Written by Primeval12 and crazy8wizard, photos by Primeval12, edited by Suspsy
Hey, welcome everyone to our review here on the Dinosaur Toy Blog. And I’m just gonna be honest, this is a doozy. Today, crazy8wizard and I will be reviewing the infamous Papo Protoceratops from their 2022 wave. Wizard helped me review the animal from a scientific perspective and I reviewed it from an aesthetic perspective. Let’s take a look at it! [Editor note- Thanks also to Happy Hen Toys for sending a sample of this figure to EmperorDinobot to review, and since he was unable to review it, thanks to Primeval12 and crazy8wizard for stepping up.]
First, a little background. In 2022, Papo announced two (technically three if we include the Mosasaurus that was released the subsequent year) new figures in their prehistoric animal range. 2021 saw a break from them releasing dinosaurs (the only prehistoric models being the Megalodon and the underrated baby Smilodon), so when I heard that we’d be getting a Protoceratops and Styracosaurus, I was thrilled. The 2020 models were all great with superb sculpts and details, so needless to say, the images were a bit of a disappointment to me. The Styracosaurus was just a repaint of their old one and the Protoceratops looked very off to me. I didn’t buy this figure myself, but my friend Gianna was nice enough to get me it for Christmas one year. Having it in hand, it’s not terrible but also not great.
This is a relatively small model, measuring in at about 25 cm long, 5 cm wide, and 5.5 cm tall at the hip. The real life Protoceratops measured around 2-2.5 m long, which puts this toy between the 1:13 and 1:17 scale range. Despite the small size, this figure is still on the pricier side. Expect to pay around $20 USD for it.
Starting with the positives, I love the coloration of this figure. I’m a big fan of bright blues and greens. The eye spots on the frill are quite striking. I can imagine this individual using them to frighten a hungry Velociraptor or other predator. The dark green and light green dry brushing on the animal’s torso is also quite nice. Paint-wise, this figure gets a thumbs up.
The sculpt, however, is where issues start to arise. As Wizard pointed out, there are a lot of scientific inaccuracies with this figure. While Papo is known for their odd use of creative liberty, this Protoceratops gets a lot wrong. One of the biggest issues that Wizard noticed was the head sculpt. The neck attaches to the wrong part of the skull, and is set too low. To compensate for this, the spine appears to be too bent. This poor guy should see a chiropractor ASAP. The skull itself is almost the right shape, but has several issues. It lacks the keratinous sheath on the jugal horns, it’s missing the nasal ridge that should be present (even Mattel got this right!), and the nostrils are on the beak for some reason. The dentition is somewhat correct, but with not enough teeth.
Let’s talk about the mouth for a second. This is easily the most baffling part of this figure. When it is open, it is utterly terrifying. I could easily imagine this toy scaring a small child. For this reason, I choose to pose my figure with a closed jaw. This amends some of these issues, but the mouth appears swollen. It’s like this poor guy ate a bee.
Because the neck is too low, the shoulders and arms are also too low. Despite this, the arms are somehow the right length. The animal has the correct number of digits, but the fourth and fifth should be smaller and lack claws. The back legs are proportioned incorrectly, with overly long thighs and overly short shins. The back feet are a slight improvement over the front ones, though, with the correct number of toes.
The skin detail is bizarre to say the least. It has these large, craggy scales across the body and flat, bandage-like ones across the back and onto the tail. The back of the hind limbs and the front of the forelimbs also have these scales. These features are speculative and while unlikely, not impossible. We do not have skin impressions for Protoceratops, but these blocky scales are not present on its well-preserved relative, Psittacosaurus. I do think the smaller scales look decent, aesthetically, especially with that lighter green drybrushing. However the plate-like scales look horrid. It feels almost insectoid to me. Including them was such a weird choice.
There were actually a LOT of weird choices made with this figure. But is it bad? Truthfully, I can’t say it’s all bad. While the sculpt makes me die a little inside, it is saved a little bit by its coloration and detail. It is very far from good though. Papo can and has done better.
Looking at the belly, it seems this figure was produced for the 2018 or 2019 line. However, the fact that this little guy was delayed until 2022 says a lot about the quality of this figure. My guess is that its initial release was delayed, or possibly canceled before the pandemic forced it out. In fact, Papo seems to have done a post-pandemic stumble in terms of its quality. Thankfully, their new sculpts seem to be a return to form for this company, so hopefully the days of crud like this are over.
Thank you so much to crazy8wizard for helping me review the anatomy of this figure. We hope to be back soon to write a review of something.
I also would like to note that this review was initially meant to be done by the late EmperorDinobot before his passing. I wanted to take this moment to say thank you to him for all he’s done for this blog and forum. I hope we did this review justice for you.
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