Mystery raptor

I came across a feathered raptor figure that I'd never seen before anywhere, and decided it needed a good home. And also I just wanted to have a closer look at wtf it even is.

Going by the copyright text on its belly I found out it's merchandise for Dinosaurs in the Wild, of which it took me a while to figure out what that is, either, because their site is written very "in-character" like the ticket will buy a genuine time-travelling trip, but I think it's a virtual reality+props show about time travel to the Mesozoic. Which sounds like something I'd already be on my way to if it was in my country, but it's not.

This feathered fellow was listed on ebay as a Velociraptor (can't blame the seller, that's the raptor that people are most likely to be looking for, and indeed what I was looking for, too), which it didn't look like to me, but I couldn't tell what it is instead. Figured since whichever company made it bothered to put feathers and non-pronated wrists on it, it's probably based on a particular species and not just a generic dromaeosaurid. Turns out it's a Dakotaraptor!

The figure has articulated wings, legs, feet (at the ankle and at the toes), tail, and jaw. The jaw doesn't close fully, which I think is the way it's built rather than due to it being second-hand. It looks cool screeching, so no problem, I wasn't going to display it with its mouth closed anyway.

This is the extent to which the mouth can close.

Not sure where this figure fits on the spectrum of kids' toy vs. meant as a display piece only, it's kind of heavy and sharp-toothed, but though it's very pretty it's not too terribly detailed, and kids are a big part of the show's target audience. I keep worrying about breaking the long tail, but despite being all hard plastic it's probably not as fragile as I fear, it survived the trip here by mail without a box, after all.

It's also huge!

I thought it was maybe going to be a bit bigger than the JWFK "Velociraptor" figures, but look at this thing.

I love it.