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

[Elengassen]

As for Saurolophus, the one in the Haolonggood silhouette is the American S. osborni, so I guess the figure will be of that species.  I would have much preferred if it was the Mongolian S. angustirostris.

What tipped you off that the one in the silhouette is S. osborni? The Wikipedia article on Saurolophus states that 'Aside from size, the two species are virtually identical'.

[Protopatch]

To the attention of the admins @DinoToyForum and @Libraraptor 
Apparently, I don't have the possibility to change the title of this thread by myself.
Indeed, I thought that it would be more relevant to modify with : "Protoceratops & other dinosaurs of the Gobi Desert - Your best figures recommendations".
May you please kindly help me to do so ? -Thank you in advance !

[Protopatch]

So, having given due consideration to the different options, I have finally chosen the Wild Past Protoceratops and look forward to receiving it !
I think that it should go well with Schleich or PNSO's Tarbosaurus (probably the next dino that I'll try to unearth), in terms of proportions.

[bmathison1972]

So, having given due consideration to the different options, I have finally chosen the Wild Past Protoceratops and look forward to receiving it !
I think that it should go well with Schleich or PNSO's Tarbosaurus (probably the next dino that I'll try to unearth), in terms of proportions.

I've decided on the Kaiyodo UH Collect Club version!

[DinoToyForum]

To the attention of the admins @DinoToyForum and @Libraraptor 
Apparently, I don't have the possibility to change the title of this thread by myself.
Indeed, I thought that it would be more relevant to modify with : "Protoceratops & other dinosaurs of the Gobi Desert - Your best figures recommendations".
May you please kindly help me to do so ? -Thank you in advance !

If you go to the first post in the thread and click modify, are you unable to change the subject field? If not, I can change it for you. 

[Protopatch]

To the attention of the admins @DinoToyForum and @Libraraptor 
Apparently, I don't have the possibility to change the title of this thread by myself.
Indeed, I thought that it would be more relevant to modify with : "Protoceratops & other dinosaurs of the Gobi Desert - Your best figures recommendations".
May you please kindly help me to do so ? -Thank you in advance !

If you go to the first post in the thread and click modify, are you unable to change the subject field? If not, I can change it for you. 

It works perfectly, many thanks ! From now onwards, more Gobi stuff are welcome here 

[Protopatch]

@Concavenator, nice catch regaring the PNSO Alamosaurus's skull, I didn't know that!  @Flaffy shared a side photo of the Bandai Citipati in a PM conversation we had and the figure is the 100/42 oviraptorid.  As for Saurolophus, the one in the Haolonggood silhouette is the American S. osborni, so I guess the figure will be of that species.  I would have much preferred if it was the Mongolian S. angustirostris.

I made some research on the internet but couldn't find anything about Haolonggood's Saurolophus 
It would be great if you could provide a website link for this reference.

[Protopatch]

@Concavenator the PNSO's Alamosaurus might well be an alternative solution to Nemegtosaurus, thanks for suggesting.

I'm moving now to Tarbosaurus and Tsintaosaurus (okey honestly, I'll wait until the reception of the Proto prior to considering the next purchases, nevertheless by anticipation, your feedback on those guys would be much appreciated too ) :

1 – Tarbosaurus
Hesitating between PNSO and Schleich models.
They are relatively similar in length ie +/- 300 mm.
The PNSO's one presents a great overall shape, except its forelimbs which I find closer to those of an abelisaur ?

However, the teeth and the texture of its skin appear more realistic to me than those of the Schleich's version.


2 – Tsintaosaurus
Only a few figures are available for this species, as far as I can see.
PNSO offer 2 different models, the 1:35 for a total length of 218mm and a smaller one of 103mm in length.
I find that the skin of the latter is quite "wrinkled" in comparison with the texture of the skin of the former.

[Sim]

What tipped you off that the one in the silhouette is S. osborni? The Wikipedia article on Saurolophus states that 'Aside from size, the two species are virtually identical'.

That's a strange statement that Wikipedia makes, as it also says:

S. angustirostris (Rozhdestvensky, 1952) is known from at least 15 specimens.[7] It differs from S. osborni by some details of the skull, as well as in the pattern of scales found in skin impressions. The Mongolian species had a longer skull (by 20%) and the front of the snout (the premaxillary bones) were more upwardly directed.[8] S. angustirostris also had a distinctive row of rectangular scales along the midline of the back and tail, known as 'midline feature-scales'; these are not currently preserved in S. osborni. In S. angustirostris, the scales on the tail flank were arranged in vertical patterns, which may have corresponded to striped coloration in life. This area was covered in radial scale patterns in S. osborni, possibly indicating a more mottled or spotted coloration.[9]

I thought the Haolonggood Saurolophus silhouette is of S. osborni due to the shorter snout and angle of the crest which matches that of S. osborni.  The crest of S. angustirostris is more horizontal.  Looking at it again, the silhouette also lacks the midline feature scales of S. angustirostris and is the size of S. osborni relative to the other animals' silhouettes.

