Review and photos by ‘Takama’, edited by Plesiosauria [who apologises profusely to Takama for the long time it has taken to post this article – “months” wouldn’t be an overstatement].
Like it or not, Papo have created their first mosasaur and to cut to the chase: it’s a downright failure.
Brand: Papo
Review: Tyrannosaurus rex (Running) (Papo)
3.2 (22 votes)
So – and forgive me if you’ve heard this already – Papo have a new T. rex out for 2012. And now, finally, we’ve all got the chance to get our greasy paws on one. Although most of you probably decided a long time ago whether or not you were going to grab one of these, hopefully this review will be useful for the very few still sitting on the fence…
There’s one thing always worth remembering about Papo – they’ve never claimed any sort of scientific authority or authenticity.
News: Upcoming releases from Papo (New for 2012)
4.3 (4 votes)
Up until about a week or so ago I was intending to lump the modest parade of new 2012 figures by Safari Ltd, Papo, and other non-CollectA companies, into a single post. That was before the slow trickle of anticipated 2012 releases from these companies swelled to a veritable torrent , almost, but not quite, matching the army of figures CollectA has in store for us next year.
Review: Ankylosaurus (Papo)
3.3 (20 votes)
First things first – this is yet another “Ankylosaurus” model that is nothing of the sort, instead rather obviously being based on Euoplocephalus (would giving these figures the correct name really harm their commercial prospects that much?).
Review: Styracosaurus (Papo)
3.7 (20 votes)
Last year’s Papo releases were rather mixed in terms of quality – while they all displayed the usual high production standards, only the Pachyrhinosaurus was truly great, the Oviraptor emerging as a scaly basketball player and the Plesiosaurus as a Nessie aberration.
Review: Pachycephalosaurus (Papo)
3.4 (16 votes)
Papo are much-loved for their highly detailed, Jurassic Park resemblin’ line of prehistoric creature figures; any number of them are perfect lookalikes of their movie counterparts, right down to the smallest inaccuracy. So it is too with this little marginocephalian fella, the Papo Pachycephalosaurus, perhaps one of the most overlooked members of the line.
Review: Plesiosaurus (Papo)
2.8 (24 votes)
The exciting news in 2010 that Papo was to release a plesiosaur, their first ever marine reptile, was quashed quickly when I saw the early publicity photograph. The picture revealed a disappointing Nessie-like concoction with a chubby body and a swan-like neck. In the flesh, the Papo Plesiosaurus evokes mixed feelings.
Review: Oviraptor (Papo)
3.3 (24 votes)
Papo made an Oviraptor. And they made it well. Great fuss has been made around this figure, because again a Papo figure takes that typical “love it or hate it” – attitude as a basis, which I personally highly adore. Albeit Papo´s interpretation of this late Cretaceaous Mongolian theropod turned out to be very old school, if not obsolete, many people now regard it as another Papo masterpiece.
Review: Pachyrhinosaurus (Papo) (New for 2010)
3.8 (16 votes)
The Pachyrhinosaurus by Papo is easily one of the most (if not the most) anticipated figures of 2010. This is one of the first times where papo has released one of their figures so early in the year; I’m glad I got mine so soon!
Review: Velociraptor (Papo)
3.6 (20 votes)
Up for review is yet another Papo dinosaur – Velociraptor. This figure is largely praised in the dinosaur toy collecting community, as is the real Velociraptor itself!
Unfortunately, most aspects of this Velociraptor are wrong. The tail is too short and curved, the arms are awkwardly pronated, the tibias seem a little too long, and there’s no feathers – all very un-dromeosaurid like features.
Review: Stegosaurus (Papo)
3.7 (26 votes)
Stegosaurus has always been a staple dinosaur. It’s featured prominently in museums, the media, museum toylines, chinasaur bins, and it’s been heavily researched. Many renditions of this animal have been done in toy form (just about every dinosaur toy collection has one!) so we’ll look at the attempt by Papo for now.
Review: Triceratops (Papo)
3.9 (21 votes)
In my previous review of Papo’s Parasaurolophus, I pointed out that not all Papo’s pre-Allosaurus dinosaur figures were necessarily Jurassic Park copies – but this Triceratops definitely is. It will therefore be more appealing to JP fans than anyone else, but like all Papo figures it’s quite a nice piece in its own right.