PNSO : New for 2023

[Quiversaurus]

Ah so 77 was the subadult Yangchuan, thanks @DefinitelyNOTDilo , @K.Bela !

T @thomasw100 remind me again, what was in the list you mentioned?

[EmperorDinobot]

Mmm those are nice

[Shane]

S @Shane Sorry had just woke up then and was using a very dim near dead phone at the time. I see it's more of a brown grey now.

No worries, I just wanted to make sure you weren't colorblind! I'd hate for you to find out this way.

[Faelrin]

Does anyone know how the Zuul compares to the paper published last year (I think)? I know the Safari Ltd one (and I think this year's Kaiyodo maybe) was sculpted prior to it, so some aspects became outdated. That said I need to pick up this one, and the Safari Ltd one still. It's incredible this genus now has three quality figures, in such a short 2 year span, after so many years going without.

[Concavenator]

@Faelrin , @thebermuda303 is right. I did a quick comparison and the osteoderm arrangement isn't totally correct, it clearly looks like it either was sculpted prior to the paper or said paper wasn't taken into consideration. The overall proportions are better than Safari's, though (as is also the case with Kaiyodo's).

[Shane]

It's incredible this genus now has three quality figures, in such a short 2 year span, after so many years going without.

Well, it was first described in 2017, and given that it can take a couple years to create a figure from start to finish, throw in a good deal of slowdown due to the pandemic, and it seems about the right time for figures to hit.

It also hits that sweet spot of being a fairly recent, fairly complete discovery that generated a lot of buzz (while it's a pretty by the numbers ankylosaurid, I think naming it "Zuul" did a lot to increase its notoriety).

[Faelrin]

@Concavenator Thanks. I missed their comment earlier. That's a shame, as it would have been good to finally have one based on the actual arrangement. Still better to have a few figures sculpted prior to that paper, then none at all.

S @Shane Some companies like CollectA (or even PNSO this year with their Meraxes), are pretty quick on making figures of newly described taxa, so that isn't always quite the case, even if it holds true most of the time. Come to think of it Stegouros was also only published back in late 2021 (Dec 1), and now has two figures (CollectA, Safari) with a third on the way from Mattel (fourth if including the resin Dino Zoo) in less then two year's time from the time of its initial description. Zuul is a bit of an anomaly, as the counterpart Borealopelta, described in the same year, got figures both in 2018 and 2019 from Kaiyodo and CollectA respectively (and then 2020 from PNSO, and just this year from Mattel). Kaiyodo only did Zuul this year because an exhibit is featuring it in Japan.

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

@Concavenator Thanks. I missed their comment earlier. That's a shame, as it would have been good to finally have one based on the actual arrangement. Still better to have a few figures sculpted prior to that paper, then none at all.

S @Shane Some companies like CollectA (or even PNSO this year with their Meraxes), are pretty quick on making figures of newly described taxa, so that isn't always quite the case, even if it holds true most of the time. Come to think of it Stegouros was also only published back in late 2021 (Dec 1), and now has two figures (CollectA, Safari) with a third on the way from Mattel (fourth if including the resin Dino Zoo) in less then two year's time from the time of its initial description. Zuul is a bit of an anomaly, as the counterpart Borealopelta, described in the same year, got figures both in 2018 and 2019 from Kaiyodo and CollectA respectively (and then 2020 from PNSO, and just this year from Mattel). Kaiyodo only did Zuul this year because an exhibit is featuring it in Japan.

And for safari's, it seems to be based off of the Dino Dana movie (though it has a much better sculpt than the cgi model imo.) which would explain it coming later.

[CarnotaurusKing]

Gotten a decent bit of mileage out of this clip of late.

Anyway, they both look fantastic. I'm not too convinced by the separation of Y.magnus, but at least we have the large individual represented. Pretty gnarly looking model too, gives me Dinosaur King vibes. Hoping for more ankylosaurs from them. A Tarchia, Gastonia or Talarurus would be swell. Maybe even this Zhongyuanosaurus they did a while back:

https://twitter.com/pnso_official/status/1617503665627041793

The nose horn is certainly a choice, but it's got cheeks at least.

Is the Zuul accurate to the redescription it got a while back?

[Stegotyranno420]

Yeah, I love hoe awesomebro it is. It looks straight from the 2000s 2010s era.

[Fembrogon]

It's almost weird to see a Zuul in a color besides green.  I'm happy to see the genus getting represented more, though!

...And these theropods really do look better with lips, as much as I've enjoyed many of PNSO's prior lipless figures regardless.

