Safari Ltd. 2018 Anklyosaurus Review:
I have been a fan of Safari Ltd.'s offerings for many, many years and eagerly look forward to new reveals each year.
There were two 2018 offerings that I initially passed on as when I ordered the Alien Dragon, Leviathan and Anzu Wyliei from Amazon back in March, the Dimetrodon and the most recent Anklyosaurus.
Safari Ltd. crafts their unarticulated figurines out of a dense, heavy vinyl making figures that can stand up to rough play from younger kids but at the same time make for great collectibles for older kids and adults that are kids at heart. The sculpts vary from figurine to figurine from extremely crisp to somewhat softer, rounded detailing. The paint varies widely from figurine to figurine as they are hand painted so I prefer to look over multiple examples of each figurine in the store to pick the one with the best paint work, sadly, until just recently, none of the usual brick and mortar outlets have carried any new figurines since 2016 and ordering online doesn't allow for this so you are at the mercy of the employee pulling them out of the master cartons. Surprisingly, I managed to find most of the 2018 figurines at A.C. Moore recently so I used a 60% off coupon to pick up the Anklyosaurus.
The Anklyosaurus is my all-time favorite dinosaur so I always try to pick up each and every version released by any and all manufacturers.
The Safari Ltd. Anklyosaurus does not disappoint! The sculpt is beautifully rendered with bumps covering the reptilian skin and various spikes and nodules covering the armored areas.
The paint, which is applied by hand on each figurine is a bit sloppy with a lot of overspray and poorly outlined areas between the skin and armor. While this is a bit of a let down as it is my favorite dinosaur, it is nothing I cannot rectify myself.
The only real downside to Safari Ltd.'s product aside from the lack of articulation is the price. They are fairly expensive for their size. The Anklyosaurus was $12.99 but only cost me $5.20 with the 60% off coupon. They are fairly heavy and well constructed, but still expensive for what they are.
I received another 60% off coupon on my receipt so now I have to decide which other figurine I want next week
