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Wild Roar Review
Tsintaosaurus Wild Roar
Tsintaosaurus has been on plenty of collectors’ wish lists for years, and Primal Ambush finally brings it to the Mattel line. This is not a textbook hadrosaur. The crest is huge, a glowing sail runs along the back and the plastic is half translucent so the whole front of the animal can light up. Switch off the room lights, let it roar, and it becomes one of the most striking figures in Wild Roar. The sail is pure fantasy and some sculpted detail gets lost in the see-through plastic, but the colours, the beak and the light show more than make up for it.
⭐ New to the Mattel line🔊 Roar sounds💡 Light-up head, neck and sailWild Roar · Wave 1DNA scan code included
🦴 Fossil vs Figure: How Real Is It?
Tsintaosaurus is one of the better-known crested hadrosaurs from China, and since a 2013 restudy we have a fairly clear idea of its skull. Mattel kept the basic idea of a big crested duck-bill and then pushed everything else in the Primal Ambush direction.
The beak and legs are handled well, but the sail, the extra toe and the size of the crest put this firmly in creature territory. Collectors who want an accurate Tsintaosaurus will need to look elsewhere.
Out of the Wild Roar Box
Wild Roar is the electronic assortment of Primal Ambush, with an action feature, sounds and a light inside every figure. Tsintaosaurus is the only plant-eater in wave 1, sharing the shelf with Cristatusaurus, Gryposuchus, Sinraptor and Zhejiangopterus.
The box follows the usual Wild Roar design. The back carries a checklist of the rest of the wave and a photo of the figure with its lights switched on, which is a good preview of the best thing about it. Out of the box there is only one job to do: clip on the small tip of the tail.
Colours & Paint
The colour scheme is the figure’s quiet strength. Black covers the crest, beak, legs and the back half of the tail, but on the face and neck it sits over translucent pink plastic, so a warm pink shows through around the edges. It gives the head a lifelike, almost fleshy look that photos do not fully capture. The eye is a bright blue with a black pupil and a glossy finish that makes it stand out against the dark face.
Further back the pink turns lighter and more peachy across the body, broken up by black patterning, before fading out at the hips. The sail is a deeper pink than anywhere else. The lower jaw gets a pale off-white, but it stops almost as soon as it reaches the throat, and a stripe running the full length of the neck would have looked better. The tail and underside are left plain black, so a little more paint there would have helped.
One pleasant surprise: the claws are not painted, but they have a gloss coat over the black plastic, which makes them look finished. The crest is plain black too. A brighter display colour would have made sense on a structure that was probably used for showing off, but the dark crest does suit the moody look.
Sculpt Breakdown
Head, beak and crest
The beak is the best-sculpted part of the figure. Up close it shows fine cracks and small chips, as if the animal has been using it for years. The lower jaw carries clear scales and skin texture. On the black areas of the face the scales read well, while on the pink translucent areas they are harder to spot because light passes through the plastic and flattens the detail.
The crest is huge, much bigger than the real animal’s, and a row of large bony bumps runs up its front edge. It is an odd choice, but it does give the head a strong silhouette and plenty of sharp detail.
Body, sail and legs
The sail is the talking point. It runs along the spine and carries on a little way down the tail, and it is there mainly to show off the light. It is fantasy, but at least it is a sail rather than a row of spikes, which feels a little less out of place on a hadrosaur. Like the face, it is translucent, so its sculpted texture looks washed out in normal light.
The legs are the most traditional part of the sculpt, with good muscle definition in the thighs and calves, a visible kneecap and scutes running down the toes. Look closely and there are a few sculpted scars on the body, a small touch that suits the Primal Ambush theme. The pose is slightly asymmetric: one front leg sits further forward than the other, the hind legs are staggered and the tail curves a little to the left.
Count the toes
Articulation, Lights & Roar
✓ Neck up and down (via the feature)✓ Front legs (via the feature)✓ Hind legs✓ Tail tip swivel★ Roars and lights up✗ Hind legs move together✗ Little free posing
The neck and the front legs are tied into the action feature, so they move as part of the play pattern rather than as free joints. Work the feature and you get the full show:
In a fully dark room this is one of the best light features Mattel has done. The glowing sail looks strange and otherworldly, and that is exactly why it works. It is the reason the sail exists, and once you see it lit the design makes a lot more sense.
Free posing is limited. Beyond the feature you have the hind legs and a swivel at the tip of the tail. Oddly, the hind legs are linked: move one and the other follows. You can push them into different positions, but they do not move independently in a clean way. This is a figure for playing with the feature and displaying, not for dynamic poses.
