Review and photos by Takama, edited by Suspsy
There’s no doubt that Velociraptor is very common dinosaur on the market, but Schleich has created at least seven versions of the infamous dromaeosaur over the years. Today’s review is of their latest take on the speedy predator, and sadly, it is a downgrade from the 2017 Utahraptor. Interestingly, despite officially being a 2018 release, this model has been available for purchase from certain retailers since August 2017 along with the new Tyrannosaurus and Carnotaurus.
When it comes to accuracy, there is little to talk about. It is yet another Jurassic Park-style raptor, which means it bears no resemblance to the real animal. To make matters worse, the feathering on this model is done very poorly. If you read my review of the Utahraptor, you can see that I praised Schleich for sculpting wing feathers on it. This Velociraptor unfortunately lacks any such feathers on its arms. Instead it just has little tufts sculpted from below the wrists and up to the elbows. Unlike the 2012 and 2014 World of History Velociraptor figures, this one has more feathers sculpted on it then just its arms. Unfortunately, most of the figure is still scaly, as though Schleich was reluctant to stray too far from the popular image of this carnivore. The only other feathers that are present on this figure are sculpted along the spine and on the sides of the legs, and they make this Velociraptor look less like a real animal and more like one of InGen’s creations gone wrong.
Other than the poor attempts at feathering, this model also has oversized feet with claws that are splayed too far apart. On top of that, the arms appear to be too flexible for a theropod. They are not quite pronated, but more around the halfway point between pronation and supination. Needless to say, this is inaccurate for a theropod like Velociraptor. When it comes to other details, the model has little bumps sculpted on almost every part where feathers are not present, and I assume they are meant to represent scales. The underbelly, arms, and feet are sculpted with wrinkles, and the claws are nice and smooth, but also blunted for child safety. The model also has a big toothy grin like the Utahraptor. The articulated jaw function on this figure works flawlessly, and it does not have as bad of an underbite as the 2012 version. The model also has rotating arms, which can pop off really easily, but be reattached for a quick repair. It is even possible to put the arms on backwards!
When it comes to colours, the first thing that pops into my mind is that this model looks as if a parrot was spliced with the DNA of one of the JP raptors. The base colour is bright yellow and the main color is green. The feathers and face are painted sky blue, the eyes are orange, and the claws are grey. The teeth are white and the tongue is red. The model measures around 7” long and stands 4” tall, making it taller than the 2012 version.
Overall, this is something of a disappointment in the wake of the Utahraptor, and I cannot seriously recommend this Velociraptor to anyone who collects realistic replicas of prehistoric life, or even fans of JP toys. To me, the only things that could of saved this model would be if Schleich had omitted the feathers entirely, or gave it some actual wing feathers like on the Utahraptor and the recently released Oviraptor.
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I personally do not mind this one much. It’s got charm and character (I know. It’s not accurate or even that realistic but it’s a neat toy in it’s own way) The detail is decent (As for most of you who claim schleich is a bad company just take a gander at hasbro or even the new battat sets and you can tell that this is NOT the worst figure.) it’s not as feathered as we’d like but it has some feathers (Not another scalebag as many feather nazis put it.) the grin is ehh…they could have improved that..but hey! It’s got the sickle claws (Unlike their retired large velociraptor which apparently this is a remake of?) It’s not the best but it’s not the worst. For those of you who prefer accuracy and realism I highly do not advise it. But if you are like me and don’t mind the occasional charming figure..then this may be an interesting pickup!
Well… at least it has feathers…?
Someone has to say it: To me, in my opinion, Schleich is currently the worst manufacturer when it comes to prehistoric life.
Everything about those toys is just plain terrible. The shape/mold, the terrible bright colors – i like brightly colored dinosaurs in general, look at the old JP-Toys or some Safari Ltds, but they look mostly at least natural. They should take inspiration from Recent- Tetrapods when it comes to coloring their dinos.
This Thing is in my opinion just a step away from Chinsaur- Level. As many other Schleichs.
For comparision, take a look at Papo. Its no secret they are mostly inspired by the Jurassic- Movies, but they at least do their job good when it comes to capturing the style (im still wondering they didnt get sued…) They are mostly scientifically inaccurate too, but there comes no backstory with their dinos, they just sell them, Schleich on the other hand tries to be educational but fails on every level.
And the worst thing is, Schleich is everywhere, especially here in Germany. Good luck finding Papo-animals here, Bullyland – another german brand and still one of my favorite- is even more rare and will probably dissapear anyway. A shame, because Bullyland always worked with the german museums to make scientifically acurate toys for its time, for example the “Museum Line” (Just bought the Ichtyosaurus at the Holzmaden Museum, i love that little guy, still searching for the Mastodonsaurus)
Schleich should fire some of their sculptors/Artists asap or send them to some educational School.
This post, for the most part, sums up perfectly why I hate Schleich.
Also from Germany, and I also hate how Schleich is pushing aggressively into the market. I mean, they’re really good at modeling extant animals – the sculpts themselves are nice and they learned by being envious of Papo’s (still superior) quality, and they absolutely are able to produce brilliant casts. Sometimes, I think that the problem’s core is that dinosaurs are still viewed as scaly monsters in the (German) public eye. I still meet people that haven’t even heard of the relationship between dinosaurs and birds, and Jurassic Park with its regression towards 1900s-style horror monsters doesn’t help. Buying parents just can’t see the differences, and Papo’s bit-higher price tag seals the deal for them, they buy Schleich. There are some vendors that try to evade Schleich’s aggressive marketing, and I deliberately go there and buy their non-Schleich dinosaurs. I’m fed up with badly-made Schleich dinosaurs at gas stations, airports and grocery stores.
Schleich lost me as a customer years ago due to the majority of their models being bad and subpar customer service. This is awful and they should feel bad.
Unfortunately the quality of Schleich I think that since I left the line of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals of the Humbold Museum in Berlin. When changing its owner, its quality diminished remarkably as regards its figures.
German companies such as Schleich and Bullyland have long ago avoided collectors and focused on the mass production of prehistoric animals intended for children. This speedometer Schleich 2018 is a clear example.
I find it sad that Schleich, a company that has marketed their dinosaur toys as educational, has made so many figures of Velociraptor that bear no resemblance to the real animal and instead are poor rip-offs of the Velociraptor from the Jurassic Park franchise.
Safari, Papo and CollectA have all made figures that represent a real Velociraptor, to different degrees of success, but Schleich hasn’t even been able to make one Velociraptor toy with the correct head shape! Does the person who sculpts a Schleich Velociraptor even know what a Velociraptor skull looks like? Or do they just think they can copy the Jurassic Park/World Velociraptor without realizing their heads are outdated reconstructions of Deinonychus from the 1990s?
Another thing Schleich repeats in their Velociraptor figures that is very unpleasant is giving the figures feathers without regard for how the feathers would actually cover the animal. The feathering of Velociraptor and other dromaeosaurids was bird-like. It doesn’t look like what you see on Schleich’s Velociraptor toys where it’s just a few patches that look stuck onto a scaly animal.
If one wants a good toy of Velociraptor, I recommend the Wild Safari feathered Velociraptor, it’s a very impressive and accurate toy version of Velociraptor. The Papo feathered Velociraptor also has good qualities but is less accurate than the Wild Safari version, so I think it would be the second-best option currently available.
I wonder if Schleich will ever make a Velociraptor toy that looks like a Velociraptor?
Honestly although it is a slight improvement over its previous velociraptors, it is undoubtedly from my point of view the weakest figure in the group of the first part of Schleich 2018 dinosaurs.