Papo made an Oviraptor. And they made it well. Great fuss has been made around this figure, because again a Papo figure takes that typical “love it or hate it” – attitude as a basis, which I personally highly adore. Albeit Papo´s interpretation of this late Cretaceaous Mongolian theropod turned out to be very old school, if not obsolete, many people now regard it as another Papo masterpiece.
The Papo Oviraptor stands 8 cm tall and is 12 cm long. Its concept didn´t include feathers and an agile pose. Contrariwise the overall look is quite reptilian, although the arms and legs have been sculpted very delicately. The hands are probably not in the correct position; one even holds an egg, due to an age-old assumption that Oviraptor stole eggs. Later it had been proofed the fossil animal lay on its own nest, breeding. Yet Papo said yes to the idea and made it basal for their Oviraptor.
Attaching an item to a figure can easily look goofy and is not that common in dinosaur figure business. A single fish had been added to Bullyland Pteranodon sternbergi, Invicta´s Baryonyx had yet another fish being attached to its front claws. Luckily – except for the overall wrong idea of Oviraptor stealing eggs – this undertaking has been successful at all these three dinosaur figures. Papo again have been loyal to their very unique style – theropods are, except for the Tyrannosaurus, always in the vertebra – parallel – to – ground – position. Unfortunately Papos loyalty again includes their boring colour concept, even for the new figure. It reveals a brownish green, sometimes tan colouring, of course with the very detailed worked out scales.
The only colourful body part is the red crest on the head. In real life it was probably useful for both intimidation and awing rivals. Actually, the highlight of this figure definitely is its head. Each and every detail of the fossil skull has been considered here – the beak, the crest, the position of the skull bones, and the position of nostrils – everything really delectable for dinosaur enthusiasts. The two teeth, probably proper for cracking molluscs, snail shells or even seeds, and the tongue are the highlights within the highlight.
In short I want to state that this figure certainly is not suited to become everybody´s darling, due to the obsolete conception. It’s the same as with Papo’s Velociraptor here: If you don´t cling to your point of view or scientific correctness stubbornly, this figure can be a lot of fun. You let a cool statement slip by if you decide to only collect “correct” figures in this case.
The Oviraptor is commonly available everywhere on the web, here on Amazon for example, or in your local toy store.
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I love this Oviraptor. At least it doesn’t look like another chicken with a long tail. One thing Papo could’ve done was to make the egg smaller so it could be held by both hands. And at this scale, they could’ve made a Gallimimus model instead, so our Papo running T-Rex had something to chase after.
Out of curiosity, why do you say, “At least it doesn’t look like another chicken with a long tail.” It seems like you’re implying the real animals are inferior to bad fiction like this Papo figure.
Umm..really? I never thought of it that way.
[…] the past, Papo have tended to make their theropods either too scaly or too monstrous. Fortunately, the real Carnotaurus was both very scaly and rather scary-looking […]
what is annoying me the most with this figure, besides its retro look is the fact that it won’t stand eventually. The weight of the egg gradually makes the arm move inwards, throwing the figure off balance. I keep repositionning it at least once a day. I think it’s eventually going to either get glued on a base or thrown in the garbage…
I had to have a little chuckle to myself when I got this, as it does look quite goofy holding that egg – reminds me a bit of Space Jam, yes. And why rest the egg on the floor when in a running pose? It’s like it’s dragging it along…. And the egg looks as it’s about to fall out of it’s hand at any second.
Such an outdated perception of the animal too, I need not say more here.
It’s also a bit disappointing that the Oviraptor isn’t feathered. But oh well, Papo still did a good job with the detail, even if it isn’t scientifically correct. I do really like the head, and was very impressed with the discovery that it possesses the two shell cracking teeth.
I like this figure a lot because it’s one of the few Oviraptor figures out there that I’ve seen, and the only one I have.
[…] this is far from being the most severely flawed figure in the Papo range (dare I mention the horrible Oviraptor again?). Apart from it being a Euoplocephalus rather than an Ankylosaurus, the head is too large […]
[…] all displayed the usual high production standards, only the Pachyrhinosaurus was truly great, the Oviraptor emerging as a scaly basketball player and the Plesiosaurus as a Nessie aberration. (I await your […]
[…] Marc (Horridus) @ 4:14 pm Rating 0.00 out of 5 Following on from the recent review of the Papo Oviraptor by a fellow blogger, let us look now at a radically different interpretation of the same dinosaur […]
A mi parece bastante bien acabado pero es más científicamente correcto hablando el Oviraptor con nido de Safari Carnegie. Es uno de mis preferidos. Aunque este Oviraptor la cabeza está sobre todo muy bien lograda.
Papo already has an entire line of scaly dinosaurs, especially the allosaurus! 😉 I think if it were feathered it wouldn’t be a bad seller.
And it isn’t possible for it to hold that egg that way either :-/
*facepalm*
Some people are just impossible I guess lol
I shall get him no matter what it takes. 🙂
Now, what’s impossible are those fingers holding that egg that way…. 😀
I was at first REALLY skeptical about this guy, but as soon as i got it, well… Totally awesome figure, even if heavily retro; tons of details (especially the head, as the review says)for an overall great model! 😀
I must admit I am tempted by people like you who say it’s cool in a retro-’90s sort of way. Childhood nostalgia is a powerful thing after all!
I like it. I see it as a nod to the way society has viewed the dinosaur for so long. Not all companies have to produce scientifically accurate replicas in order to be worth while.
Just imagine how awesome this would have been if they HAD done it correctly 😉
It would have probably looked awesome as well but in a different way. Some people just like scaly dinosaurs, regardless if its accurate or not.
I want this. But way too much money on this one place I buy my dinosaurs from. 🙁
It’s based on the Chap Mei figure.
Don’t like it. At all. There’s just no excuse for it to NOT be feathered. The Papo Velociraptor was clearly the Jurassic Park model, so that was forgivable, but there are too many things wrong here. In addition to the lack of plumage, it’s got an awkward pose and bunny hands. Remind me how it’s holding that egg?
Bah. This is garbage compared to their other models.
Cool retroviraptor!
I like this Oviraptor. 🙂
I still hope that Papo release a non-retro feathered maniraptoran at some point. I’m not really a fan of this particular model because, as you said, it isn’t in line with current understanding and it doesn’t have the appeal of being a piece of film merchandise. (I do have the Velociraptor!)