This is not going to be just one review of sorts. Oh no, this is going to be a mammoth review… of mammoths. Both of the 1/18 scale adults and calves, in the standard and snowy colorations. The original plan was to tackle the snowy ones which are in a set together (and was exclusive to those that backed the original campaign), but having the standard ones on hand too, and since the only thing different is the packaging, collector cards, and paintwork, no harm in doing all together. The 1/35 scale adult was already brilliantly reviewed by suspsy, so be sure to check out his review on it.
Each of these figures was the result of a collaborative effort between Complexly (of PBS) and Creative Beast Studio. On September 3, 2024 the Backerkit Campaign (that’s right, not Kickstarter for once) was launched. The campaign itself did poorly (see the discussion in my Beasts of the Cenozoic thread for more info), and actually needed to be extended for about another week or so past its original end date, but thankfully ended up being funded at the campaign’s end on October 10, with over $210k raised. It was actually kind of frustrating and disappointing to see, but also a bit of a relief as at least the mammoths were able to be produced thankfully. Sadly none of the stretch goals (Gomphotherium, Moeritherium, and Platybelodon) were funded in time as a result, but thankfully David Silva and the rest of the team at Creative Beast Studio are ensuring that they will be released someday. In fact the Moeritherium is already well into production, and is expected to go up for pre-order soon. Several months after the campaign, the reigns were given to David Silva, who has had years of experience dealing with customer service, and fulfilling campaign rewards, etc. After finishing production, they started shipping out in late November, 2025, and I received mine December 1. They have been in stock at the Creative-Beast website since (and other retailers, more on that at the end of the review). I pledged for the standard adult, calf, and 1/35 scale mammoth, and my mother pledged for the snowy set. Thanks to her, as I’m able to include it here.
At the time I received mine, I was still a few weeks into healing from a surgery I had in early November, so had to wait to open them up until I was feeling up for it (including the smaller 1/35 scale). Part of that was also because I wanted to watch the new Prehistoric Planet Ice Age season with them on hand, but I actually got to watching that much later (recovery was rough). Regardless, once I had gotten around to opening them up, I was quite thoroughly satisfied. I have been longing for a woolly mammoth action figure for quite some time, so to finally have not just one, but several in multiple scales, adults and calves, and with or without snow on the coat, is more than a dream come true. Even the big hefty adult has been nothing short of a joy for me to toy around with here and there. If only I could have enjoyed these as a child, what adventures I could have had with them. Though even as an adult now, there is still plenty of fun to be had with them. In fact on one such snowy morning in January I lugged both big adults, and the tiny calves, and got started on a photo shoot with them, hence the opening image here. I planned to do more, but lost the male’s right tusk in the process. It was loose to begin with, and I failed to notice it had slipped off, and despite retracing my steps a dozen times, there was no sign of it. I reached out to David Silva and he let me know there was extra stock of the tusks that would be on its way for issues like this. In the meantime my big guy gets to have one of the included broken tusks as a placeholder, which you’ll see in most of the later images (although I did end up using the snowy version of the broken tusk by mistake, oops).
