Review and photos by Ravonium, edited by Suspsy
Apart from the ever-famous Plesiosauria, the superorder Sauropterygia also contains a significant number of lesser-known taxa. Despite the diverse morphology of these reptiles, they are pretty rarely represented as toy figures. Thankfully, PNSO has made a (relatively speaking) sizeable number of these oddballs for their line of minis, including a Glyphoderma in 2016, and this year, an Atopodentatus and the subject of this review: a Keichousaurus.
This figure is, when adjusted for the curved neck and tail, about 12 cm long, which would, based on the 30 cm size figure given on the poster that came with this figure, make it 1:2.5 scale (although, as there are a wide range of size estimates for Keichousaurus, the scale could vary a lot depending on the estimate you use).
The paint job of the figure is predominantly green, and it progressively gets lighter down the sides of the body until it becomes yellow-cream colored on the underside. Despite a significant part of the underside being unpainted, it still manages to fit in well with the rest of the paint job. Overall, while the paint job is simplistic, with a few dark spots on the top of the body being the only form of patterning, it is very nice, and does a very good job at looking like the color scheme of an animal in a similar ecological niche.
Thanks to loads of Keichousaurus specimens (and thousands of fake copies) having been discovered, we have a very good idea of what its general proportions were like, and the figure manages to get these more or less right. The feet are broad as they were in real life, and most of the body parts are relative to each other in size. The tail seems short relative to the rest of the body, but that can be attributed to it being curved and the fact that it would be hard to sculpt the tip of the tail on a figure this small. Even then, a closer look at specimens of Keichousaurus reveals that the tail is just about relative to the rest of the body.
Finally, the skin texture, while being well done and helping the paint job to truly stand out, is a bit over-textured. While I would have preferred a more subtle texture, over-texturing is, in my opinion, a necessary evil if a miniature figure is to look good to discerning purchasers. Furthermore, the animal on the poster has a flawlessly smooth skin texture, suggesting that PNSO know the skin texture they’ve put on the figure isn’t necessarily accurate. Overall, the skin texture is not something to write home about, but nor is it something I’d lose sleep over at night.
So, would I recommend this figure? Definitely. Despite my minor issues with the skin texture, it is an excellent figure in all other aspects, and it is well worth buying if you are interested in unique taxa, marine reptiles and/or miniature figures.
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I honestly do not know a lot about sauropterygians. That’s one of reason why I like companies making different animals, it introduces animals that I never knew about, and it fuels my curiosity to learn more about them. Nice review and figure.
Good to see that my review got submitted, and thanks to suspsy for editing it, and to whoever approved it (presumably Dr. Admin).
This is my first attempt at a review, so any feedback is welcome.
Honestly, it’s a beautiful miniature. Another masterpiece of the artist and Zhao Chuang.