Walking with Dinosaurs Patchi Vs Gorgon Action Figure Set

Walking with Dinosaurs is a title that always instantly brings back fond memories for me of the original BBC series from over a decade ago. I remember the thrill of seeing realistic dinosaurs brought to life like never before. It truly was something of amazement when I was little and still amazes me today. It was a series based on scientific accuracy (at the time) rather than on movie monsters that a lot of us grew up with, which is what I liked most about it. In 2013, a 3D film was introduced to the series, which unfortunately brought a lot of disappointment to me and many fans. It was the awful voice overs that put me off. Everything else about the film I thought was great and I adored the incredible animation. Fortunately, the toys produced to promote the film are of a rather nicer quality and I personally like them a lot. Today, I'll be reviewing not one, but two of these toys, for they are packaged together as an action figure set.

Meet Patchi, a Pachyrhinosaurus and Gorgon, a Gorgosaurus. I bought them at Toys R Us as they were discounted from £20 to £10. How could I pass such a deal up?

On first appearance, I thought the figures looked cheap and crudely painted and detailed. But with the idea of producing a short stop-motion with these figures and the discount, I thought I might as well. Once I opened them, I was pleasantly surprised. They're actually quite good quality and reasonably well detailed for what they are. They have a lovely weighted feel, which instantly says good quality to me than the cheap, hollow 'Chinasaurs' that plague bargain bins. They're also not sloppily painted at all, which is a definite bonus for the fussy collector like me. 

They're articulated, both in different areas to each other, which adds great playability for kids, and good articulation for stop-motion. They also make sounds, not lines like in the film, but realistic roaring and grunting. They both make about 4 different sounds each. They're also actually quite scientifically accurate, as they are based off the models in the film produced by the wonderfully talented paleoartist, David Krentz. First, let's talk in detail about our hero of the film, Patchi the Pachyrhinosaurus. Then our villain, Gorgon the Gorgosaurus.

Patchi is very detailed in terms of scientific accuracy. His tail is the short length that a ceratopsian (the family of dinosaurs that includes Triceratops) should have and he has 5 toes on the front legs and 4 on the back, which is correct, and also the characteristic bony mass on the nose that real Pachyrhinosaurus would've had. 

He has a hole in his frill, which is not a defect in case you're wondering. In the film, Patchi is thrown as a baby from a Troodon's (a dinosaur that's similar in anatomy to a Velociraptor) mouth and as a result, he gains a hole in his frill. Poor thing.

Patchi is not quite as articulated as the Gorgon figure, but still is good if you plan on using it for stop-motion like I do. His four legs are articulated and can be moved in all directions. His mouth can be opened and his head can be moved up and down to your liking. He is nicely detailed on the body, but I feel he could use more paint variation in his facial area and the toes. His tongue, for example is left the same colour as his general body colour scheme. It's still a really good quality figure, though.

Now onto Gorgon the Gorgosaurus. Gorgon is also mostly scientifically accurate. His feet aren't oversized, but unfortunately this means that balance is sacrificed so he must use his tail for support, which I'm not a fan of. But it is necessary if you're going to have realistically sized feet in a figure.

He's nicely painted and detailed, somewhat more so in my opinion than Patchi with a lovely metallic look. His hands are moveable, so that means you can make his hands pronated or supinated. Pronated, being the incorrect posture (where the palms are facing downwards, like a begging dog rather than the correct 'clapping' position). 

His teeth are well sculpted and not sloppy looking at all. His mouth can be opened, his feet, thighs, and ankles can be positioned to your liking and his neck is articulated so his whole head can be moved in any direction you like. My only major problems is looking at his face straight forward, it looks a bit goofy looking unless his mouth is open. The membrane when he opens his mouth doesn't fully cover his mouth when you open it either

There is only one inaccuracy that I can see in Gorgon, and that's his tail. It's curled around very flexibly, which would've been impossible with a real Gorgosaur's stiff tail that was used for balance. Other than that, a very fine figure indeed.

