Haolonggood - New for 2025

[SidB]

Apparently the Paleofiguras Facebook goup ran a poll about Haolonggood vs. PNSO T. rex. They have now declared PNSO Cameron the winner.

Here is what they write: "The results, after just over 24 hours, declared PNSO the winner. Haolonggood's figure received some criticism, including oversized scales, a lack of body mass, and a narrower jaw opening and poor jaw closure. While there was widespread support for the idea of ��better coloration, there was a lot of agreement."

I'm curious how wide the margin of victory was. Did PNSO win by 60/40, 70/30, 80/10? I'd say that's as important of information as the winning name.

Personally, as someone who decided a long time ago that T. rex was demoted from my "favorite dinosaurs" list, the last decade+ of reconstructions and science have done a lot to make the king of the dinosaurs more favorable in my eyes again. I really can't blame people for being so enamored with the animal - especially when the models coming out look as nice as these. 

...And yeah, the price HLG/Lana are charging for this is wildly low. That might be the single biggest flex on PNSO yet.

I'm not going to say that this is a loss leader, but they can't be making a lot of profit per unit. Must be dependent on selling a lot of them over the long haul.

[Over9K]

]I'm not going to say that this is a loss leader, but they can't be making a lot of profit per unit. Must be dependent on selling a lot of them over the long haul.

At this price, I will likely grab the Brown one too.

[ceratopsian]

My resistance to the blue didn't hold.

I think it's important to note that even if the differences between Haolonggood's two T. rex figures can be considered minimal, the price difference is not. Their older T. rex costs twice as much as the new one! That alone should give Haolonggood enough reason to want to make another, one that matches the price bracket of their recent offerings.

I keep seeing positive comments about this new rex's price, and for good reason. It should be a hot seller, especially with the "non-lipped" rex fandom. The paint work appears outstanding.

I'm trying to resist but the paint job on the blue version makes it really tempting, along with the price.

My resistance is holding , but I can feel the pressure.

[Faelrin]

@Over9K So working on a little project, and I saw Tyrannosaurus isn't the only tyrannosaur genus named 120 years ago. Albertosaurus was as well, and in the same paper Tyrannosaurus was described (though material for it was previously assigned to Dryptosaurus), though it was hardly given any particular attention then.

[Sim]

And that is quite simply incorrect. Anyone who compares images of the two toys side by side can easily discern a number of significant differences. The new version is objectively much better proportioned, especially the head and the arms, and can certainly be considered more scientifically accurate. Again, it's not a matter of personal opinion; it is a demonstrable fact in this case.

I think this is being exaggerated for the most part.

Not really, no. Nanmu and W-Dragon are basing all their models on the ones from Jurassic Park/World as opposed to current science. Apples and oranges.

My point is that these companies are producing barely different models from ones they produced previously.  That is the case.

But going by that exact same reasoning, since no one is forcing you to purchase any items you don't want, there is no reason for you to label them as pointless. Again, I ask: have you considered the possibility that other people in this fandom may not appreciate your use of such derogatory terms? "Pointless" is essentially in the same category as "trash" or "junk" or "total waste of money." You lamented earlier about a perceived lack of tolerance for people who don't personally enjoy T. rex toys, yet you're not really showing tolerance towards those who do enjoy them when you employ such language.

I believed the new Haolonggood Tyrannosaurus was pointless because it seemed cynical to release a new one that barely differed to the previous one.  I have to say though that Gwangi's point about the price difference between the old and new Haolonggood Tyrannosaurus is relevant and I had forgotten about it.  People complain about figures all the time, I feel what's wrong is to single one out for it.  Tyrannosaurus figures are being released now more than ever.  I doubt me expressing that I feel the latest is pointless makes significant difference to anyone, as we're seeing.
With regards to the bolded part, I don't complain about the Tyrannosaurus situation every time there's a new figure of it so I'm not intolerant of people liking Tyrannosaurus figures.  My comment was about the perceived redundancy of Haolonggood's latest Tyrannosaurus, not about people who like it.

What I believe is that Tyrannosaurus figures are not always a best-seller.

