PNSO : New for 2023

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

It's not longer an Allosaurus ?
Is this figure accurate then ?

Sadly no, at least not in terms of the skull. The figure itself is more or less 1:1 Allosaurus fragilis

Does this mean this Saurophaganax can be taken as a larger-scaled A.fragilis?

For sure, and if Epanterias is a junior synonym of allo (which it probably is) it's actually still within estimates for larger individuals in 1/35!

[Leyster]

From what I understand it's known to no longer be synonymous now, there's a paper in the works describing new material that clearly differs from allosaurus. The skull diagram from said paper did leak a while ago but idk if I'm allowed to post it.

Is said diagram this?

Then, it's not leaked from any paper. It's totally made by an user named paleojoe during a brief period when that genus was thought by the online community being a basal carcharodontosaurid (hence the inclusion of things like Lusovenator). Since ATM any single restoration means squinting at the very bad pictures with even worse scalebars (which can upsize a figure up to 20%) of the original paper, or some (as I was told) cellphone photos of some bones (I never saw them, but having taken a lesson or two on fossil photography I know how tricky can it be to get it right, how the wrong shadow may suggest traits that never were, and of course how scale is difficult to achieve), there is no real proof of it being anything but the closest relative of Allosaurus.

[JohannesB]

All looks great, but I'll be waiting until their next (big) ornithischian comes out. Simply running out of space and money (especially after buying a "new" 4x4).

[Halichoeres]

....... I was looking at D @Dino Scream3232 recent post (edit: on instagram) comparing Haolonggood's releases for the past 6 months and PNSO's for a year (literally all theropods since the Deinocheirus, but at least that one feels unique compared to the onslaught of allosauroids and tyrannosauroids this year, ditto with the coloration ... aso

Considering PNSO's first years, you can also see great diversity. Dozens, if not a hundred non-theropod figures. Now it's their time for theropods. Why not?
What the photo especially shows is that PNSO is doing the best theropods on the Dinosaur toy market . I feel a bit bad for the people who cannot enjoy these beauties.
Adding "lips" is a good move and I'm glad they don't give them those Dino Dana colours. No.76 will in all probability also be a theropod. Let's see what comes next.

I'm also a fan of HAOLONGGOOD and I don't want those companies to do the same or to have the same style. I'm pretty happy with the way it is at the moment .

The Saurophaganax will be another instant buy!

I don't know if you mean it this way, but your comment comes off as snide condescension.

[SidB]

....... I was looking at D @Dino Scream3232 recent post (edit: on instagram) comparing Haolonggood's releases for the past 6 months and PNSO's for a year (literally all theropods since the Deinocheirus, but at least that one feels unique compared to the onslaught of allosauroids and tyrannosauroids this year, ditto with the coloration ... aso

Considering PNSO's first years, you can also see great diversity. Dozens, if not a hundred non-theropod figures. Now it's their time for theropods. Why not?
What the photo especially shows is that PNSO is doing the best theropods on the Dinosaur toy market . I feel a bit bad for the people who cannot enjoy these beauties.
Adding "lips" is a good move and I'm glad they don't give them those Dino Dana colours. No.76 will in all probability also be a theropod. Let's see what comes next.

I'm also a fan of HAOLONGGOOD and I don't want those companies to do the same or to have the same style. I'm pretty happy with the way it is at the moment .

The Saurophaganax will be another instant buy!

I don't know if you mean it this way, but your comment comes off as snide condescension.

I, for one, didn't take it that way, I have to say.

[John]

I'm

From what I understand it's known to no longer be synonymous now, there's a paper in the works describing new material that clearly differs from allosaurus. The skull diagram from said paper did leak a while ago but idk if I'm allowed to post it.

It's not longer an Allosaurus ?
Is this figure accurate then ?

