The “Asian Tyrant”, Tarbosaurus, is unfortunately looked over in favor of it’s more famous American cousin, Tyrannosaurus, by toy companies most of the time. Kaiyodo has produced many obscure genera before, so making a Tarbosaurus doesn’t come as a surprise to me.
Most aspects of this sculpt are good. It’s finely sculpted for such a small size (only about 3 inches), with many wrinkles here and there. Tarbosaurus had the smallest arms compared to its body size out of all the Tyrannosaurids, and this is reflected well here — the arms are small and tucked away under the body, and they are very unobtrusive, while still being very detailed (kaiyodo even made an effort to put scales on its fingers). The body is full of details such as bulging muscles and tightening tendons. There’s one problem that I see, though; the back of the head is too wide, and the eyes are facing too forwards. Unlike it’s American cousin, Tyrannosaurus, Tarbosaurus had a relatively thin rear skull and it’s eyes didn’t face far forwards.
The pose on this figure isn’t seen often in dinosaur figurines. The tail is raised high in the air to counterbalance the heavy front portion of the body, and one leg is firmly placed on the carcass of the dinosaur it’s eating (more on that later), similar to how many birds today eat their meals.
On of the cooler aspects of this figure is the base it is on — a carcass of a dinosaur, specifically Saurolophus. It looks like the body of this carcass is half buried in mud or silt, maybe there was a recent flash flood that it was recently half-buried in? There are nice details on it like the correct number of claws and tyrannosaur tooth marks in it’s neck. This is surely one of the most unique bases for a dinosaur figure ever done.
Now, onto the coloration. This is probably the most striking tyrannosaurid ever done. It’s white and light orange with beautifully done black patterns adorning it’s body which makes it very similar to some extant butterflies. There are intricately painted brown scales on the fingers and toes of this beast. The eyes are a fiery red with black dot pupils. Its mouth is very bloody, it’s obviously been tugging at this Saurolophus carcass for a while! The duckbill itself is done in dull purples and browns; after all, the attention is supposed to be going towards the Tarbosaurus, not its base! However, it still has some nice purple stripes on it’s head, and eyes with painted pupils. There’s also a good amount of blood on it’s tearing neck- this figure isn’t PG-13!
To my knowledge, there are two versions of this figure; this is a special edition version. The other version has more natural colors, but I say if you’re going for one of these, spend a little extra $ and get this absolutely amazing version, which can still be had for less then $10 if you’re careful. All in all, if you like obscure Tyrannosaur genera or striking dinosaur figures altogether, this is a figure for you!
Usually available on Ebay here
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I’m hoping that wild safari tackles this forgotten genus… Or maybe Daspletossaurus. Not holding my breath though.
It’s just the angles of the pictures that make it seem “odd”…
What’s going on with Tarbosaurus’ pelvis…? Nice figure overall though.
Shantungosaurus didn’t have a crest? I always thought it did!
*editing*
I was about to say, it is a Saurolophus not Shantungosaurus, which would’ve looked cooler and given a connection with the rest of the series. And was it released in different color variants? Mine is different (Saurolophus doesn’t have markings on it’s face and is missing the claw-marks).
I’d always heard it was shantungosaurus- and wasn’t saurolophus a lot smaller than that? The full size of the carcass would seem to be about as long or longer than the tarbosaur itself.
There was a Shantungosaurus model that was released in series 4 along with that Tarbosaurus and many others,that may be where you heard the name in association with this model pictured.And Saurolophus angustirostris was one of the bigger hadrosaurids,up to 40 feet in length.You can identify the carcass as such by the backward pointing crest on the head.
There’s just one little error:
the carcass is actually of Saurolophus angustirostris
I love this one. I wish American companies would produce diorama scenes like this.
It’s a shame really that no one on this side of the planet has tried anything like that. I guess kaiyodo could get away with these is because these were often included with something else like soda, candy, etc.