Edited by Dinotoyblog
Over the years, Papo’s prehistoric creatures have become one of the most popular on the market, mainly due to their immense detailing and outstanding paint applications. However, while Papo boasts excellently crafted figures like the Acrocanthosaurus and Spinosaurus, there are also some figure that are considered ‘stinkers’ in the eyes of the dinosaur toy collecting community. These lesser figures include two marine reptiles (the Papo Plesiosaurus and Papo Tylosaurus), and to some extent the Papo Polacanthus. However, the subject of today’s review is a dinosaur that many wanted Papo to do, but disappointed the community when it was first revealed.
Taking a close look at the figure in person I must say that the disappointment expressed upon its reveal may have been warranted. The skin detail is not as immaculate as other Papo models and some decisions were made with the sculpt that I don’t understand. To start off with the negatives, let’s cover the long spines along the top of its neck, which are this dinosaur’s main claim to fame. The spines are connected by a sail, all the way to their tips, just like many old-school interpretations of this animal. However, there is some debate as to whether or not this dinosaur had such a sail, and most modern companies have followed the growing scientific consensus by omitting a sail completely. No matter what the case, the spines and sail on this figure are executed poorly in my opinion. The spines are too short, plus, the single spine jutting out of the middle of the head is wrongly positioned. In life, the first spine Amargasaurus was indeed a single central prong, but it was formed by the neural spine of the first neck vertebra (atlas-axis) and therefore projected from the neck far behind the skull. Its unusual position in the Papo figure is jarring and gives it an almost derpy look.
There are some other questionable aspects of this sculpt and I’m not just talking about accuracy. Two deep indentations run along the bottom of the tail. Why on Earth this was sculpted just baffles me and I’m sure it will turn some of us away from purchasing a copy of the figure. There is a similar sculptural feature on the bottom of the neck, but it doesn’t look as weird to me, and appears to be blended into the figure more nicely than on the tail.
To move onto the things that this model gets right, the head looks like that of a diplodocoid sauropod, which is what Amargasaurus was. The front feet look very accurate, with a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of digits and a single claw. I also have to say that the tail looks decent as well. It is held horizontally and curves gently at the tip, though perhaps it could be a little less thick towards the end to give it an even more whip-like appearance. The coloring on this figure is not as bright as those on most of the other 2017 releases. The majority of the figure is a light brown, with some red stripes on the back. The base color is white, while the toes are a light colored tan. The mouth on this figure is open, and it has some teeth that are painted a little sloppily. The eyes are yellow with black pupils
Overall, in my opinion, this figure is possibly Papo’s most controversial to date. It was clearly a species that many Papo fans wanted, but the end result is a disappointment. The figure gets some aspects of sauropod anatomy right, but the end result leaves an awful lot to be desired. For those who are concerned with such things, the model measures around 10 inches long, making it anywhere from 1:40 to 1:35 scale. The Papo Amargasaurus is noticeably bigger then the Battat and Carnegie models, and a lot smaller than the Wild Safari figure. If you are in need of a good-looking Amargasaurus then this model should probably be a pass for you. Instead, I would recommend any of the other figures I just mentioned over this one.
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The 20-year old Battat Amargasaurus laughs at this sad version.
It’s not necessarily a bad figure, it’s just so… not Papo. It looks incredibly outdated, it’s something I would have expected to see released alongside their Tylosaurus
Yes, exactly, on both counts. If it had been a Schleich, then the disappointment would be less pronounced. One would have accepted it as representative and then moved on. It might even have been considered praiseworthy. Nevertheless, it’s still a nice figure in the hand, just not what one would have hoped for.
“Incredibly outdated” is basically Papo’s mission statement. I don’t understand why Papo fanboys will fawn over any Jurassic Park monstrosity they put out but cringe at the thought of any inaccuracy the sculptor came up with on their own.