Papo

[Shonisaurus]

Yeah that Quetzalcoatlus is definitely a massive improvement, and I would have much preferred that from the start. Honestly I think CollectA is still the only company to produce any azhdarchid in a standing pose?

I think Favorite will produce standing pterosaurs. Apart from that we have the 2019 Safari pteranodon. It is not ruled out that in the future Favorite Soft Model and Safari will make one or more azhdarchid like Collecta as their great quetzalcoatlus.

[oscars_dinos]

As the Papo fan boy that I am I just want to say how cute and good looking does that Papo limited addition spino look right now with the new spinosaurus tail news that came out. Eel tail for the win..... (no one bring up the giga tho ok)

[tanystropheus]

As the Papo fan boy that I am I just want to say how cute and good looking does that Papo limited addition spino look right now with the new spinosaurus tail news that came out. Eel tail for the win..... (no one bring up the giga tho ok)

Oh, I just found out about the Eel tail for Spinosaurus from you!! Papo definitely has the most ACCURATE Spinosaurus in the market. I wonder if Papo were working with some paleontologist consultants with insider information. Yes, I agree eel tail for the win!!!

https://www.cnet.com/news/spinosaurus-fossil-discovery-rewrites-history-of-swimming-dinosaurs/

[Shonisaurus]

@tanystropheus I'm glad there are DTF members who agree that Papo's spinosaurus is a great figure in the face of much criticism it receives. In my case it is one of my favorite figures and I understand that there are many negative criticisms of Papo's products that being irregular (some are well-made figures, others less finished to a greater or lesser extent) are mostly very detailed figures. I will never regret having bought the 2019 Papo spinosaurus limited version despite criticism.

[tanystropheus]

@tanystropheus I'm glad there are DTF members who agree that Papo's spinosaurus is a great figure in the face of much criticism it receives. In my case it is one of my favorite figures and I understand that there are many negative criticisms of Papo's products that being irregular (some are well-made figures, others less finished to a greater or lesser extent) are mostly very detailed figures. I will never regret having bought the 2019 Papo spinosaurus limited version despite criticism.

Yes, there's actually a fairly good amount of Papo supporters on DTF. Unfortunately, they are often silenced by those that wholeheartedly endorse negative criticisms. Whatever the reason may be, Papo has struck a chord with toy collectors, for better or for worse (and nothing has changed during the last decade of me frequenting the forums). Even if Papo were to create a line of truly accurate dinosaurs, the naysayers would still find something to nitpick to death. For example, the Gorgosaurus - people are running out of complaints so they keep saying that it is out of scale ad nauseam. If an identical model was released by a competitor such as CollectA or Safari, all flaws would be brushed under the rug and it would receive high praise across the board. That's just how it is.  Mattel is excused altogether because they never claimed to be non-JP or "museum quality" (not that Papo ever claimed that label either).

[Loon]

It's true. I actually saw a Papo supporter ritually executed in the street the other day by Safari fanatics.

[Martwad]

Yes, there's actually a fairly good amount of Papo supporters on DTF. Unfortunately, they are often silenced by those that wholeheartedly endorse negative criticisms. Whatever the reason may be, Papo has struck a chord with toy collectors, for better or for worse (and nothing has changed during the last decade of me frequenting the forums). Even if Papo were to create a line of truly accurate dinosaurs, the naysayers would still find something to nitpick to death. For example, the Gorgosaurus - people are running out of complaints so they keep saying that it is out of scale ad nauseam. If an identical model was released by a competitor such as CollectA or Safari, all flaws would be brushed under the rug and it would receive high praise across the board. That's just how it is.  Mattel is excused altogether because they never claimed to be non-JP or "museum quality" (not that Papo ever claimed that label either).

I love the sculptural detail that Papo brings, and for the most part, their more detailed paint application.  My only issue is, in there pursuit of dynamic poses, they put their sculptures in a pose that the animal couldn't even naturally attain.  If they could just bring themselves to get rid of that mindset, they could easily become the most favored manufacturer out there.

[Patrx]

In any case, all of us, whatever our collections look like, should remember these are toy manufacturers, not major sociopolitical ideologies or anything. It seems reasonable to expect that everyone here can discuss their preferences peacefully.

[stargatedalek]

@tanystropheus I'm glad there are DTF members who agree that Papo's spinosaurus is a great figure in the face of much criticism it receives. In my case it is one of my favorite figures and I understand that there are many negative criticisms of Papo's products that being irregular (some are well-made figures, others less finished to a greater or lesser extent) are mostly very detailed figures. I will never regret having bought the 2019 Papo spinosaurus limited version despite criticism.