Overall, I'm really glad I bought these figures as they're higher quality than I expected and more so than the photos make them out to be, and they're great for some simple stop-motion like I hoped. Not only that, they make an excellent addition to a collector or as a toy for a child. I definitely recommend picking them up if you find them! I've ordered Scowler, Patchi's not so nice brother and the Troodon. So I'll be reviewing those two separately soon. Hope you enjoyed the review and check out the video reviews I'll be adding to this page shortly!

Gorgon can be bought separately on Amazon as can Patchi, or together as a set for under £10. They're currently on offer in Toys R Us, Tesco and The Entertainer for £5 per figure. There is also 'Ultimate' Gorgon which is the same figure, but significantly larger.
 

Schleich World of History Light Green Tyrannosaurus Rex 2014 Re-Sculpt Model Dinosaur

It's been a while since I last came to this blog. I've had so much on my plate for the past few months with the worries of college, ill mental health, break ups, and so on. Now I'm finally starting to get back on my feet, and I'll tell you. I have not forgotten about this blog at all. It's been in my mind during all these hardships, and I'm happy to say I finally have the time to write more reviews on toys and collectables again.

Today, we will be reviewing a model from the popular Schleich brand. They make incredibly life-like and detailed animal models. But did you know they are controversial by a certain community of collectors? These collectors are model dinosaur collectors. And I happen to be one of them. One thing about us model dinosaur collectors, is that we can be very fussy about our models. The best detailed and most scientifically accurate models are what we look out for. Schleich are one of the best when it comes to modeling extant (living) animals, but their dinosaurs tend to be amongst the worst when it comes to scientific accuracy. Today's model I'm reviewing is no different in terms of accuracy, but it does however live up to Schleich's high level of aesthetic quality.

And without further ado, I present to you, the Schleich Light Green Tyrannosaurus Rex 2014 Re-Sculpt!

2014 has brought us many interesting and downright awesome models, including CollectA's beautiful and incredibly accurate Carcharodontosaurus and Papo's somewhat inaccurate, but stunning and amazingly detailed Dilophosaurus. Every company has their new dinosaur models for each new year, so of course that means Schleich follows suit. In 2012, Schleich released their updated (for the time) version of their Tyrannosaurus rex model. It was criticized by model dinosaur collectors for its oversized feet, large eye crests and incorrectly positioned hands (I told you we were fussy!). This year, they re-released their Tyrannosaurus rex model with an updated colour scheme (light green instead of dark green), larger feet and longer arms. Why they re-released it in such a short time with no improvement in scientific accuracy whatsoever instead of releasing a model on a dinosaur they've never made before is beyond me, but they did. Some very minor things have been improved since the last T. rex Schleich made, but unfortunately there's a lot of things that have gone worse as well, which I will get to now.

Let's start off with the positives. Firstly, the head is well sculpted and I'd say this is the best aspect of this model along with the textural detail. But the head is nothing new, just the exact same as the 2012 model. It has a hinged jaw which can be opened and closed to your liking, and the only main difference in the head of this model is that this 2014 T. rex's jaw doesn't open as wide as the 2012 model. There's lots of lovely little details like small scales and wrinkles. I particularly like how the eye areas are sculpted. It's very fine and animal-like with purely black, glossy eyes. The crests above the eyes might be a bit big for some accuracy purists, but I personally like the whole head just the way it is. The only thing I dislike about it is the teeth. They're all the same length when the real Tyrannosaurus had teeth of mixed sizes. When the jaw is opened, inside is a nicely sculpted tongue and the roof of the mouth is reasonably well sculpted, too.

                                                                                

                                                                              

The texture of this model feels similar to the 2012 T. rex with a slightly rubbery or waxy feel but is still very solid and not flexible unlike their 2012 Velociraptor. I don't like the waxy texture much, as I prefer my mass produced dinosaur toys to have a strong, solid plasticy feel to them. I believe the reason for this texture was to add durability to the model for child's play. Plus the paint doesn't chip away as much with this type of texture. The rest of the body is covered in small, fine scales and on the underside of the model from the neck are some lovely skin folds and wrinkles to which around where the cloacal area should be turns to square-ish scales ending all the way to the tip of the tail. Also, there is no cloacal opening, so this poor Rexie is constipated.

