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Strike Attack Review
Eustreptospondylus Strike Attack
Eustreptospondylus has been on collector wish lists ever since it prowled the beaches of Walking with Dinosaurs, and Primal Ambush finally brings it into the Mattel line. The good news is that Mattel resisted the urge to mutate it. There are no spikes, no extra horns and no strange growths, just a well-sculpted theropod in a striking two-tone blue. The bad news is the tail, which is so short that it changes the whole look of the figure, and a bite feature that barely opens the mouth. It is a mixed bag, but a welcome one.
⭐ First Mattel Eustreptospondylus🦖 No spikes or mutations📏 ~18.5 cm / 7.25 inStrike Attack · Wave 1Product code JPG93DNA scan code included
🦴 How Accurate Is the Primal Ambush Eustreptospondylus?
Eustreptospondylus is known from one good skeleton, found in Oxford in 1870, so there is a reasonable picture of its build. This is the first Mattel version, so the real animal is the only fair yardstick.
For a Primal Ambush figure this is refreshingly restrained. The head and body would pass for a believable megalosaur, and the crocodile-style armour is a design choice rather than a mutation. The tail is the one change that really hurts it.
Is It Just a Blue Magnosaurus?
A fair question for anyone building a British Jurassic shelf. In 2003 palaeontologist Oliver Rauhut noticed that the hip bones of Eustreptospondylus differ only slightly from those of Magnosaurus, and suggested the two might belong in the same genus. Most researchers still keep them apart, and Mattel has now given us both in Primal Ambush.
Strike Attack is the action-feature assortment of the line. The box follows the same design as the rest of the wave, with a photo of the figure on the back and a checklist of its wave mates: Berberosaurus, Utahceratops and Pteranodon.
Colours & Paint
Blue dinosaurs always stand out, and this one wears two shades at once. Most of the face is a pale sky blue, while the dark navy of the lower jaw and body reaches up into the face in stripes. The contrast gives the head a sharp, almost menacing look and is easily the best part of the paint.
The eye is a glossy red, but the pupil is dark blue rather than black, and it looks almost like a small sticker placed on top. A plain black pupil would have looked more natural. Inside the mouth the tongue is a glossy pink, but the roof of the mouth is left unpainted, and the off-white on the lower teeth has been applied rather sloppily. The upper teeth are neater.
The light blue returns on the arms and spreads up onto the flanks in a pattern that looks slightly green in some lights. Then it stops just behind the arms, so the back half of the animal and the whole tail are plain dark blue. A few light stripes running down the tail would have tied the figure together. The claws are unpainted, as usual, but do have a gloss coat.
Sculpt Breakdown
Head and neck
The head sculpt is the highlight. The skin texture is crisp, the nostrils are clearly defined and the teeth have a convincingly sharp shape. Along the top of the head and neck runs a band of armour-like scutes with low ridges, very similar to the back of a crocodile, and the same texture spreads down the sides of the neck. Underneath, the scales change to a smaller, lizard-like pattern.
Arms, legs and tail
The arms are muscular, with scutes down the fingers and well-shaped claws, although the wrists are set at an odd angle. The belly is neat but plain. The legs carry the most interesting texture on the figure: ordinary scales at the back, a few rough, rock-like osteoderms on the front of the thighs, and crocodile-style scutes running over the knee and down the shin. The feet have scutes on the toes, fine scales along their sides and a sculpted dewclaw.
The tail keeps the armoured top and the crocodile-like belly scales, and ends in a few extra ridges. The body has a slight curve when seen from behind, and the two sides are almost identical apart from which leg is forward.
Mind the tail
Bite Feature & Articulation
✓ Opening jaw (via the feature)✓ Neck up and down (via the feature)✓ Arms forward and back✓ Legs forward and back✓ Tail swivel✗ Weak, narrow bite✗ No outward arm or leg movement
The Strike Attack feature is a bite. Push the trigger upward and the lower jaw drops while the neck rises, then both return when you let go. It works, but the mouth barely opens, so the strike looks more like a yawn than an attack. It is one of the weaker features in the wave.
Beyond that, the joints are the usual set for this size: arms and legs that swing forward and back, but not outward, and a swivel at the base of the tail. That is enough for a walking or stalking pose, but do not expect much more.
How Big Is the Strike Attack Eustreptospondylus?