Size & Comparisons
Tsintaosaurus lands right where you would expect for a Wild Roar figure. It is about the same size as the Wild Roar Metriacanthosaurus and Parasaurolophus, so it fits naturally into a scene with them. A Gigantic Trackers figure such as the Chilantaisaurus is clearly bigger. Next to the Hammond Collection Corythosaurus it is in the same size range, although the Corythosaurus stands a little taller.
Note that the sail is the highest point of the figure, not the crest, which says a lot about how big that sail is.
Final Verdict
Tsintaosaurus is a figure that grows on you. On first sight the giant crest and the sail look like too much, but the more time you spend with it the more the pieces come together. The pink glowing through the black on the face looks almost alive, the beak is finely detailed, and the legs are as solid as anything in the wave. Then you switch the lights off, set off the feature and it becomes something no other Mattel hadrosaur offers.
It is not perfect. The sail and the crest are far from the real animal, the translucent plastic hides some of the sculpted detail, the hind feet have a toe too many and the tail and belly could use more paint. Posing is limited too, since the neck and front legs belong to the feature and the hind legs move as a pair.
If you want an accurate Tsintaosaurus, this is not it. If you want a crested hadrosaur with real character and one of the best light shows in the line, it is easy to recommend.
✦ The Good
- A long-awaited species for the Mattel line
- One of the best light features in the line
- Pink glowing through black gives a lifelike face
- Finely detailed beak with cracks and wear
- Roar sounds and a glossy blue eye
✦ The Not So Good
- Fantasy sail and an oversized crest
- Translucent plastic hides some detail
- Four toes instead of three on the hind feet
- Tail and underside left plain black
- Limited posing, hind legs move as a pair
Meet the Real Tsintaosaurus
For more than fifty years Tsintaosaurus was drawn as a “unicorn” with a single spike on its forehead. The spike turned out to be only the back edge of a much bigger crest.Why this species is worth knowing
Where and when. Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus lived in what is now Shandong Province in eastern China during the Late Cretaceous (Campanian). Its fossils come from the Jingangkou Formation near Laiyang, part of the Wangshi Group.
The name. C. C. Young described it in 1958. The genus is named after the city of Qingdao, once spelled Tsingtao, and spinorhinus means “with a nose spine”, after the crest that caused so much debate.
The unicorn crest. Young reconstructed a narrow spike about forty centimetres long pointing almost straight up from the snout. Later researchers suspected a broken, displaced nasal bone. In 2013 Albert Prieto-Márquez and Jonathan Wagner showed the spike was the rear support of a tall, lobed crest that ran forward over the snout, more like the crests of its lambeosaurine relatives.
How big was it? Tsintaosaurus reached about 8.3 metres long and weighed around 2.5 tonnes, a large but fairly typical hadrosaur.
Life as a hadrosaur. It was a plant-eater with a broad beak and rows of grinding teeth, and it could walk on two legs or on all four. In lambeosaurines such as Parasaurolophus and Corythosaurus the hollow crest was connected to the nasal passages, and probably helped them call and recognise each other.
Unlock the Tsintaosaurus
How to unlock Tsintaosaurus from Primal Ambush?
The DNA scan code is printed on the Tsintaosaurus figure. Scan it with the Jurassic World Play App to add the Primal Ambush Tsintaosaurus to your digital collection.
New figures sometimes reach shops before the app is updated, and then the code will not scan yet. If that happens, update the app and try again a little later. If the code on your figure has worn off or is hard to read, scan the copy on this page straight from your screen.
Tsintaosaurus Gallery
Tsintaosaurus FAQ
Yes. It is part of the Wild Roar assortment, so it has sound effects and a light inside. The translucent head, neck and back sail glow, and the effect is strongest in a dark room.
It is about 11.5 inches (29 cm) long from beak to tail, about 5.5 inches (14 cm) tall at the top of the sail and about 4.75 inches (12 cm) tall at the crest, in line with other Wild Roar figures.
No. Real hadrosaurs had at most a low ridge along the back. The sail is a Primal Ambush design choice that gives the light feature a large surface to glow through.
The first reconstruction in 1958 showed a spike about forty centimetres long pointing straight up from its snout, like a unicorn’s horn. A 2013 study showed the spike was only the rear part of a much larger, lobed crest.
Tsintaosaurus means Qingdao lizard, after the city of Qingdao in Shandong Province, China, which used to be spelled Tsingtao.
Open the Jurassic World Play App, tap Scan and point your camera at the DNA code printed on the figure, or at the copy on this page.