Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy
Vitae was a company that, much like PNSO, busted onto the dinosaur toy scene with some fantastic figures only to disappear entirely after a couple of years. Unlike PNSO, however, Vitae hasn’t made a comeback. After only releasing a resin model of Teratophoneus last year, Vitae now seems to be completely defunct as a company. This sad fate was only compounded when almost their entire figure catalog (which, admittedly, isn’t much) was bootlegged into oblivion. Despite all that, I think it would be worth looking back at the figures they actually did give us.
Released in 2018 as part of their smaller series of PVC figures, the Sinraptor is an impressive rendition of this Chinese metriacanthosaurid. Measuring 10” (25.4 cm) long from head to tail (taking curves into account), this figure’s roughly 1:30 scale.
In terms of accuracy, this figure’s pretty much perfect. The skin’s maybe a little too wrinkly-looking, but I guess it was either that, a figure with oversized scales, or no skin texture at all. There’s also a row of thin spikes that stretch from the base of the skull to the tip of the tail. While purely speculative, they do help this figure stick out among other theropods.
Unlike the spikes, one thing that really doesn’t help this figure stand out is the coloration. This figure is the victim of another tragic case of “Oops, all brown!” The paint apps aren’t bad at all; I just wish there was a bit more color variation, something to give the figure a bit of contrast.
Like most dinosaur toys, this guy is made of PVC. The Vitae figures just feel different: there’s a certain rubbery, springy feel that’s unlike any other figure I own. It’s not bad by any means, just something I’ve noticed. The only time I feel this material is an issue is when it comes to the jaw. This figure is the only one of the Vitae PVCs with an articulated jaw, and I can’t say that it feels that good. There’s never a time when I open it that it doesn’t feel like something’s being stressed. I’m sure the plastic is strong enough to deal with it, but I’d be careful either way.
Still, this Sinraptor is a beautiful toy. I didn’t really see that until I looked at it from [whatever you call the midpoint between a front and top] view. Really, I’m serious. There’s a certain life that this figure’s pose has that is really beautiful. So I’d highly recommend this figure. It’s a fine figure with great detail and accuracy, and it’s affordable, usually costing less than $20.
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What I appreciate about the Vitae sinraptor apart from the sculptural beauty of its figure is that the material it is made of is very resistant to abrasions and falls from a shelf. The colors are too conservative but in my case it does not traumatize me considering that although I really like the bright colors in dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, honestly, they are quite realistic sinraptor colors, considering that sometimes they must be the marks of dinosaurs High-quality toy and collectible somewhat cautious, in the sense that we will never know the actual painting of dinosaurs. As always suspsy delights us with a beautiful article
Yeah, Vitae seems to have been bootlegged a lot recently. And you can find the Sinraptor for under $20 on AliExpress.
I checked the market and theres two types. On is of better quallity and is ABOVE 20 dollars.
The other looks like a bootleg and is under the same company name
There’s an intermediate situation – factory produced figures that were then repainted cheaply at the factory to save money. See the Vitae thread and the Rebor rep’s comments. A bit of a story. The outcome was a rather inexpensive product (to clear inventory) that still is authentic.
My Sinraptor has a slight deformity to the right side of the jaws, a minor issue also noted by another poster on the DTF. I fixed it with a bit of paint. Otherwise a really good figure and well worth the $20 or so.
My bad – I should say the left side of the face. The jaw is slightly askew on the left side at the rear, hence the paint. Vitae seem to have had jaw articulation problems. Same with the factory Giganotosaurus repris for $25 (see Vitae thread), which is somewhat wonky.
Lo tengo y es una excelente figura, la proporción del cuerpo y el equilibrio que tiene en esos pies”pequeños” es impresionante, el color es un poco aburrido pero me imagino sería muy útil en la vida real, los leones tampoco tienen gran variedad de color, yo me imagino algo así, la textura me parece más de plumas que de escamas… Por lo general es una excelente figura, lamento la desaparición de Vitae, vi unos prototipos muy buenos que venían, es una de mis marcas preferidas, execelente revisión, saludos desde Chile