Quite a number of giant carcharodontosaurs reigned over South America during the Cretaceous period. One of the largest and most recently described is the formidable Taurovenator, the “bull hunter.” Named for the small, horn-like projections over its orbits, it lived between 95 and 93.9 million years ago and is estimated to have weighed around six tons.
The very first toy of his species, Hugo the PNSO Taurovenator came out in late 2025. He is sculpted in a rather unique pose: hunched over with his head turned sharply to the left, his left foot forward, his right foot extended back, and his tail raised and swinging to the left. Measurements are about 27.5 cm long and 10.5 cm high at the tail tip. He looks as though he’s in pursuit of some small game and about to snap it up in his terrible jaws. Or perhaps he is feasting on the enormous corpse of a sauropod. In any case, Hugo stands quite well on his own, and can be further supported by the very short stand included with him.
Although his base colour is light brown with a beige underbelly, Hugo is one of the most colourful PNSO theropods. Dark brown runs down his back and tail and medium brown markings adorn his body. His hands and feet are dark brown with faint splashes of blue-grey and dark grey claws. Large blue splashes are on his neck. His head is light brown with medium brown stripes, blue-grey around the tip of his snout, light orange eyes, and bright orange crests. And lastly, the inside of his mouth is glossy pink with off white teeth. Quite the impressive and attractive paint job all around.
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Tiny round scales cover all of Hugo’s frame, along with larger round osteoderms dotting his back and tail and an uneven row of triangular spines running down the length of his vertebrae. Plenty of wrinkles and skin folds to be found as well. The tail is thick, long, and muscular.
The powerful hind legs end in feet protected by rows of scutes. Note the much larger, more curved claws on the second digits. Like many large carcharodontosaurs, Taurovenator is known from incomplete remains, but much of its foot has been recovered. The arms are also known, and boy howdy, are they ever tiny. Nevertheless, the hands feature very fine, curved claws.
Like the other giant theropods from PNSO, Hugo’s head features large scales around his eyes and covering the tip of his snout. His skull is typically carcharodontosaurian: big, long, and narrow with a pronounced slope. He also features lips that completely conceal his teeth when his mouth is shut.
And naturally, the horn-shaped projections are present, although they are admittedly very small indeed. A far cry from say, the prominent points on Carnotaurus. The bright orange colour definitely serves to highlight them, as well as all the other bumps running down the top of the skull. How could any female Taurovenator resist a looker like Hugo?
Hugo’s hinged lower jaw opens to an angle of 40 degrees. This gives you an excellent view of the interior of his mouth: the palate with its sculpted nostril openings, the cavernous throat, and, of course, the many, many sharp teeth. Again I must praise PNSO for coming around and putting lips on their theropod toys. Hugo comes off as a real, graceful, and deadly animal, a force to be reckoned with in his time. Taurovenator was discovered in the Huincul Formation of Patagonia, which dates back to around 95 to 93.9 million years. Its known contemporaries included fellow carcharodontosaurs Mapusaurus and Meraxes, the abelisaur Skorpiovenator, and the colossosaur Argentinosaurus.
The information booklet contains the usual how-to-draw section, a number of toy photos, and a nice skeletal illustration showing all the known fossil material of Taurovenator.
The poster, seen here on my younger son’s wall, depicts the Hugo toy in a dark forest setting. As always, it’s not as nice as actual artwork, but I do like that it’s vertical for a change.
With his striking colours, superb detail, and cool dynamic pose, Hugo the Taurovenator is yet another resounding triumph for PNSO. This one is definitely worth the purchase.
All articles on the Dinosaur Toy Blog are written without the use of ‘AI’
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