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.
Saurolophus, a genus of late Cretaceous hadrosaur, has been one of the most requested dinosaurs for as long as I can remember. And rightfully so. Known from nearly complete specimens, it is one of the few dinosaur genera that’s found in both Asia and North America. It is also the type species for the Saurolophinae clade, which contains other notable genera such as Edmontosaurus, Shantungosaurus, and Maiasaura. In North America it is known from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, which means it rubbed shoulders with Albertosaurus, Edmontonia, Edmontosaurus, and Pachyrhinosaurus, among other well-known genera. In Asia it’s known from the Nemegt Formation, along with Saichania, Deinocheirus, Therizinosaurus, and Tarbosaurus. That it lived alongside Tarbosaurus was one of the reasons I wanted a Saurolophus in my collection, because as I mentioned in my PNSO Tarbosaurus review, I’m a big fan of Douglas Henderson’s painting depicting the two together.
Always with their ear to the ground, Haolonggood has heard our requests and delivered us a Saurolophus. It’s not the first Saurolophus but it’s undoubtedly the best. Favorite made a decent one some years ago, but it was a hard-to-find museum exclusive. And even Tyco made one for their Dino-Riders line, which I also reviewed.
The first order of the day is figuring out what species of Saurolophus this is. There are two species described, and they differ in some obvious ways. S. osborni is the type species and comes from North America while S. angustirostris is known from a larger fossil record and comes from Asia. The latter is also significantly larger than the former. While S. osborni reached 27-28’ (8.2-8.5 meters) long, S. angustirostris reached 43’ (13 meters). Haolonggood’s figure measures about 9.1” (23 cm) long and stands 3” (7.62 cm) tall at the hump along its back. Since HLG makes their figures in 1/35 scale their figure must be S. osborni. To be S. angustirostris the figure would be 1/56 in scale!
There are other lines of evidence that the figure represents S. osborni. In that species the crest bends upward and doesn’t extend past the base of the skull while in S. angustirostris it sticks straight back and further back than the skull base. Haolonggood’s figure clearly favors the anatomy of S. osborni in this case. There are also differences in the scale size and patterns, but I won’t get pedantic enough to evaluate that, given how small the scales are. It’s worth noting that S. angustirostris has mid-line feature scales along the back, as seen here, but that this feature isn’t known for S. osborni. Given the poorer fossil record of S. osborni I think depictions of it could go either way and I take no issue with the midline scales included here.
That it represents S. osborni is kind of disappointing for me, as I would have preferred a 1/35 scale model of the larger species that I could finally display alongside my PNSO Tarbosaurus but all well, it’s great just to have the genus represented at all, and S. osborni is the type species that I got to see in person at the American Museum of Natural History, so that’s cool.
Haolonggood’s figure is depicted in a strolling posture with the head lowered and the right hindlimb pushing it forward. The head is turned slightly to the right while the tail dips down at its tip and veers leftward. It’s a typical kind of posture from HLG, who doesn’t like to leave their comfort zone with poses, but it looks good.
The keratinous beak is roughly textured and accurately curves downward, doing away with the inaccurate flattened duckbills of old. The spike-like crest runs from the snout, up and behind the head, and has a smooth texture. In life this was a solid crest which differs from the hollow crests of lambeosaurs, which were used as resonating chambers.
The neck is thick and short, and the body is robustly built, with a wide torso, muscular limbs, and deep and muscular tail. The entire figure is covered with small pebbly scales and randomly placed large feature scales are sculpted along the torso. The midline scales are individually sculpted along the shallow ridge along the back and are largest over the hips.
Skin folds are sculpted in appropriate places, like along the limb joints and along the sides of the neck and torso. The forelimbs are somewhat dainty compared to the hindlimbs. Three claws are painted on each forelimb when it should probably have a single hoof, like Edmontosaurus. All bodily orifices are accounted for.
The figure comes in two colors; Song Quing is gray/blue while Yue He is brown/yellow. Having the brown/yellow Edmontosaurus I decided to change things up by getting the blue/gray Saurolophus, and I liked the contrast of colors on it too. It’s getting harder to avoid copying paintjobs with HLG figures though, since they seem to favor the same two color palettes. They’ve really been favoring the blue/gray lately.
The blue/gray coloration covers most of the body, but a horizontal zig-zag band of tan coloration runs along the side, from the neck to the hips. It transitions from there to vertical bands along the tail. The underside and back of the limbs is also tan with peach colored accents. Darker gray splotches are painted over the blue/gray portions of the body.
The beak is brown with a yellow wash over it and the crest transitions from peach, to yellow, to green, to light blue, to dark blue along its length. The back of it is peach colored. It is brown along the sides and covered with a glossy coat. Very attractive, overall. The eyes are yellow with black pupils, and the claws are black. The other version is similarly patterned but with the brown/yellow color combination and the crest is not as showy. They make for a nice male/female pair.
With this figure Haolonggood does it again and gives us a dinosaur that we’ve all been wanting. Although I’m somewhat disappointed by the species they went with, I’m sure there are others that will be happy about it and our hobby needs them both represented anyway. Maybe PNSO will give us the other one to pair with their Tarbosaurus. I can think of no reason to pass this figure up and if you live in the United States, I encourage you to purchase it over at Happy Hen Toys by clicking on the banner below.
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