This is a small figure, right in the usual Strike Attack range. It is about the same size as a standard Mattel Dilophosaurus, and next to a standard Mattel Velociraptor it looks surprisingly compact, helped by that short tail. A little more size would have suited a predator that is meant to be a step up from a raptor.
The only good skeleton comes from a young animal about 4.6 metres long, so the figure works out at roughly 1:25. A full-grown adult would have been bigger still.
Final Verdict
Getting a Eustreptospondylus at all is a win, and Mattel has treated it with more restraint than most of Primal Ambush. The sculpt is highly detailed, from the crocodile-style scutes to the rocky osteoderms on the legs, and there is not a single invented spike. The two shades of blue, with dark stripes reaching into a pale face, give it a sharp and slightly menacing look.
The tail is the big letdown. It is far too short and spoils the proportions of a figure that is otherwise easy to like. The bite feature barely opens the mouth, the pupils are blue rather than black, the paint inside the mouth is messy and the colour stops just behind the arms. Articulation is the basic Strike Attack set, and the figure is small for its class.
If you have wanted this species since Walking with Dinosaurs, it is worth picking up. Just do not expect it to be the star of the wave.
✦ The Good
- First Mattel Eustreptospondylus
- No spikes or mutations
- Striking two-tone blue face
- Highly detailed head and leg sculpt
- Gloss-coated claws and tongue
✦ The Not So Good
- Very short tail
- Bite barely opens the mouth
- Blue pupils instead of black
- Messy teeth paint, bare roof of the mouth
- Small, with basic articulation
Meet the Real Eustreptospondylus
Its skeleton was found in clay that formed on the sea floor, so this land predator ended its life drifting out to sea from one of the islands of Jurassic Europe.Why this species is worth knowing
Where and when. In 1870 workers at the Summertown brick pit, just north of Oxford, dug up the skeleton of a meat-eating dinosaur. It came from a marine layer of the Oxford Clay, from the Callovian stage of the Middle Jurassic, about 162 million years ago. At that time much of Europe was a scattering of islands in a warm, shallow sea.
A long naming saga. For almost a century the skeleton was filed under other names, including Megalosaurus and Streptospondylus. In 1964 Alick Walker finally gave it its own genus, Eustreptospondylus oxoniensis, meaning true Streptospondylus from Oxford. In 2003 Oliver Rauhut suggested it might belong in Magnosaurus, but it is still usually kept separate.
What it looked like. It was a megalosaurid, a cousin of Megalosaurus and Torvosaurus, with a long, low skull, strong hind legs, short arms and a stiff tail held out for balance. The Oxford skeleton belongs to an animal that was not fully grown and was about 4.6 metres long, so adults were larger.
A rare find. Apart from one extra hip bone, that skeleton is the only good fossil of the species, which suggests it was never common. It is one of the most complete large meat-eaters from the Jurassic of Europe and is displayed at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Many fans first met it in the Cruel Sea episode of Walking with Dinosaurs.
Unlock the Eustreptospondylus
How to unlock Eustreptospondylus from Primal Ambush?
The DNA scan code is printed on the Eustreptospondylus figure. Scan it with the Jurassic World Play App to add the Primal Ambush Eustreptospondylus to your digital collection.
New figures sometimes reach shops before the app is updated, and then the code will not scan yet. If that happens, update the app and try again a little later. If the code on your figure has worn off or is hard to read, scan the copy on this page straight from your screen.
Eustreptospondylus Gallery
Eustreptospondylus FAQ
Yes. The Primal Ambush Strike Attack Eustreptospondylus (JPG93) is the first Eustreptospondylus Mattel has made for its Jurassic World line.
It is just under 7.25 inches (about 18.5 cm) long and about 3.25 inches (8 cm) tall when standing up, roughly the size of a standard Mattel Dilophosaurus.
Push the trigger upward and the jaw opens while the neck rises, giving a simple bite. The mouth only opens a little, so the strike is fairly mild.
No. Unlike many Primal Ambush figures it has no spikes, horns or mutations. The main departures from the real animal are its crocodile-like armour and a tail that is much too short.
Its only good skeleton was found in 1870 in the Summertown brick pit just north of Oxford, England. It is on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Open the Jurassic World Play App, tap Scan and point your camera at the DNA code printed on the figure, or at the copy on this page.