Marc Vincent | The Dinosaur Toy Blog

Triceratops (Dead) (Collecta)

Posted on March 16, 2012 | 12 Comments

For many collectors, young and old, part of the appeal of dinosaur figures – perhaps even their primary appeal – is that they help render long-lost worlds as exciting and vibrant as the one around us today. They bring to life creatures known only from rocks in a vivid, three dimensional, colourful and exciting way. Albeit in miniature, of course. As such, the best dinosaur figures are those that capture the viewer’s imagination and convince us that we are looking at a living, breathing beast. (In minature.)

This would be one of those exceptional cases, then.

For a long time derided as the makers of cheapo, deformed rubbish, Collecta have fought back with a vengeance in the last couple of years, responding to critcism by actually acting on it (other companies, take note). And now they’ve released a corpse. Fortunately, it’s a bloody good one. ‘Bloody’ is the right word, too – they haven’t skimped on the gory details in bringing Triceratops back to decomposing non-life. Most obviously, there’s that gaping hole in its flank, but there are also flesh wounds on the neck and tail and slash marks on the leg, with copious amounts of painted-on blood. Particularly grim is the hole torn in the face to reveal the teeth, although the little tongue sticking out makes me laugh. How horrible.

Think me demented as you might (and probably already do), but I can’t stress enough how delighted I was when this figure arrived and I first inspected it. It’s just superb. For one thing, it’s actually a very good model of Triceratops, with the right number of fingers and toes (and even claws) and a head that’s the right shape (rather than having an overly-round frill). There are even speculative small quills over the hips, wilting downwards accordingly. It might not be completely perfect, but it’s better than the vast majority of figures of this genus in the ‘plastic toy’ price range.

What’s more, the paintwork is excellent. I praised the colour scheme of their Torosaurus last year for being bold and inventive, and Collecta have opted for something similar here (make of that what you will with regards to the whole ‘Toroceratops’ thing). It’s always heartening when companies make use of ceratopsians’ frills for a bold visual display, rather than having them painted the same boring greens, browns or greys as the rest of the figure. It’s very neatly painted, too, with no signs of sloppiness and good blending of the colours.

The best thing about this figure, however, is that it (perhaps ironically) livens up any display of toy dinosaurs. Stick a Tyrannosaurus figure next to it and you have an instant diorama – and as you can see, it’s very hard to resist photographing it with a T. rex in shot (the Wild Safari makes for a good match scale-wise). Much as a wide-ranging collection can be interesting to look at on its own, interaction between animals makes it just that bit better. Collecta are to be applauded for an unusual figure choice, and I hope it goes down well!

One last thing – it’s actually stamped ‘Dead Triceratops‘, and I would have referred to it that way were it not for the need to index the reviews…

→ 12 Comments

Posted in ceratopsian, CollectA

Tagged CollectA, corpse, dead, dinosaur, toy, Triceratops

Tyrannosaurus rex (Running) (Papo)

Posted on March 5, 2012 | 20 Comments

So – and forgive me if you’ve heard this already – Papo have a new T. rex out for 2012. And now, finally, we’ve all got the chance to get our greasy paws on one. Although most of you probably decided a long time ago whether or not you were going to grab one of these, hopefully this review will be useful for the very few still sitting on the fence…

There’s one thing always worth remembering about Papo – they’ve never claimed any sort of scientific authority or authenticity. Their prehistoric line isn’t tied in with a museum, and the figures aren’t declared ‘scale replicas’ replete with educational tags. It’s the aesthetic quality of these figures that’s endeared them to adult collectors – and make no mistake, Papo remain absolutely miles ahead of the pack in this regard. Still, given the high production values clearly evident in these figures, it’s difficult not to view them as at least semi-serious attempts at reconstructing extinct animals, and it’s here that they tend to fall short.

The original Papo T. rex was very obviously a straight-up knock-off of the Jurassic Park creature – an excellent one as it happens – and that contributed immensely to its appeal. For their new T. rex, the sculptor has clearly used Jurassic Park as a starting point once again, resulting in some of the inaccuracies of the original being repeated. Most obviously, the arms are far, far too long. Here’s something I’d like all toy designers to remember in future – the arms of T. rex are only mocked for being laughably short because they really were quite laughably short. The torso is also a little shallow. The feet are too large, of course, but that’s in aid of stability – and I think it’s a worthy trade-off (but more about that in a moment). Quite apart from any problems with proportions, though, it’s the head that will probably prove to be the divisive aspect of this figure.

Abandoning their usual neat rows of teeth, Papo have instead opted for a gnarly, snaggle-toothed look. It’s hard to deny that it looks pretty cool – not to mention sinister – but look at any T. rex skull and you can see that it doesn’t really match up (in other words, there’s a reason we don’t see lots of T. rex restorations with croco-teeth). It’s not that some individuals didn’t have the odd tooth protruding in an unusual direction – they almost certainly did – but the way the teeth are arranged here doesn’t really resemble any T. rex specimen yet discovered. But, yes, it does look cool. And that’s Papo for you.

Of course, for all that talk of giant arms and dodgy teeth, there’s an awful lot to be positive about here. The aesthetic quality of this plastic toy is simply astonishing. Other companies may produce tyrannosaurs that are more scientifically sound, but only Papo’s look alive. The highly refined, crisp detailing stands up to the very closest scrutiny, as does the paintwork which is, as always, flawless and highly naturalistic in appearance. Try as hard as you like – you won’t find a single, tiny accidental paint splash, even around the mouth, claws and miniscule, beady eyes. The pose, too, is exciting and looks convincing, which makes the enlarged feet worthwhile. When it comes to aesthetics alone, Papo continue to put to shame ‘serious’ resin models that can cost over three times as much as these toys.

With the original, which has been repainted brown this year

Even if you’re averse to dinosaur figures that deviate significantly from the real deal, it’s difficult to not see this figure as a must-buy. It does seem a shame that Papo won’t consider consulting with scientists to produce a line of toys that are closer to how the real animals would have looked, as they’d then be pretty much untouchable. However, even with things the way they are, Papo deserve credit for raising the dino toy stakes and producing a line of consistently stunning, often very characterful figures. That brachiosaur is looking like a very attractive prospect…!

Now available on eBay here.