Protoceratops & other dinosaurs of the Gobi Desert - Your best figures recommendations

[thebermuda303]

I had a look at Gregory Paul's Tarbosaurus skeletals again and according to him the more robust-headed specimens are immature. The adult Tarbosaurus has a more elongated snout according to Gregory Paul. I think the PNSO Tarbosaurus is a good representation of an adult Tarbosaurus. Not perfect, but good. I've included Gregory Paul's relevant Tarbosaurus reconstructions below.

I wouldn't rely on Paul's reconstruction, first of all he put holotype's skull (the biggest individual's head we have) on an immature tarbosaurus body, that's why it looks like a bobblehead. There are also plenty of big adult tarbosaurus skulls that retain their wide and tall appearance.
ZPAL-MgD1/4 is a good example of that (beware as most reconstructions show damaged head that's very narrow)
Specimen from France is also a good example, though the best would be the skeleton from Taiwan. Here are some examples of big tarbosaurus skulls.

Going back to this ZPAL-MgD1/4 is the second biggest tarbosaurus individual here, it's heavily undersized, with femur length of 113cm and skull length of 125cm it wouldn't have been much smaller than the holotype above it.
Me and my friend edited some tarbosaurus skeletals to be as accurate as possible.

[Protopatch]

Thank you for this thorough analysis @thebermuda303
To which French/Taiwan specimens are you referring ?
Furthermore, I would be keen on knowing your opinion on the PNSO's Tarbosaurus. On my end, I share the same opinion as @Sim, ie not perfect, but good.

[Sim]

first of all he put holotype's skull (the biggest individual's head we have) on an immature tarbosaurus body, that's why it looks like a bobblehead.

Which reconstruction are you referring to?

[thebermuda303]

first of all he put holotype's skull (the biggest individual's head we have) on an immature tarbosaurus body, that's why it looks like a bobblehead.

Which reconstruction are you referring to?

The biggest individual in the book, skull belongs to the holotype specimen (PIN 551-1) and body belongs to PIN 551-3 or some other immature individual, that's why it's head is so large compared to the body. In reality head would've been much smaller. There's a lot of confusion about Tarbosaurus reconstructions since the original papers were written in Russian so some information got lost or mistranslated.

[thebermuda303]

Thank you for this thorough analysis @thebermuda303
To which French/Taiwan specimens are you referring ?
Furthermore, I would be keen on knowing your opinion on the PNSO's Tarbosaurus. On my end, I share the same opinion as @Sim, ie not perfect, but good.

I'll include them here but I'm on mobile so I'm not sure if they appear as images or as links below my post.
I own pnso figure and still like it quite a bit but I lost interest in it. Body shape is perfect aside from the shoulder girdle being placed too high which makes it's neck look really scrungly and gives the appearance of a huge gut. Skull is also based on a museum mount reconstruction, that doesn't really resemble the original skull. Another funny this is that skull can tell us exactly what specimen pnso based their figure on, and it's an immature 8-9 meter long individual scaled up to 11 meters in 1:35 scale.
First picture is the Taiwan tarbosaurus
Second is french specimen
Third is tarbosaurus pnso based their figure on
Last is the original skull of the specimen

[DinoToyForum]

Thank you for this thorough analysis @thebermuda303
To which French/Taiwan specimens are you referring ?
Furthermore, I would be keen on knowing your opinion on the PNSO's Tarbosaurus. On my end, I share the same opinion as @Sim, ie not perfect, but good.

I'll include them here but I'm on mobile so I'm not sure if they appear as images or as links below my post.
I own pnso figure and still like it quite a bit but I lost interest in it. Body shape is perfect aside from the shoulder girdle being placed too high which makes it's neck look really scrungly and gives the appearance of a huge gut. Skull is also based on a museum mount reconstruction, that doesn't really resemble the original skull. Another funny this is that skull can tell us exactly what specimen pnso based their figure on, and it's an immature 8-9 meter long individual scaled up to 11 meters in 1:35 scale.
First picture is the Taiwan tarbosaurus
Second is french specimen
Third is tarbosaurus pnso based their figure on
Last is the original skull of the specimen

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[Protopatch]

Thank you for this thorough analysis @thebermuda303
To which French/Taiwan specimens are you referring ?
Furthermore, I would be keen on knowing your opinion on the PNSO's Tarbosaurus. On my end, I share the same opinion as @Sim, ie not perfect, but good.