Now I hope the woolly mammoth itself needs no introduction here, with over 40 reviews of this animal already present on the blog, but regardless here’s a little background. Apologies if I’m retreading old ground here. It is one of the most famous prehistoric animals after all, and for good reason. For starters it used to live alongside ancient humans in the northern hemisphere, as the various cave paintings and artifacts depict (some of which were crafted with mammoth ivory), in addition to dwellings made from hides and tusks. It was first scientifically described in the early 1700’s and throughout by a number of scientists, nearly a century before the first dinosaurs would be named, though carcasses and tusks were encountered and recorded long before. First by Hans Sloane in 1728, followed by Johann Philipp Breyne in 1738, then Georges Cuvier in 1796. It was first named as “Elephas primigenius” in 1799 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and the genus name “Mammuthus” would finally come about in 1828 from Joshua Brookes selling some of his fossils with the name “Mammuthus borealis”. The first mammoth skeleton to be reconstructed (and also the most complete at the time) was the Adams mammoth first discovered in 1799 by Ossip Shumachov in Siberia, then later excavated by Johann Friedrich Adam and other men in 1806. This was also one of the very first (partial) mummified specimens to be recovered. Unfortunately most of what was present was eaten by animals, and so could not be preserved. Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius would be tasked with mounting the material, and he was also the first to illustrate a full skeletal. It wouldn’t be until 1901 before a more complete mammoth mummy would be recovered, with the Beresovka mammoth, also discovered in Siberia. This specimen preserved a large portion of the fur, and other parts of the skin, though not from the head (although the skull was present), along with its last meal, still in its mouth. The first mummified calf to be recovered was in 1948, in Fairbanks, Alaska, found at a gold mine. Named the Effie mammoth, this was the first specimen recovered with a complete trunk. It also preserved more of the head, and one of the forelimbs. In the time since, many more skeletons (such as from bone beds and/or mass graves), and mummified specimens have been discovered, some quite recently such as the case with the Nun cho ga specimen, a calf found in the Yukon of Canada in 2022, and Yana, in late 2024, resulting it in being one of the best understood extinct animals.
Since then it has been featured in a plethora of media, from books, films, documentaries, video games, and more. And of course it is plentiful on the toy market as well. My first exposure to it was certainly in the toy form, in my early childhood. Likely a recast of the Marx Toys sculpt if I had to guess. My next exposure to it aside from the many books on prehistory and extinct animals that I read in my youth, would be the 2001 BBC documentary Walking with Beasts, and the 2002 and 2003 animated films Ice Age, and Brother Bear, respectively. I think the first video game I’ve encountered them in was TESV Skyrim, released back in 2011, if not the first Zoo Tycoon released in 2001 (as part of the Dinosaur Digs expansion), but my memories with the latter are very faint. Anyways they’ve been one of my favorite prehistoric animals since growing up, and perhaps always will be, so all the more reason I can’t get over having these figures now. So finally, onto the figures, or well the boxes first.
For starters the packaging comes in two variants. The ones on display in this review were backer exclusive, but there is also the standard Beasts of the Cenozoic packaging (which can be seen in my collector’s guide here). The wonderful package art on all the packaging was done by none other than Gabriel Ugueto. The standard 1/18 scale adult artwork is the same as for the 1/35 scale adult, and depicts the adult mammoth in a grassland with some horses in the back. The standard calf’s packaging is similar in this regard, but well focuses on the calf. There was an adult behind it in the original artwork, which has been omitted on the final packaging, but is still present on the included card. The snowy set of course features a scene of an adult and calf in a winter setting, holding trunks. Again this set was backer exclusive, and so does not have a Beasts of the Cenozoic variant. Each of the packages have backdrops that can be reused for dioramas and whatnot. Included in both the adult and snowy set are sets of alternate tusks, alongside the collector cards. Included by default are the male tusks, but there’s also an option for female, and broken tusks (as mentioned earlier). Both sets of tusks are actually painted different. The standard set is a darker cream color, while the snowy set is a lighter cream color, with subtle white tips. The calf only comes with the collector card, no other accessories. For anyone curious, the box for the snowy set is about 45.72 cm (18 inches) long, by 29.21 cm (11.5 inches) high, and 15.88 cm (6.25 inches) wide. I didn’t think to measure the standard one’s box before moving it into storage, but it was about the same size from what I recall. The calf’s packaging is about 12.7 cm (5 inches) long, by 10.16 cm (4 inches) high, by 4.44 cm (1.75 inches) wide.
