Papo: New for 2023

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Stegotyrano, your right for good or ill it's true.

Cooper's Concavenator is a pretty old sculpt, I have the original model that Martin Garrett built for the cover of PT and it's fantastic. Hard to hate on it even if Star Ace decided to re-release it as is.

Papo made the BEST JP replicas in a time when no one else was bothering to give the fans anything, unlicensed or not they were some of the greatest pieces of the time. If they made more it would probably be lost in all the current releases now. They are in the end more toys than models or statues.

I knew I wasn't buying this one when I first saw it. It's not up the standards I'm used to seeing with my Papo products.

[Eatmycar]

I wonder if the Concavenator was originally going to be in one of the fantasy lines (like that ammonite kraken a few years ago) and was repurposed into the dinosaur line because they had no theropod for the year and got panicked. It would explain the different sculpting style and exposed ribcage.

Never has a papo figure made me angry. Everytime I try to hope they restore themselves they make it worse!  My goodness how hard is it!?
@Sim I agree, ever since dinosaurs started being marketed "for kids", a terrible mistake, it has been insulting to the audience's intelligence. They just think if we see spikes and it looks like a T-rex( not a T.rex, a T-rex) we will drop all our savings on it.
Few things on the site had made me this infuriated.
I know its just a toy, but that is the problem, it is JUST a cheap toy, no higher level detail, accuracy, nothing!

No personal offence meant here but, restore themselves to what? An unlicensed JP clone company? An unlicensed sideshow statues copy company? At least the last few years Papo has actually been making conceptually original stuff! I'll happily take the Papo Baryonyx over another copy cat JP rex or JP Spinosaurus.

I for once would prefer they continue making decent JP style dinosaurs than these bizarre ones. I am ok with a daring pose or speculative scales. But common! This one looks like a zombie!

This concavenator is gross in every way, but do we really need another company plagiarizing Jurassic Park designs? Look, I appreciate what Papo made during the drought between Park and World, but there's just so much oversaturation of the Jurassic Park aesthetic on the market. Nanmu, W-Dragon, Rebor, Mattel... come on. Jurassic is grossly overrepresented.

[Carnoking]

I don't care what Papo does so long as it's good, and their good is few and far between as of late.
That said, yes, there's a lot of Jurassic options to choose from, but Papo's quality was and still is unmatched at that particular price point. Conversely, we're spoiled for choice on the lifelike scientific model side of things between the likes of PNSO and HAOLONGGOOD, and I don't see Papo matching their levels of scientific rigor anytime soon. I'd say their best bet is to go back to where they excelled with the unofficial Jurassic product or get that old sculptor back on their dinosaurs if they want to keep doing their stylized takes.

[Mattyonyx]

I don't care what Papo does so long as it's good, and their good is few and far between as of late.
That said, yes, there's a lot of Jurassic options to choose from, but Papo's quality was and still is unmatched at that particular price point. Conversely, we're spoiled for choice on the lifelike scientific model side of things between the likes of PNSO and HAOLONGGOOD, and I don't see Papo matching their levels of scientific rigor anytime soon. I'd say their best bet is to go back to where they excelled with the unofficial Jurassic product or get that old sculptor back on their dinosaurs if they want to keep doing their stylized takes.

I think Papo's choice to make Mr. Seo work on Mosasaurus, Kronosaurus, Air Dragon, and Sea Dragon was wise, as previous dragons and marine reptiles were weak in comparison.

They just could have avoided making other dinosaurs, but no, they even approved that Concavenator design and put it on the catalog cover!

About the JP feel, most of their newer figures look more like a tribute to Stan Winston's art, and that's why I vastly prefer their take on Mosasaurus rather than a Jurassic World copy. I just hope they can learn from their recent mistakes and focus on their strengths.

[Skorpio V.]

@Mattyonyx Thanks for mentioning Mr. Seo's name! Just went into a little rabbithole haha. I'm beyond grateful that they've been a mainstay for Papo and given us easily their best sculpts.

[SpartanSquat]

I cant believe it. Looks scary, the chest that looked like draghon scales, reminds me to the big skull crawler back from monsterverse, that doesnt have muscles and shows the bones. I can see the concs was made by the amarga sculptor, the same like einiosaurus.

[Fembrogon]

I knew from the very first promo pics the Concavenator would be bad, but wow... This is a strong candidate for "worst of 2023". This toy looks flat-out hideous on a level I've never seen from Papo before.

I like the Kronosaurus, though - much more in line with the standard attractively-stylized aesthetic we know the company for. I hope it and the Mosasaurus sell well and encourage more of their kind getting produced.

