Euhelopus (1:35 Science and Art Model by Haolonggood)

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In the last several years, the toy dinosaur community has seen an exponential increase in figures of dinosaurs discovered in China, driven mainly by the prolific China-based companies PNSO and Haolonggood. Today we looking at the first dinosaur seriously scientifically investigated from China, the sauropod Euhelopus zdanski of the early Cretaceous. Fossils were first discovered by a Catholic priest in 1913. He shared the remains with a German mining engineer who sent the head and three vertebrae to the Chinese geologist Ding Wenjiang. In 1922 the site was rediscovered with the help of another Catholic priest and in 1923 the Austrian paleontologist Otto Zdansky, who was still a student at the time, excavated two skeletons at neighboring sites. Later in 1923, the holotype of what would become E. zdanski was studied by Chinese paleontologist H. C. T’an. However, it wasn’t until 1929 that it would be formally described by Swedish Paleontologist Carl Wiman. Wiman originally described it as Helopus zdanski. However, the name Helopus was preoccupied in zoological nomenclature by Helopus caspius, a synonym of the Caspian Tern (now Hydroprogne caspia). In 2010 the species would be redescribed and specimen PMU 24705, one of the original fossils from 1913, would be designated as the holotype. The phylogenetic relationship of Euhelopus to other sauropods is not completely known. It is often placed in the family Euhelopidae, but the monophyly of the group remains in question. Either way, it appears to be allied to the titanosaurs, perhaps basal to the rest of the clade or a member of its sister group. Today we are looking at Haolonggood’s 2025 rendition of Euhelopus, a genus that to the best of my knowledge has only been made once before, by PNSO in 2016.

This model by Haolonggood measures approximately 18.5 cm tall and 25.0 cm long. It is often difficult to calculate scale in dinosaur figures, since features like height and body length are often estimates. A 2013 paper suggested Euhelopus had a 4-meter-long neck. The neck on this figure is approximately 13.0 cm which would put the scale at 1:31. Using the size chart on Wikipedia, the animal is about 6 meters long from the front of the chest to the tip of the tail. Using those metrics, the figure comes to 1:31.5. It seems like it’s safe to assume this figure is about 1:31, but could probably fit into 1:32 (a popular scale!).

The animal is sculpted in a fairly neutral pose as if strolling through a field or an open patch of a dense woodland. There is a claw on the front feet. From what I can tell, we don’t have fossilized feet of Euhelopus, and it is generally assumed members of Titanosauria proper lacked front claws. However, given that Euhelopus is probably basal to the group or in a sister clade, a claw is not completely out of the realm of possibility. One thing we do have on Euhelopus, that we often don’t for sauropods, is the head! And this figure does the species justice in that department. Eyes, nostrils, and even some tiny teeth are sculpted! Not bad for a model of this size! Very fine keratinized scales run down the back and onto the tail while paired osteoderms run down the neck with random placement on the main part of the body.

Like all other Haolonggood figures, this one comes in two colors, which can best be described as grey (Yang Chun) and brown (Jiang Jing). I decided on the grey version, since it has a mostly simple palate, except for the banded tail (apparently a Haolonggood trademark these days) and a pale underside. So many of their figures have stripes, bands, and/or ‘squiggles’, I wanted the simplest paint job possible in my figure!

Overall, this is a fairly nice rendition of the species, based on what we know of the animal, and I think it is much more aesthetically-pleasing than the overly lanky and scrawny PNSO version. Recommended. Available wherever Haolonggood figures are sold. I live in the US and just today I got an email from US-based Happy Hen Toys that they have it in stock, so that could be a good option for my fellow Americans.