I made some research on the internet but couldn't find anything about Haolonggood's Saurolophus 
It would be great if you could provide a website link for this reference.

It's only been hinted at with a silhouette which doesn't necessarily reflect the final appearance of the figure, it can be seen here: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=11752.msg387144#msg387144

[Fembrogon]

The PNSO Tarbosaurus might be a little gratuitous with the bulk, but in general I'd say it's the better-proportioned figure - arms included.
Granted, it's also the more expensive of the two, so weigh that into your decisions.

Spoiler

[close]

You're right that there are very few Tsintaosaurus toys; in fact the PNSO Museum figure is probably the only one really worth acquiring. Sadly it's also one of the most needlessly expensive figures in the entire PNSO lineup. I recommend watching and waiting for one to potentially go on sale somewhere and grab it then. I acquired mine when Happy Hen Toys had a "damaged-box" copy they listed for something like 30% off.

[Gwangi]

The large PNSO Tsintaosaurus is both one of the best ornithopod models ever made and also one of the most overpriced models ever made.  Like Fembrogon though, I was able to get one on sale (through Amazon), I wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

Tarbosaurus has proportionally smaller arms than T. rex. The PNSO Tarbo is not flawless but the arm size is not an issue. There's really no comparing it to Schleich's. PNSO's is a proper model while Schleich's is a kid's toy through and through.

[Sim]

I have the PNSO Tarbosaurus and recommend it.  I find it very pleasing!  I've owned the Schleich Tarbosaurus too, its colouration is excellent and the skin was fine from what I remember, however I found it looked a bit like a caricature, and I ended up giving it away as I didn't like it enough.

Some others you might want to consider soon are Psittacosaurus, and maybe Qianzhousaurus which is sometimes considered the adult of Alioramus.  Some of the best figures of these two species have been retired recently.

[Elengassen]

What tipped you off that the one in the silhouette is S. osborni? The Wikipedia article on Saurolophus states that 'Aside from size, the two species are virtually identical'.

That's a strange statement that Wikipedia makes, as it also says:

S. angustirostris (Rozhdestvensky, 1952) is known from at least 15 specimens.[7] It differs from S. osborni by some details of the skull, as well as in the pattern of scales found in skin impressions. The Mongolian species had a longer skull (by 20%) and the front of the snout (the premaxillary bones) were more upwardly directed.[8] S. angustirostris also had a distinctive row of rectangular scales along the midline of the back and tail, known as 'midline feature-scales'; these are not currently preserved in S. osborni. In S. angustirostris, the scales on the tail flank were arranged in vertical patterns, which may have corresponded to striped coloration in life. This area was covered in radial scale patterns in S. osborni, possibly indicating a more mottled or spotted coloration.[9]

I thought the Haolonggood Saurolophus silhouette is of S. osborni due to the shorter snout and angle of the crest which matches that of S. osborni.  The crest of S. angustirostris is more horizontal.  Looking at it again, the silhouette also lacks the midline feature scales of S. angustirostris and is the size of S. osborni relative to the other animals' silhouettes.

Ah okay, thanks – I just skimmed through the article so I didn't notice that part. I would also prefer if HLG made S. angustirostris, so I hope the silhouette isn't indicative of the final figure (although even if it is, it'll still be great to finally get a good figure of this genus).

[thebermuda303]

Haolonggood saichania is a great overall figure, so I highly recommend that one! When it comes to therizinosaurs safari ltd a pnso are both a tie for me.
If anyone wants a good tarbosaurus I'd wait for something better, Schleich is charming, but very "kidified". Pnso on the other hand has a really bad skull, based on a mounted skeleton from the 50's. That's why it's so long and shallow. Also shoulder girdle of pnso tarbosaurus is too high up, another thing taken from the mount that wasn't accounted for while reconstructing it, that's why it appears to be so fat while in fact it's arms should be placed lower. That'd also extend the neck so it would be as short. Rest is pretty much okay, general thickness of the animal is portrayed very well. It's toes might be a bit too long but they're graciously padded which is a big plus.

Here's the specimen pnso based their reconstruction on. All with the shoulder girdle placement, that weird notch in it's jaws and ridiculous overbite.

Also how did we go to tsintaosaurus here? It lived deep in china instead of Mongolia.

[Protopatch]

Undoubtedly, the PNSO's Tarbosaurus wins unanimous support (- @thebermuda303 ).
That's cool, thank you all !

