Review and photographs by Jose Carlos Salas (Jose_S.M.), edited by Suspsy
Fukuisaurus tetoriensis was an ornithopod dinosaur that live during the early Cretaceous period in Japan. Its remains were found in 1989 in the Kitadani formation in Katsuyama, Fukui Prefecture. It was about 4.5 m (about 14.9 ft) in length, making it a medium-sized dinosaur. Like most Japanese dinosaurs, it’s not a commonly known species, so it doesn’t have many figures available. I can remember two by Sega for the Dinosaur King toy line, a Kaiyodo resin figure (released in 2006), and the Favorite Co. soft model, which is the subject of this review.
The Favorite Fukuisaurus was released in 2015 along with a Fukuiraptor figure as exclusives for the Fukui Dinosaur Museum. They were sculpted by Kazunari Araki, who also did the 2006 Kaiyodo resin figure. It’s made in a 1:20 scale, measuring about 22 cm (8.6″) in length and came with a base with its name and a replica of its skull. The figure stands on its own perfectly without the base, but it’s a nice touch and the figure looks great on it. It’s posed in a quadrupedal stance, which is believed to be facultative for this species, moving mostly in a bipedal manner.
The coloration is mustard yellow for the upper body and light brown for the lower. There are green stripes running down from the top of the spine, bifurcating and then meeting with the adjacent ones to create an interesting but still plausible pattern. There are also some stripes on the legs and abdomen. The claws, beak, and eyes are painted in the same color of the body, although there’s a little bit of grey on the base of the claws of mine; maybe it’s the original mold color. The base is grey with some light yellowish highlights, resembling a rock, and the skull is light brown, mounted on a small black base. Despite coming in a box and being very well packaged, mine came with paint chips around the beak, so the figure probably can’t stand heavy play without scratching it.
The texture on the Fukuisaurus is varied. It has wrinkles, nice skin folds, and faint scales that are most noticeable in the torso, upper tail, and thighs. There’s also nice muscle definition around the legs and neck. The head sculpt has all the small details like eyes and nostrils that are nicely done, but the ear holes are very small and shallow. From a distance they can be hard to see.
My main criticism about this figure is that it looks like the animal wasn’t getting all the food it needed. This is a very common issue with Araki’s sculpts: they are greatly detailed but often look underfed. The head is shrink-wrapped, the skull openings are too prominent, with the eyes looking sunken in, and the tail and lower limbs look too skinny, especially when viewed from the top.
Overall, this is a really nice figure despite it being skinny. I really like it, and it’s nice to have obscure species made in plastic representations. As for playability, it’s a herbivore with a pose that can be interpreted as running, so it can be used as prey for hungry theropods, specially its companion figure, Fukuiraptor. However, as I said at the beginning, this was an exclusive museum figure, so it’s hard to find. Even when it can be found, it tends to be pricey due to its limited availability, so it seems unlikely that many children will be playing with this one. Right now it’s more a collectors’ piece than a toy. The most likely place to find this figure is on eBay, often from Japanese sellers.
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Good review, if I can, I might do a review on one of the SEGA Fukuisaurus. Possibly the larger toy model first.
Before you write any more reviews, you need to revise and expand that one you submitted weeks ago. Until you do, it cannot be posted.
I am creating a new review, according to your advice on Gmail.
Excellent!
I am very happy with the fukuisaurus. I bought it two years ago and they had me stuck in customs for a whopping one month (I bought it from a Japanese eBay merchant who was very kind to me) at first I thought that Favorite’s figures were made of resin and not PVC I asked the members of the forum if they were PVC.
I am impressed by the figures of Favorite and in general, all of the Japanese brands are very educational and a high percentage of them, such as Favorite “dan el pego” in the sense that they look like resin.
I have this figure and find it charming, albeit, if I remember correctly, only the skull is known. My complaint, like one of yours, is that seeing the skull fenestrae is always a bit disheartening and not true to life for most healthy animals.
I read that at first it was only known from skull elements, but there have been more parts of the skeleton discovered recently and now it’s more complete.
Very nice review of a very nice figure.
Great to see this review. I purchased this one from Japan last summer and was impressed with its quality, as also for the companion piece that you mentioned (Fukuiraptor). I’ve become ‘acclimatized’ to Araki’s style, so with that as a presupposition, I’m okay with the shrink-wrapping. Others (Schleich: new Triceratops) also go with the lean and mean look, so as long as my entire collection doesn’t look like it’s been a week since its last meal, that’s alright, I suppose. After all, I wouldn’t want to get into trouble with the SPCA.