CollectA Deluxe Fukuisaurus 1:40 Scale Dinosaur Model Reviewed

Team members at Everything Dinosaur have been busy preparing a bespoke video studio so that they can provide more in-depth video reviews for customers and fans of dinosaur model collecting.  The first full-length review of a dinosaur model has been published on the company’s YouTube channel.  The dinosaur model reviewed is the beautiful, new for 2020 CollectA Deluxe 1:40 scale Fukuisaurus.

Everything Dinosaur’s Video Review of the New for 2020 CollectA Deluxe 1:40 Scale Fukuisaurus Dinosaur Model

Video credit: Everything Dinosaur

To purchase the CollectA Deluxe Fukuisaurus and to see the rest of the CollectA Deluxe range: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

CollectA Deluxe Fukuisaurus Video Review

In our short video we try to combine a little bit of the science behind the study of this Japanese dinosaur with comments about the CollectA Deluxe replica.  For example, we discuss the model and its quadrupedal stance but in reality this herbivorous dinosaur probably spent the majority of its time in a bipedal posture (the forelimbs were much shorter than the hindlimbs).  In addition, we comment on the beautifully painted mouth and beak of Fukuisaurus.  The video then provides information about the unusual anatomical features associated with the skull of Fukuisaurus.

The Fukuisaurus Video Review Provides Plenty of Close-up Views of the Dinosaur Model

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A 1/40th Scale Model?

The video also provides the opportunity for the Fukuisaurus to be measured.  Viewers can see that the figure measures approximately 14 centimetres long.  CollectA have included this model in their CollectA Deluxe range and it is described as being in 1:40 scale.  However, team members at Everything Dinosaur advise collectors to take a more relaxed approach to stated scales when it comes to prehistoric animal models, especially dinosaurs.  Most dinosaurs are known from relatively scrappy and incomplete skeletons, therefore, it is often very difficult to provide accurate information about the size and weight of the animal.

In the Everything Dinosaur Fukuisaurus fact sheet that accompanies sales of this model, we state that Fukuisaurus (F. tetoriensis), was approximately 4 to 4.5 metres in length.  Based on these dimensions, we estimate that the model is in approximately 1:30 or 1:32 scale.

The CollectA Deluxe Fukuisaurus Dinosaur Model

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Our video review permits us to explain a little more about the size and scale of this dinosaur model.

Fossils Found in Close Association with Fukuiraptor (F. kitadaniensis)

The bedding plane from where the fossils of Fukuisaurus were found (the lower portion of Bonebed I at the famous Kitadani Quarry on Honshu Island, Japan), also contain the fossilised remains of a theropod dinosaur. This dinosaur is the similar-sized Fukuiraptor, which was actually formally described some three years before Fukuisaurus. The phylogeny of Fukuiraptor remains open to debate, although numerous vertebrate palaeontologists support the idea that Fukuiraptor was a member of the enigmatic Megaraptora clade.

Fukuiraptor may have hunted Fukuisaurus. In the Everything Dinosaur video review, the narrator comments upon this possibility and discusses the lack of evidence to support this notion.

Sharing the Same Bonebed and Now Sharing the Same Video

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

The Pleurokinetic Skull of an Ornithopod

The dinosaur model video review also provides the opportunity to discuss some of the unique anatomical traits associated with Fukuisaurus.  Ornithopod skulls were remarkable examples of natural selection.  These dinosaurs evolved the ability to chew their food.  In order to process the tough stems of cycads, pine needles and horsetails, these dinosaurs evolved pleurokinetic skulls.  To process food in their mouths, the lower jaw moved up and against the inner surface of the teeth in the upper jaw, to produce a scissor-like cutting action.  To achieve this, the top part of the skull had to accommodate the movement of the lower jaw.  The skull could flex slightly in several places allowing the skull to be hinged (pleurokinetic joints).

In our video review, we discuss this and point out that the maxilla (part of the upper jaw), was closely associated with a facial bone in the skull.  This suggests that the skull of Fukuisaurus either could not flex, or that it was hinged in a different way to the skulls of related ornithopods.

Our YouTube Channel

The Everything Dinosaur YouTube channel is jam-packed with lots of prehistoric animal model reviews and information, we also post up lots of hints and tips about dinosaur model collecting along with reading recommendations, new book reviews and we have introduced “turntable Tuesday”, our once-a-week short video review of a prehistoric animal figure.

To subscribe to Everything Dinosaur on YouTube: Everything Dinosaur on YouTube.