Stegosaurus (Horizon)

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As far as my “knowledge” goes, Horizon was a small model making company of Chinese origin located in California. It ceased production in the late 90`s or early 2000´s and was famous for making high detailed models of movie characters, like Terminator, Robocop, classic monsters or Jurassic Park. Before JP however, they produced a small line of “dinosaur” figures. There were at least four models, an Elasmosaurus, which is already reviewed here, an Apatosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and a Stegosaurus. Let´s talk about this last one…

I guess I do not need to tell you anything about Stegosaurus, though, despite of it´s popularity, several of it´s features are still under debate. What Horizon delivered around the year 1992 was a quite outdated version of our plated lizard. Head and tail are held low, the front legs are somewhat sprawled.

The model is made of hollow vinyl of light chocolate brown color, a detailed instruction sheet provides information for assembly and painting. The individual parts need some work before assembly, surplus material and sprues need to be cut away after being bathed in scalding hot water to smoothen the vinyl and making cutting easier and less dangerous. The parts are then glued with cyanacrylate and gaps filled with putty.

As you can see I customized the model a bit. Eyes were drilled out to insert glass eyes, the neck was extended for around 2 cm and a plate aswell as a spike was cut to imitate some battle wounds. The paint job is inspired by the pattern and colors on the original box.

The whole model now measures 32 cm in direct line and is 15,5 cm tall at the highest plate. The detailing is just great, every scale is individually sculpted or carve and gives the figure a very natural and authentic look, despite its outdated pose. To be sure this also applies the challenge of filling the gaps between parts and giving them the right texture. Stamps made from putty and the original skin pattern as a base can be of great help here. I especially like the scarred texture of the plates and the fine scales o the head.

If you like such vintage models and assembling such models I highly recommend the Horizon Stegosaurus. It can be found on ebay now and then, but prices may vary greatly, I bought mine for less than 20 Euro. A review of Horizon`s Tyrannosaurus will follow shortly.