I'll include them here but I'm on mobile so I'm not sure if they appear as images or as links below my post.
I own pnso figure and still like it quite a bit but I lost interest in it. Body shape is perfect aside from the shoulder girdle being placed too high which makes it's neck look really scrungly and gives the appearance of a huge gut. Skull is also based on a museum mount reconstruction, that doesn't really resemble the original skull. Another funny this is that skull can tell us exactly what specimen pnso based their figure on, and it's an immature 8-9 meter long individual scaled up to 11 meters in 1:35 scale.
First picture is the Taiwan tarbosaurus
Second is french specimen
Third is tarbosaurus pnso based their figure on
Last is the original skull of the specimen

Interesting indeed, thanks. As a result, do you think that there is currently a better figure than the PNSO's one ?^^
Regarding the French specimen, do you know in which museum it is displayed ? I can't find anything about it on the internet and I'm pretty sure that it isn't part of the Paris Museum of Natural History's collection.

[thebermuda303]

Thank you for this thorough analysis @thebermuda303
To which French/Taiwan specimens are you referring ?
Furthermore, I would be keen on knowing your opinion on the PNSO's Tarbosaurus. On my end, I share the same opinion as @Sim, ie not perfect, but good.

I'll include them here but I'm on mobile so I'm not sure if they appear as images or as links below my post.
I own pnso figure and still like it quite a bit but I lost interest in it. Body shape is perfect aside from the shoulder girdle being placed too high which makes it's neck look really scrungly and gives the appearance of a huge gut. Skull is also based on a museum mount reconstruction, that doesn't really resemble the original skull. Another funny this is that skull can tell us exactly what specimen pnso based their figure on, and it's an immature 8-9 meter long individual scaled up to 11 meters in 1:35 scale.
First picture is the Taiwan tarbosaurus
Second is french specimen
Third is tarbosaurus pnso based their figure on
Last is the original skull of the specimen

Interesting indeed, thanks. As a result, do you think that there is currently a better figure than the PNSO's one ?^^
Regarding the French specimen, do you know in which museum it is displayed ? I can't find anything about it on the internet and I'm pretty sure that it isn't part of the Paris Museum of Natural History's collection.

Right now BOTM Tarbosaurus is probably the best, aside from the thin top view if the skull. From 1/35 scale figures there is no better tarbo than pnso currently. Pnso. Their zhuchengtyrannus would make for a relatively good stand in in my opinion. I'll personally wait for something better to drop in the future.
Also I did remember where that skull was located, but I've forgotten the place name unfortunately. It's some private museum though and it was studied by a paleontologist so we might see something about it in the future.

[Protopatch]

Right now BOTM Tarbosaurus is probably the best, aside from the thin top view if the skull. From 1/35 scale figures there is no better tarbo than pnso currently. Pnso. Their zhuchengtyrannus would make for a relatively good stand in in my opinion. I'll personally wait for something better to drop in the future.

BotM's Tarbo is cool however and in spite of its slight anatomical flaws, I have a preference for the PNSO's colour scheme.
Anyway, let's stay tuned to see if new/updated models could possibly be released in the next months.

Also I did remember where that skull was located, but I've forgotten the place name unfortunately. It's some private museum though and it was studied by a paleontologist so we might see something about it in the future.

Thanks, I have finally found the location of the French specimen by inputting other keywords on Google, the Paléospace in Villers-sur-Mer (Normandy).
Apparently, the skull is in excellent condition :
https://www.villers-sur-mer.fr/une-piece-unique-en-europe-sinvite-au-paleospace/#:~:text=C'est%20le%20cr%C3%A2ne%20de,C'est%20exceptionnel.

[Sim]

It just occurred to me, will you be getting a Wuerhosaurus?  I'm not sure if it has been found just within or just outside of the Gobi desert, but it's from that area and very different to all other "Mongolian" species.

