Collectible Dinosaur Figures Made with Soft Material
A PVC figure of Tarbosaurus, one of Asia’s largest carnivorous dinosaurs, sometimes called the “Asian Tyrannosaurus.” Its collectible size makes it enjoyable both for play and display.
TarbosaurusTarbosaurus
Classification: Saurischia/Theropoda/Tyrannosauridae
Size: Total length9〜12meters
Period: Late Cretaceous
A large tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous. Its skull was narrower than that of Tyrannosaurus, and the narrow width suggests its eyes did not face forward, limiting stereoscopic vision. Because of similarities in size and shape, some have proposed that it belonged to the same genus as Tyrannosaurus, but many researchers reject this due to its somewhat smaller body, skull only about two-thirds as wide, and shorter forelimbs.
Interview with Supervisor Kazunari Araki
- Tarbosaurus, one of Asia’s largest carnivorous dinosaurs, has joined the Soft Model series. Mr. Araki, what are your impressions of Tarbosaurus?
- When I was in high school, I often visited the Youth Science Center in Fushimi, Kyoto, to sketch Tarbosaurus. In some ways, it is a more familiar dinosaur to me than Tyrannosaurus, so I am very pleased to see it join the Soft Model series.
- What aspects of sculpting Tarbosaurus were challenging, and are there any details you would especially like people to notice?
- Tarbosaurus is very similar to Tyrannosaurus, but it has a slightly slimmer body and a less robust snout. I focused on expressing these differences.
- What image inspired the pose?
- As with the other Soft Models, I avoided an overly dramatic pose so the figure can fit a variety of settings and collections, while still conveying the ferocity of a carnivorous dinosaur.
- The Tarbosaurus Soft Model uses yellow as its base color, giving it a brighter appearance than many carnivorous dinosaurs, which often have darker color schemes. What image or concept inspired this choice, and were there any references you used?
- I chose a color that would not overlap too much with other dinosaurs in the Soft Model series while still expressing the character of the species. This purple color is quite innovative, isn’t it? (laughs)
- Finally,Tarbosaurus About the Soft ModelPlease share your comments.。
- Tarbosaurus was one of Asia’s largest carnivorous dinosaurs. Since Asia was connected to Japan by land at that time, perhaps a similarly enormous predator once lived in Japan too. It might be fun to imagine what such a dinosaur would be called while playing with Tarbosaurus.
Supervisor Profile
Kazunari Araki
One of Japan's leading dinosaur model artists, he creates dinosaur reconstruction models for natural history museums and master models for dinosaur encyclopedias and other publications.