[Quiversaurus]

Saw a post by Paleonerd on Instagram mentioning how Zuul was made at 1:35 scale even though it's a smaller species. After checking the measurements (17.5cm : 600cm), the scaling checks out (1:34~1:35 scale).

Which gives me a little bit of hope that they may be able to continue doing smallish species. If they do a Kentrosaurus, a 5m individual would come up to about 14cm at 1:35...

[TlatolophusJuanorum]

Saw a post by Paleonerd on Instagram mentioning how Zuul was made at 1:35 scale even though it's a smaller species. After checking the measurements (17.5cm : 600cm), the scaling checks out (1:34~1:35 scale).

Which gives me a little bit of hope that they may be able to continue doing smallish species. If they do a Kentrosaurus, a 5m individual would come up to about 14cm at 1:35...

Let's hope that their Theropod-fever turns into a Thyreophoran one haha. Redoing their small stegosaurians (Huayangosaurus and Chungkingosaurus) and following up with other underrepresented species. 
A big wallet-breaker, but pleased to add more armoured chonks to the family.

[Abobo]

[Medzo]

Yeah. Finally opened mouth for an ankylosaur.

[Abobo]

strange, the PNSO store on Ali Express seems to have vanished?

[Sim]

It's very nice to have two new releases at the same time!

The Zuul looks nice but I'm not going to get it as I'm put off by its asymmetrical back midline armour where there's a different number of osteoderms on each side.  I didn't get the Safari Einiosaurus for a similar reason.

I wasn't expecting PNSO to make the larger Yangchuanosaurus specimen.  I'm tempted to replace my PNSO museum series Yangchuanosaurus with this new Yangchuanosaurus...  I still very much like the museum series one though, maybe I just need a bit more time and to see more of this new one.  This new one does look more accurate than the museum series one I will say.

[Gwangi]

It's very nice to have two new releases at the same time!

The Zuul looks nice but I'm not going to get it as I'm put off by its asymmetrical back midline armour where there's a different number of osteoderms on each side.  I didn't get the Safari Einiosaurus for a similar reason.

I wasn't expecting PNSO to make the larger Yangchuanosaurus specimen.  I'm tempted to replace my PNSO museum series Yangchuanosaurus with this new Yangchuanosaurus...  I still very much like the museum series one though, maybe I just need a bit more time and to see more of this new one.  This new one does look more accurate than the museum series one I will say.

If you're talking about the head of the Safari Einiosaurus you should know that it is directly based on the holotype skull which has the same asymmetry. Doug Watson confirmed this in the comment section of my review because I was also curious about it and mentioned it in the review.

https://dinotoyblog.com/einiosaurus-wild-safari-by-safari-ltd/

[Faelrin]

Zuul itself also has those asymmetrical osteoderms on its tail. Though that's not reflective of its body arrangement, and it could just be something only the holotype specimen had, or species wide. Since this was probably sculpted prior to last year's paper I'm willing to give it some leeway since the true arrangement wasn't known until then. Guess we'll know more once the video explaining the sculpt process releases.

[Shane]

It's very nice to have two new releases at the same time!

The Zuul looks nice but I'm not going to get it as I'm put off by its asymmetrical back midline armour where there's a different number of osteoderms on each side.  I didn't get the Safari Einiosaurus for a similar reason.

I wasn't expecting PNSO to make the larger Yangchuanosaurus specimen.  I'm tempted to replace my PNSO museum series Yangchuanosaurus with this new Yangchuanosaurus...  I still very much like the museum series one though, maybe I just need a bit more time and to see more of this new one.  This new one does look more accurate than the museum series one I will say.

If you're talking about the head of the Safari Einiosaurus you should know that it is directly based on the holotype skull which has the same asymmetry. Doug Watson confirmed this in the comment section of my review because I was also curious about it and mentioned it in the review.

https://dinotoyblog.com/einiosaurus-wild-safari-by-safari-ltd/

Additionally, if the reason for not getting the Safari Zuul was the asymmetry of the osteoderms on the tail, it should be noted that is also a feature of the holotype. The tail club is quite asymmetrical and the left club osteoderm is longer than the right, and overlaps where the last spike would be on the left side.

The PNSO opts for a more symmetrical tail arrangement, but as Faelrin stated it's not certain whether the holotype's asymmetry is a species wide feature or something unique to the individual. It's theoretically possible I suppose that every Zuul had its own uniquely shaped tail club, maybe this is how they identified each other intraspecifically.