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Jurassic World Primal Ambush · Wild Roar
Tsintaosaurus Wild Roar First look at the Primal Ambush Tsintaosaurus — charcoal black, a glowing red sail and that famous crest
Tsintaosaurus, the crested duck-billed dinosaur from China, joins Jurassic World Primal Ambush, Mattel’s 2027 toy line, in the first wave of Wild Roar figures with lights and sounds. The figure is not out yet, so this is a preview built from the official packaging: what it looks like, what it does, and the story of the real “unicorn dinosaur” behind it. The full hands-on review, DNA scan code and photo gallery will be added here once it is released.
⏳ Preview · not yet released⭐ New to the lineWild Roar · Wave 1💡 Lights & soundsMattel · 2027
▲ First Look
Hadrosaurs rarely get the dramatic treatment, which makes this one stand out. The packaging shows a near-black Tsintaosaurus with a pale cracked pattern across its flanks, a translucent red sail along its back that lights up, and the tall rounded crest the species is known for. It is boldly stylised, in keeping with the exaggerated look of the Primal Ambush line, and far moodier than the gentle plant-eater you might expect. Everything below comes from the boxed figure as shown on the official packaging, so treat it as provisional until we have it in hand.
🔬 Why This Species Is Worth Knowing
Tsintaosaurus spent more than half a century as the “unicorn dinosaur”. When C. C. Young described it in 1958, he reconstructed a spike roughly forty centimetres long jutting almost straight up from its snout. Later researchers suspected a broken, crushed nasal bone instead, and in 2013 Prieto-Márquez and Wagner showed the “horn” was really the back of a much larger crest running forward to the tip of the snout.
Paint Scheme — From the Packaging
The base colour is a deep charcoal black that covers the legs, tail and most of the body. Across the flanks and the base of the neck, a pale grey network of fine lines breaks it up, like cracked earth or cooling lava. The head carries a dark red mottling over the black, with a paler grey along the lower jaw and beak, and the eye is a light blue that stands out sharply against the dark face. The sail along the back is moulded in translucent red plastic rather than painted, which is what lets it light up.
The inset picture on the box shows the feature in action: the sail glows a fiery orange-yellow when the lights are on, which should look dramatic against the black body.
Sculpt & Detail — First Impressions
Head and Crest
The head has the broad, flattened duck bill of a hadrosaur, held low at the end of a thick neck. Rising from the top of the skull is a tall crest with a rounded, lobe-shaped top, which is much closer to the modern reconstruction of the animal than the old unicorn spike. The skin on the face and neck is sculpted with wrinkles and small scales.
Sail and Back
A long, ragged-edged sail runs along the spine from the shoulders to the hips, tallest in the middle. This is the line’s exaggerated styling at work: real hadrosaurs had a low ridge of skin along the back, not a fin like this. It gives the light-up feature a large surface to show off.
Legs and Tail
The figure stands on all fours, with heavy, pillar-like hind legs and a large rounded thigh that likely houses part of the electronics. The tail is thick and held out straight behind the body. Both are plain black on the packaging sample, so the texture is hard to judge from photos. We will cover the feet, tail and underside properly in the full review.
Features & Articulation
✓ Light-up back sail✓ Sound effects? Jaw — to be confirmed? Neck and legs — to be confirmed? Tail — to be confirmed
Wild Roar is the electronic assortment in Primal Ambush. The packaging carries both a light icon and a sound icon, and the inset picture shows the sail lit up. What we cannot tell from a boxed figure is how it moves, so the articulation list stays open until release. We will test every joint and add the results here.
Size & Specs
Tsintaosaurus ships in the first wave of Wild Roar alongside Cristatusaurus, Gryposuchus, Sinraptor and Zhejiangopterus. Mattel has not published measurements, so we will add the length and height, plus a size comparison with other Mattel hadrosaurs, as soon as we can put a ruler to it.
Early Verdict — One to Watch?
On looks alone, yes. Crested hadrosaurs are always popular with collectors, and this one avoids the usual safe greens and browns for a black body, a red sail and an eerie blue eye. The sail will divide opinion among collectors who prefer accurate animals, but it fits the Primal Ambush style and the rounded crest is a welcome nod to current science. Whether it is worth buying depends on things we cannot judge from a box: paint quality on the production figure, how well it poses, and how good the lights and sounds are. This is not a review yet, and we will give a proper verdict once we have the figure.
✦ What We Like So Far
- Crested hadrosaur with real character
- Rounded crest reflects modern science
- Bold black and red colour scheme
- Cracked pale pattern on the flanks
- Translucent sail that lights up
- Lights and sounds built in
✦ What We Don't Know Yet
- Exact size and scale next to other figures
- Number and range of joints
- Paint quality on the production figure
- How the sounds actually sound
- Price and exact release date
- Stylised sail rather than an accurate back
About the Tsintaosaurus
Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus was a lambeosaurine hadrosaur, a crested duck-billed dinosaur, from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Shandong Province, China. Its fossils come from the Jingangkou Formation near Laiyang, part of the Wangshi Group. It reached about 8.3 metres long and weighed around 2.5 tonnes.
The genus is named after the city of Qingdao, once spelled Tsingtao, and spinorhinus means “with a nose spine”, a nod to the crest that caused so much debate. Like other hadrosaurs it was a plant-eater with a broad beak and hundreds of tightly packed grinding teeth, and it could walk on either two legs or four.
Lambeosaurines such as Parasaurolophus and Corythosaurus had hollow crests connected to their nasal passages, which probably worked as resonating chambers for calls and as visual signals to others of their kind. The 2013 restudy concluded that Tsintaosaurus had a tall, lobed crest of the same general sort, rather than the solid unicorn-style spike of the older reconstructions.
How to Unlock
How to unlock Tsintaosaurus from Wild Roar in the Jurassic World Primal Ambush Collection?
Once the figure is released, open your Jurassic World Play App (previously known as the Jurassic World Facts App), press the Scan button and point it at the DNA code. The Tsintaosaurus scan code is not available yet. We will post it right here as soon as we have the figure, so you can scan it straight from this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tsintaosaurus is part of Jurassic World Primal Ambush, Mattel’s 2027 toy line. It is in the first wave of the Wild Roar assortment. Mattel has not confirmed an exact release date or price yet, and we will update this page when it does.
Yes. Wild Roar is the electronic assortment in Primal Ambush, and the Tsintaosaurus packaging shows both a light icon and a sound icon. The translucent red sail along its back lights up.
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 that 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.
Once the figure is released, open the Jurassic World Play App, tap the Scan button, and point it at the DNA code on the Tsintaosaurus figure. The code is not available yet, and we will add it to this page on release.