Now onto the figures themselves, starting with the tiny and precious calves. The sculpt was done by Ross Persichetti (who you might be familiar with if you watch the monthly Creative Beast livestreams). Worth noting there is a bit of an error on the packaging for both the calf and the snowy set where Jun Huang is credited, where as Ross should only be present for the former, and in addition with the latter. The sculpt of the calf was actually revealed back in June 2024 at JoeFest, a tad bit prior to the announcement detailing the collaborative effort between Creative Beast and Complexly. Anyways I’m a sucker for baby animals, and Ross did a stellar job with the sculpt work (and the articulation as well). Aside from Effie, the Nun cho ga specimen, and Yana mentioned earlier, there are a number of mummies of calves out there, including Dima, Lyuba, and Yuka. Each of these have been found with fur, though Yuka appears to have the most of the bunch, showing just how shaggy they were in life. Another aspect worth pointing out is the milk tusks present, which a number of calf specimens have preserved with, such as with Lyuba. Yet another is the tip of the trunk, which Dima, Lyuba, Yuka, and other specimens have preserved, in addition to being represented within some cave paintings. This tip is different from extant elephants, which have a shorter upper lobe in comparison. The bottom part of the trunk is also different with its broader wing like shape. This 2021 paper from Boeskorov et al on the Yuka specimen has a good image showing the shape. Unfortunately the trunk tip on either figure does not appear to have these characteristics implemented. Even when looking at the images of the digital sculpt, giving a better look at it, they still do not appear to be present. Perhaps a bit of a minor oversight, as with how small this part of the figure is, I wonder how feasible it would have been to implement anyways. The rest of the anatomy does appear to be represented correctly however (such as the short ears, and tail, the pads of the feet). The standard figure is predominantly a mix of reds, with a cream underside, where the snowy version has some extra white dry-brushing applied to give the illusion that it is covered in snow. If I had to guess, the color was probably based on the Yuka specimen, due to the presence of the ginger coloration.
The articulation is pretty solid all around. The trunk is rubbery, with a bendy wire, and is attached to a ball joint at its base, allowing for up and down movement, some side to side, and full rotation. There is of course jaw articulation, which can be opened up quite wide. There are two head or neck joints, one at the base of the head, and one where the neck meets the torso. There unfortunately isn’t a whole lot of range here. Just some up, and a little side to side. The forelimbs and hindlimbs are what one would expect from a post Cyberzoic Creative Beast Studio figure. The shoulders and hips can be fully rotated around, and have a bit of in and out movement. The elbows and knees can bend to nearly 90 degrees, only hindered by the fur. The wrists and elbows have a little bit of up and down, and side to side motion, and can be fully rotated around. The torso joint has an impressive range of up and down, and side to side movement. Lastly there is a joint for the tail, but I haven’t had any success with it, as the tail material feels pretty gummy, and while warming it up would probably help, I didn’t want to risk it with how the material already feels. This was the case for both my standard and snowy calf. In any case there’s quite a variety of poses one can get, including sitting. I don’t know if it’s exactly how elephants would actually sit, but regardless it is enough to satisfy my needs here, and frankly it is just adorable to pull off.
Moving on to the adult sculpt, this was done by Jun Huang, though Ross Persichetti designed the articulation. Nearly every feature you would come to expect for an adult mammoth is present, such as the short ears and tail, but also the shoulder hump, used for fat storage. Like with the calves, there are a number of mummified adult specimens as well, giving insight on each of these unique features. There was the Adams and Beresovka mammoths (both males) as mentioned earlier, but there is also the Sanga-Yuryakh (female, 1908), Shandrin (male, 1971), Yukagir (male, 2002), and Maly Lyakhov (male, 2012) mammoths. Of these the Bereseovka, Yukagir, and the Maly Lyakhov are perhaps the best preserved. There was also the Jarkov specimen, informally known as the “mammoth cube”, although I’m not sure how well preserved it was, aside from some hair being present. Excluding skeletal material (such as the skull), the Beresovka mammoth was notable for the preserving nearly the whole body, and with it the large coat of fur. It even preserved with its genitalia in tact. The Yukagir mammoth is mostly only a well preserved head, minus the trunk, among some other material (left forelimb, ribcage, intestines), but the head is perhaps the best preserved among any of the adult specimens, and the most notable aspect of this find. Aside from a patch of dark fur, it has also preserved the characteristic small ears, as well as the eye opening (with eyelashes even), and the temporal duct, which housed the temporal gland. This temporal gland is responsible for driving extant male elephants into musth, so seeing this present on a mammoth helps confirms they likely underwent this as well, and a study in 2023 from Cherney et al found high testosterone levels within a male woolly mammoth tusk, adding further support that they did as well. It’s worth noting that even juvenile specimens like Yuka, but not the younger infant Dima or Lyuba, also preserved the temporal duct. The Maly Lyakhov mammoth has most of the body preserved, but is notable for its well preserved trunk, once again showing how different it was from extant elephants. Unfortunately I can’t really tell if the unique trunk tip of this animal has been correctly represented on the sculpt or not. Despite being a considerable bit larger than the baby, it is also been posed in a sort of grabbing or pinching pose, and I’m not sure how much that would alter how it should look, when with a more relaxed position, as seen in the trunks of the various mummified specimens.
