In another post, I set out the relationship between a Taiwanese-made pachi of Bemstar, a Triceratops-headed creature, a Zaragas, an ET, a warty Ewok, a bipedal Jabba and a smiling Kong (now there’s a litany of bizarre bootleg toys!), and the fact that the first four of these most probably came in a larger and smaller size. What I did not discuss in detail there is that a variant head exists for the smaller Triceratops pachi – known to me now in only two examples.

It might be wise to show the standard larger and smaller sizes of this model first – to establish a baseline:

(This image from an Instagram post by Pachikaiju here)

We can see here that there are significant differences in size between the two models, with the heads about a third larger in the bigger model, and with a joined up and ‘scalloped’ frill, rather than one dominated by thin spikes. In addition, the smaller model has a longer and thinner nose horn, and the ‘deely bopper’ like protrusions on top of the head with LEDS at their end sit on top of the frill (rather than in the space between the eyes and the frill).

(Image from Worthpoint listing: see my earlier post on these Taiwanese ‘Space Science Monsters’ where this header card is discussed in more detail)

Interestingly, both head sculpts appear to be shown together as two figures in the lower right hand corner of the header card that came with these figures – the one on the left with a more rounded and scalloped frill and ‘deely boppers’ in front of that frill, and the one on the right with a more spiked frill and ‘deely boppers’ that appear to be part of the ridge of the frill. We should also note that this is the only figure on this header card that appears twice.

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Interestingly, in an Instagram post by a dealer named ‘Pristineartt’ we see a head sculpt on a small Triceratops pachi that has the same squat and wide nose horn and the same joined up and ‘scalloped’ frill as the larger model, with ‘deely boppers’ in the space between the eyes and the frill:

(The left-hand figure here – image from Pristineartt’s Instagram page here)

It is clear that the head of the larger model would be too large to fit on the smaller body, and so we are looking at a variant head sculpt here – copying the more common head of the larger model, but in a smaller size.

(Images kindly supplied by Jim Maitland – with thanks to him for that; and reproduced here with his permission)

Another example in the impressive collection of Jim Maitland also bears witness to this variant head. Comparison of the eye colour, spray on the shape on the chest with a large ‘T’ on it, the faded colour of the ‘nubbies’ on the tips of the hands, the metal stud in place of the LED in the chest on one model and the small broken off section of the tip of the nose horn on the model with the variant head, shows that these cannot be the examples in the listing by Pristineartt. Side-by-side comparison again shows that this new head is too small to be a repurposed head from a larger model, and must be an entirely new and much rarer sculpt.

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I suspect that these variant heads were produced in the earliest production stages of this pachi, and may well have also been produced for the larger Triceratops-headed pachi as well, and that is why the artist of the header card treated them as two separate, but related, models. They survive in such small numbers to suggest that they were later phased out in favour of the more common head sculpt for the smaller model (long nose horn, spiky frill incorporating ‘deely boppers’) and for the larger model (scalloped frill, smaller and squatter nose horn and with separate ‘deely boppers’ added in front of the frill). I should dearly like to hear from any reader with any other examples.