Tyrannosaurus rex (Papo)

Review by megaraptor1000, photos by dinotoyforum

Papo has produced some stunning, if inaccurate, toys in their short time in the model dinosaur industry. Today I will be reviewing one of their larger pieces, the Tyrannosaurus rex. I apologize in advance to Jurassic Park worshipers for bashing their little Rex, I don’t hate him, I am just a bit critical.

No information is needed on the dinosaur itself. It’s Tyrannosaurus rex! The villain from the first two Jurassic Park movies, and there lies the inspiration for this toy. As most dinosaur affiliates would recognize, it is clearly based on the Jurassic Park 3 Rex which was unceremoniously killed off in one of the early scenes of the movie. The Papo T. rex is an almost exact replica of the Jurassic Park dinosaur, even down to the overlarge feet, which aren’t necessary anyway because the figure is in the dreaded ‘tripod’ pose. Like all Papos, it has “Papo”, the manufacturing date (2005), Made In China, and CE stampted on it somewhere (in this one on the inside of the right thigh). The Papo ‘Rex’ fits in with most of the other Papos in that it is not to scale.

A close-up of the creature’s head show the bulbous bases of the lower jaw and the pyramidal ‘crests’ above the eyes, now considered by some experts to have actually existed. In my opinion, and I am no expert on this sort of thing, the head seems just a bit short to me. Another inaccuracy is the arms. They are too long and the palms face the chest. In a real Tyrannosaurus, it would have had to break it’s arms in at least three different places to get them like that.

Now we move onto the tail. There is no physical way a tyrannosaur could even contemplate bending it’s tail that far around. The tail is also too short, but not so short to be really annoying. My pet hate on this figure is the overlarge feet. They would be OK if they were supporting the body and it was horizontal, but that would be a heresy in an all-JP figure. And even though the movie version had them, they weren’t to this extent.

Now for the positives (is that a ‘hallelujah’ I can hear in the background from Jurassic Park toy aficionados?). The skin is wonderfully textured; there are nice wrinkles around the neck. The hind limbs and pelvic region exude power, the teeth are individually sculpted, and it even has the trace of an ear-hole. But, best of all, it is in the ever-famous ‘victory roar’ pose from the first Jurassic Park movie (even though it is the JP3 Tyrannosaur). All in all, and inaccuracies aside, this is a great and affordable ((currently $18.95 US at Amazon.com) replica that is recommended to anyone who loves Jurassic Park, Tyrannosaurus, or just dinosaurs in general.

Thanks to fellow dinosaur toy forum members kevin, horridus, sid and meso-cenozoic for helping me with some of the information.

Available from Amazon.com (here)