2023 CollectA 88974 Shastasaurus: a walkaround by Kikimalou

Of course, there are already one or two CollectA Shastasaurus reviews on youtube but I can't resist doing a walkaround of this "little new one".  
What attracted me to this new Ichthyosaur is the black and white interpretation. I like it when a creature from the past smells of convergent evolution.
In hindsight, our friend sports the colors of a killer whale, but the first time I saw him it was the image of a swimming penguin that jumped out at me. From that brief moment, the fate of this shastasaurus was sealed: Want one more penguin!  

So what about Shastasaurus? They lived in the Triassic seas. They were "primitive" Ichthyosaurs quite different from other species, the body was rather elongated (for an Ichthyosaur), the beak shorter and without teeth.
For once I find the muzzle of the CollectA a bit long but that's my only grievance.  
The type species is Shastasaurus pacificus (7 m long), discovered in 1895, but our CollectA is of another species S. sikanniensis (21 m long) discovered in British Columbia and described in 2004.
I'm not an expert but it seems that the attribution of the latter to the genus Shastasaurus is not sure, it may be a Shonisaurus. Whatever, we'll get over it.  

Anyway, its 21 meters long make it the largest known Ichthyosaur so the CollectA scale is around 1/80. I don’ have a 1/80 shelf so I added it to the 1/72 team as a small 19m specimen.

Before moving on to the photos, my two cents about the quality of the work of the CollectA team, the small parasites on the skin, the well-defined ears and nostrils give its letters of nobility to a model which is not part of the series Deluxe. on the other hand, I find the direction of the wrinkles on the tail a bit strange, but once again we'll get over it.  

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And hop! on the back, see my belly
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I look like a penguin? Pfff
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One pic with the only 1/72 shelf Trias citizen, the ”terrible” Rutiodon
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and with other 1/72 swimmers: Kaiyodo Archelon, Colorata Killer whale and CollectA humpback whale
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It looks absolutely superb! Congrats on this beauty my friend.

A really interesting figure, great job by CollectA,

congrats!

Thank you for sharing so beautiful walkaround!

I like him. Looks like an evolved penguin.

I like very much this Ichthyosaur, it is very different from the majority of the other Ichthyosaur figures which look too much alike to me.
It defintely looks like a penguin. The beak of a king and the colors of a Gentoo or even somewhat emperor with the eye patch instead of the colored ear patch. I love your comparisons, they show very well how large this creature was in real.

Thank you all to be here

Yes Rogério, and Tupolew, it is a gigantic 21 meters long penguin

About Ichthyosaurs, they are at first sight like dolphins, you've seen one, you've seen hundreds

I have very few of these critters on my shelves, the Carnegie Ichthyosaur with an ammonite in its mouth, the CollectA Temnodontosaurus in labor, the PNSO Eurhinosaurus and now this Shastasaurus.
I plan to add the PNSO Himalayasaurus to the family

Those are judicious choices. Every of them have something special, noticiably the Temnodontosaurus. I don't have a single one, I almost bought the Bullyland Ichthyosaurus locally but it was a long time ago, I was just starting my collection. I enjoy seeing this group of animals receiving more atention and showing a wider diversity of creatures. It is not all about Ichthyosaurus as it was before.