Mussaurus is a genus of early Jurassic sauropodomorph that in the old days would have been known as a “prosauropod”. Mussaurus means “mouse lizard” because the first discovered specimens of it were all hatchlings and juveniles. We now have adult specimens as well, indicating that Mussaurus reached a length of 20-26’ (5-8 meters), making its name misleading. Growth stages of Mussaurus reveal that they started life as quadrupeds and then switched to bipedalism as adults.
The only toys of Mussaurus that exist are all from Mattel. Their original, mainline figure was reconstructed as a somewhat generic, quadrupedal, baby sauropod. For that reason, I never got it. The Hammond Collection Mussaurus comes with swappable hands, allowing you to display it as a quadruped or biped. Adding to that a generally more “prosauropod” appearance made it a dinosaur toy that I had to have. As I expressed in my Dryosaurus review, basal dinosaurs are kind of my jam, and I love bipedal sauropodomorphs. Like the Dryosaurus, Mussaurus is a novel canon dinosaur, appearing in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
The Hammond Collection Mussaurus is articulated at the jaw, base of the head, base of the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles, and base of the tail. The tail is rubber with a bendable wire inside. The articulation works about as well as you would expect it to for a Hammond Collection figure of this size. Since it can be a biped or quadruped the forearms are somewhat long and stiff and look odd when the figure is displayed as a biped. I suppose it’s a fair compromise though.
The figure measures about 9.5” (24.13 cm) long and stands 3” (7.62 cm) tall at the hips. When scaled down from a length of 20’ we get a scale of 1/25. It’s important to remember that the proportions are going to be off on any Mattel toy, so scales are going to be rough estimates.
The toy has a somewhat oversize, gnarly and sunken-in, skeksis-like head full of oversized, pointy teeth. Additionally, the hand and foot anatomy is all wrong for a sauropodomorph of any kind. Inaccuracies like these are all typical for Mattel and no one should be surprised by them. What is important is that the toy looks passably like a basal sauropodomorph, and significantly more so than Mattel’s previous Mussaurus.
The skin is detailed with fine pitting rather than scales, with the only scales being the scutes on the toes. Wrinkles and saggy skin folds are present where appropriate, such as along the lower torso and limb joints. Running along from the nape to the tail, and down the thighs, there are large osteoderms, or maybe they’re feature scales. They’re probably unlikely, but as Haolong recently showed us, we can’t really be sure what kind of integument any dinosaur had unless we have some of it preserved.
The figure is painted slate gray with a sandy colored underside, lower arms, and legs. Navy blue stripes run down the nape and neck and are met with teal stripes that continue down the back and tail. Along the back, navy blue stripes give way to ocean blue stripes that are overlaid with the teal. Teal and mint green stripes and bands run down the tail, and the bands don’t always line up right where they join along the horizontal seams of the tail.
The teeth are white, the inside of the mouth is dark red, and the claws are dark green. The eyes are painted on, unlike past Hammond Collection toys with their glass eyes. They’re red and yellow, with most of the red concentrated around the edges and the pupils are black. They look much more lifelike than the glass eyes, which often looked too dark and vacant if the lighting wasn’t right. Overall, I like the combination of cool colors used here but the colors on the tail don’t quite match those on the body.
The Mattel Mussaurus is a bit cartoony and goofy looking but is an otherwise competent little action figure of a dinosaur that’s unlikely to be made by anyone else. Basal sauropodomorphs are rare as figures, and even rarer as action figures, making this Mussaurus a must have for fans of them. This figure can be found at Target or on their website, and elsewhere online.
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