The American mastodon is probably the second most famous and iconic prehistoric proboscidean after the woolly mammoth. Indeed, many people often confuse the two of them, and not without reason. After all, the mastodon has long been portrayed as being covered in ample brown fur all over (albeit shorter than that of the mammoth), and to this day it continues to be portrayed as such. But in truth, the current evidence for mastodon fur is either scant, questionable, or even non-existent. Moreover, its large size, relatively long tail, and the fact that it ranged all the way down into the southern United States and Mexico may indicate that the mighty mastodon had no need of heavy winter protection. You can read all about it here.
This brings us to the 2025 American mastodon toy by Eofauna. Like the previous tuskers in this beloved series, it is a male sculpted in an active, truculent pose. The tail is swinging to the left, the left hind leg is extended back, the left front foot and both hind feet are partially raised, and the head is turned to the left with the mouth open and the trunk curled to the right. If you had a second toy, you could pose the two of them engaged in combat for dominance. The mastodon is one of Eofauna’s smaller toys, measuring 21 cm long from the tips of its tusks to the tuft of its tail, standing 9.5 cm tall at the crown, and weighing a respectable 329 g.
The main colour is a shade of dark mud brown with darker wash. The tail tuft is black and the soles of the feet are light dull brown with slightly darker toenails. The tusks are beige with brown wash and there’s pink running down the underside of the trunk. The eyes are yellow and the mouth is glossy brick red with beige dentition. It’s a simple and straightforward colour scheme, perfectly appropriate for a mastodon.
The tusks are long, curving inward, and asymmetrical, with the lefthand one raised slightly higher. They feel pleasingly smooth to the touch and are made of flexible material to prevent breakage. The wrinkled and muscular trunk features a single “finger” at its tip for grasping objects. The wide open mouth allows us to glimpse two tiny vestigial tusks at the front of the mandible and large upper molars placed further back.
The big skull is long, wide, and relatively flattened, with small, rounded ears and alert-looking eyes. The torso is also quite long, with a slight dip in its back like an African elephant and super wide hips. It really does look like a pear or a gourd or a lightbulb when viewed from above or below.
The legs are short compared to those of mammoths and modern elephants, but stout and powerful-looking. Only the right front foot has a completely flattened sole; the other three have domed soles to represent the cushioned pads that proboscideans are known to possess, which is a pleasant little touch of realism that not all companies might have bothered with. The tail is much long than a woolly mammoth’s, with a well-sculpted hairy tuft at the tip.
Now let’s talk about the mastodon’s skin. As you can see, this one is much more hairy than any extant elephant, but far less so than a woolly mammoth. There are relatively thick patches of fur on the mandible and around the tusks, on top of the head and shoulders, around the neck and upper arms, and on the back and flanks. There’s also some fur visible amongst the wrinkles on the trunk. And wherever fur is absent, there’s plenty of fine wrinkles to be found instead. It’s a fine compromise between classic and modern, one that fits with what little evidence of fur currently exists. And needless to say, the sculpting job is as superb as always.
On that note, here finally is the Eofauna mastodon alongside the bigger and hairier version from the Wild Safari line.
Once again, Eofauna has delivered us an indubitably magnificent prehistoric toy. Granted, this mastodon may not be as charismatic and imposing as the Wild Safari one, and it’s difficult to say which of them boasts the better sculpting job (I consider them to be on par myself), but it is arguably more accurate and it definitely scales better with the other proboscideans in the line, and with many from other companies too. Highly recommended for sure.
All articles on the Dinosaur Toy Blog are written without the use of ‘AI’
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