Sadly no, at least not in terms of the skull. The figure itself is more or less 1:1 Allosaurus fragilis

To further your point,the new model is not just a generalized Allosaurus fragilis,it is based specifically on DINO 2560, the skeletal of which can be seen here: https://www.deviantart.com/franoys/art/Allosaurus-fragilis-skeletal-DINO-2560-773506961

Interestingly,the artist who had done that skeletal had used the same Allosaurus specimen to fill in many missing elements of his Saurophaganax maximus skeletal,including it's skull.

[Faelrin]

@John Thanks for sharing that it is based on that specimen in particular.

While I wanted the previous Allosaurus for a few years now, I feel like this is a really nice upgrade over it. I'm also very curious as to how this will look alongside their Stegosaurus, or like Safari Ltd's, Rebor's, etc. I imagine it might be over scaled because it is meant to represent the larger Saurophaganax, but hopefully nothing too egregious. I'm also long over due for a new Allosaurus in my collection, since the only one has been the Papo which has bit off with its anatomy.

That said there is quite a large backlog of figures I need to pick up, so I don't know when I'll prioritize getting this, and that backlog also includes this year's Meraxes and Gorgosaurus too.

[crazy8wizard]

To further your point,the new model is not just a generalized Allosaurus fragilis,it is based specifically on DINO 2560

This is especially confusing since, if I'm not mistaken, the first PNSO Allosaurus was also based on this specimen, even though it looks a little more like Big Al.

[Sim]

If I'm remembering right, @Concavenator saw in a PNSO video that the PNSO Allosaurus was based on the Big Al specimen.

[Faelrin]

I forgot to post this earlier, but here's a quick comparison of the BotM/Cyberzoic Allosaurus fragilis sculpt (by Jake Baardse) with the new PNSO Saurophaganax/Allosaurus:





It's incredible to see what a difference adding lips has made (at least for me, and other folks here). Like they look so similar, albeit having different sculpting styles (plus the BotM/Cyberzoic one has a bit more in the way of keratin on the head). And although this isn't actually the smaller 1:35 scale Cyberzoic or BotM version a lot of folks were hoping for (especially as it lacks articulation), (edit: forgot to finish sentence before posting earlier) hopefully this one can fulfill that need for the meantime.

Yes it would be another theropod, but I'd love if they could update their Carnotaurus with the updated integument and lips. Bonus points if they do more abelisaurids in the future since it is a group particularly neglected by them (outside the Carnotaurus, and the 3 other mini Little Dinosaurs, Abelisaurus, Indosuchus, and Majungasaurus). Though part of me would also prefer they take a break from theropods before they get to it (unless they want to do some oviraptorosaurs for example). I mean I love the 2019 Safari Ltd one Doug did a few years back, and definitely plan to get the BotM/Cyberzoic one post funding, but it would be nice to see them redo this one. I think it's one of the few still in need of an update, particularly since it suffered from the oversized scales, causing the skin detail to be inaccurate for what was accepted at the time.

[SidB]

If I'm remembering right, @Concavenator saw in a PNSO video that the PNSO Allosaurus was based on the Big Al specimen.

My recollection too.

[Eatmycar]

I still think BoTM has better hands (those claws are terrifying, frankly), but that PNSO one is gorgeous. I want to see it painted up like one from The Isle, now...

[Quiversaurus]

Okay, I look forward to comparisons/reviews on how this model can serve as an A. fragilis. Pretty exciting stuff.

BTW, on that note about claws E @Eatmycar , it seems this Saurophaganax has the characteristic enlarged thumb claw we've been looking for on the A. jimmadseni. Cause for celebration I suppose? 

[Concavenator]

@Sim S @SidB You are remembering right, this is the video I mentioned:

Minute 1:15

[SidB]

Ah yes, @Concavenator , that was it, no doubt.

[SidB]

And, BTW, I'm glad that we now have a second PNSO Allosaurus species, if not necessarily two genera (leaving that question open for now), fragilis and jimmadseni. I'll keep the old one for that reason alone, among others.