The available data says otherwise.

I guess it does when you exclude popularity data on websites that sell the figures.  Which I believe is more relevant than you think.

There might be some that are, but I believe that some don't achieve that distinction.  If they did, CollectA would have no reason to retire their original feathered Tyrannosaurus, they could have just kept making it alongside their newer version of the animal.

It actually sold well according to CollectA. I believe they retired it because it was more costly to manufacture than the 2018 one, which was the better seller by that point. And also because they heard that the science did not support tyrannosaurids being fully feathered.

CollectA retired it before they released the 2018 version, so the latter wasn't a better seller at that point.  If it mattered to CollectA that science showed one of their figures was obsolete and consequently worth retiring, they would have retired their JP-style Velociraptor ages ago, yet it's still in production.

Moreover, there have been Optimus Prime toys over the years that have not been received well by Transformers fans, but that doesn't alter the fact that Optimus Prime is by far the most popular character and sells the best overall. The same applies to T. rex. They can't always be slam dunks, but companies are far more likely to achieve slam dunks with T. rex than any other prehistoric animal.

I've not said anything suggesting this isn't true.  In fact, I've basically argued for this for the most part.

[thomasw100]

Honestly, I think that this T. rex is in a way a missed opportunity. They should have really gone for the fully lipped one and just use the fact that this conforms to the newest research in their promotional campaign (along with reference to the papers that support the lips).

[Sim]

I felt it was said with contempt.

It is a factual statement. Every time there is a discussion of a new Tyrannosaurus figure there are between 2 and 4 people that feel impelled to lament that the figure is not some other species instead. Your perception of my statement says more about you than it says about any "contempt" inferred.

There's nothing wrong with expressing that one wishes a figure wasn't a Tyrannosaurus.  The way you described it was with contempt, I'm not sure what you're trying to get at.

Not quite, it's not just because certain groups constantly get figures, it's more so because certain types of animals consistently don't get made.

That's what "Hopes And Dreams" threads are for. It's kind of lame, to go into a discussion about something, and complain about what it isn't.

Here you're showing contempt again.

What I notice in this discussion is that for some people who like Tyrannosaurus, it's not enough for there to be a massive amount of high-quality Tyrannosaurus figures, they have a problem if anyone expresses an unfavourable opinion about it.

[suspsy]

And that is quite simply incorrect. Anyone who compares images of the two toys side by side can easily discern a number of significant differences. The new version is objectively much better proportioned, especially the head and the arms, and can certainly be considered more scientifically accurate. Again, it's not a matter of personal opinion; it is a demonstrable fact in this case.

I think this is being exaggerated for the most part.

It is not. Significantly improved accuracy and sculpting are significantly improved accuracy and sculpting. Facts are facts.

My point is that these companies are producing barely different models from ones they produced previously.  That is the case.

With Nanmu and W-Dragon, yes. With Haolonggood, definitely not. You might as well be trying to claim that PNSO's 2023 T. rex is the same as their 2016 one.

But going by that exact same reasoning, since no one is forcing you to purchase any items you don't want, there is no reason for you to label them as pointless. Again, I ask: have you considered the possibility that other people in this fandom may not appreciate your use of such derogatory terms? "Pointless" is essentially in the same category as "trash" or "junk" or "total waste of money." You lamented earlier about a perceived lack of tolerance for people who don't personally enjoy T. rex toys, yet you're not really showing tolerance towards those who do enjoy them when you employ such language.

I believed the new Haolonggood Tyrannosaurus was pointless because it seemed cynical to release a new one that barely differed to the previous one.

But it is in fact significantly different from the previous one.

I have to say though that Gwangi's point about the price difference between the old and new Haolonggood Tyrannosaurus is relevant and I had forgotten about it.  People complain about figures all the time, I feel what's wrong is to single one out for it.

People don't always go so far as to brand a toy pointless and insist against all evidence that it's identical to a previous version. Building on the PNSO example above, the differences between the Haolonggood T. rexes is also comparable to the differences between the 2018 and 2012 Schleich T. rexes sculpts.