Moving on to the color, both figures are primarily a dark brown, with a red wash applied over them. This is particularly dominant on the head, for both versions. The eyes are painted an orange color of sorts. Again the snowy version has white dry brushing to make it look covered in snow, and aside from the unique tusk colors, this one is pretty much the same as the other. In any case, this is your typical woolly mammoth coloration. I do think a little more variety of color may have helped give it a little more life though, as like with most mammals, the woolly mammoth also had multiple layers to their coats (overhairs, guard hairs, and underhairs). A 2014 paper from Tridico et al did an extensive examination on the preservation, pigmentation (natural and acquired), and other aspects of the hairs from a number of specimens including Dima and the Yukagir specimen. The paper makes note that pigmentation varied from colorless, to yellow, reds, pale browns, to dark brown. Most of the overhairs and guard hairs were stated to be red/orange in color, either naturally or from decay, where as most of the underhairs were either colorless, yellow, or pale brown.
As far as articulation goes, it is mostly the same as the smaller calf, but with an extra joint in the forelimb, and multiple joints for the trunk giving even more range that can be experimented with. The ears are also articulated, with a bit of in and out, and can be fully rotated for that elf ear look if one so desires. Essentially if you’ve already read suspsy’s review on the 1/35 scale figure, it is that but on a much larger scale. Oh and unlike the tails on the calves, the tails on both of these work excellent. Aside from the trunk, and jaw, I find this the most fun to fiddle around with. Like with the calf, it too can get into a wonderful sitting posture. Again not sure how natural it would be for the real animal, but it looks wonderful regardless. When combined with the medium theropod stand (sold separately), it can be posed in a rearing pose as I’ve demonstrated in one of the included images below. And before I forget, the adult is about 25.4 cm (10 inches) long, and 21.6 cm (8.5 inches) from the shoulder down. Adult males ranged from about 2.67 to 3.5 meters (shoulder height) giving this figure an approximate scale between 1/12.4 to 1/16 scale. Females ranged from 2.3 to 2.6 meters, which would give this a scale of approximately 1/10.6 to 1/12 scale. Seeing as this is intended to be in the 1/18th scale, I imagine the largest recorded male specimen at 3.5 meters was used, if not a hypothetical larger specimen. Meanwhile the calf is about 8.26 cm (3.25 inches) long, by 6.35 cm (2.5 inches) tall at the shoulders down.
Overall I absolutely enjoy each of these figures so very much. I look forward to adding more prehistoric Cenozoic offerings to my collection as time goes on, such as the Andrewsarchus and 1/18 scale Smilodon expecting release later this month, as well as the Moeritherium mentioned earlier, and its wavemates the woolly rhino, dire wolf, and Kelenken (the latter two are 1/12 scale though) expected to go up for pre-order later in March. For anyone interested in these, I’m not going to downplay that these cost a pretty penny. The cheapest time to get them was when the campaign was active, which has long since passed, and even then some folks balked because of the costs. The adult is $220 USD. If cost and space is an issue, then the 1/35 scale one is a fine option, and the calf as well. If one can afford to go for the adult, and space might not be an issue, than I’d certainly recommend it. If one is in the US, I’d probably also recommend saving yourself some funds by waiting for the next sale on Creative-Beast, if not by making use of the point system in addition. They are also available on Everything Dinosaur (UK) and Speelboer (Netherlands/EU).
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