Thanks to Recur for the review sample.
Earlier this year I filmed myself unboxing a delivery of Recur figures on Youtube. The video received a whopping 5,000 views in two months demonstrating that unboxing videos really are popular, aren’t they! Suspsy has already reviewed some of these Recur figures on the Dinotoyblog, and he has more in the pipeline, so watch this space for more. In the meantime, I’ve picked out one of the models to take a quick look at myself.
It may be difficult to comprehend, after all these years, but I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a pachycephalosaur on the Dinotoyblog! Astute followers may know otherwise, but either way, I can’t remember reviewing one! So, the Recur Pachycephalosaurus stood out as a natural choice for me.
The head is bowed into that classic Pachycephalosaur head-butting pose, and there’s movement to the sculpt. The skull is particularly good and in most regards the proportions match the fossil evidence. All of the typical characters – raised dome, crown of spikes, armoured snout – are in the correct positions. There is just one feature that is distracting – two goofy incisors. Pachycephalosaurs do indeed have a heterodont dentition with smaller leaf-like teeth in the rear of the jaw, and three larger pointed teeth in the front of the jaw, but not quite to the degree depicted here. The large prong-like teeth in the Recur model endow the animal with an almost mammalian vibe – like some funny mutant rodent. If one reduced these blunt gnashers considerably you’d have an excellent Pachycephalosaurus head.
Since Pachycephalosaurus is only known from skull material, the details of its postcranial anatomy are unknown. Our presumptions for this genus are therefore based on other pachycephalosaurs, but they, too, are poorly known. In this regard, the body of the Recur model has to be speculative to a certain extent, but it is accurate enough in all the major details… so far as is know. To my eye, the neck seems a bit long for a creature that purportedly uses its head as a battering ram. No hand is known for any pachycephalosaur, so the five digits is an educated guess, while we know the foot had three functional digits, so compliments on accuracy here!
The colour is subdued and calming, but for some striking red stripes on the tail. This is the sort of special flourish that adds character to a toy. Suspsy has commented elsewhere on the squeezable soft material Recur figures are constructed from. This makes them well suited for play but differs from the vast majority of other major brand dinosaur toys, which tend to be produced in harder plastics. In this regard, Recur stand out as different. I guess it is a matter of taste which you prefer: my preference is for harder plastics. However, the material is sturdy enough to hold its shape and the Pachycephalosaurus stands perfectly fine with just a little help from its down-curved tail.
Overall, I recommend this figure. Pachycephalosaurus toys are relatively thin on the ground, so this fills a gap, and it’s a relatively accurate depiction of a rather poorly known dinosaur.
Thanks again to Recur for the review sample. Check out the Recur website at http://www.recur.top/ and like them on Facebook here.
Available from Recur’s AliExpress store
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