CREATIVE BEAST STUDIOS Beasts of the Meso/Ceno/Cyberzoic

[EnigmaticClarity]

This one looks like the widest pose they give it:

The Creative Beast smilodon can't spread even that much can it? Been a while since I watched the review, but my memory is telling me it barely moves side to side at all.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

I was planning to buy a few dinos and armor, but wow, Dino Scream's review on the allosaurus armor really turned me off of it. Looks like a giant pain in the arse to get the armor on. His comparison was telling--he said he's transformed dozens of large Transformers figures, but he'd rather do any of those than try to get this armor on.

 

[Stoopid_Sandwich]

Is it the sculpt and paint or the articulation? I've watched reviews of it, and aside from the scientific accuracy I like the Hammond Collection allosaurus more than what I've seen in the reviews from the Creative Beast version. That Mattel allosaurus is one of the best dinos they've done.

I respect the scientific accuracy, but I just can't get past how so many of the Creative Beast figures can't stand up without a prop. I can get the Hammond allosaurus into a HUGE variety of stable poses with no extra support so every Creative Beast review I watch seems like a downgrade for double or triple the price.

I like everything about the Cyberzoic Allosaurus. The sculpt is gorgeous. The paint looks like something out of a mosaic at a museum and also was based on the paleo art of Gabriel Uguenta who is one of the top artists in his field. And the articulation is pretty solid. He can get into some really cool poses. Definitely worth the purchase.

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[cmoney]

Everything about this line depends on how important the accuracy is to you. For me, it's THE thing. Obviously thats a lot further down the list for a lot of you. The Mattel figures stand better because they make the feet and legs too big most of the time. Fine if thats a look you want, or if looking more like the movies is important to you.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

The Mattel figures stand better because they make the feet and legs too big most of the time.

They did for the first year and a half, but in early 2024 they changed that. Taking allosaurus again as an example I don't see much difference in the foot size visible is the pics below.

The main difference is the liberties the Jurassic World producers often take in their versions of dinosaurs. In the case of allosaurus here the spine spikes is the big difference, but I believe some specimens have had those. Not sure of there's consensus on whether they had them, but it's certainly lean towards the Creative Beast designer having a very specific reason for not including them that's probably valid.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hammondcollection/comments/1h54t6f/jw_allo_and_botm_allo

 

[adrienveidt]

Got my HelinaTooth set put together onto my Void Smiley as I'd been wanting to do ever since he was announced. I moved the blades to the forearm guards as they make more sense as slash-assist weapons than rider guards, and the mini-missiles make more sense as rear-and-upper defenses where they won't get damaged in melee fighting, imho.

The helmet was indeed a severe pain in the ass to assemble and I had to do a good bit of x-acto shaving of both the pegs and the holes to get it together; but once together I find it holds together well and simply slips onto his head around his ears since the 'cap' of the helmet it a bit softer plastic and will flex. Similarly, saddle assembly was also a pain - until I realized I can simply assemble it *not* on the cat and then simply slide them up his legs like pants after posing the legs flat out. I feel it difficult to get really mad about quality issues like these when they're obviously signs of *over* compensation from so many previous toylines in both Silva and our experiences failing due to *under* compensation of quality. I'll be gluing the helmet and saddle together as solid pieces for convenience, and probably cutting away the 'ear retainer arms' under the helmet's side pieces as the far ear hits it when slipping it over from the near side.

As this one is black and thus easier to paint-hide any surgery fuck-ups I'm prone to make; I'm considering shaving down the top arc of the hindarm to allow a wider flex; but again I'd be a lot happier if I could finagle the waist joint to allow that lazy bastard pose I mentioned above.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

The helmet was indeed a severe pain in the ass to assemble and I had to do a good bit of x-acto shaving of both the pegs and the holes to get it together; but once together I find it holds together well and simply slips onto his head around his ears since the 'cap' of the helmet it a bit softer plastic and will flex. Similarly, saddle assembly was also a pain - until I realized I can simply assemble it *not* on the cat and then simply slide them up his legs like pants after posing the legs flat out.

How much total time did it take you to get all of the armor on him? They definitely look great once it's all together.

 

[adrienveidt]

I respect the scientific accuracy, but I just can't get past how so many of the Creative Beast figures can't stand up without a prop. I can get the Hammond allosaurus into a HUGE variety of stable poses with no extra support so every Creative Beast review I watch seems like a downgrade for double or triple the price.

