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!

Dinosaur Train InterAction Mr. Conductor Troodon Figure

TOMY has earned their reputation by most collectors as being a very high quality brand. And this certainly hasn't changed for today's toy I'm reviewing, the very first entry into my toy, model and collectible blog known as Friendly Barghest Toy and Model Reviews.

Meet Mr. Conductor Troodon. The latest UK release in the Dinosaur Train InterAction figure series. He has been available to the US and Australia for a while now, but it was only very recently that he's finally been available for UK fans to purchase. Mr. Conductor is my favourite Dinosaur Train character, so I was very happy to find him in my local Toys R Us. Of course, I didn't show my excitement as other customers might find it a little odd for an almost 18 year old girl to buy a Dinosaur Train toy...

Anyway, for those who don't know, these talking InterAction figures are unique in the fact that when placed with other InterAction figures, they will begin having conversations with each other, just like in the show! Each one has an infrared receiver/transmitter that allows the figure to recognise other characters in the line by name and talk with them. The more figures you have, the bigger the conversation. I find it very amusing to see a whole group of these figures conversing with each other. It's something that kids will love, and it'll probably give the parents a good laugh, too. It's some really cool toy tech.

Mr. Conductor is what I call the smallest size of these figures, standing only slightly taller than Buddy and Tiny. Like his name suggests, he is a troodon. A small, highly intelligent Cretaceous dinosaur related to the "raptor" family. His legs, arms and neck are moveable and he has a button on his hat that opens his jaw when pressed, which is one of my favourite features. It's perfect for a bit of 'puppetry'. If you push the button with slightly more pressure, he will talk. He also has a light-up watch on his jacket that flashes red, green and yellow, makes sounds and some unique phrases. He holds a train ticket in his hand that you can pretend to punch a hole in by lifting his "raptor" toe claw. I find his bright colours very eye-catching, which I'm sure kids will agree. However, one thing I can't comment on is the durability of this toy, since I'm just putting it on display with the rest of my collection and obviously not going to play with it. I can say, though that like all the InterAction figures, Mr. Conductor is of high aesthetic quality and is very well painted and detailed. Something sure to please the collectors. Every Dinosaur Train toy also comes with a free double-sided poster, displaying some of the InterAction figures and on the other side, a checklist of all the mini figures.

Showing Mr. Conductor's articulation.

According to the box, Mr. Conductor says over 40 sounds and phrases. Once again, like all the InterAction figures, some phrases can only be heard on certain circumstances, like depending whenever he's on 'try me' mode or full function, whenever you press his hat or watch and if he's talking to another InterAction figure or not. Below is all the phrases I've managed to squeeze out of him on all functions so far:

"Hi! I'm Mr. Conductor! Press any of my Dinosaur Train friends to hear us talk!"
"Hi I'm Mr. Conductor!"
"Hi, (other figure's name)!"
"Hi, everybody!"
"Everybody ready? We're gonna ride... The Dinosaur Train!"
"I'm a troodon!"
"Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Corythosaurus gets us to the chorus! Hey, hey, hey come along with me... This is how we memorise dinosaurs A to Z!"
"Next stop, the Triassic time period!"
"Next stop, the Jurassic time period!"
"Next stop, the Cretaceous time period!"
"Tickets! Tickets, please!"
"Time tunnel approaching!"
"I know ALL the dinosaurs!"
"Troodons have large brains!"
"Troodons are the smartest dinosaurs!"
"I'm an omnivore, I eat/love meat AND plants!" (Variation where he says 'love' instead of 'eat'.)
"I weigh 50 kilos!"
"I have a huge brain!"
"I don't remember you!" (When introduced to another Mr. Conductor Troodon figure.)
"All aboard!"
"Tank is a quadruped!"
"Tank is a herbivore!"
"Hank is a herbivore!"
"Morris is a herbivore!"
"Morris is a quadruped!"
"Boris is a carnivore!"
"Boris is a theropod!"
"Buddy is a theropod! *Laughs*"
"Old Spinosaurus is a theropod!"
"Tiny is a carnivore!"
"Tiny is from the Cretaceous time period!"
"King Cryolophosaurus is from the Jurassic time period!"
"Alvin is from the Jurassic time period!
"Ned is from the Jurassic time period!"
"Ned is a herbivore!"
"Big tail action!" (When Morris Stegosaurus whips his tail.)
"Everybody! Stomp!"
"Hahaha, gosh..."
"Woah, awesome!" (When 'watching' another figure do something, like Tiny flapping her wings.)
"Awesome!" (When winning a 'roaring contest'.)
"Really? Golly!" (In reply to when another figure talks about themselves.)
"Ahem... Rawr!" (When asked to hear his roar.)
"Rawr!"
*Laughs*
*Snores* (If not played with for an extended period of time.)
*Yawns* (When 'waking up' by turning the switch to full function mode.)

Press the button to open his jaw.

In the words of Buddy the T. rex, I have a hypothesis. All the other Dinosaur Train characters that Mr. Conductor mentions, also have their own InterAction figures. This includes characters that have not yet been released to the UK. Is this a hint that soon these characters will too be released in the UK? It could just be a coincidence. But I certainly hope my hypothesis is right! As I can't get enough of these awesome toys.

Overall, Mr. Conductor Troodon is great for kids and for the minority of teen/adult collectors for different reasons. Kids will love Mr. Conductor for his cute looks, fun features, bright colours and phrases. It's also good for a little education on their favourite dinosaurs. Collectors will appreciate his high aesthetic quality, detail, good paint job and his likeness to the character from the show. For kids especially, to get the most out of Mr. Conductor, I'd recommend buying at least 1 other figure from the line, as the main point of these toys is to have them converse with each other. I bought him at Toys R Us, but Smyth's, the Entertainer and Hamley's sell Dinosaur Train toys, too. He retails at £14.99.

Keep an eye out for more Dinosaur Train toy reviews coming soon! The other InterAction figures I own, Buddy T. Rex, Tiny Pteranodon, Tank Triceratops, Ned Brachiosaurus, Morris Stegosaurus AND Boris Tyrannosaurus will have their own reviews, too. As well as some of the small sized figures. If you have any questions about Mr. Conductor Troodon or any other InterAction figure, leave a question in the comments and I'll answer it as soon as I can.

Mr. Conductor, next to his mini figure counterpart.

Mr. Conductor's light up watch flashes green, yellow and red.