After our dear fellow reviewer EmperorDinobot’s (Luis Perez) untimely passing back in late July, there’s been a gap left behind with reviews he planned to do when he was still with us, but unfortunately never got to finish, and now sadly he never will. Some of the regular reviewers here have already graciously stepped up and finished some of these in tribute to him recently, such as the Hammond Collection Dilophosaurus by Gwangi, the Epic Evolution Kileskus by Suspsy, and the Papo Protoceratops by Primeval12 and crazy8wizard. In my Guemesia review I wrote a detailed tribute to him opening the review (and I urge folks to read it to know how I feel about his passing), even if it wasn’t one he had planned to do when still with us. Well now this one, the Dino Trackers Regaliceratops, will be. I only recently realized it was one he had intended to do originally. In a better timeline perhaps we could have gotten the opportunity to read his thoughts on this one, but sadly it’s not this one. Here I am picking up the torch left behind with this one, but may we never forget his many contributions here.
Regaliceratops is one of my favorite ceratopsians, despite only being named ten years ago now. In fact it immediately caught my interest back then. The only known specimen so far is the holotype TMP 2005.055.0001, nicknamed “Hellboy” after the Dark Horse Comics character created by Mike Mignola, and was described back in 2015 by authors Caleb Brown and Donald Henderson. It was originally found in 2005 by geologist Peter Hews in what is now the St. Mary River Formation, in Alberta, Canada. The species name “peterhewsi” honors him. It lived during the Maastrichtian stage, 68.5-67.5 Ma, near the very end of the Late Cretaceous Period. The material only consists of a near complete skull, but the skull is unique among the ceratopsians in having a crown like shape to its frill, hence its name, meaning “royal horned face” (in addition to being held at the Royal Tyrrell Museum). That distinctive crown shaped frill is what drew me to it. Regaliceratops is also part of the subfamily Chasmosaurinae, and would have been related to ceratopsians like Chasmosaurus, Kosmoceratops, Pentaceratops, Triceratops, and number of others.
This figure of it released in late 2023 as part of the Dino Trackers line, and was part of the Wild Roar assortment of medium sized electronic figures. As I mentioned in my recent Chasmosaurus review, Mattel has produced a total of 18 ceratopsian genera now. This was unique at the time as it was the first in the line to be sculpted with quills on the back, a paleo meme entirely based around the Psittacosaurus specimen SMF R 4970. There’s no direct evidence in the Ceratopsidae for this feature however, the family in which Regaliceratops belongs to, or any other ceratopsian so far yet. Despite that, many paleo artists and even figure companies like CollectA have long incorporated this feature into their works. This Mattel Regaliceratops however is no longer unique in that regard, as they’ve now produced a Spiclypeus this year with this feature as well.
As the skull is the only thing known from Regaliceratops, and is what helps set it apart from other ceratopsians, it would be wise to replicate its iconic features, and I think Mattel did a good job with that here. Nearly all of the frill’s horns or spikes are present, with only a few of the bottom most pairs absent. And of course the unique single one in the middle of the top of the frill is present as well. The length of the brow and nasal horns might be a tad exaggerated, but not egregiously so. Both the jugal or cheek horns are present as well. All of those horns have been painted, at least on the tips, which is a plus I suppose, as some other ceratopsian figures in the line lack paint in this area. The rest of the sculpt is your typical Mattel ceratopsian with elephant like feet (and weird large aardvark-like claws this time around), and with an incorrect number of digits at least on the forelimbs, with four instead of five, and as usual digits four and five on ceratopsid ceratopsians should lack claws. There’s also these interesting little osteoderm things mixed in with the scales sculpted on it. The first thing that came to mind was that fossilized Triceratops skin impression, though the shape of the scales surrounding them are different.
As far as the rest of the paint goes, it is pretty basic, with a little bit of a dark olive green coloration speckling on the frill, and a raccoon-like mask around the facial horns, and eyes. The beak is not painted, and neither is the tongue oddly, despite the mouth being permanently left open. This dark olive green coloration covers a portion of the back, including the rubbery quills, whereas the rest of the paint on the figure consists of dark brown spots on the thighs. The figure is mostly cast in a yellow plastic. I’ll be honest I find it far from appealing in that regard, so I kind of hope this one gets a repaint down the line. Granted I’m just not a big fan of yellow being used a primary color anyways. If I recall right the Dino Trackers line also had environmental theming on its packaging and the corresponding mobile app, and I think this one was part of the desert biome, hence the color choices.
As far as the articulation goes, it’s the typical simple articulation at the shoulders and hips that most figures in this size range get. The action feature consists of a slider similar to the 2021 Dino Escape figures, which is a little jarring. The pull tab for the scan code for the corresponding mobile app is at least well hidden, underneath some of the quills on the back, unlike many other figures from 2022-2025 with this feature. Moving the slider slightly left, tilts the head left (frill pointing to the right), and fully left, pulls the head in a bit too. Move the switch to the right, and the reverse occurs, although the head still pulls in, when pushed all the way. The electronics in mine are either unfortunately damaged, or perhaps the batteries have died, so no description of the sounds it once made here, or even a short video unfortunately.
All that said, I do enjoy having this one in my collection, even if might not be the most appealing ceratopsian they’ve made (well to me anyways), and that’s despite Regaliceratops being one of my favorite ceratopsians. I think I got mine back in early 2024 at Walmart maybe. It’s wave-mates were the Irritator, Nigersaurus, and Orkoraptor (all of which were formerly reviewed, by EmperorDinobot, Gwangi, and Cretaceous Crab respectively). Seems to still be readily available with online retailers like Amazon, if not elsewhere like ebay, with prices ranging around $10 for loose to nearly $30 for new typically.
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