That's almost entirely because Mattel doesn't give them torso joints, which means they can do them as hollow two-shells instead of the heavier solid injected pieces BotM uses to give them said torso joints. If Mattel made them *right* they too would need support stands.

And that brings me to the biggest lacking this Smiley set (and the solo ones): no flight stand. Of all the critters in the BotM library this one needs it so it can be played with properly instead of simply posed properly. Pretty much every single piece of Smiley art I've ever seen shows it ambushing down from a rock onto a moose, and even the box art shows it leaping forward thru the snow. This fucker needs a leaping stand and I'm gonna find him one.

 

[adrienveidt]

How much total time did it take you to get all of the armor on him?

Maybe ten minutes at the worst, most of which was in going back-and-forth test-fitting bits. Honestly, you could probably just cut the pegs off and glue the fucker together outright to simply slip it off and on. Like I say, all these issues are *over* compensations, not under. The toy bits of this thing will work perfectly fine once they're brought down to 'toy' level instead of 'museum' level.

 

[Mint In Boks]

Similarly, saddle assembly was also a pain - until I realized I can simply assemble it *not* on the cat and then simply slide them up his legs like pants after posing the legs flat out.

Brilliant!!!

Should I ever need to strip and redress my existing smilies (or get an armor for the third one) I’m stealing your “belt” method! Just reduce it down to “toy level” and have fun with it!

 

[Stoopid_Sandwich]

They did for the first year and a half, but in early 2024 they changed that. Taking allosaurus again as an example I don't see much difference in the foot size visible is the pics below.

The main difference is the liberties the Jurassic World producers often take in their versions of dinosaurs. In the case of allosaurus here the spine spikes is the big difference, but I believe some specimens have had those. Not sure of there's consensus on whether they had them, but it's certainly lean towards the Creative Beast designer having a very specific reason for not including them that's probably valid.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hammondcollection/comments/1h54t6f/jw_allo_and_botm_allo

The general consensus among paleontologists when it comes to what we currently understand in the fields of comparative anatomy and paleo biology is that predatory dinosaurs did not have osteoderms along their spines.


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[Damien]

And that brings me to the biggest lacking this Smiley set (and the solo ones): no flight stand. Of all the critters in the BotM library this one needs it so it can be played with properly instead of simply posed properly. Pretty much every single piece of Smiley art I've ever seen shows it ambushing down from a rock onto a moose, and even the box art shows it leaping forward thru the snow. This fucker needs a leaping stand and I'm gonna find him one.

Hard agree. That being said, it doesn't seem like the little running stand for the deinonychus is all that great, so maybe they wouldn't have nailed it here either. But being able to pose the figure other than standing upright would help a lot with feeling like it can do something on the shelf. Everyone and their mom knows if you're collecting super-poseable action figures, it's PROBABLY because you like doing some super posing.

 

[Mint In Boks]

You know, after having ‘em on my desk for a day. They’re hard to pose, the armor is fiddly, but… can’t argue this isn’t fun as hell.

(Although it seems to me if Mattel owns the Dino Riders brand and has all these dinosaur molds sitting around from four Jurassic World movies they should probably be throwing their hat into the armored Dinosaur ring. Even if it’s a co-branding deal like “Jurassic Park: Dino Riders” and Owen Grady rides on Blue and Malcom is on Rexy or whatever)

 

[adrienveidt]

Mattel is the dumbest fucking toy company that's ever printed their packaging in English. They bought MegaConstrux only to smother the single-greatest innovation in articulation formats since the Joe swivel-arm beer grip and keeping it stuck in a losing brickplay line that was *never* going anywhere since LEGO itself was already on the backside of their peak when Mattel bought Mega. Lift that format out of the brickplay prison and put it with proper vehicles and playsets and Construx could have been the next Standard.

Why in the complete and absolute fuck is there no Warhammer 40K Construx line like the ArcheCore line is doing? Because Mattel is stupid as all goddamned hell.

 

[Damien]

Mattel is the perfect example of a company that makes so much money that it can't fathom how much money it's NOT making with its decisions. Too rich to be smart.

I tried reposing my smilodon last night and I hated every second of it. This line isn't fun.