Review and photos by ‘Tyrantqueen’, edited by Plesiosauria.
Here we have a new figure for 2012 from the company that so many love to hate, German manufacturer Schleich. This new Tyrannosaurus rex is part of Schleich’s new “World of History” line, which contains some familiar looking dinosaur sculpts, but also some brand new ones. Since Papo arrived on the dinosaur toy scene a few years ago, their popularity and success seemed to spur other companies, such as Bullyland and Schleich, to strive for greater detail and quality in their figures. Schleich appear to have heavily been influenced by Papo’s Tyrannosaurus rexes here, which in turn were heavily influenced by Jurassic Park.
Let’s start off with the positives. Although it’s on the short side, the tail is held off the ground, unlike nearly all of Schleich’s past Tyrannosaurus figures. The articulated jaw (another popular trend initiated by Papo and later copied by Bullyland, and now Schleich, is nicely implemented. The figure is a bright emerald green, with yellow-ish brown highlights on the feet, forearms and belly.
The pose is static and unimaginative, but I suppose this makes the toy easy to animate for a young child’s imagination.
The head is well detailed, although the teeth are too uniform in length. The Papo influence here is painfully obvious. Like most Jurassic Park influenced replicas, the crests above the eyes are absurdly large. I like the wrinkling of skin around the neck and shoulder area though. The back of the neck and the front of the knees are covered with small yellow pimples. This could be an attempt at sculpting scutes, but in the end, they just make the Tyrannosaurus look like it’s suffering from a nasty bout of acne. The surface of the skin is covered with small round scales, very much like the detailing on Safari Ltd’s Acrocanthosaurus and Ceratosaurus toys.
The forearms are pronated and rather too long (probably another influence from Papo’s running Tyrannosaurus, which was also sculpted with overly long arms)
The musculature is sculpted well and bulges in the thighs and legs. Much like the Schleich Allosaurus, this figure has oversized feet to ensure it stands on its own. The claws are actually sculpted well, are uniform in length, and show very little sloppiness of paintwork. The ankles and lower legs are probably sculpted too thinly, but at least the sculptors made an attempt to make the feet bird-like.
Is this figure worth considering? It is a step in the right direction for Schleich at least, even if it is a Jurassic Park rip-off. The overall sculpt detail is good, although nowhere near Papo’s level. Unfortunately, at the end of the day the new Schleich Tyrannosaurus rex feels very much like a poor man’s Papo. This figure should be available at most toy retailers within a few months.
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I have 4 Schleich T. Rex figurines…they all have different colors
Possibly the first ‘proper’ dinosaur toy that I got, age 5, for some reason I named it ‘Tiney’. Not really sure where the name came from, though I was into tractors at the time, and I think I thought the teeth looked a bit like tines on some farm equipment – the name escapes me.
Anyway, as much as it was great back in the day, I’ve outgrown my model tyrannosaurs and much prefer my dromaeosauridae, abelisauridae, and spinosaurs. A commendable thing about ‘Tiney’ is that it is robust, unlike the lime-and-salmon 2014 counterpart, who lost a finger, a toe claw, and a few teeth in about 2 months.
All in all, not the best but as the first of what would become a recurring nightmare for the wallets of my parents (and any friends who wanted to get me something at my birthday), I owe a lot to this outdated, spotty-necked rex of childhood worlds.
Well, you want me to tell you, I like it a lot, I think the design is amazing, it may not reach the quality of Papo but Papo is special, and may have scientific inaccuracies but like almost all dinosaur figures, Papo included, but really the figure looks great and you say it is “the T-Rex Papo for the poor”, but at least it is more economically affordable and the value for money makes it very worthwhile.
PD: Sorry for my English, I’m from Spain and I do not control it very well.
Oh snit I was going to review this one. Oh, well, still got the new Allosaurus to review. I wonder if anyone would notice if I wrote a more positive review of the schleich tyrannosaurus rex. The person who wrote this review slaughtered a really nice figure that I’ve been coveting for almost a year. Schleich is the nicest I can afford.
I’d certainly mind. This is a perfectly good review that balances the positives and negatives of the figure. It does not “slaughter” it at all. You can’t go seeking to replace reviews you personally don’t agree with.
Your right. That was funny XD. Thank you for making me smile, Suspsy.
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I like the colour too.
honestly, in my opinion the only thing remotely likeable about this figure is the head, the rest is pretty awful
the first time i saw the promo/stock photo from Schleich of this T.rex model i thought, “at last a decent Schleich T.rex”. but looking at the recent posted pics of this model i am disappointed. it is just basically a head, two oversized arms, two legs and a tail attached to a very short “torso” (reminiscent of their first Giganotosaurus). but compared to the old Schleich T. rexes this is worlds away in terms of quality. i’d still buy it just for the sake of owning a Schleich T. rex i guess. oh well…
From my point of view is inaccurate and only a figure acceptable to addicted to any replica of dinosaurs like me. I’m by far the Papo and Safari Wild and the magnificent Carnegie nearly fourteen years.
anyone hopefull that CollectA will make a yutyrannus or talos sampsoni
I wont be suprised if ones released next year
guys it really does not look that bad for schleich
Hey, I’m sensitive about acne comments, you know… 😉
It occurs to me how much this also resembles the 2006 Safari T. rex.
Fantastic review again also thanks for pointing out all these precise details! But indeed this is possibly the best Rex Schleich made to this very day, even that it’s a mere copy of the Papo Rex.
I’m a big fan of your work Tyrantqueen! Keep it up!! \o/ \o/ \o/
I’ve seen this in a shop, and it really did feel like a ‘poor man’s Papo’. Better than their previous efforts (especially the old Replica-Saurus bipedal T. rex, which was hideous), but not really worthwhile. Especially as it’s YET ANOTHER JP rip-off.
Another caption for the last pic:
Schleich Rex: “Pss… Do you wanna see somethin’ REALLY interesting, buddy?”
Papo Rex: “WHAT THE…?!”
Joking aside, it’s a nice figure… Full of inaccuracies but nice notheless (i’m very fond of the paintjob, my fav color is green!).
I find the brown on its head very distracting.
That pose – looks like he’s taken a punch to the chin 😉