Accuracy Reviews: Papo's Allosaurus

              One of the most common North American Theropods of the Jurassic Period, Allosaurus, brings with it a might that rivals the famous Tyrannosaurus. Although the animal was almost half the size of the Tyrant Lizard King, it was much faster and may slayed the largest animals to ever walk the earth’s crusty surface; Sauropods. Papo made their entry to the genus in 2008, and it is a spectacular specimen!

              This beast has a large array of scutes and spines that make it look rather alive. However, no fossil evidence exists for such structures. Bony scutes, like that of a crocodile, definitely fossilize, so there’s -1 point for Papo. Like most of Papo’s theropod models, and most theropod reconstructions in general, it suffers from broken wrist syndrome. Theropods, and nearly all members of Dinosauria (to differing degrees), lacked the bones that made their arms capable of twisting to a position at which the palms of the hands face downwards to the ground. Another thing this animal is suffering from, that many other companies make the mistake of sculpting, is the utter lack of fat. The skin and muscles overlaying the skull are stretched too thinly over it and the fenestrae (openings in the skull) are visible in this model, when they likely would not have in life. Overall, the rest of the body is rather filled out, but the ribs can be seen through the skin and suggest that this animal is starving. A simple and common mistake made by many that are unaware of how fleshy the animals of the past probably were. Plus, shrink wrapping makes them ‘scarier’!

             The skeletal portion of the sculpt is where it may get a little nitpicky. The head of Papo’s sculpt places its head crests almost directly above the eye whereas, on the actual skull, the bony base of the animal’s head crests were slightly before the eye socket. Papo’s Allosaurus has a ridge from the tip of its snout that curves over to fit in between the crests. This is unlike the skull anatomy; however, it could just be a lump of flesh that changes the skull’s silhouette.

Overall, this is one of Papo’s best models and one of the few that deviates from a pop-culture design.

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Accuracy Reviews: Papo's Sitting Rex

Starting off our figure review section, we will begin with the most famous of all members of Dinosauria and the star of Jurassic Park; Tyrannosaurus.

Photo provided by VikingSpawn

Photo provided by VikingSpawn

Photo provided by VikingSpawn

                  To be exact, the sitting Tyrannosaurus produced by Papo. This beast comes in three colors; Green, Brown, and ‘Rainbow’. Most of the figures produced by Papo are based off of the designs used in the famous Jurassic Park franchise, though you would not likely get them to admit as much, but the reference is clear. The sitting rex rests in a very common tripodal pose with its tail curving down to the ground and its head tilted to the side. The figure is based off of the interpretation of Tyrannosaurus seen in Jurassic Park; the tell-tale sign being its head. Although this figure uses the general outline of the animal’s skull as a reference for the base shape, it adds a few osteoderm-like bumps over the eyes and snout that do not exist in fossils. Now, let us get this straight, the structure of Tyrannosaurus’ skull does show potential evidence for a horny/bony/keratinous covering on the snout and forehead, evidence for the extreme bony projections seen not only on the Papo figure, but also on the Jurassic Park Tyrannosaurus, does not exist. Next fallacy is the arms; theropod dinosaurs were unable to pronate their hands and arms. Pronation includes twisting the wrist so the palm of the manus (hand) face down towards the ground. All theropod dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park films suffer from this anatomical impossibility, so one cannot blame Papo too much about this flaw, since it was in the source material. 

Photo provided by VikingSpawn

Photo provided by VikingSpawn

                Papo’s sitting rex comes in Green, which appropriately matches the tyrannosaurs from Jurassic Park: The Lost World, the Brown Tyrannosaurus more closely matches the one featured in the first film, and the ‘Rainbow’ colored one is just an exclusive made for the company. The only other fallacy is the tail; although, Tyrannosaurus and other theropods were physically able to bend to a more vertical position and ‘sit’ on their tails, this would not have been a permanent posture and returning to the neutral horizontal pose would be required. Tripod posture is also a tired cliche among all companies and their theropod reconstructions, so it is nice to see a non-tripodal figure; I can see Papo was going for the pose in the last scene of Jurassic Park after the Tyrannosaurus had killed the Velociraptors in the visitor center.

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