 

Tyrannosaurus figures are being released now more than ever.  I doubt me expressing that I feel the latest is pointless makes significant difference to anyone, as we're seeing.

Yet multiple people are disagreeing with you here.

With regards to the bolded part, I don't complain about the Tyrannosaurus situation every time there's a new figure of it so I'm not intolerant of people liking Tyrannosaurus figures.  My comment was about the perceived redundancy of Haolonggood's latest Tyrannosaurus, not about people who like it.

It isn't redundant, though. And certainly not pointless.

What I believe is that Tyrannosaurus figures are not always a best-seller.

The available data says otherwise.

I guess it does when you exclude popularity data on websites that sell the figures.  Which I believe is more relevant than you think.

I didn't exclude it, though. I simply factored in additional data that is of greater significance. A CEO stating clearly that T. rex is his company's best-selling dinosaur trumps popularity numbers on a handful of websites.

There might be some that are, but I believe that some don't achieve that distinction.  If they did, CollectA would have no reason to retire their original feathered Tyrannosaurus, they could have just kept making it alongside their newer version of the animal.

It actually sold well according to CollectA. I believe they retired it because it was more costly to manufacture than the 2018 one, which was the better seller by that point. And also because they heard that the science did not support tyrannosaurids being fully feathered.

CollectA retired it before they released the 2018 version, so the latter wasn't a better seller at that point.

They did not retire it before the 2018 version was released. Where did you get that notion from?

If it mattered to CollectA that science showed one of their figures was obsolete and consequently worth retiring, they would have retired their JP-style Velociraptor ages ago, yet it's still in production.

That's because the JP-style Velociraptor is much smaller, much less detailed, and much cheaper to manufacture.

Moreover, there have been Optimus Prime toys over the years that have not been received well by Transformers fans, but that doesn't alter the fact that Optimus Prime is by far the most popular character and sells the best overall. The same applies to T. rex. They can't always be slam dunks, but companies are far more likely to achieve slam dunks with T. rex than any other prehistoric animal.

I've not said anything suggesting this isn't true.  In fact, I've basically argued for this for the most part.

So you do concur now that Tyrannosaurus rex sells far better than any other prehistoric animal? That's not what you claimed earlier.

[Flaffy]

My resistance to the blue didn't hold.

I don't blame you. The Blue ver. is a quite attractive colour scheme.

[SidB]

My resistance to the blue didn't hold.

I don't blame you. The Blue ver. is a quite attractive colour scheme.

As the Borg  on Star Trek used to say, "Resistance is futile!".

[ceratopsian]

My resistance to the blue didn't hold.

I don't blame you. The Blue ver. is a quite attractive colour scheme.

As the Borg  on Star Trek used to say, "Resistance is futile!".

Very appropriate, as I was an avid Star Trek fan.

[suspsy]

My resistance to the blue didn't hold.

I don't blame you. The Blue ver. is a quite attractive colour scheme.

As the Borg  on Star Trek used to say, "Resistance is futile!".

Not for me. I do appreciate it for what it is, and the colour scheme is indeed superb, but I'm simply done with exposed teeth on my T. rexes. I'm going to hold out for the PNSO one. And for a future lipped version from Haolonggood.

[Gwangi]

I feel like annoyance with T.rex figures is pretty reasonable, considering T.rex has more figures than multiple entire unique families of Dinosaur, and doesn't even have the decency to be particularly unique or interesting, like Stegosaurus and Triceratops.
Like, it's a generic Theropod but bigger, chonkier, shorter-armed, and with a unique skull.
You know who else that describes? About a third of the Theropods consistently getting figures in the hobby.

I don't want to be mean but I feel like the people drowning in figures of their favorite dinosaur could do to be understanding and forgiving towards the people whose favorites receive good figures between once in a blue moon and twice per generation, even if we do get annoying about it at times.

I don't understand how Tyrannosaurus is any less interesting than Stegosaurus or Triceratops. They're all extemporary examples of their respective clades but Stegosaurus is still just a stegosaur and Triceratops is still just a ceratopsian. You could apply your argument about T. rex to either of them.

