Up for review is yet another Papo dinosaur – Velociraptor. This figure is largely praised in the dinosaur toy collecting community, as is the real Velociraptor itself!
Unfortunately, most aspects of this Velociraptor are wrong. The tail is too short and curved, the arms are awkwardly pronated, the tibias seem a little too long, and there’s no feathers – all very un-dromeosaurid like features. The shape of the skull is largely too robust for that of a Velociraptor, it is more reminiscent of its distant relative Deinonychus. Velociraptor was believed to have been a diurnal animal, so the slit pupils don’t make much sense. The pose really doesn’t help this figure; it can stand on its own two feet but it’s still rearing up. I would have preferred to have seen a velociraptor with a pose more similar to the Allosaurus or Spinosaurus. The teeth in the skull are all one piece with little lines sculpted in it to make it look like teeth – the end result are teeth that look like something from a flamingo or Pterodaustro.
Minus its inaccuracies, this figure does have some commendable points. The musclature is well defined throughout the body. The skin is very detailed, with each individual scale suclpted (there should  really be feathers, not scales, though!). There are also some nice wrinkles on the tail and the neck. It really looks like it could be alive.
The color scheme is largely unattractive. It seems as though they tried to get a mix of both Jurassic Park and The Lost World in one. The end result is kind of boring, especially for a little dinosaur who had potential to be VERY colorful.
If you want a true to the real thing Velociraptor, your best bet would be Bullylands 2008 version. If you are a big dromeosaur fan, or you like the animals of jurassic park, this one belongs in your collection for sure.
Available from Amazon.com here (in a different colour scheme) and from on Ebay here
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[…] earliest Papo theropods were noted for both resembling Jurassic Park creatures and being frozen in really awkward-looking […]
you wrote at the final “If you want a true to the real thing Velociraptor, your best bet would be Bullylands 2008 version. If you are a big dromeosaur fan, or you like the animals of jurassic park,”
what is that velociraptor, did you review this?
I have this figure, but with a much darker colour scheme, with more of a dark grey look to it, with a dark brown (slightly purple tinged) pattern on it’s back, tail, neck and thighs, outlined in white. Which I much prefer to the colour in the pictures here. It also has some beige around the underside of it’s throat, which I think is a nice touch. It’s much more interesting than the colour scheme used in these pictures. (slightly biased because grey is one of my favourite colours).
One thing I find a little annoying with this figure though is that it doesn’t seem to be able to stand on it’s own without falling back and resting on it’s tail, unless I spend about 10 minutes trying to precariously balance it….
….Also I wish it had feathers and less goofy looking pronated arms.
But it’s still a cool figure and I like it a lot, especially with the paintjob I have.
I heard papo is making a feathered velociraptor in 2012…..its a rumor so I might be wrong (message to papo: MAKE A SAUROPOD ALREADY!!!)
[…] thing that I wish to mention is how small this guy is, here is a photo with the Papo raptor just to give an idea of his size. This puts him in relative scale to the rest of the CollectA small […]
[…] particularly well. Arguably it took Papo, working all those years later, to pull off the perfect JP raptor figure (even if they decided that theirs should be in a strange squatting position). "If it's […]
i do hope they do start making more accurate models but that aside i only like the realistic looking ones which this does achieve and which also makes them great display peices,and the small prices these command i think they are great value.quality difference isn’t is as big as price difference next to say sideshows very good but overpriced and over fragile resin dinos
Then again, Sideshow do give their dromaeosaurs feathers, which is to be commended…
I personally regard JP in general as a mixed blessing. While it made dinosaurs extremely popular, it also introduced a large amount of scientific inaccuracies. I think that it’s best just to explain the beasts in the film away as genetically engineered monsters and not judge them against scientific evidence. Show of hands… Who had to explain to at least a couple of friends about how dilophosaurs didn’t have frills and that “raptors” were way smaller than portrayed? You’ll go insane! They’re movie monsters and that’s all. And the papo “velociraptor” is a great representation of the jp abomination. I agree though… Thew ws one would’ve rocked with feathers and correct arm positioning!
You can’t really tell from comparing the original 1/40 Carnegie Deinonychus trio and, say, the 2005 PAPO Raptor.
One thing perhaps worth mentioning – Deinonychus and Velociraptor aren’t really ‘distantly’ related. If anything they’re quite closely related.
Of course, they are great playthings, just as ALL dinosaur toys are! 🙂
But they are great TOYs, don’t you think?
When I first saw them back in the Summer of 2006 (when the world was young) I was just taken with them (and with the Papo T-Rex sitting next to them on the shelf).
I’m sorry for comparing them to the real animals that they are supposed to be based upon 😉
Safari is thinking about “education” which we see from our (USA) public schools does not necessarily have a whole lot to do with knowledge. Scientific or otherwise. I also see where this is called “The Dinosaur TOY Blog”. No offense meant, regardless, and you certainly hit the Papo Stegosaurus on the nose with your noticing that its missing its nostrils.
I personally think it’s a crying shame that the WS Velociraptor isn’t feathered. Can you imagine how fantastic it’d look? (With fixed arms too of course.)
Safari is obviously thinking about science when they make the toys, so it is PERFECTLY fine to judge them scientifically when reviewing them.
And really, toys or not – this is largely a science based blog 😉
It (Bullyland) certainly is a valiant shot at accuracy and for the most part right on the mark. It is one of my favorite Velociraptor toys (3d behind the WS and PAPO). (My sole caveats are the eyes and durability of finish.)
The Wild Safari Velociraptor ( http://www.dinosaur-toys-collectors-guide.com/velociraptors.html ) is beautifully done. I don’t care about feathers with something that neat.
I reiterate that these are toys and need to be judged as such, scientific accuracy can be set aside (a bit- we don’t want just odd Dragons) in favor of playability, good looks and attractive detail. Also the expression on the faces of the WS-Vs is priceless. (Have you seen the WS- Dilophosaurs?)
I try to judge all my dinosaurs the same – from chinasaurs to museum lines 😉
The bullyland velociraptor is rather crude, yes – but it is still the most accurate of all the velociraptors available (wild safari would beat it, but it has no feathers and they really messed up the arms).
The Bullyland V is one of my favorites (http://www.dinosaur-toys-collectors-guide.com/bullyland-velociraptor.html) but it is quite controversial and just a tad crude. On the other hand the PAPO Velociraptor was based on the Jurassic Park movie version. Almost perfectly. For whatever reason Papo decided to pose it in this semi-relaxed posture. (Not my favorite either.) It may be that their sculptors weren’t quite up to the task of posing/balancing it in a bipedal stance(?!?). The Papo T-Rex (also from 2005) is also posed in a very similar position.
My only disappointment in either of these figures.
I think it important that we remember that these are toys and not museum quality reproductions, no matter how good they look.
This particular sculpt, though, is based on the movie version, not real life. It is also way out scale to the rest of the series.
I think of these Raptors as equivalent to a figurine of John Wayne from the movie True Grit, when I might have preferred one of him from Stagecoach.
Well I just made a search on internet, and saw that quill knobs were found on a well preserved Velociraptor in 2007.
So there were feathers present after all.
It’s obvious that Papo is surfing on Jurrasic Park’s wave.
Besides that, Papo gives an artist’s touch to its figures: almost all of them have a certain expression that is not scientifically determined.
This figure in particular looks like it’s shambling like nosferatu, a nasty character indeed.
I think the central principle behind their figures is appeal and imagination, executed in a meticulous fashion.
…but the feathers are not certain however, and the teeth are not so bad…