So I've sat with these since I opened them up last night and I'd say I'm... whelmed? Yeah. Like precisely just whelmed. For all the POA that the smilodon has (and the deinonychus, really), I don't feel like they can do very much? In the smilodon's case that's especially true with all the armour in place, which definitely gets in the way. Not saying I want them to cut articulation. Just not wildly impressed with what they can do even with it. I'm sure part of that is just the shape of the animal, so I'm not necessarily blaming CBS for that.
Again speaking especially about when the armor is in place, I don't see a lot of alternate poses I can do beyond standing and kind of walking. I tried to do a 'rounding' pose, I guess you'd call it, where it's twisting to the side. But you can't get a lot of range that way and going too far also pops the absolutely shitty saddle belly strap off (same problem with the BFS horses - the strap is too tight and the pegs are insanely hard to get in place, so it barely holds on).
Actually, just in general, I really think it would be great if they could pre-use the tab spots or something. Some of them just do not seem to want to connect. I had a hell of a time with the side plates for the smilodon's helmet as well. Maybe not a reasonable/realistic desire, but goddamn I fucking hate tabbing this shit together.
That being said... it LOOKS amazing all put together. I'm just.. whelmed.. by what I'm able to do with it. I want to say maybe I'll feel differently after I mess with it some more, but realistically the armour is so finicky I don't know if I -will- mess with it very much now that it's on the shelf.
The human figure that came in the set I'm also whelmed by. It's mostly fine. I don't love the accessory choices - a bunch of short blades for a rider character doesn't make tons of sense, but I knew that going in. I REALLY don't like that there's no swivel below the knee and that, for some reason, she's sculpted to be duck-footed, so her feet aren't in line with her kneecaps, but point outward. This is seriously exacerbated whenever she's posed riding the smilodon, as there's no way to get the feet inward toward the animal. Doesn't seem well-considered.
The two-pack is still a really cool set and I do like it. I just wish that I loved it. If that makes sense.
I'm withholding judgment on the deinonychus because I don't really care about it on its own. I specifically wanted it as an armoured little attack dino. Without the armour and handler, I don't think I'd be judging it fairly beyond saying I don't really know what the fuck to do with all the extra feet, and the stand kind of sucks.
