Hypsilophodon (Jurassic World, Hammond Collection by Mattel)

With the release of the Hammond Collection Hypsilophodon, Mattel has added another book canon dinosaur to the HC roster. Hypsilophodon appears in The Lost World novel, living amongst the other wild dinosaurs on Isla Sorna. In Jurassic Park, there’s a section of the park tour called Hypsilophodont Highlands, but it is populated by Dryosaurus, said in the book to be a hypsilophodont (it’s not). More recently, a gorgeous rendition of Hypsilophodon was added to the Jurassic World: Evolution 3 video game.

Hypsilophodon is a genus of early Cretaceous neornithischian that was ornithopod-like but might have been outside of Ornithopoda and was discovered in England. Being a small, basic little dinosaur, it has not been tackled by too many toy companies but figures of it do exist by CollectA, Geoworld, and Kaiyodo. Mattel previously made one for their mainline, inspired by the video game, The Isle. That one was a bit too outlandish in design for my tastes, but Mattel thankfully dialed back on the speculation for this Hammond Collection version. This version is so similar to their Dryosaurus that I almost skipped it but upon seeing it in person and learning that it differs more than I originally assumed, I decided to get it. My collection previously lacked a Hypsilophodon anyway.

The Mattel Hypsilophodon measures 8” (20.32 cm) long and stands about 3.25” (8.3 cm) tall at the hips. The actual Hypsilophodon measured about 4.9-6.6’ (1.5-2 meters) in length and was estimated to have weighed about 44 lbs. (20 kg). That puts the Mattel toy at 1/7-1/10 in scale, a far cry from the 1/18 scale that Mattel typically strives for. I don’t know why they insist on making these small genera so large instead of releasing them as rubber mini-figures or in sets. 

This toy has 17 points of articulation and like the Dryosaurus, has a swappable jaw. With the mouth open it doesn’t look nearly as horrific as the Dryosaurus, but it still doesn’t look great, and the closed mouth is a big improvement. That said, the seam created by these swappable jaws is unsightly and I really wish they would just go back to making it articulated, as imperfect as that was.

There is a ball/hinge joint at the base of the head and base of the neck that allows for a good degree of motion. There are also ball/hinge joints at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs can pivot in and out and rotate around at the hips, and the knees, ankles, and toes have ball/hinge joints. The tail comes packaged separately and once attached cannot be removed. It is rubber with a bendable wire inside. The articulation is pretty standard for Mattel and works identically to how it does for the Dryosaurus but very few, if any, parts of the Dryosaurus are reused here.

Small, pointed teeth are sculpted inside of a beaked mouth but the teeth do not match the differentiated dentition of the actual Hypsilophodon, which had pointed teeth on the premaxilla and leaf-shaped teeth on the maxilla. The head is low, triangular, and pointed, which is a close match to the actual animal. The body is basic in form, with modestly sized forelimbs and long, lean, muscular legs. There are five digits on the forelimbs, with the first digit being opposed. This is accurate but the digits are all uniform in size and clawed when the last two should be reduced and clawless. Four clawed digits are sculpted on the hindlimbs. Proportionally, the body and tail appear too short and the legs too long but for Mattel, this is a decent basal neornithischian.

The figure is uniformly covered in small, pebbly scales, with some larger scales on the face and tarsal scutes on the fingers and toes. It is unknown if Hypsilophodon had feathers or not but since other small neornithischians have been discovered with them it is possible. In any case, it’s interesting to see Mattel go all or nothing with the feathers on their two Hypsilophodon toys.

This Hypsilophodon is painted dark forest green with lime green blotches spaced out along the back and boarded by olive green. Additional lime green speckles are painted along the sides of the neck, back, and flanks. The beak and claws are brown with only the hallux toes left unpainted. A metallic red splash is painted over the brown eyes. The eyes don’t appear to have painted pupils and are green like the body. This, along with the dark eye color and red face paint, make the eyes appear almost non-existent. This is one of my greatest criticisms of the toy. I would have preferred the lifeless glass eyes over this. Otherwise, I find this to be an attractive combination of colors and patterns, and it actually matches the colors described in the book, which describes the Hypsilophodon as being dark green with light green patches.

The Hammond Collection Hypsilophodon has a few shortcomings, including the lifeless eyes and the unsightly seam around the jaw, but it is otherwise a decent and attractively painted figure, and arguably the best Hypsilophodon available from a short list of mostly crude figures. Ultimately, I’m glad that I did not pass it up.