The DinoToyBlog has evolved over the years, much like the prehistoric creatures we review. Articles here are more substantial now than ever before. The average word count has increased, the number of photographs has gone up, and the scientific vigour has shot through the roof. It’s fantastic! But not every review needs to be an essay. Indeed, not every figure deserves an essay. Sometimes a few snaps and a brief overview is more than satisfactory, and that’s certainly true for the cartoon-like toys in the ‘Dinosaurs and Friends’ line by De Agostini. So, let’s keep this Kronosaurus review brief!
This Kronosaurus has the nickname ‘Kronos’ and is described as a daddy (there’s also a baby in the line). This 15 cm long model has a cute aesthetic with a generic four-flippered pliosaur body, stubby round flippers, and just a few simplified teeth. The tail is inexplicably large and chunky, but not offensively so.
A little more irksome is the generic theropod-like head, with the nostrils positioned wrongly on the tip of the snout, and the eyes positioned was too far to back on the skull. Plesiosaurs, including pliosaurs, are often depicted with dinosaur heads by artists who don’t know any better. I’m sure the toddlers playing with it won’t mind, but it would have been easy to get this correct. Kronos might well be seriously disfigured, but at least he looks happy!
The chocolate brown base colour is reminiscent of some Marx toys, but it is countershaded with a cream belly. The tongue has been painted on so it looks a bit like the Chinasaur ‘screamers’ of the 70s and 80s. The outsides of the teeth have crude blobs of white, while the neatly painted eyes are ‘Disneyfied’.
The De Agostini figures are hollow, so they’re very light, but they are also solid and robust so the plastic must be thick and good quality – it doesn’t bend. It has no markings on the underside other than the CE symbol, and a little circle opening from the manufacturing process.
This line was released in association with a children’s story book series, ‘Dinosaurs and Friends’, so the toys were never originally sold separately. The Kronosaurus came with issue 61. There are loads of species in this series, including some unusual or interesting choices, and they are easy to find on Ebay for cheap (link below this review). However, we’ve only featured a handful so far, so I’d like to see more of these toys featured on the DinoToyBlog in the future. They may not be completely (or even remotely) accurate, but they’re fun!
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