Aside from being the most popular and familiar prehistoric carnivoran, cats of the Smilodon genus are notable for several reasons. They’re the most recent of the “saber-toothed” cats, having only gone extinct at the end of the Ice Age, 10,000 years ago. They were also large, reaching and exceeding the size of extant big cats. One species, S. populator, was one of the largest known felids, being about the size of an African lion but more robustly built. Smilodon is also one of the best known fossil carnivorans thanks to the thousands of specimens recovered from the Rancho La Brea tar. Popularly known as saber-toothed tigers, Smilodon was a member of the Machairodontinae clade, a clade sperate from all extant cats. This makes extant tigers more closely related to house cats than to Smilodon.
Despite an abundance of Smilodon toys to choose from, going all the way back to the 1950’s, it is a genus that is seldom done well. Virtually every Smilodon toy or model suffers from inaccurate anatomy and wonky proportions, if not just crude craftsmanship. For that reason, the only Smilodon toy in my collection is the vintage Marx toy, and the mammal section of my cabinet sorely needed something more modern. I could have settled on the figures by Safari, Mojo, or CollectA but then a new Smilodon appeared from the most unlikely of companies, Schleich! Actually, Schleich’s entire 2026 lineup is decent by Schleich standards but the only must have for me was this cat.
Schleich’s 2026 Smilodon has a head-body length of 5” (13.97 cm) and stands 2.75” (6.99 cm) tall at the shoulder. In figuring out scale it is important to know that there are three species of Smilodon, and they all reached different sizes. S. gracilis is known from the eastern United States and was the smallest and oldest of the three. It was about the size of a jaguar and had a shoulder height of about 29” (75 cm). S. fatalis is known from North America and west of the Andes mountains in South America. It is the species known from the La Brea Tar Pits and had a shoulder height of about 39” (100 cm). S. populator is known from eastern South America and is the largest Smilodon species, with a shoulder height of about 47” (120 cm).
Using the shoulder heights above puts Schleich’s toy at 1/10, 1/14, or 1/17 in scale, depending on which species you want it to represent. I’m not going to try to identify it at the species level, but I suspect that the toy is meant to represent S. populator.
This appears to be a well-researched figure and off the cuff, one of the more accurate Smilodon toys around. The neck is long and deep, and the high scapula gives the back a downward sloping profile. The tail is short and the limbs are muscular. In addition to the saber-teeth, other teeth are also visible within the open mouth and appear as accurate as one could expect from a toy such as this. They are reduced in number, as they should be in any cat, and there are even the correct number of 6 incisors in the upper jaw! Sculpted pads are visible on the paws and even include the carpal pads. Anatomically, this cat represents a male.
The figure is sculpted in a forward stride with the mouth open, the usual for Smilodon figures. The head is slightly tilted and looking rightward with the ears held back and the lips drawn up in a snarl. Fur on the face is finely sculpted, with ruffs sculpted around the cheeks, and whiskers painted on the muzzle. The inside of the mouth includes a tongue and texturing on the roof of the mouth, but the paint application mostly obscures the latter and there’s no detail further back by the throat. The inside of the ears is entirely detailed with fur, which is somewhat odd but easy to ignore, given their position.
The fur is thickest over the neck and shoulders, and down along the belly. The hair here is nicely intertwined in wavy clumps, giving the illusion of depth. Elsewhere the fur is finer, and it nicely follows the contours of the cat’s body.
The figure is predominantly sandy brown in color, with a beige underside. The coat is spotted similarly to a jaguar’s, with large dark brown rosettes around a central spot. Within the larger rosettes the fur is painted dull orange. On the head, the nose is brown and the lips are black. The back of the ears are dark brown with large beige patches. Some extant cats also have pale patches on the back of their ears.
The teeth are off-white and the inside of the mouth is pink with the tongue being darker pink than elsewhere. A glossy finish would have been appreciated here, to make it appear wet and more lifelike. The eyes are yellow with black pupils, and they’re decently aligned when viewed head-on. The paw pads are black, and the tail is beige with dark drown bands and a dark brown tip. The paint application is decent overall, and I don’t mind that it is heavily inspired by extant cats in color and pattern.
As both a Schleich and Smilodon figure, this toy is a very pleasant surprise. Some have suggested that it is the best Smilodon figure ever and I’m inclined to agree but I don’t have much personal experience with other Smilodon figures. It’s also one of Schleich’s best prehistoric animals in about a decade. Or maybe more. Or maybe ever! Between this and Creative Beast’s articulated figure, Smilodon fans have a lot to smile about in 2026, and I finally have a decent Smilodon in my cabinet. Highly recommended. If you only collect one figure per species, you should probably replace it with this one. Let Schleich know that we want more toys like this. And if it sells well enough, maybe we’ll get more prehistoric mammals of this caliber.
Disclaimer: links to Ebay and Amazon on the DinoToyBlog are affiliate links, so we make a small commission if you use them. Thanks for supporting us!
Trending Products
