Rader Studios Baryonyx OOB review

A white box was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday, and when I saw the return label was from Jon Rader Studios, my heart sank. For even tho Jon had marked the box "fragile" in a number of spots the USPS put this box thru the grinder. Almost every edge showed signs of being crushed and one seam had actually split open. But after I opened it, enuff peanuts had remained inside and with the ample amounts of bubble wrap all the pieces were intact! Whew!

The Baryonyx comes in 7 pieces of white odorless resin. The detail is terrific. The pour stumps have mostly been removed, and there is no evidence of their being any flash. Only it's hands, the very end of it's tail, and one leg show faint seam lines. The spines on his back are all there and only the tip one claw on one hand and the tip one claw on one foot was missing. No big deal replacing those with a tiny bit of Aves. Cleanup is going to take only a few quick minutes and once pinned, the joints are only going to need a tiny bit of putty to make them disappear. (Image is from Rader Studios)

Baryonyx (pronounced BAYR-ee-ON-iks) is an early Cretaceous theropod that roamed the Alluvial plains and river deltas of what is now England. It was about 20 feet (6.1 metres) long and probably weighed over 2 tons. Baryonyx had a long crocodilian shaped head and is known to have eaten fish as a fossilized meal containing fish remains was found in its stomach - and was for a long time the only known fish-eating dinosaur. It was found with a huge (1 ft.) claw. It is not certain if this claw was attached to the front or rear feet. It is possible that Baryonyx used this claw to hook fish out of water, while hunting on riverbanks. In any case, Baryonyx was named for this claw, Baryonyx means "heavy claw".

My final verdict is definitely two thumbs up for this kit. I too wasn't too jazzed about the meat hanging from his mouth. But once I saw the whole kit in person it's not obtrusive, and adds some "story" to the kit. Also, it's small so depending on how you paint it you could make it almost disppear if you wanted to. I'll say Baryonyx it's a must for dinosaur fans hobby bench. My only problem will be should I paint it a subdued or a Luis Rey style color.