Yangchuanosaurus (Dinosaurs of China by Safari Ltd)

Up for review today is the great Yangchuanosaurus by safari. Yangchuanosaurus is sorely underrepresented in dinosaur toy lines, so I’m glad safari decided to make one (and make it good!) Yangchuanosaurus was a large theropod that was like the t-rex of it’s time. It lived alongside other dinosaurs like Sinraptor and the behemoth sauropod Mamenchisaurus. 

Now back to the replica. The sculpt is very nice, it is obvious that some attention has been given to giving this guy scales all over his body. His legs aren’t deathly thin like some of Carnegie’s replicas, and they look beautiful. The head is very nice, I love the nostrils and the thick ridges going down the snout. It also has noticeable external ears. Unlike many other safari dinosaurs, this Yangchuanosaurus isn’t covered in wrinkles; The only wrinkles that are noticeable are right behind the right side of the head. The pose is fantastic. It is actually in a natural pose, not looking like “RAWR look at me I’m a dinosaur roooaar!!!”. It looks like it is wiping it’s mouth off after taking a drink from a nice prehistoric stream. This is one of the handful of safari theropods that actually has it’s mouth closed, and it looks great. At first glance, the arms seem to be of two different lengths, but when you measure them out, they are equal in length. But as with any dinosaur sculpt; this replica does have it’s faults: The left side of the head has more teeth than the right side does, the tail is very thin, and there is the absence of a dew claw on each foot. This figure is about 8 inches long.

The paint job on this figure is very nice too, and it fits the sculpt well. It is mostly a (slightly greenish) brown all over, and it is slightly more green on the head than other places on the body. The eyes are a fierce forest green with circular black pupils, and to give the illusion of sunlight hitting the eyes, there is a little white dot above each pupil. Fading black bands adorn this beast’s flanks. The ribcages are highlighted in a bright orange yellow color. The claws, unfortunately, are unpainted, and at first glance they look like part of the digits themselves. Oddly, the line of the mouth is highlighted in black– This is the only safari theropod figure that I can think of that has this feature.

Overall, this figure is a 9/10. However, since he has a very non-hunting pose with a closed mouth and docile look, he probably didn’t go over well with children too much, and thus he was discontinued. If you can find him you better get him soon, as soon I wouldn’t be surprised if he became highly sought after.