Review and photos by Takama, edited by Suspsy
Kentrosaurus is one of those dinosaurs that almost everyone in this community has heard of, as it’s basically a cousin of Stegosaurus with more spikes and spines coming out of its shoulders. It may have been smaller than Stegosaurus, but that did not mean that it was not potentially dangerous, as the animal had enough spikes to take on even the largest of predators. It was found in Africa, at the Tendaguru Formation, where it lived alongside other plant eaters such as Giraffatitan and Dicraeosaurus.
In 2015, Schleich released a Kentrosaurus for their World of History line, and it was one of the company’s most well-received figures. Not only was it one of the best dinosaurs they made that year, but it was also one of their best ones to date. So it may (or may not) come as a surprise to you all that that figure is being retired for 2018 and being replaced with this new one made for the 2017 Conquering the Earth line.
First impressions are decent. The detailing is great, and this time, the model has a good colour scheme to really accent the detail (unlike the 2017 Stegosaurus). A majority of the model is sculpted with individual scales, and the head resembles that of a real stegosaur. The pose is not as dynamic as either the first Kentrosaurus, and I feel that it could use a little tweaking. Now, I’m not exactly sure how to interpret this pose, as the right forelimb is in motion (with only the claw tips touching the ground) and the tail is pointing upwards while curving to the side. Some may interpret this as a threat display, but I also wonder if the model could be in a walking pose as well. If the tail was held more straight, I would have liked it a lot more, as it would deviate it from the poses given to the previous Stegosaurus and Kentrosaurus, but as it is, it’s just giving me a headache to interpret this figure.
As far as accuracy is concerned, there is plenty to talk about. The spikes and plates are paired evenly along the back like they should be. However, the figure is made by Schleich, so there are some faults to be had here. For one, the feet on this figure are incorrect, as only three claws should be present on the front feet, not the whole set of toes. Another issue with this figure is the head. If you take a look at the skeletal drawing by Scott Hartman, you can see that Kentrosaurus had a pretty small head when compared to the body. It is also apparent that the neck is too short. While I was looking at the skeleton, the other issues with the sculpt became even more apparent, as the plates are not spaced correctly and the shoulder spikes are jutting out too much. However, comparing this model to the previous Kentrosaurus shows that the shape of the plates have been corrected in accordance to the skeleton, making this version a little more accurate.
As for the colours on this figure, the model’s base colour is white with a normal tan washed over it. The sculpt is also adorned with maroon stripes, which look fantastic, and make it look a bit more interesting than the Stegosaurus. Other colours include a dark brown for the claws and beak and white on the tips of the spikes.
At around 7 inches from head to tail, the model is most likely around 1:25 scale, which would make it too big to be in scale with anything that’s 1:40. But then again, I feel that the days of scale model dinosaur figures are long gone, as almost every company out there today has abandoned scale in favour of making toys that are big enough for kids to play around with. As a toy, this Kentrosaurus can offer a lot of play value, as it has more than enough spikes to make kids want to impale their theropod figures. As a collectible, I can safely say that the accuracy has improved a bit, so if you were hard-pressed to own only one Kentrosaurus from Schleich, then this would be the one if you are also a stickler for accuracy. Even though it’s not perfect, it is still a lot better than all of the theropods Schleich released this year, and it should go down as one of their better efforts to date.
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I’d like to echo Shonisaurus’ last congratulatory statement, Takama. Your contributions are greatly appreciated, especially at this time when reviews seem to be at a bit of a low ebb.
Thank you for your words SidB. My only intention with my humble interventions is to improve day by day the forum of dinotoyblog so that it continues to grow in followers and contributions.
With the inaccuracies already enumerated is the best figure of Schleich made to date. That is one of my reasons why I scored the figure with five stars. I understand that we must give from figures like this a margin of confidence for the Schleich company.
As you can see if he wanted the company Schleich would make better dinosaur figures than he has done to date and the kentrosaurus is a faithful example of what I said in my comments of the forum.
On the other hand the comments are excellent and I congratulate Guest Reviews for their contributions in the general comments that the dinotoyblog.com does