Out of all of the thrilling releases unveiled by Haolonggood in 2023, there have been few I anticipated greater than the nodosaur Edmontonia, which started arriving to distributors in June. Named after the Edmonton (Horseshoe Canyon) Formation in Canada the place the sort species was found, Edmontonia isn’t one of the well-known dinosaurs, nor even essentially considered one of my very own favorites; but it’s recognized from sufficient substantial fossil stays to make widespread appearances in dinosaur literature rising up (particularly in Dorling Kindersley publications, that includes the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s life model). It is a dinosaur with sufficient media presence to warrant just a few toys; but regardless of just a few makes an attempt from the likes of Schleich, Collecta, and even the traditional Tyco “Dino Riders” line, for the previous 20+ years Edmontonia’s finest toy illustration has been the rubbery 1994 Battat Boston Museum sequence mannequin. A correct challenger has been a very long time coming for collectors, and Haolonggood proved to be the primary firm prepared and capable of step as much as the duty and provides the armored dinosaur its due.
The Haolonggood Edmontonia measures 16.5 cm (6.5 in) lengthy, scaling at 1:40 for a full-sized residing specimen of 6.6 meters (22 ft). As is commonplace protocol for the model, Haolonggood launched two paint variants of Edmontonia, numbered as HLG-024 & HLG-025. Each additionally has a nickname, with the blue model referred to as JieZhen & the purple model named JieBao. Every figurine is boxed and bought individually, with a verify mark beneath to confirm which model is included inside. JieZhen was the primary to catch my eye; the higher physique is a cool grayish blue, whereas the stomach is one thing of a flesh-tone orange, creating a pleasant countershading impact. Every scute and spike is given further highlights that make the armor altogether visually pop with energy. Faint purple spots adorn the ossicle layers between scutes, including one other layer to the colour scheme of the armor. Bigger brown spots additionally sample the pinnacle, flanks, and legs; the face and toes additionally function a darker brown wash.
JieBao options the identical brown spots and washes on given components of the physique, in addition to the faint purple spot patterns over the armor; however the cool blue tones have been changed with ruddy pinks, plus extra saturated oranges beneath. Highlights to the ridges of the scutes and spikes are additionally retained, albeit much less prominently. JieBao appears to be like extra uniform in shade than JieZhen, however positive aspects the benefit of the aforementioned darker noticed patterns contrasting extra to interrupt up the monotony. All in all, JieBao carries its shade palette fairly attractively in its personal proper, and the 2 figures make a superb show pair collectively.
Not solely do the Edmontonia pair carry their coloration properly, additionally they carry themselves with rather more swish posture than one could be used to from these 90s-era toys and museum fashions. Like so many different dinosaurs, nodosaurs and ankylosaurs have obtained a fair proportion of continued updates and revisions to extra precisely recreate how these animals would have actually seemed. The Haolonggood Edmontonias have shaken off the outdated hunched, squat pseudo-turtle gait of prior many years; these dinosaurs stroll with their legs straight and their backbones stage to the bottom, however their bellies raised comfortably above it. Their eyes look vibrant and alert, heads gently dipped; and their tails are balanced straight out behind the our bodies, gently swaying to the shifting footsteps and undoubtedly poised to ship a well-placed smack in opposition to any nuisance. These are healthy-looking dinosaurs, with plump guts and toned muscle tissues, tempered by folds of pores and skin or slight rolls of fats alongside the neck, flanks, and hind legs. Haolonggood has delivered a tremendous likeness of the Edmonton armored dinosaur.
There’s only one catch to those collectible figurines that needs to be addressed: which likeness, precisely, is being represented right here? Edmontonia has one thing of a messy taxonomic historical past, however there are at the moment two species formally acknowledged: E. longiceps, the sort species found in Horseshoe Canyon Formation, and E. rugosidens, a geologically older species from the Dinosaur Park formation. Between fossils of the 2 species, scientists have pretty substantial stays of the Edmontonia genus; nevertheless, being two separate species, there are particular traits that are distinctive to every of them. When Battat produced their Boston Museum line, their Edmontonia was particularly labeled as E. rugosidens, and most Edmontonia toys since then appear to have adopted go well with – till Haolonggood’s launch. Primarily based on at the very least just a few of the distinguishing options described in armored dinosaur literature, Haolonggood’s Edmontonia pair seem like extra of a chimera between species. Enable me to elaborate…
JieZhen and JieBao have wedge-shaped skulls, which slender gently and steadily happening the snout, and lack any prominently jutting postorbital armor (behind the eyes); these are traits mirrored from E. longiceps. The distinctive shoulder spikes, nevertheless, are angled ahead in a fashion resembling E. rugosidens, along with the biggest pair of spikes bearing a forked form that’s nearly actually primarily based immediately on E. rugosidens fossil specimens – most notably being AMNH 5665, which is on display on the American Museum of Pure Historical past. Nonetheless extra complicated, the rows of scutes over the neck and again are ridged, however missing in factors like these seen in rugosidens armor; they appear nearer in form to E. longiceps once more. It’s price declaring that fossils point out there is usually a truthful quantity of particular person variation inside each species; however, it appears most probably Haolonggood was mixing references from the 2 in crafting their collectible figurines, so ardent purists for species accuracy could discover this irritating.
Haolonggood may be perplexing of their selection of consideration to particulars, however at the very least there’s no denying they DO pay numerous consideration. Edmontonia is correctly armored with rows of 6, 6, and 4 scutes behind the pinnacle, that are described because the cervical bands; the third and largest band needs to be spaced farther from the opposite two, nevertheless. Following the cervical bands, the again is adorned with 25 bands of small dorsal armor scutes, with correlating lateral spines/scutes operating alongside every flank from behind the shoulder all the way in which to the tip of the tail. The precise quantity and association of Edmontonia’s armor remains to be unknown, however the Haolonggood did what appears to be like like a tremendous job arranging it on their figurine pair. A layer of further armor (referred to as ossicles) fills within the blanks between scutes, with pretty even definition throughout the sculpt. Different scale particulars are equally utilized, with highlights on the face and higher limbs, the place the variation in scale dimension and form may be extra appreciated. The entrance toes have 5 toes, though some literature suggests Edmontonia may need had as few as 4 and even three. All toes have painted claws/nails, though realistically Edmontonia, like some other dinosaur and prolonged archosauromorph, shouldn’t have claws on its fifth digit. The hind toes have 4 toes, and when inspecting the underside, one can discover a cloacal slit, which is a minor element however one numerous corporations have gotten fairly good about together with.
After I first acquired my Edmontonia pair, I used to be delighted to have a correct, fashionable rendition of this childhood dinosaur in my assortment. Whereas I didn’t anticipate these collectible figurines to be borrowing options from two totally different species, that discovery hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm a lot – though I do hope Haolonggood avoids this sooner or later and continues bettering their diligence in scientific accuracy. JieZhen and JieBao are a splendid pair of collectible figurines and a few of the best toy nodosaurs produced. In case you’ve been on the fence about this pair, you may come down: Haolonggood continues to ship high quality dinosaur product.
As of this writing, JieZhen and JieBao the Edmontonias are nonetheless obtainable via a number of distributors, together with Completely happy Hen Toys, All the pieces Dinosaur, varied AliExpress retailers, and the official Haolonggood Amazon retailer web page.
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