Yangchuanosaurus (Dayong)(PNSO)

During the Middle and Late Jurassic, the largest predatory dinosaur in China was the fearsome metriacanthosaurid Yangchuanosaurus. Indeed, it is one of China’s most famous and popular dinosaurs, reflected by the fact that PNSO has made no less than four toys of it. The first one was a miniature while the second was far bigger and paired with Chungkingosaurus. And then in 2023, we got a double dose with both Dapeng the Y. magnus and the subject of this review, Dayong the Y. shangyouensis.

Dayong, who was released before Dapeng, measures about 22.5 cm long and stands 6.5 cm tall at the head, which makes him one of PNSO’s smaller theropods. Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis was the first species to be described back in 1978 and is estimated to have been 8 metres long, whereas Y. magnus was described in 1983 and appears to have been more than 10 metres long. I don’t own the Dapeng toy, but based on the comparison images I’ve seen online, he and Dayong scale rather well together.

Dayong is sculpted in a horizontal walking pose. His tail is lowered and swinging to the left, his left leg is extended back with just the toe tips touching the ground, his right foot is planted firmly, and his arms are dangling down rather casually. His head is raised and looking to the right, and like all of PNSO’s meat eaters, he features a hinged lower jaw. And it opens particularly wide, about 40 degrees. With his mouth closed, he looks like he’s just obambulating along, but with it open, he appears to be on the attack. Either way, this is a great pose, very fluid, very realistic. Dayong can stand fine without any support, but of course PNSO has included a short clear rod to be braced against his chest, and of course I normally display him with it.

The base colour on Dayong is beige with grey wash. The upper half of his torso is painted light brown with dark and medium brown stripes. His tail features stripes of light and medium brown and his hands and feet are dull brown with black claws. His head is airbrushed with dark and medium brown, his eyes are orange, his mouth is glossy pink, and his teeth are white. It’s a pretty good colour scheme. One usually doesn’t think of the colour brown as very exciting, but this toy just goes to show how much can be achieved with different shades. Although personally, I’d love it if PNSO ceased to use it so frequently on their products.

Dayong’s skin has a very fine scaly texture, so fine that it almost feels smooth in some places. Dotting his body from the start of the neck to the end of the tail are small round osteoderms. And of course, there’s wrinkles aplenty to be found throughout here too. Oh, and there’s the usual row of small spines running down the vertebrae and rows of scutes protecting the feet. All sculpted to the usual top notch PNSO standard. They really are at the pinnacle of their game, no two ways about it.

The tail on this theropod is quite long, accounting for about half the total length. The limbs are very muscular and the torso, while not particularly wide, is deep, giving Dayong a rugged, powerful appearance. His foreclaws are large, curved, and very sharp, not at all appropriate for youngsters to be playing around with.

Dayong’s head is the correct shape for a Yangchuanosaurus: deep with a sloping muzzle and two bumpy ridges running along the top of the skull. The teeth are nicely rendered and pointy in spite of being mostly covered by tissue. The tongue is long and rather flat and there are visible nostril holes in the palate. Indeed, the mouth looks great whether it’s wide open or closed shut. It’s a shame it took so long for PNSO to come around to the increasing consensus that theropods had lips, but now that they’ve done so, they really do pull off that appearance magnificently. I look forward to future lipped theropods from them, including Tyrannosaurus rex, of course.

And naturally, Dayong comes with both a cool poster by Zhao Chuang and a booklet containing his biography, some information about his species, more cool paleoart, and a how to draw section.

Dayong the Yangchuanosaurus may not be as big and imposing as his cousin Dapeng, but he’s every bit as fine a representation of the genus. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive of any other company producing a better version. And while all PNSO products are pricey, Dayong’s size makes him more affordable than most. Also takes up less space on the shelf. Highly recommended.