Yes, there's actually a fairly good amount of Papo supporters on DTF. Unfortunately, they are often silenced by those that wholeheartedly endorse negative criticisms. Whatever the reason may be, Papo has struck a chord with toy collectors, for better or for worse (and nothing has changed during the last decade of me frequenting the forums). Even if Papo were to create a line of truly accurate dinosaurs, the naysayers would still find something to nitpick to death. For example, the Gorgosaurus - people are running out of complaints so they keep saying that it is out of scale ad nauseam. If an identical model was released by a competitor such as CollectA or Safari, all flaws would be brushed under the rug and it would receive high praise across the board. That's just how it is.  Mattel is excused altogether because they never claimed to be non-JP or "museum quality" (not that Papo ever claimed that label either).

Mattel has also paid a lot of money and made connections with Universal Studios in order to receive their blessing to use the designs from their films, rather than copying them without permission. When Papo focus on JP designs that don't receive a lot of official merchandise that earns them a bit more leeway from me personally anyway, like the Compsognathus or Parasaurolophus, but the Tyrannosaurus ripped right from a screenshot is just shameful.

I have seen plenty of Papo advertisements referring to their figures as educational, some showing the dinosaurs specifically. Schleich even made one! (Anyone else remember that? )

Papo has never had a uniform scale, so I certainly don't recall anyone complaining the Gorgosaurus was "out of scale". There are some complaints to be had with it for sure which keep it from being technically accurate such as mild shrink-wrapping, and it doesn't help that it has somewhat bland colours (despite basing it on the wonderfully iridescent WWD 3D depiction), but overall it's a decent figure and I certainly don't see a lot of people bashing it around here.

I certainly see a lot of people complaining the Safari Amargasaurus is out of scale, repeatedly, often in unrelated topics, despite Wild Safari not having a standard scale either. So don't think I don't get it that there are definitely complaints made for rants sake. But trying to falsely insist that Papo dinosaurs are accurate in order to earn them some kind of prestige or whatever isn't a good way to go about things.

Making inaccurate figures is fine. Copying them directly from a screenshot is less fine. And advertising them as educational, acknowledging that design and marketing departments are not always going to even interact prior to a products completion, is also less fine even if an understandable sad reality. The question is if any of these things are "less fine enough" to bother someone. Me? Not super bothered, but I'm also going to speak up when I see people claiming these things are not true.

[tanystropheus]

@tanystropheus I'm glad there are DTF members who agree that Papo's spinosaurus is a great figure in the face of much criticism it receives. In my case it is one of my favorite figures and I understand that there are many negative criticisms of Papo's products that being irregular (some are well-made figures, others less finished to a greater or lesser extent) are mostly very detailed figures. I will never regret having bought the 2019 Papo spinosaurus limited version despite criticism.

Making inaccurate figures is fine. Copying them directly from a screenshot is less fine. And advertising them as educational, acknowledging that design and marketing departments are not always going to even interact prior to a products completion, is also less fine even if an understandable sad reality. The question is if any of these things are "less fine enough" to bother someone. Me? Not super bothered, but I'm also going to speak up when I see people claiming these things are not true.

I don't think Universal has a problem with it as I've seen Papo models in the background of some Jurassic World films.

[Loon]

I don't think the issue here is that Universal cares about a Papo figure,l. It's that the practice of copying someone else's work is kind of scummy. Sadly, most companies have engaged in this from time to time.

[SidB]

@tanystropheus I'm glad there are DTF members who agree that Papo's spinosaurus is a great figure in the face of much criticism it receives. In my case it is one of my favorite figures and I understand that there are many negative criticisms of Papo's products that being irregular (some are well-made figures, others less finished to a greater or lesser extent) are mostly very detailed figures. I will never regret having bought the 2019 Papo spinosaurus limited version despite criticism.

Yes, there's actually a fairly good amount of Papo supporters on DTF. Unfortunately, they are often silenced by those that wholeheartedly endorse negative criticisms. Whatever the reason may be, Papo has struck a chord with toy collectors, for better or for worse (and nothing has changed during the last decade of me frequenting the forums). Even if Papo were to create a line of truly accurate dinosaurs, the naysayers would still find something to nitpick to death. For example, the Gorgosaurus - people are running out of complaints so they keep saying that it is out of scale ad nauseam. If an identical model was released by a competitor such as CollectA or Safari, all flaws would be brushed under the rug and it would receive high praise across the board. That's just how it is.  Mattel is excused altogether because they never claimed to be non-JP or "museum quality" (not that Papo ever claimed that label either).

I found it interesting to note that the Gorgosaurus in @Loon 's recent DTB review, is approximately 1/45 scale, not far removed from the 1/40 , which used to be a bit of an industry standard. So it fits well into many collections that have a preponderance of figures in that size range. It's only with the more recent advent of 1/35 and larger pieces that the Gorgo becomes somewhat small, though it would still display well as a sub-adult with these.

[Concavenator]

Speaking about the Gorgosaurus, I must admit that it's my favorite Papo figure in quite some time, possibly the best dinosaur figure they have ever done. Though it's not perfect, it's definitely one of their most accurate models (thanks to David Krentz of course  )

[tanystropheus]

I don't think the issue here is that Universal cares about a Papo figure,l. It's that the practice of copying someone else's work is kind of scummy. Sadly, most companies have engaged in this from time to time.