[Protopatch]

Thank you for suggesting, this is a good idea ! Indeed, I hadn't thought about this one as I'm basically focused on gathering dinos of the Late Cretaceous first.
But since the Safari Ltd Psittacosaurus is part of the next "wanted figures" batch, I should probably include a Stegosauridae as well.
Regarding its slight geographical mismatch, it's not a problem, I remain quite flexible.
I chose Tsintaosaurus as an alternative to Saurolophus (due to the current lack of -available- good figures), the aim being to get the most relevant nevertheless diverse Gobi fauna at a glance.
=> Which one would you recommend more between the Halonggood and the PNSO's figure ?
On the face of it, I would have a preference for PNSO (colours, pattern, shape of the head and legs).

PS : still waiting for the UHA Collect Club Dsungar 
PPS : have found an original pedestal for the "beautiful one"

[Sim]

Nice arrangement and photo!  I think you can't go wrong with either Wuerhosaurus figure.  I have the Haolonggood version but I intend to get PNSO's version as well.

[Protopatch]

The pig of the Mesozoic lurking around the food of the 21st century
The UHA Collect Club Protoceratops is nice, the details of the skin texture and eyes are amazing, but I definitely have a preference for the Wild Past's one which will remain the key piece of my on-going Gobi collection
The coloration of the latter (brown tone) would be closer to what I expect for this species.
Also, I'm not sure of the scale of the UHA CC : it's small but not that small in comparison with WP, so less adapted to a 1/35 collection :

[Halichoeres]

That's a great figure! I also have the Wild Past one but they live on different shelves due to their different scales. If I restricted myself to 1:35 I'd opt for the Wild Past alone.

[Protopatch]

Following my recent exchanges with @Elengassen in their thread, I am in touch with a 3D-printed figures seller who can produce a 1:35 Nemegtosaurus on demand.
The model including the paint work (possibly a custom-made color scheme) would be offered at 85$, shipping fees not included.
I am just not completely sure regarding the dimensions as they told me that it measured 34.2cm long and 17cm high.
Its height sounds a bit low, what do you think ?...

[Halichoeres]

Depends on the stance, I guess! Does the overall length comport with your expectations?

[thebermuda303]

Following my recent exchanges with @Elengassen in their thread, I am in touch with a 3D-printed figures seller who can produce a 1:35 Nemegtosaurus on demand.
The model including the paint work (possibly a custom-made color scheme) would be offered at 85$, shipping fees not included.
I am just not completely sure regarding the dimensions as they told me that it measured 34.2cm long and 17cm high.
Its height sounds a bit low, what do you think ?...

It should be fine, most nemegtosaurus reconstructions are based on opisthocowlicaudia which wasn't a very big for sauropod standards

[Protopatch]

It should be fine, most nemegtosaurus reconstructions are based on opisthocowlicaudia which wasn't a very big for sauropod standards

Thank you @thebermuda303 this is most helpful !
Always great to get your enlightened advice

Depends on the stance, I guess! Does the overall length comport with your expectations?

I guess, yes !
In the meantime, the seller kindly sent me a 360° video of the model and having given due consideration to the various parameters, I've finally decided to throw in this figure.
Their next production campaign should start at the end of May and they told me that the figure should be completed around 20 June.
We agreed on a color scheme similar to the PNSO's Alamosaurus.

I'm sharing below a few screenshots of the video :

[Elengassen]

It looks good! Slightly tempted to go for one myself, but it sounds quite pricey. I guess for now I'll just keep holding out hope that some company decides to make this genus 

[Protopatch]

It looks good! Slightly tempted to go for one myself, but it sounds quite pricey. I guess for now I'll just keep holding out hope that some company decides to make this genus 

Indeed, this is rather pricey and honestly, it'll be a little "financial sacrifice" for me but the seller seems serious so I don't want to miss that opportunity nor wait until a hypothetical release of a PVC figure (by PNSO or HLG among other things).
My priority right now being to add a Gobi's Titanosaur to my collection, it is a good occasion to test a 3D-printed figure for the first time as well !
Anyway, many thanks to you @Elengassen for your quality contribution and advice so far, they are greatly appreciated.