Anyway, Tyrannosaurus is hardly a generic theropod. It is a coelurosaur, a member of a group that mostly stayed small and birdy. Tyrannosaurs are outliers in their clade. They convergently evolved into apex predators while most of the other coelurosaurs remained small and birdy (I know, there are exceptions).

My defense of T. rex from another thread...

"The popularity of T. rex is precisely why it is one of my favorite dinosaurs. It makes it accessible in a way that few other dinosaurs are. As one of the most studied and written about dinosaurs it's one of the dinosaurs we can know the most about, especially as laymen. We know about as much about its life history, anatomy, and physiology as we possibly can about a dinosaur. Yes, I think more attention can and should be paid to other dinosaurs but setting that aside, it's cool that we know so much about this particular dinosaur.

Its abundance in pop culture makes it equally appealing as well. Some would call it overexposure but I grew up seeing T. rex in movies, books, paleoart, documentaries, and video games, and playing with a glut of cool toys that represented it. That's something you can latch onto. I feel bad for anyone who's favorite dinosaur has never starred in a movie or had a book written about it, or a toy made of it. I have several favorites for which that's the case but T. rex is a favorite because that's not the case.

Tyrannosaurus is popular for being the largest known theropod (in terms of weight at least) but that also makes it the largest ever land carnivore and the largest bipedal animal. It possesses extreme and specialized adaptations that other theropods didn't have. It's literally adapted to crush bones! It was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs and lived at a time and place shared by other exemplary dinosaurs. As a coelurosaur, T. rex and other tyrannosaurus represent a rather unusual offshoot. T. rex is more closely related to a penguin or hummingbird than it is too the other giant carnivores like Giganotosaurus! That's cool! Tyrannosaurus deserves is popularity."

[suspsy]

Like, it's a generic Theropod but bigger, chonkier, shorter-armed, and with a unique skull.

This is indeed a self-contradictory statement. And yes, one can just as easily attempt to denigrate Triceratops by saying that's it's just a ceratopsid with three horns and a big frill. How many ceratopsids fit that description again?

And the argument about being understanding and forgiving works both ways. It's perfectly okay to not like how many T. rex toys have been made, but that's really not a justification for declaring them pointless or boring or generic. Whether intentional or not, it's insulting to the collectors who do enjoy these toys and to the sculptors who poured a heap of time and energy and effort into crafting them. The individual who crafted the Haolonggood T. rex would surely not appreciate such words.

By contrast, I for one haven't seen any T. rex fans gloating about a relative lack of Falcarius or Galeamopus or Edestus toys, or arguing that such toys are not wanted or needed.

[Over9K]

What I notice in this discussion is that for some people who like Tyrannosaurus, it's not enough for there to be a massive amount of high-quality Tyrannosaurus figures, they have a problem if anyone expresses an unfavourable opinion about it.

Well, now that you're reduced to trolling for a fight, yeah.... contempt.

Moving on.

[Concavenator]

And yes, one can just as easily attempt to denigrate Triceratops by saying that's it's just a ceratopsid with three horns and a big frill. How many ceratopsids fit that description again?

Anchiceratops, Arrhinoceratops, Pentaceratops, Torosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Utahceratops, Agujaceratops and Coahuilaceratops, off the top of my head.

[Trenchcoated Rebbachisaur]

Like, it's a generic Theropod but bigger, chonkier, shorter-armed, and with a unique skull.

This is indeed a self-contradictory statement. And yes, one can just as easily attempt to denigrate Triceratops by saying that's it's just a ceratopsid with three horns and a big frill. How many ceratopsids fit that description again?

And the argument about being understanding and forgiving works both ways. It's perfectly okay to not like how many T. rex toys have been made, but that's really not a justification for declaring them pointless or boring or generic. Whether intentional or not, it's insulting to the collectors who do enjoy these toys and to the sculptors who poured a heap of time and energy and effort into crafting them. The individual who crafted the Haolonggood T. rex would surely not appreciate such words.

By contrast, I for one haven't seen any T. rex fans gloating about a relative lack of Falcarius or Galeamopus or Edestus toys, or arguing that such toys are not wanted or needed.

