The famous Allosaurus was the T.rex of the Late Jurassic. This large Theropod could reach lengths greater than 30 feet. The name means “different or “other” lizard. The first remains of Allosaurus were recovered from the Morrison Formation in Colorado in 1869, but a lot of notable specimens have been recovered from the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in Utah. Allosaurus has always seemed to be an essential for a dinosaur toy line, and as such there have been many Allosaurus figures released over the years.
Schleich’s first rendition of Allosaurus was released in 2002. The figure is 11 inches long and 4 inches tall, making it 1:40 scale, although it almost seems like it would fit better in 1:35. The figure is molded in brown plastic for a base color, with darker brown stripes and patterns along the back and hind limbs of the figure. There is some yellow tan mixed into the back. Schleich is famous for their unimaginative paintjobs. The teeth are white and the buggy eyes are orange with black pupils. The figure has a wrinkly/scaly texture all around the body and is crouched in a tripod stance with the tail dragging along the ground.
This Allosaurus was the result of poor sculpting with little research on Schleich’s end. There are a lot of inaccuracies here. For starters, the head is just goofy looking. There isn’t much detail except for a pair of rounded crests and orbital fenestrae. The whole skull is misshapen as well. The mouth is closed in a goofy looking grin, and the snout looks like a beak. The neck is also a bit too long. Rather than give us something menacing, Schleich gives us something with a closed mouth to save on production costs. The entire figure is just out of proportion with itself, and the limbs are probably the worst part.
A glaring problem is the pronated hands on this figure. Modern research suggests that theropods like Allosaurus could not pronate their hands, so the palms should be facing each other. The fore limbs are also crudely sculpted, and there is no enlarged third claw. The hind limbs aren’t much better, being posed in a squatting position that makes the animal appear too wide. There is not much detail in the musculature of the hind limbs. Perhaps worst of all the feet are way too small and short compared to the rest of the figure. Things like this just throw off any sense of realism in my opinon.
This is pretty poor as Allosaurus figures go, but it’s been retired for around 5 years or so and is getting more collectible. That is, if you can stand the hideousness that is supposed to be Allosaurus. You can tell from the pictures that the left hind limb on mine is slightly warped so the foot isn’t flat on the ground. I can really only recommend this to Schleich fans because you can get a much better and cheaper Allosaurus these days. Ebay is your best bet if you want to find one of these.
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See: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124300933879?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
I love this figure! I wish I could find one. I just bought the AAA Allosaurus. I like that one too.
See ebay SCHLEICH ALLOSAURUS COLLECTIBLE 2001 JURASSIC OOP Replica… (124300933879)
The last photo makes it look it’s squatting to go to the toilet, lol. Sorry, childish me couldn’t help it.
Hi Aaron! If you’re interested in more sites which deal with dinosaur figures, there is a category in the column on the right which has a lot of the best websites. As far as forums, ours is probably the best on the web for this sort of stuff. You can find a link to it at right as well. It’s called the Dinosaur Toy Forum. Hope that helps.
Hello! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading your blog posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same subjects? Thanks a lot!
I see no resemblance whatsoever to Zallinger’s Allosaurus in that mural OTHER than the coloration. There is no resemblance in the sculpt. That’s not what Schleich based this figure off of.
Firstly, the model was sculpted before they found out about the whole ‘non-pronated hands’ theory.
Secondly, it is glaringly obvious that it is based on Rudolph Zallingers ‘Age of Dinosaurs’ mural, so it has an excuse for being a bit innaccurate.
What is NOT excusable, however, is the fact that Schelich actually thought basing their Allosaurus on said mural. It is, in total and complete fact, INexcusable, especially when they had Walking with Dinosaurs to bootleg (guess they didn’t want to start a trend, though). All in all, I like the figure for what it is, and hate Schleich for holding it back when it could’ve been much, much better.
Tiene una cabeza parecida a las iguanas, es lamentable como hicieron esos dinosaurios carnÃvoros a dos patas de Schleich, y siguen haciendo tan toscamente hoy en dÃa, solo hay que fijarse en el Giganotosaurus de Schleich, en definitiva, son animales muy mal acabados y lo que es peor que no cambian en su manera de realizar las futuras réplicas, parecen figuras de Frankestein o las de un zombi con este tipo de prognación en las manos. Es una cifra que solo puede ser deseada por coleccionistas, de dinosaurios.