Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy
It’s no secret that Papo has always been “inspired” by pop culture depictions of dinosaurs. This isn’t unique, even companies like Safari and CollectA occasionally copy designs and color schemes from time to time. Still, no one does it as frequently and blatantly as Papo. With their 2019 Gorgosaurus, they’ve continued that trend, this time with the 2013 film Walking with Dinosaurs.
The toy is about 7¼ inches (18 cm) long, making it roughly 1:45 scale. It’s shown in a crouching position with its head looking up. I find this pose very versatile; it can be sneaking up on its next meal or submitting to a larger rival. With the feet planted closer to the front of the figure, I assume the pose is to help it balance. However, the tail is still considerably lighter than the torso and head, causing my copy to very easily fall on its face.
This is a really accurate reconstruction of a Gorgosaurus, no thanks to Papo, of course. With talented people like David Krentz and Mark Witton involved in the production, the WWD movie’s dinosaurs looked spectacular. The only real issue could be the lack of feathers, which, while faithful to its source material, could be off-putting depending on where you fall on that issue.
The detailing, as usual with Papo figures, is tremendous. The most impressive detail work is in the scales on the body, which are mostly individually sculpted and have a nice variation in size and shape. This figure also features an articulated jaw that has a pretty good range.
One thing not copied from the WWD Gorgosaurus design would be the coloration. Whereas the animal in the movie had a wonderful iridescent blue, this toy is overwhelmingly brown. There’s also some green mixed in as well as black patterns on the back and thighs, but they’re pretty subtle. Still, the paint is mostly well applied, except for on the toe claws and the underbelly, where it can be really sloppy and thick.
Even though this is a pretty obvious rip-off of the WWD design, I’d recommend this model. It’s one of Papo’s finest models, in terms of sculpting and accuracy.
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This figure looks so nice on the shelf! I love it’s pose honestly…
What I especially like about the gorgosaurus as well as Papo’s pentaceratops is that its real figure does not differ much from the prototype, it is almost identical, which makes it worthy of my five stars for its genius. Magnificent well-sculpted figure despite its relatively small size.