I mean, Ceratopsians almost entirely get collected for their different heads (since most of them look damn near identical postcranially), whereas Theropods mostly have distinct bodies. Size, maybe, too, but Triceratops as a genus is an upwards outlier there that only Torosaurus and Titanoceratops/Pentaceratops really compete with. If T.rex had horns and a frill, their length and shape would certainly work to differentiate it in a noteworthy fashion from other Theropods that also had horns and a frill, but Theropods don't have frills, and T.rex doesn't have horns.

But I dunno, I guess you do have the point that I might similarly get sick of Triceratops if it was so overportrayed. Guess if that happens, make sure to remind me of this thread if you catch me complaining so I can officially admit to eating crow, I guess.

And I dunno, I feel like declaring individual takes on T.rex boring or generic is pretty reasonable. There's only so many times you can repeatedly depict an animal the same way before it becomes generic by definition, and by consequence, boring to some. I guess tbf that might be an unfair judgement to hoist upon the HLG rex in particular since it does have many things going for it (paint apps, the utterly weird tusky tooth depiction if you don't mind it, the coloration, the slender morph-ness, the pretty amazing price, and the anatomical accuraccy). But some other T.rex figures definitely deserve it, even if they're not ones we're currently talking about.

And sure, T.rex fans aren't actively in the forums, making fun of people for wanting figurines of Leinkupal and Bungartius, or whatever.
But do you know where they are?
They are in the factories and toy companies, deciding to make yet another blasted T.rex instead of any more obscure or otherwise interesting genus.
T.rex fans aren't a monolith obviously and shouldn't be blamed for every time a potential alternative choice gets snubbed in favor of 'Lets do T.rex again', or for that matter, for making 'Lets do T.rex again' a financially expedient choice. But you folks are a majority and 'T.rex is boring' calls are really not as much of a problem as you make them out to be, and do in fact have a miniscule chance of affecting company choice; in a way that barely affects you, because it's not like there won't be more T.rexes anyway next year no matter how much some of us may complain about it.

[suspsy]

And yes, one can just as easily attempt to denigrate Triceratops by saying that's it's just a ceratopsid with three horns and a big frill. How many ceratopsids fit that description again?

Anchiceratops, Arrhinoceratops, Pentaceratops, Torosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Utahceratops, Agujaceratops and Coahuilaceratops, off the top of my head.

Also Bisticeratops, Bravoceratops, Eotriceratops, Judiceratops, Mercuriceratops, Navajoceratops, Ojoceratops, Sierraceratops, Terminocavus, and Wendiceratops.

[Trenchcoated Rebbachisaur]

And yes, one can just as easily attempt to denigrate Triceratops by saying that's it's just a ceratopsid with three horns and a big frill. How many ceratopsids fit that description again?

Anchiceratops, Arrhinoceratops, Pentaceratops, Torosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Utahceratops, Agujaceratops and Coahuilaceratops, off the top of my head.

Also Bisticeratops, Bravoceratops, Eotriceratops, Judiceratops, Mercuriceratops, Navajoceratops, Ojoceratops, Sierraceratops, Terminocavus, and Wendiceratops.

Okay but considering that competition, Triceratops clearly merely had a medium frill xP

[omgmarclol]

What puzzles me the most about this model is how the mandible has big fleshy lips that seem to be able to cover the upper teeth, yet still they chose not to give the maxilla the fleshy lips, but instead made the maxilla so wide (too wide? It seems to me like so) that the teeth hang out and over the mandible. To me it feels weird and not realistic. As if they were not willing to go either way - fully fleshy lipped or lipless - and just made a sort of chimera. But maybe I am missing something here. Anyway, I find it too off-putting, unfortunately. Because if they would have gone the whole lipped way, I would have gotten this model.

Battle of Lower Jaws

HLG rex


vs PNSO Cameron modified by Bravo Models (Lower Jaws similar with HLG)



vs PNSO Cameron original

Nothing really to add as I'm not going to be buying the new HLG T. rex, but I did want to say that that's my customized T. Rex that Bravo modded