[Stratos]

When is the Saurophaganax expected to come up for sale? I'm surprised it isn't available on AliExpress yet. And does anyone know generally how much time later they tend to appear on Amazon? This is my first brand new release I've wanted to buy.

[postsaurischian]

When is the Saurophaganax expected to come up for sale? I'm surprised it isn't available on AliExpress yet. And does anyone know generally how much time later they tend to appear on Amazon? This is my first brand new release I've wanted to buy.

Since LanaTime is already offering it, I guess it will appear on PNSO's AliExpress page this week.

[SRF]

I recently saw a theory that tbh makes a fair bit of sense as to why pnso had done so many theropods in a row. Basically the idea is that once the new paper arguing for lips dropped and pnso changed their mind, they rushed all of their theropods that had been designed prior to the paper into production so that they could make the switch to lips asap.

Sorry for the late response but I was thinking about this as well. This could also explain why a lot of the recent releases didn't have any artwork on the posters that are included, but a poster with a promotional shot of the figure itself.

I did wonder why PNSO didn't just redo the head sculpt of these figures. With their older figures the head was a seperate piece that connected to the body (as being very obvious with Winter Wilson) but I'm actually not sure if the head, excluding the lower jaw and de connecting part for the articulation, is now part of the sculpt of the figures body. That would explain why PNSO decided to release these figures lipless after all.

[Concavenator]

Saurophaganax already up on Amazon.

Onto the matter of lips, I'm not so sure Cullen et al. (2023) had any real impact on PNSO's decision to start representing theropods with lips again after all this time and I think they were probably planning to do it regardless of the paper. Why, you might be wondering? Ignoring that just because a lot of people were asking for it and criticising liplessness there are 2 particular details that made me think this way:

1. Why were they representing theropods with lips in the art that was included with their older (lipless) theropod figures? Take the Acrocanthosaurus or the Sinraptor, for example. These 2 figures were released last year (prior to the aforementioned paper) and, as I said, the depiction that appears in the art depicts them with lips:

Spoiler

[close]

Why, though? If, as they previously claimed, they believed theropods didn't have lips, you would expect that art to also feature lipless theropods. Said art is also made by them, after all.

2. This tweet. "Suchomimus did not have lips". Why the need to mention that? And before any of you say: "Oh, it's because it's a spinosaurid and maybe they didn't have lips". Well, all of their other (modern) theropods lack lips, why particularly mention one specific theropod didn't have lips? It's not like their other (modern) theropods were lipped.

To me, these 2 details alone already make me think they were planning to make lipped theropod figures again. Of course, the fact that they have been releasing all of these lipless theropods (T. rex included, and twice at that) and after some time, started releasing lipped theropod figures again makes for an excuse for releasing yet another T. rex (and maybe Giganotosaurus, too?), as other folks already mentioned.

I can't help but find it amusing when I see a comment like: "Why couldn't they also give Cameron lips?". And I think: "Yeah, that's exactly the point." We have now gotten a lipped Yangchuanosaurus (well, 2 if you count the older one) and Saurophaganax figures, do you really think we are not going to get a lipped Tyrannosaurus from them sooner or later?

On another hand, in response to the comments that wonder whether or not lips are going to be a PNSO trademark from now on or not - why wouldn't it? No reason for them to leave it now that they've started again. I could see them doing an exception to this with spinosaurids, though (not that I agree with that).

Personally, I don't care about the inconsistency of having non-lipped and lipped theropods. If they modified those theropods to have lips, I would appreciate that, but liplessness is generally not a deal-breaker for me and I still plan to get those lipless theropods just as I did before. Subject to change if another nice and lipped versions of the theropods in question are released by someone else (like Safari) of course. But yeah, a step has been taken. Now what's left is for them to start using some more visually distinctive color schemes. The BotM tyrannosaurs are a prime example, they have perfectly natural color schemes and they are so distinctive on their own that you can tell them apart just by the color.