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Frenzy Pack Review
Deinonychus Frenzy Pack Jurassic World Survival Review
My son was constantly asking when his favourite chicken from the Jurassic World Alive game would be made into an action figure — and here we are at last. Mattel released their first ever Deinonychus, and because it is part of the Survival line it is as weird as it is fun to have in your hands.
⭐ First Mattel Deinonychus🪶 Fully feathered sculptMattel · 2026Scan code included
🔬 Science Note: the real raptor behind Jurassic Park
Funnily enough, the raptors in Jurassic Park were based on Deinonychus, not on the real Velociraptor. Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg used the size and predatory capabilities of Deinonychus as the model for the Jurassic Park movie raptors, simply calling them Velociraptors.
📋 Velociraptor origin
As you probably know from either the descriptions here on this website or from these things called books, which are so underrated nowadays, the real Velociraptor was about the size of a turkey. The Deinonychus reached up to 3.4 metres (11 feet) in length.
John Ostrom’s study of Deinonychus in the late 1960s triggered what became known as the “Dinosaur Renaissance”, fundamentally changing how scientists viewed dinosaurs: from slow, cold-blooded reptiles to active, warm-blooded, intelligent animals. Without Deinonychus and without Ostrom’s work on it, the Jurassic Park franchise as we know it almost certainly would not exist.
1. Sculpt and Painting
The primary colour of the figure is red, as most of the body is covered in it. There is a bit of dark gray which under certain light looks almost black, and the head, neck and tail are painted in an off-white, slightly yellowish colour. The lower jaw has a touch of brown, and that is about it.
Still, the colours are very strong and fit perfectly in the Survival line — on any other line the same scheme would have looked just ridiculous.
Sculpt Detail, Head to Tail
Head and jaw
The head sculpt has fairly fine skin detail throughout, with the dark gray giving the face a lean, predatory look. The jaw opens to a good width and articulates cleanly. The teeth are painted decently, though they lack the genuine sharpness of the rubber teeth found on larger figures.
Neck, back and legs
Moving toward the back of the head, feathers begin creeping in as you approach the neck. Feathers are fully present from the neck back, and the detail in them is genuinely impressive: crisp, well defined, with variation in size and direction. Wavy feather shapes run along the underside of the neck and throat, and neck articulation lets the head move up and down, which adds useful poseability for a raptor-style figure.
The back carries feathers along the spinal column with lots more feathering there, and the arms show decent feather detail at the elbow area before transitioning to skin texture for the majority of the arm. Arm articulation covers forward and back, but the arms do not swing out away from the body.
Feathers run from the upper thigh and taper as you move down toward the knee, with skin texture taking over for the lower leg. Red speckling continues through the leg regions. The claws have a reasonably sharp look thanks to the flexible rubber material, and leg articulation covers forward and back.
The tail
The tail curves naturally and has a swivel joint, and the undersides of the tail feathers carry their own detail between the larger plumes.
2. Action Feature & Articulation
✓ Jaw — opens wide✓ Neck — up and down✓ Arms — forward and back✓ Legs — forward and back✓ Tail swivel✗ Wrists — pronated, not correctly positioned✗ Arms do not swing outward
Six points of movement is a reasonable count for a Frenzy Pack figure, and the neck joint in particular does a lot of work for a raptor-style sculpt. The one real complaint is the wrists: they are pronated, so the palms face downward rather than inward the way a dromaeosaurid’s hands actually sat.
Specifications at a Glance
In hand the Deinonychus is noticeably smaller than the standard Mattel Velociraptor, sitting closer in size to the Dromaeosaurus from this same Survival line — the reverse of how the two animals compared in reality.
Verdict: Should I Buy It?
Yes. As the first Mattel Deinonychus release, I think this figure will be very well looked after. The tail plumage is exceptional, the feather detail through the neck and back is genuinely impressive, and the attempt to give the figure a look that acknowledges the real animal alongside its JW raptor heritage is appreciated. The basic paint application is the one thing holding it back.
✦ What Works
- First ever Mattel Deinonychus
- Tail plumage is the best Mattel has done on a feathered figure
- Crisp, well-varied feather detail from neck to back
- Wavy feather shapes under the neck and throat
- Fine skin detail on the head, lean predatory face
- Jaw opens wide and articulates cleanly
- Neck moves up and down for real raptor poses
- Rubber claws keep a sharp look
- Strong colours that suit the Survival line
- Feathered design nods to the real animal
✦ What Doesn't
- Paint application looks very basic
- Reads like parts of three different figures
- Wrists are pronated, not correctly positioned
- Arms do not swing out away from the body
- Teeth lack the sharpness of rubber teeth on bigger figures
- No action feature beyond the joints
3. About the Deinonychus
Deinonychus antirrhopus (meaning “terrible claw”, referring to the enlarged killing claw on the second toe) is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous, living roughly 115 to 94 million years ago in what is now the western United States. Fossils have been found in Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Oklahoma, with possible teeth in Maryland. At 3 to 3.4 metres (10 to 11 feet) in length and up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds), it was a mid-sized predator significantly larger than its close relative Velociraptor.
Deinonychus was described and named by paleontologist John Ostrom in 1969, following an excavation he led in Montana in 1964. Ostrom’s detailed analysis of the skeleton — its sleek horizontal posture, lightweight hollow bones and enlarged raptorial foot claw — argued persuasively that Deinonychus was an active, agile, warm-blooded predator, fundamentally different from the slow, lumbering reptiles the public imagined when they thought of dinosaurs. This work ignited what became known as the Dinosaur Renaissance and established the close evolutionary relationship between dromaeosaurids and modern birds. When Michael Crichton was developing Jurassic Park, it was Deinonychus he had in mind for the “raptors”, though he used the name Velociraptor for dramatic effect. The JP raptors in the films are Deinonychus in all but name.
The raptors in Jurassic Park were based on Deinonychus. Without John Ostrom’s discovery and his work on it, the Dinosaur Renaissance never happens, and the velociraptors that stalked the kitchens of Jurassic Park never capture the imagination of the world.
— Paleontology community, on Deinonychus’s cultural legacy
How to Unlock
How to unlock the Deinonychus Frenzy Pack in the Jurassic World Survival collection?
Open up your Jurassic World Play App (previously known as the Jurassic World Facts App), press the Scan button and point it towards the DNA code here:
Deinonychus Frenzy Pack Gallery
Deinonychus Frenzy Pack FAQ
Yes. The Velociraptors in Jurassic Park were largely based on Deinonychus rather than the real Velociraptor, which is much smaller, roughly the size of a turkey. Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg used Deinonychus’s larger size and predatory capabilities as the model, simply calling them Velociraptors for dramatic effect.
Yes. The Survival Frenzy Pack Deinonychus is the first Deinonychus figure Mattel has produced for the Jurassic World toy line.
The Deinonychus is noticeably smaller than the standard Mattel Velociraptor, sitting closer in size to the Dromaeosaurus from this same Survival line. In reality the Deinonychus was significantly larger than Velociraptor, but in the toy line it sits in the smaller Frenzy Pack size range. The Deinonychus also has a fully feathered look, while the standard Mattel Velociraptor is skin-textured throughout.
No direct feather fossils have been found for Deinonychus itself, but the evidence strongly supports feathers. Scientists think it is very likely that it did, as some very closely related dinosaurs including Velociraptor definitely had them. Mattel’s feathered design is therefore scientifically defensible and more accurate than the scaly JW raptors of previous films.
Open the Jurassic World Play App, tap the Scan button, and point it at the DNA barcode on the Deinonychus foot.