[Primeval12]

I hate to break it to you, those aren't ribs. They're scales (similar to the ones on its back) but are just sculpted/painted oddly.

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ujq6o/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/1420/3911/papo_concavenator__37746.1676067156.jpg?c=2

TBH, I'm gonna grab it. It looks stupid and I like cursed models.

[Bread]

I hate to break it to you, those aren't ribs. They're scales (similar to the ones on its back) but are just sculpted/painted oddly.

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ujq6o/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/1420/3911/papo_concavenator__37746.1676067156.jpg?c=2

TBH, I'm gonna grab it. It looks stupid and I like cursed models.

You're right.

I think the issue being too that they are sculpted "inside" instead of "outside" like a layer of icing on a cake. With the "inside" look, it represents ribs. If it were "outside" I could actually let it slide.

[MLMjp]

That thing out there...that is no dinosaur.

[Lynx]

Is there any rumors/lists for 2024, or does Papo have yet to list anything?

[GojiraGuy1954]

I think this is due to the new dinosaur sculptor that showed up a year or two ago (Conav, that one ceratopsian, etc) The Kronosaurus and Mosasaurus are made by the old one (who made the brachiosaurus, the Tyrannosaurus, the velociraptors, the bary, etc)

The Einio makes me so mad. An actual Papo-styled Einiosaurus could be so cool and the genus is sorely unrepresented in terms of figures, but the one we got looks like a lame almost-retrosaur and has a tiny head

[Sim]

I think Einiosaurus has it better than what you've said, it has a figure by Safari, CollectA and now Papo and a mini figure by PNSO.

[Carnoking]

PNSO could do a killer 1:35 scale one. And HAOLONGGOOD would probably do a great job too. Point is, I'm not springing for this stubby Papo offering just for the fact that it's Einiosaurus

[SidB]

PNSO could do a killer 1:35 scale one. And HAOLONGGOOD would probably do a great job too. Point is, I'm not springing for this stubby Papo offering just for the fact that it's Einiosaurus

My Safari and PNSO mini will be just fine for now. Looks like zero Papo and zero Schleich dinos this year for me. No great loss, the HLG and PNSO with a couple of CollectA thrown in will do me well enough.

[Bread]

PNSO could do a killer 1:35 scale one. And HAOLONGGOOD would probably do a great job too. Point is, I'm not springing for this stubby Papo offering just for the fact that it's Einiosaurus

Found this old image of V @vampiredesign collection.


He seems to be a fan of ceratopsians, so I wouldn't doubt we'd see an Einiosaurus at some point.

Sorry to go off topic. I figured I'd add hope to those who want a better Einiosaurus rather than Papo's.

[Sim]

I'd prefer a Centrosaurus from Haolonggood rather than an Einiosaurus.  But more than those a Chasmosaurus belli!  Unlike the other two, there isn't a good figure of Chasmosaurus!

[Concavenator]

An actual Papo-styled

Yeah... Some recent Papo figures, like that one, the Concavenator, Protoceratops and Amargasaurus don't feel like Papo figures at all.

I wonder how Papo versions of said animals would've looked like if it was Seo Jung-woon who sculpted them. Surely way better.

[GojiraGuy1954]

I think Einiosaurus has it better than what you've said, it has a figure by Safari, CollectA and now Papo and a mini figure by PNSO.

2 out of 4 of those are retired

[Halichoeres]

I don't care what Papo does so long as it's good, and their good is few and far between as of late.
That said, yes, there's a lot of Jurassic options to choose from, but Papo's quality was and still is unmatched at that particular price point. Conversely, we're spoiled for choice on the lifelike scientific model side of things between the likes of PNSO and HAOLONGGOOD, and I don't see Papo matching their levels of scientific rigor anytime soon. I'd say their best bet is to go back to where they excelled with the unofficial Jurassic product or get that old sculptor back on their dinosaurs if they want to keep doing their stylized takes.

On some level I'm well aware that there are more fans of pop culture dinosaur figures than of paleo-oriented ones (with obviously plenty of overlap between the two groups). Still, I'm genuinely startled to see the latter described as spoiled for choice. I guess the way I see it, with the JP/JW franchise, there are what, maybe 200 potential subjects for figures, between the human characters and the few dozen species in the books, movies, etc. Maybe a dozen companies are making merchandise of those subjects, in various formats and at various price points. That's a lot of production effort relative to the available material. Meanwhile, if every company that makes paleo figures focused on nothing but new species every year for 20 years, they wouldn't even be close to running out of potential subjects. I'm not disagreeing with you per se, but I'm just struck how having different priorities can give someone a different outlook on the state of the market. I guess since I mostly favor non-dinosaur prehistorics, I don't really see us as being spoiled for choice.