Dracorex (Schleich)

Review and photos by Killekor, edited by Suspsy

Schleich is a brand known among collectors both for their wide distribution and for their usually inaccurate prehistoric models, although sometimes (especially in the most recent years), they produced some decent or even great ones like their two versions of Kentrosaurus and last year’s Spinosaurus. Today, we’re going to look at another great model: the Dracorex, released in summer 2019.

Dracorex hogwartsia (which means “dragon king of Hogwarts”) is a dinosaur now considered to be an early life stage of Pachycephalosaurus (along with Stygimoloch), and it’s well known for its amazing dragon-like skull that gave it its name. There aren’t very many figures of this genus: there’s the nice one from Wild Safari, the one from CollectA/Procon, and the JW:FK Dino Rivals one by Mattel. But in my opinion, this new Schleich version easily beats them all out.

The figure stands 11 cm tall and 18.5 cm long and is sculpted in a standing pose with its mouth open and its head and tail pointing upwards. You can easily imagine it quietly browsing on some plants, or perhaps calling its companions to warn them of the presence of some predator.

Its coloration is unusual and striking: dark purple with thick yellow and thin white stripes running the length of the entire body. Additional yellow paint has been applied to parts of the belly, body and face and the horns and the claws are painted grey. The color scheme is completed by the deep red eyes and tongue, a good choice which give an even more impressive look to this figure. Maybe such a bright and flashy color scheme is unlikely for a young dinosaur like Dracorex, which probably did not wish to call the attention of predators, but it surely gives a nice touch of color to any collector’s shelf.

This figure shows a great care for detail. It’s covered in scales, with four rows of osteoderms running across the back until the tip of the tail. The body also features nice and realistic skin folds and muscles which are a pleasure to look at.

The head is particularlu wonderful from a paleoartistic point of view, as it is masterfully sculpted and matches perfectly with the fossil skulls, which are the only part of Dracorex known (if we don’t count the remains of Pachycephalosaurus specimens). The skull isn’t exaggeratedly shrink-wrapped, and I find really nice how its cheeks are sculpted.

Now let’s examine how accurate this model is. It scores pretty well, although it’s still a Schleich figure, so it unfortunately has its flaws. As we’ve already seen, the head is perfect and the figure is also well-proportioned, so it’s a real pain to discover that its hands (which have the right number of correctly shaped digits) are pronated! Plus, the feet are a bit oversized, but still in an acceptable way (and less so than the Safari version’s). Finally, although I’m not certain, the tail is possibly a bit too bent upward than physically possible. Pachycephalosaurus had a rigid tail incapable of such a range of movement, so if Dracorex really was a young Pachycephalosaurus, it likely had the same kind of tail.

The Schleich Dracorex isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t stop it from being (in my opinion) the best model of its kind currently available. It’s better sculpted than all its counterparts from other brands and it isn’t much worse from an accuracy point of view. Furthermore, a figure with such a nice head sculpt offers a lot of customization opportunities. If you like it, you can find it easily online or in any of the various toy stores in the world that sell Schleich figures.

I hope that you liked my review and that it helped you in an eventual decision on this figure. See you soon in the next review!