 

Jokes aside, the arms, which unfortunately are way too long and pronated, have smaller scales and where the hand starts, the scales are replaced by wrinkles. The hands have two digits, which is correct. The legs are similar, where the knee turns to wrinkles back down to fine scales and to the feet which have bird-like scales. For those who don't know the definition of 'pronated' hands in dinosaurs, it basically means that the hands are sort of like 'zombie' hands in the way that the arms are stretched out in front with the palms facing downwards, similar to that of quadruped animals like a rabbit standing up or a dog begging. This would've been impossible for carnivorous, bipedal dinosaurs to do, and the correct position for a dinosaur such as Tyrannosaurus's hands would be supinated, as in a 'clapping' sort of position where they can grab onto objects, like prey. If a bipedal carnivore like T. rex had pronated hands, it wouldn't be able to do so many tasks like grabbing prey or holding onto a potential mate.

Another thing I should mention is that 2012's model had yellow spots on its neck and knees, which was usually not well liked amongst collectors. I didn't like it either, but in the 2014 model, these spots are now gone. And it definitely looks better without them. Instead, you can now see faint little 'bumps' on closer inspection on the neck. The knees are just without any detail at all other than wrinkles.

                                                                              
The colour scheme is decent, but not very unique. The paint job is not sloppy at all in my model and the colour scheme is mainly blends of light and darker greens with salmon on the underside. The feet and hands are also salmon coloured. That's another thing Schleich is known for, very, very well done paint jobs. Unfortunately in a lot of toy shops, people have free rein to pick up the models, which often leads to children dropping and playing with them. Which tends to leave some models in toy shops with paint rubs or breakages at the very worst. Paint rubs might not be much of an annoyance to a child, but to us collectors it can be very off-putting. So if you are a collector buying online, make sure you ask the seller to send you a model with a good paint job. I've asked sellers before for this and they will often kindly oblige.

Now on to the worst flaw of this model. The most glaring issue with this new T. rex is the horribly oversized feet. 2012's model had oversized feet, too. But not any where near as bad as this 2014 rex. The feet here are almost as big as its head. This is obviously to keep the model perfectly balanced, which I admit works well in terms of keeping the model balanced, but there is no excuse for this, CollectA's Carcharodontosaurus proves that a model can stay with it's tail parallel to the ground without having oversized feet and still be able to balance.

Overall, I really like this model despite the flaws for it's lovely textural detail, although I do prefer the 2012 Tyrannosaurus rex. If you collect dinosaur models solely based on scientific accuracy, you will probably want to pass on this model. If, however you are a parent (and sorry for anything you may have found confusing in this review, I originally wrote it for a dinosaur model blog with a few edits for parents to have a better understanding) then I would recommend picking this well-made toy for your child if they are a dino nut like I was when I was little as it is very durable with it's slightly rubbery texture and has a lot of play value, especially with the hinged jaw. But if you want to give your child a model based on scientific accuracy, I'd recommend picking up a model from the Wild Safari or Carnegie line, but make sure it's a recently made model and not one from the 90s, as Safari Ltd's models have improved greatly in scientific accuracy since their early years. If you want the ultimate detailed T. rex for a reasonable price, you should definitely pick up one of the many T. rex models from the French company Papo. Papo's models are un-beaten in terms of detail when it comes to mass produced toy dinosaurs, but generally are not as scientifically accurate. On a final note, I also received the Schleich Pentaceratops for my birthday, so I will also be reviewing that model as well soon. Stay tuned for more model dinosaur reviews and other toy reviews coming soon! Schleich models can be found in many toy shops such as Toys R Us, The Entertainer, Hamley's, Smyth's and independent toy shops and are easily found online at eBay, Amazon, Everything Dinosaur and DinosaurTime. (Note, these shops are all based in the UK. Other than Toys R Us, I'm not sure what shops in the US or anywhere else in the world stock Schleich models.)

Thanks for reading and please do share my blog so I can fulfill my dream of being a respected toy and collectable reviewer! It would mean a lot to me. Thank you once more!