tree branches or dealing out brutal blows to its rivals or its predators. The torso is also massive, and shaped rather like a potato. The hind limbs are relatively short and very stout and the tail is wide, and triangular, perfect for functioning as extra support whenever the Megatherium wishes to rear up high.
But I’m afraid that there’s even more glaring accuracy issues here than that dangly tongue. Like many giant ground sloths, Megatherium is known to have had inwardly rotated hind feet, thus requiring it to walk on the outer sides of them. But the soles of the feet on this toy appear to be placed flat on the ground. The inner claws are facing toward each other, but the other two claws on each foot are folded right up against the soles, which surely must make for painful walking!
The hands are no better. As shown in this image, Megatherium had four digits on its hand, with large, curved claws on three of them. But this toy has no less five clawed digits on each of its hand, and relatively straight claws at that. Given how quick and easy it was to do a Google search for what the hands really looked like, this is a pretty big, pretty avoidable error on TNG’s part. Same goes for the feet. And as we all know, once you’ve identified such errors on a toy, it’s virtually impossible to overlook them.
Thus the TNG Megatherium ends up being one of those mixed bag cases. The hands, the feet, and to a lesser extent, the tongue all bring it down considerably. However, it is still a nicely painted, superbly sculpted, and impressive product. The parties who made this sloth certainly have genuine talent. Indeed, in spite of its inaccuracies, this is still probably the best sculpted Megatherium on the market right now. If you like what you see here, then by all means, go for it. Otherwise, you may want to hold off until some other company tackles the great beast.
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