As for Tsintaosaurus, the lack of choice quickly "solves the problem" but the price of the biggest model may be indeed rather prohibitive.
I admit that Tsintaosaurus might be considered as an outsider in the Gobi dinos collection given its currently assumed geographic distribution.
In any case, there is only a few species of Hadrosauridae/Hadrosauroids known to originate from the Gobi Desert, and neither Saurolophus nor Gobihadros (nor Penelopognathus ?) have their own figure at the moment.
And, such a fauna without duckbilled dinos is, in my opinion, like a watch without needles.

[Protopatch]

I have the PNSO Tarbosaurus and recommend it.  I find it very pleasing!  I've owned the Schleich Tarbosaurus too, its colouration is excellent and the skin was fine from what I remember, however I found it looked a bit like a caricature, and I ended up giving it away as I didn't like it enough.

Some others you might want to consider soon are Psittacosaurus, and maybe Qianzhousaurus which is sometimes considered the adult of Alioramus.  Some of the best figures of these two species have been retired recently.

This is a great idea, thanks for suggesting.
Actually, I would first like to complete my collection with figures of species dating from the Late Cretaceous and then, it's highly likely that I'll pursue with those of the Early Cretaceous.
Psittacosaurus is hence added to my wishlist but it's a shame if some of the best references are now unavailable...
Regarding Alioramus/Qianzhousaurus, are you thinking about specific references ?

[Elengassen]

Excluding minis and action figures, the PNSO Tarbosaurus is probably the best figure of the genus around, notwithstanding the issues @thebermuda303 mentioned above as well as the lack of lips (which is the reason I ended up selling mine, as I was doing a purge of lipless theropod figures from my collection).

The second best would be the museum exclusive Favorite figure sculpted by Hirokazu Tokugawa, but that one is very hard to find (and expensive) nowadays. There's another, non-exclusive Favorite Tarbosaurus sculpted by Kazunari Araki, which has a decent sculpt but the colour scheme looks like it was designed by a 10-year old.

If you are into action figures/miniatures, you could also consider the Creative Beast or Kaiyodo Tarbosaurus figures. The former is articulated and very large, around 1:20 scale. The latter comes in several colour variants and is very small, around 1:100.

Those are all the good Tarbosaurus figures I can think of; I wouldn't bother with any of the others, personally. I do hope that a new, good Tarbosaurus figure in the standard scale range (with lips!) is released, and I think there's a decent chance of that happening at some point.

[thebermuda303]

I'm giving a lot of hope towards haolonggood, really hope they'll drop a tarbosaurus this year. Just really hope they won't go for the outdated thin skull reconstruction.

Really happy though that CollectA is releasing a gallimimus this year!

Another cool thing is that safari ltd patagotitan could work as opisthocoelicaudia or nemegtosaurus stand in, size and proportions check out, just have to endure the weird neck position.

[Sim]

It's been said Haolonggood will produce a new Tyrannosaurus this year, I doubt they would produce Tarbosaurus too.  Plus, they seem to be focusing less on prehistoric animals this year, with their branching out into modern animals, that makes me think a Tarbosaurus from them is even less likely.  I think the PNSO Tarbosaurus will be as good as it gets for the forseeable future.

[Protopatch]

My Gobi « dream team » would - for starters - include (and I am far from having completed it !) :

A - Saurischia

1 - Tarbosaurus
2 - Velociraptor
3 - Therizinosaurus
4 - Deinocheirus
5 - Oviraptor/Cicipati

6 - Nemegtosaurus*
(*) not sure that a toy has been released yet ?

B - Ornithischia

1 - Protoceratops
2 - Gobisaurus
3 - Tsintaosaurus/Saurolophus

C - Pterosaur

A little update on my initial Gobi « Dream team ». Unless otherwise stated, they are all Gobi species from the Upper Cretaceous (many thanks again to you @Sim  @Concavenator  @Elengassen  & @thebermuda303 for your great suggestions and many thanks in advance to all of you for your future figures recommendations!). To be completely honest, I haven't had time to check if figures are available for some of them, but I definitely count on your help

A - Saurischia

1 - Tarbosaurus
2 - Velociraptor
3 - Therizinosaurus
4 - Deinocheirus
5 - Oviraptor/Cicipati
6 - Gallimimus
7 - Alioramus

8 - Nemegtosaurus (NA)/Alamosaurus (Alt. North America)/Patagotitan (Alt. Argentina)

B - Ornithischia

1 - Protoceratops
2 - Saichania/Gobisaurus (Lower Cretaceous)
3 - Tsintaosaurus (Alt. China)/Saurolophus (NA)
4 - Psittacosaurus (Lower Cretaceous)

C - Pterosaur (actually struggling to find the exact species name, any idea on your end ?^^)