Styracosaurus (Happinet)

Ceratopsians are a fascinating group. Their bodies aren’t very diverse, but the skull work is incredible. And one of the greats when it comes to that is Styracosaurus, with it’s spiked frill giving it a fearsome appearance (even if the frill itself offered little protection due to the holes, but I won’t tell the predators if you won’t). This funky head gear means that a lot of models made of it, and here we see one from Happinet, a Japanese company that make articulated models in vinyl. Let’s look closer!

This model features five points of articulation, each leg and the head, which works especially well with the look of it about to charge forward, as the head seems poised to do. The all over terracotta red works too, no need to be overly colourful with a herbivore of this size, and I feel it suits it. Like many of these models, it’s pretty large, measuring 8.1″ long and 3.8″ high, working well with others of these vinyl lines.

Now to accuracy. A lot of this is right, from the length of limbs to the number of spikes. The only real issues are the tail, which is held way too low and, as you can probably tell from the head, it’s pointed too far forward, which seems to be from being far too enthusiastic by the model makers. Otherwise, pretty decent.

This is quite a nice figure, perhaps a tad dated but not horrendous. The vinyl is a little prone to warping, but this isn’t the worst offender of this. Happinet models are a bit expensive on eBay and other sites, but I think that it is worth getting if you find it in a bundle or discount, but don’t over do it to get it.