Carnotaurus (Haolonggood) – Dinosaur Toy Blog

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I was fond of the South American abelisaur known as Carnotaurus from the moment I learned about it back in the late 1980s. And really, who wouldn’t be? With its short, boxy skull, prominent pointed horns, and almost preposterously puny arms, it is easily one of the weirdest-looking theropods, and thus one of the coolest.

Many toys have been made of the “meat-eating bull,” including ones from all the major companies, of course. This one here is the “Zhou Tong” version from Haolonggood, released in 2023 alongside the “Li Zhong” version. At about 22.5 cm in length and 8 cm in height, it is one of the smaller Carnotaurus toys, dwarfed by the Carnegie Collection, CollectA, and Schleich versions shown below.

This individual is sculpted in a walking stance with its left leg extended back and the tips of the toes touching the ground. The tail is held out nearly straight behind the torso with the tip curling slightly to the right. The head is raised and also turning to the right and the lower jaw is hinged, allowing the mouth to be opened to a degree angle. The toy stands very well on its own two feet.

This is one of the least flashy Haolonggood toys. The main colours are dark greenish-grey and medium brown with a pinkish brown underbelly. Dark brown stripes adorn the neck, torso, and tail and the claws are black. The eyes are yellow, the mouth is pink with streaks of red, the teeth are white, and the famous horns are medium brown. It’s realistic, no question about that, but it’s not as pretty as many of the ceratopsians or the wonderful Stegosaurus.

The Carnotaurus‘ skin is covered in tiny scales all over and is also very wrinkly, much more so than other such toys. The feet feature the characteristic rows of scutes and the horns have faint grooves. Bumpy scales cover the region between the horns. The teeth are pleasingly sharp and the mouth features a ribbed palate and a sizeable tongue. A row of small osteoderms running down the spine and there are multiple rows of round scales on the body. More on those in just a bit.

The triangular horns are large and intimidating. These were probably employed for display and intraspecific conflict. Due to their shape, Carnotaurus probably didn’t rapidly bash their heads together, as that could have shattered the horns. Instead, they may have pushed their skulls against one another, or delivered blows to the neck and flanks. Carnotaurus was also once thought to be a predator of large herbivorous dinosaurs like the 8 ton titanosaurian sauropod Titanomachya, but it is now thought to have possessed a relatively weak bite of 3392-3441 N. And as you can see, there are no lips present on this toy, despite the increasingly growing consensus that theropods did indeed possess them. Haolonggood, like CollectA, has been annoyingly inconsistent about lips on their theropods. Also, while the head looks good in profile, it is a bit too wide when seen from above or the front.

The arms are correctly sized, but they have claws on all four digits, whereas it is very possible that the real animal lacked claws altogether. The torso is thick and robust and the legs and tail are very muscular. Carnotaurus may have had a weak bite, but it was probably a fairly fast runner, and may have specialised in pursuing small game.

And now let’s talk about the scales and osteoderms. From the very beginning, Carnotaurus has been depicted with osteoderms running down its spine and neat rows of round scales on its body. However, a 2021 study concluded that there were no osteoderms, that the scales were scattered all over the body in a random fashion, and that the larger scales were conical. Almost like body armour in a way. Perhaps this arrangement helped protect individuals from headbutts. In any case, the study means that this toy and pretty much every other Carnotaurus toy that has come before it can be considered inaccurate. And Mojo Fun, which hasn’t had the best track record for scientifically accurate dinosaurs, will get to lay claim to one when their version comes out later this year.

If you’re looking for an available, reasonably priced, and fairly solid 1:35 scale Carnotaurus toy, then here it is. That said, it does have some noticeable flaws to it, and to be perfectly honest, I still like the Carnegie and CollectA versions better. Still, I don’t regret getting this one. It can be picked up wherever Haolonggood toys are sold.