Amargasaurus ( PNSO Scientific Art Model)

Review and Photos by Bokisaurus

Greetings dinosaur fans! Today, we will review a figure that I am really excited about, the long awaited PNSO Amargasaurus! It has been a long wait, but the wait is so worth it.

Amargasaurus, as we should all know by now, is a medium sized early Cretaceous sauropod from South America. At this point, there is enough write up about its history that it would be safe to bypass all of that. As this is my third Amargasaurs review, I know I covered its history in my previous reviews, doing so again here will redundant.

Of all the sauropods, Amargasaurus is the most unique and easily identifiable of them all. This is due to its very unusual appearance. By luck, it is also one of which we have an almost complete fossil.

As I have mentioned in my previous review of the species, this is an animal who’s star and popularity just kept on rising. 

For an animal just discovered some 35 years ago, it’ rise to fame is surely one of the fastest in the prehistoric world.

Unlike many dinosaur species who’s fame is largely due to its appearance in movies and documentary, Amargasaurus did it the old fashion way.

While it may not have starred in movies, its uniqueness and charisma propelled it all the way to the top 5 most famous sauropods. It also helped that it was given a name that is both exotic, and still easy to pronounce. 

Its unique characteristics and stunning appearance have also made it one of the toy industries favorite species of sauropod to produce.

You can’t blame them, after all, it is hard to produce a sauropod that stands out from all the other sauropods figures out there. All these have made Amargasaurus one of the most represented species of sauropod in the toy figure industry.

If you are not familiar with the history of Amargasaurus in the toy world, let this be a quick history reminder. The very first figure of the species was produced by the famous Battat line of dinosaurs toy figures back in the mid 1990’s. Since then, the majority of the major toy brands have released their own: CollectA, Safari, Papo, Kaiyodo, etc.

After two years of silence and rumors, last year PNSO was back with a vengeance! They first flooded the market with 24 new mini prehistoric animals that ranges from well know to obscure. It was not until the fall that news of the larger figures finally started to surface, first as rumors, then confirmation, then finally the release.

This PNSO Amargasaurus model is the latest version to hit the market. You may recall that a few years back, in 2016, the fledgling PNSO entered the market in a big way, releasing some impressive large, hollow figures of dinosaurs. It was a huge hit in the collectors community.

With the initial success, future plans were made by PNSO to continue the line and some prototype of the planned species were released. Among them was an Amargasaurus, this very figure we are now reviewing today.

Then, chaos engulfed the company and derailed all plans for any future release. It seems like the line was headed towards extinction, just like the animals they were producing. A year went by and still no news, It seems that all hopes of seeing any of PNSO’s planned future release were gone.

This was the figure I have wanted to see the most, so as soon news broke that they are releasing it and as soon as it was released, I ordered it right away. I was not expecting it to arrive soon, but I was pleasantly shocked when it arrived just after a week.

First, the figure comes in an elegant white box with a picture of the figure printed in the front. I was really blown away by how beautiful the figure is.Officially, it is marketed as 1:35 scale like the majority of the figures in this new series called Scientific Art Model.

If you stretch the figure it measures almost a foot (12” inches) from nose tip to tail tip, and stands 4” tall. It’s a good size figure and that’s good news to me.

Unlike the previous large dinosaurs, these new ones are made of solid PVC, just like Safari and CollectA figures. This is good since this has eliminated the one big problem with the hollow figures: those unsightly seams.

Did I already mention how beautiful this figure is? Okay, so let’s start with the head.

Amargasaurus head is long and narrow, very much reminisce of that of a horse. The figure captures that very well, and I am so glad that its mouth is closed, although some of the teeth is still very much visible but not distracting.

For such a small head, it is very rich in very minute details such as individual scales and wrinkles. The nostrils are visible on the top of the snout, the eyes are small and painted black. A small patch of tan encircles the eye area, contrasting with the olive green and grayish-green colors that divides the top half of the body and lower half. 

The olive green color runs from the snout and upper half of the head, then travels back down the neck. As it reaches the shoulder, this colors starts to radiate into stripes as it moves down the back all the way to the tail where it turns into bands.

The other dominant color, the grayish-green also starts from the snout and follows the same direction as the darker olive green. ON the neck, these two colors meet halfway and create a waterline effect. However, unlike the olive green, this terminates as it reaches the shoulder. From here, a light brown colors takes over and covers the middle part of the body including the back.

