Review: Creative Beast takes a bite out of dinosaur figures with the Bistahieversor

Creative Beast’s Tyrannosaur series continues with a brightly-colored, but lesser known theropod called Bistahieversor sealeyi.

That’s catchy

When you’re talking about dinosaur action figures, it’s probably safe to say that there’s really only one lineup that comes to mind. Of course, that’s the one that contains mainly Jurassic Park/World movie-based toys.

While there are some great dinosaur figures contained within that overarching line, they’re all mass-market offerings. And one of the great things about what Creative Beast is doing, is that it exists on the exact flip side from Mattel’s stuff.

Creative Beast is more of a boutique line, founded by toy industry vet and sculptor David Silva back in 2009. Originally dinosaurs were pretty much the sole focus of Creative Beast, but that’s a tag that goes deeper than what you might be used to. Creative Beast’s “Beasts of the Mesozoic” will include upcoming mammals too, and all of the company’s offerings look to be well-articulated and detailed, and packed with a trading card, extra parts for posing, and display bases.  

And just because Creative Beast’s recent Kickstarter launched a sci-fi series of figures called Cyberzoic, that doesn’t mean that there’ll be less historically-accurate beasts. That first line is still rocking with a bunch of new figures that arrived just before the Holidays, and a part of that newish drop is the Bistahieversor sealeyi.

Gateway to prehistory

The first thing you’ll notice about Creative Beast, is the stellar packaging. The Bistahieversor is a part of the “Tyrannosaur” Series of figures (wave 2), and so the box has that branding across the bottom, accompanied by the animal’s full name on the left side, the “Beasts of the Mesozoic” logo atop, nd a big see-through window in the middle.

On the right you can see it’s also got some awesome looking art of the big guy, taking a bit out of a Styracosaurs’ horn. That’s a piece from Raul Ramos, and not unique to the Bistahieversor. While I don’t have a ton of experience with the line, it looks like the company regularly serves up packaging that you might find tough to trash.

The back of the box is pretty snazzy too, with a picture of the figure itself, some facts about it, and a lesson on the included dinosaur. Even if you’re a dino-afficianado, you might see a few things you didn’t know. For example, were you aware that the Bistahieversor had air sacs in its head to reduce weight?

Finally, the packaging is completed with a bit of a cross-sell, which shows off other figures in the wave, which looks to be a pretty well-varied one. It does seem that Creative Beast doesn’t harp on the ‘staples’ of paleontology, which is especially great for those who already have more than a few Triceratops’ and Pachycephalosaurs’ on their shelves.

Detailed, with solid articulation and lots of options

It’s hard not to notice that Creative Beast pays a good deal of attention to current scientific thought as to its dinos. Brightly colored and featuring the fallout from recent discoveries (like feathering on the raptors), the figures star a great amount of detailing all around.

The line is also crafted universally in 1:18th scale, so they should match up pretty well with other lines. And in the case of the Bistahieversor in particular, you’ll find a beast that clocks in at about 16″ long, from its nose to the tip of its tail.

That’s a tail that’s bendy too, and even though it’s not overly posable, you can get some nice movement from it. The rest of Bistahieversor’s body features 22 points of articulation, including an opening and closing mouth (naturally) and a surprising amount of movement in its tiny arms.

One thing I do recommend though, is that you get some heat ready. While I didn’t have a ton of stuck joints on my figure, there were a few. So if you want to avoid breakage I’d say it’s a good idea to warm up those tough to bend places before you try to muscle ’em. And of course, if you’re giving this figure to a youngster, you’ll probably want to do that ahead of time.

Once that was done though, I found the piece to be extremely capable of making some awesome poses. Thanks to the included base, you can even get some terrific running poses going, and the Bistahieversor generally looks pretty great however you place him.

The only knock I’d give the figure is the neck joint is a little oversized.

Not that there’s no reason for that bulk, as he’s built to be posed after all, but if you get him into the ‘wrong’ position it can look like ol’ Bista’s wearing a turtleneck.

Filling out a legendary world

I mentioned above that the Bistahieversor comes with a stand, which was something I was completely unaware of. This isn’t a basic little piece of plastic either, as the stand is made to look like a rocky chunk of the prehistoric landscape, and can seemingly be connected to others.

It’s also just one part of the overall set however, as this guy comes with a ton of accessories.

Two additional legs, two extra sets of posing feet, and a collector card are all in the box. If you’re wondering what the legs are for, the Bistahieversor comes with a set for standing in place on the base, and a pair for movement. You can swap these in and out with a simple pop at the knee (and yes, it’s pretty easy to do), and you can use one of each or both.

As you can see here too, that stand has a little metal poll in the middle. That fits into the foot of the ‘standing’ legs, and keeps the Bistahieversor in place. So yeah, that does mean that you’ll have to use at least one of the static legs if you want to use the base.

I had no problem getting neat poses out of him even with the non-posable leg in place. But it also goes without saying that you don’t have to use the base at all. I’ve had him just standing freely on the shelf and haven’t experienced any issues. So if you want to just use the articulated legs and have Bistahieversor wedged in between other thunder lizards on your display, you should be able to do so.

Overall

As a long time dinosaur fan, I have to say I’m overly impressed with what I saw in this offering from Beasts of the Mesozoic. The Bistahieversor sealeyi is easily on par with other figures on the market, and surpasses a good deal of them thanks to the great amount of extra posing parts, level of detail, and that awesome base.

A review sample was provided by Creative Beast for this review

Bistahieversor sealeyi
Release date: Available now
Manufacturer: Creative Beast
Line: Beasts of the Mesozoic
MSRP: $89.99 USD