Guest Review written by ‘Resurrection of the dinosaurs.’, edited by Gwangi.
The Dinosaur Toy Blog has been a major eyewitness to the evolution of dinosaur and prehistoric toys, from just its start, where figures from the dark days of these toy companies were being reviewed, to today, where beautifully crafted and accurate figures are being reviewed. Take for example CollectA’s evolution, from quite unappealing toys to today, where its figures are famous among dinosaur toy collectors for being very accurate. Schleich, whose future seems promising, also seems to have taken a step further ahead, with its incredible releases for this year; especially with the release of an obscure dinosaur which I myself, did not know. But in the past Schleich’s figures had dull colours, and were inaccurate and unappealing.
Today, we will be taking a look at one of these figures from Schleich’s ‘junior’ line; the 2002 Schleich Triceratops. I decided to make my comeback with another classic, yes, I have reviewed another classic before as my second review from Schleich itself, the Brachiosaurus (Junior by Schleich). Before we take a closer look at the figure let us start with some quick facts about this prehistoric animal. The name Triceratops means ”three horned face”, and it lived at the end of the Cretaceous Period. It resembled the rhinoceros of today because of its horns and was the largest and most formidable of all horned dinosaurs. It measured almost 30 feet from its nose to the tail, nearly a third of its length being taken up by the head. About half the length of the skull was covered by a bony frill that extended over and protected the neck, the entire body weighed about 8 tonnes. The creature’s parrot-like beak helped it at chopping off the tough leaves of the plants it ate. It is a famous dinosaur, after the Tyrannosaurus rex and both are depicted in films and documentaries engaged in a bloody battle.
Back to the figure; it roughly measures about 13 cm in length, from the horn on the nose to the tip of the tail, and about 4 cm in height to the tip of the brow horn. The colouration on this figure is actually based on a Triceratops illustration in one of Dorling Kinderseley’s dinosaur/prehistoric life books.The colouration on the figure consists of red stripes along the back, on the frill, and on the tail. The overall body colouration is pale blue. The horns, beak, epocipitals, and toe nails are yellow and merged in ivory colour. On the head near the horns and nose, there seem to be an airbrushing of black. The eyes are very tiny and are red, with a tiny black dot as the pupil.
The details on this figure are not too great, just some round sculpted scales and some wrinkles near the arms and legs. The frill and brow horns are too short and the body is based on an outdated pose. Instead of four toes there should be five toes on the back legs, I think. The front and back legs should also be about the same size but on this figure the front legs are shorter than the hind ones. The face is quite comical also. But these inaccuracies are forgivable, given the age of this figure.
This toy is made from durable PVC plastic, and you do not need to worry about it breaking, but take care of it, as the paint will start to scratch and wear away.
Here is a comparison between the small Brachiosaurus and Triceratops from the ‘Junior’ line by Schleich, released in the same year and in the same line.(See review of the Schleich Brachiosaurus by myself here.)
Overall this toy is certainly not perfect, given its age. There are plenty of other Triceratops figures out there but from my point of view the vintage, rare, and retro dinosaurs also deserve a place on a collector’s shelf. It is small, won’t take up much space on your shelf, and is affordable. Make a tiny place in your heart for it. The excitement of writing a review on this toy was strong in me when I bought this toy, and this is why I bought this toy. It is very good in playability; kids would without doubt spend hours playing with it. It’s often available on online sites like Amazon and Ebay. Before you go as usual make sure to check out this little toy, with my other Triceratops figures!
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Having four of the Schleich Triceratops right up to their newest release I have been tempted to add this one, maybe I have held off because it is a little bit too stylized (even for Schleich) and aimed at younger children more so than the other releases; but I may just reconsider. Great review.
I’ve removed this one from the “Completing the Schleich” page. Thanks for doing this review. I find that the rather awkward head bears more of a resemblance to T. prorosus than T. horridus.
Triceratops had five toes on each front foot and four on each back foot. This can be seen in the various skeletal photos on the Wikipedia page for the genus, in Scott Hartman’s Pentaceratops reconstruction (I know, not Triceratops,but still a chasmosaurine), and in Jacob Baardse’s Triceratops model for Saurian.
That triceratops I remember when I bought it. It was a figure that came out in the markets in 2003 and I bought it in June of that year. He was a better figure in relation to Schleich but superior to his predecessor triceratops of the Humbold Museum in Berlin in the year 1996 when I bought that figure.
Sincerely those figures are a complete whim they are small but they adorn a lot the shelves and sincerely I recommend them for those who like the Schleich brand and do not have space for medium or large figures. For me it is a recommendable figure. What I value from that batch of Schleich 2003 figures of mini dinosaurs are their most vivid colors although the later figures without bad memory of allosaurus 2006 (perhaps the best allosaurus made to date) are superior and even their 2006 anhanguera far exceeds the anhanguera later made with an articulated jaw by the Schleich toy brand.