The underbelly has a pale gray color tone and this continues down all the way to the tail. The overall colors used on the body is subdued but striking at the same time and works well for an animal of this size.

Now for that distinctive neck sail. Here, we see some splash of colors. Amargasaurus neck is short, well at least for a sauropod. Here again, the model faithfully depicts this. You can see some of the neck bones shapes under the skin in the form of ridges.

How the neck spines are depicted varies by company. Some have shown these spines as completely free of any encasing, while others have shown them as partially encased in skin. There is no consensus as how these spines may have looked like in life.

PNSO went with the partially encased with skin version and it looks really nice and natural. The addition of these encasing makes the neck look much bigger and wider than they really are. These skin encasing is where the splash of colors occurs.

The neck spines measure a good 1” inch long (longest ones) and the skin encasing covers half of that, leaving the other half as exposed spines. The bottom half fo the skin encasing is colored rust orange, this transitions into dark purplish brown as it reaches the upper half. The exposed spines are colored dark brown with the tips highlighted in lighter shade of brown.

The neck spines and the skin encasing is nicely done and very detailed. Here again you can see very small  individual scales and very fine skin wrinkles. The base of the spines are also clearly outlines in the skin covering.

There are 11 paired neck spines, these are followed by 9 paired shoulder spines.

The neck spines encasing continues all the way to the shoulder, then, it transitions into that distinctive hump on the back. This is where the tall neural vertebra raises from the back creating that distinctive hump seen in Amargasaurus and other Dicraeosauridae.

On top of the back  are single row of spines, which starts from the base of the shoulder and continues all the way to the tail. These spines are colored olive green on the parts where the stripes of this color continues up, and lighter gray on some areas. The body is has no shortage of details. There are many skin folds, small individual scales, irregular shaped bumps, as well as groves criss-crossing the entire surface. All these details without going overboard.

Both legs are nicely proportioned. The figure is posed mid-stride in a calm way. This figure is as accurate as it can be, so it is a bit of a surprise that we find one minor flaw on this otherwise perfect model. The front feet

Sauropods are odd in that most have only the large thumb claw visible. You can see this in the prototype and promo photos. However, somewhere or someone during the production process decided that the figure needed some front toenails!

So, in the final mass produced version, the figure have these front toenails painted on. This is really a shame and surprising that quality control did not catch this error.

On mine, not all the “supposedly” toenails made it. You can see on one side what the original sculpt looks like and supposed to look like. This error aside, the feet looks accurate. This minor (at least for me) mistake can easily be fixed by a small paint application over the painted nails.

As a bonus, this figure comes with a base. Its nice base and is made of slightly more harder plastic, almost resin. the base is detailed with lots of rocks and branches, as well as the footprints on the wet mud.

Overall, this adds a little more presentation wise and makes the figure looks more like a resin desktop figure than a PVC toy.

There is also a booklet with lots of photos of the model. The text includes a short story and information about the dinosaur in both Chines and English.

It’s a little cheesy if you ask me and is clearly targeted for younger audience, which to me is ironic given how high the quality is of the figure and that it is clearly targeted for the collectors.

PNSO also decide to name each one of their figures. This naming game works and is cute with the mini figures, but for this caliber, it really dons’t fit and I find it gimmicky. But if you must know, this Amargasaurus is named Lucio, oh myyy!

In closing, I am very impressed and blown away by this figure. To me, this is the definitive Amargasaurus, the one that rules all other figures of the species out there.

The wait was well worth it, and the cost of the figure, at $60, is high but within reach and reasonable. These days, many of the larger figures are going up in price, and they don’t come close to the level of craftsmanship and packaging that these new PNSO series have.

I highly recommend this figure to all collectors who wants a stunning sauropod showpiece added to their collection.

After this exquisite version of Amargasaurus, I don’t know where or who else can top it in sheer quality and aesthetic bonanza.

In some ways, this was how I have imagined what a Papo version of this species may look like. Alas, that illusion was quickly shattered when Papo unveiled their version and it and it turned out to be one of their worst one in my opinion.

Lets hope and pray that PNSO have resolved whatever internal turmoil and chaos that has threatened to derail them 2 years ago, and that we will see all the others that were planned very soon.

I hope you enjoyed the review and the figure. Till next time, cheers!