Thank you for your review on the Gorgosaurus. I apologize for my rebuke earlier as I get triggered by any suggestions that Papo should be categorized as a "Hollywood Monsters" toy company (even though, you never made that claim as far as I am aware). To answer your question, I deem the Gorgosaurus to be accurate along with the Tupuxuara (despite its lack of pycnofibers like the Sideshow counterpart). I also feel that Styracosaurus was somewhat accurate (despite the outstretched neck like the X-plus and Favorite models). I wish I knew where the Ceratosaurus, Theri, Acro and Cryo stands in terms of accuracy but I am an amateur dinosaur enthusiast and not a paleontologist or zoologist by any means (I'm a physician executive). I am aware that some of the Papos are known for their ridiculous postures

[Faelrin]

@tanystropheus Since you were wondering, I wrote something up regarding those figures on what they get right or wrong. I was mainly going off memory, but also checking up to date skeletals from folks like Scott Hartman, that work from the known and studied fossil materials etc, which is generally pretty helpful for quickly comparing anatomy, other then reading the info on the wikipedia articles about them, which have typically pretty good up to date descriptions for these. Granted reading the published materials and visiting the reconstructions in museums would probably be better, but not everyone has access to those unfortunately (and certainly more so with the pandemic going on). I suppose a disclaimer is worth adding too, as I don't have any of these particular figures yet, and have to rely on in hand pics from folks, if not video.


The Acrocanthosaurus isn't too bad honestly. Only the arms are too big, and the obvious shrinkwrapping. I think the skull shape is a little bit off, but granted I don't have the figure in hand to know for sure. It could just be the angle of the images distorting its proportions for me. There's no evidence for the spikes along the spine either, so I'm not sure how plausible that feature is, even if purely made out of keratin.

The Ceratosaurus is easily one of their best in terms of sticking pretty close to the fossil material (including the osteoderms). Really only the arms seem to be too big, and again some shrinkwrapping, particularly on the head.

Shrinkwrapping, and pose aside from the Cryolophosaurus (it would have to break its tail in several places to achieve that), there really isn't much skeletal material on this one except the legs and some of the skull mostly. Lately it's been restored with a sort of Dilophosaurus like notch, due its likely classification (basal tetanuran), which the Papo figure lacks, but I don't know if this was starting to be done around that time or after the figure was likely sculpted.

Therizinosaurus gets the feet wrong (the first digit should be weight bearing, similar to Spinosaurus), and maybe the shape of the gut (I recall a discussion in the New for 2018 Papo thread regarding this), and some of the other proportions, and obviously the hand claws are not long enough. Granted Therizinosaurus is based off scant remains, so most of what's restored on comes from its relatives. The style of feathers, mostly on the arms, and tails, but in regards to the arms particularly, it likely wouldn't have the more derived secondary feathers only like the figure sports, if it were to have them at all.

By the way the Styracosaurus you mentioned earlier also has proportion and placement issues with the horns on the frill and the snout (which should be much longer, and less curved), other then the too long of a neck it has. It also has claws on the fourth and fifth digits, when it shouldn't, but at least the digits are reduced, and not elephant like. The recent Pentaceratops also gets that incorrect unfortunately, as did the older Pachyrhinosaurus.

[Loon]

Thank you for your review on the Gorgosaurus. I apologize for my rebuke earlier as I get triggered by any suggestions that Papo should be categorized as a "Hollywood Monsters" toy company (even though, you never made that claim as far as I am aware).

No worries about all that. I get heated myself sometimes and I often find myself getting into arguments online over stupid stuff. And given current events, debating about Papo is a pretty silly. I'm sure at some point I did call Papo Dinosaurs monsters, but other than the Baryonyx (which I maintain is one of their worst figures), I wouldn't call then monstrous anymore. I tend to think of Papo as a continuation of the original Jurassic Park movie's style, and I would never call the animals in that movie "monsters". They just have a dated look, but one I feel is stylized enough that they can get away with it. To clarify, I'm still not the biggest Papo fan in town, but I enjoy the occasional figures from them, as, regardless of accuracy, they are mostly very impressive.

[Over9K]

[Dino_Soros]

What are the head lengths of the Pentaceratops and the Gorgosaurus? I'd like to use them to calculate the scale.

[Halichoeres]

What are the head lengths of the Pentaceratops and the Gorgosaurus? I'd like to use them to calculate the scale.

D @Dino_Soros I'm afraid I don't have the Gorgosaurus handy at the moment, but I measured it at 21.6 cm from snout to tail tip along the spine when I bought it, in case that helps. I don't own the Pentaceratops, but judging from its similarity in size to the Schleich version, which I used to own, it looks to be about 1:25.

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Yes Yes, i know the Tupuxuara is discontinued. But what the hell happend so fast?