Before we begin the review, I would like to extend my gratitude towards Happy Hen Toys for sending this figure along as a review sample. Check out their large selection of animal and dinosaur figures by clicking the banner below.
Xenoceratops is a genus of centrosaurine discovered in the Foremost Formation in Alberta, Canada, and that lived during the late Cretaceous. Its name means alien or foreign horned face and it gets the name for having been discovered in a formation otherwise lacking in ceratopsian remains. That said, the Foremost Formation’s dinosaur fauna is poorly understood across the board. Xenoceratops doesn’t have much to offer, with the specimen used to describe it being nothing more than a parietal bone. Other skull fragments from the formation have been assigned to Xenoceratops as well but overall, there’s little to go by.
Despite its fragmentary nature, there are a few Xenoceratops figures available including a PNSO mini figure, BotM action figure, and one from CollectA. Honestly, this is not a genus that interests me much but it’s hard to say no to a Haolonggood ceratopsian model.
Haolonggood markets this model as being 1/35 in scale and it measures 7” (17.78 cm) long and stands 2.5” (6.35 cm) tall at the hips. To be 1/35 in scale the actual Xenoceratops would have to measure 20’ (6 meters) which is a reasonable size estimate. The figure is presented in a trotting or charging pose, with the head slightly lowered.
What we know of Xenoceratops is that it had two forwardly projecting epoccipitals near the midline edge of the frill and a flattened spike-like epoccipital on either side of them, and large, triangular epoccipitals located along the lower frill edge. Other basal centrosaurines are used to fill in the gaps. Haolonggood gets the known elements right and the rest of the body is accurate to centrosaurines with the only inaccuracy being claws painted on the last two digits of the forelimbs. This is an easy inaccuracy to overlook but I cannot for the life of me figure out why Haolonggood keeps doing it this late in the game.
Fine details are up to Haolonggood’s usual high standards, and you should know the drill by now, but we’ll point out some of the more noteworthy aspects. I particularly like the concentric ridges running down the brow horns that look like ripples on a pond. I also enjoy the larger scales clustered around the eyes that then branch off and follow the contours of the model’s face and frill, such as those running from the eyes down along the nasal and then over to the jugal horn.
I suppose I don’t like the deep horizonal cut running between the shallow nasal horn and the sides of the snout but it’s easy to overlook. Fine pebbly scales cover the rest of the body with larger feature scales interspersed throughout. Wrinkles and skin folds are sculpted where appropriate, such as along the limb joints and torso. Again, you know the drill by now. And yes, all bodily orifices are present.
This figure comes in two equally appealing paintjobs. Yan Sun is a combination of browns, oranges, and yellows while the one I have is Yang Lin and is grayish blue. When Happy Hen Toys asked which color I would prefer as a sample I said “surprise me” because I found it too difficult to choose between the two. Yan Sun has some lovely contrast between the different brown tones, but Yang Lin has a more appealing display of colors on the frill. Together they make for a nice male/female pair.
What I don’t like about Yang Lin’s paintjob are the white squiggles along the sides. I’ve never liked the squiggles that Haolonggood uses and would have greatly preferred the same base color without the extra paint application. The gradient between the blue-gray body and pale underside is appealing enough. Sometimes, less is more. Yan Sun has the same squiggles, but they look more organic on that variant.
I do like the line of white running down the midline of the back that encapsulates the row of feature scales also running down it. It looks like a string of beads. The frill is beautiful too, with a lovely combination of blue and green. I’m thankful to finally be living at a time when ceratopsian frills are painted like the display features they probably were. As much as I loved Safari’s ceratopsians they were always lacking in this regard. The eyes are painted blue which compliments the frill nicely. Some dark gray warpaint is painted across the pale face and the horns and beak are creamy tan colored. The toenails are brown.
There are some inconsistences with the paintjob on my copy. The base of one of the spike-like epoccipitals is painted gray while the other is not, but this might be a case of poor paint application. More perplexing is the lack of white squiggles on the right side when compared to the abundance of them on the left. Indeed, the right side is mostly devoid of them, which confirms my suspicion that the figure would be better without them at all. I would be interested in knowing how widespread these inconsistencies are.
The Haolonggood Xenoceratops is another excellent ceratopsian from Haolonggood and aside from the fragmentary nature of the animal it represents I cannot think of a compelling reason not to want it. This figure is widely available online and can be purchased at Happy Hen Toys through the link below.
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