Initially I was just going to write this review for the First Giants Giganotosaurus but I decided to show the older one as well. We'll get to it in a bit.
I applaud Schleich for taking some risks, especially with the poses of their latest offerings, but if you've been following my Batman review site, you know I HATE POSED TOYS. I appreciate the opening and closing of the jaws, but this pose is not only physically impossible, it's ridiculous. It's so ridiculous it manages to be cool. This is a generic Giganotosaurus with nice colors. It's huge, but it's not an improvement over its predecessor. It's nicely detailed though and I dig the spiky crest running along the back, as well as the colors. But...I don't know. Something about Schleich's dinosaurs makes them feel tiresome after a while. Maybe it's because I also own The Most Bootlegged Dinosaur in the world...the other Schleich Giganotosaurus...But hey, let's give this one a round of applause. At least they're keeping their colors consistent for species even within different scales.
Woo! Applause! I'm not saying it's bad, but I'm paying too much for a top heavy dinosaur that is badly posed and that is no longer properly accurate. I recently sold one for $14. Most stores have it at $25+! Gyah! It does have a lot of personality, and it is rather impressive when you hold it. I'm completely divided on this figure. I love it and welcome it like all other dinosaur toys, but I hope Schleich has better stuff coming.
Their arms are in the wrong position! ARGH! Anyways I have decided that the big lighter one is the male and the smaller one is the female and that they are a coupled pair. Maybe the big one is the female. I don't know. I'm not gonna look under their legs. I like it how the followed the same basic body and color scheme, yet the former is lighter colored.
Lucky for me I got both of them free. Again, I like how they have the same basic art style. This dinosaur has been bootlegged several times. Go to any Target shop and you can find an exact mold for $5, while this is sometimes sold for $25. What matters most? Quality, materials or brand? This is such a generic looking dinosaur it's hard NOT to copy it!
I know why they gave this animal a lighter and brighter palette. Because this overly realistic color scheme is BORING. The blue Carnegie Giganotosaurus has better colors. Now, this figure is nice, but to see it pirated over and over again in such a short span of time in our major retailers is...it lessens the prestige. There's a sort of prestige that we collectors have when we say we own "Carnegie, Schleich, Safari, Papo" and so forth dinos. While I feel that such a whole hierarchical system has fallen in favor of rarer, nicer dinos (Battat, Carnage...etc...), the prestige has been lost in owning this particular figure. It's sad, really. Eventually people will brag over how they had an original and not a copy.
Aww they look nice together though. Schleich is...I have mixed feelings about them. We all do. They aren't the best, but they deliver year after year dinosaurs that are consistent with their art style. Consistency is good, but when is consistency less important than scientific accuracy or democracy? What about economics? How about Schleich stops pressing weird dinos and starts making paleoartist accurate dinos from now on?
