POP! Movies: Tyrannosaurus Rex (Jurassic Park)

Well, articles and reviews haven’t been coming nearly as fast as I might have liked this month. There’s a few reasons for that. One is Lost Tunnels, which is in the process of being edited. Another is that I’ve picked up some freelance work (if you would ALSO like to hire me, flick me a message at lupinebookclub@gmail.com).

But the main reason is that I was actually overseas for a couple of weeks. My wife, myself and some other family members headed to New Zealand on a cruise, to celebrate my mother’s birthday. It was great fun, but it did mean that I ran a bit behind on my usual stream of articles. My apologies, dear readers. 

Nonetheless, things are settling back into a more normal routine now. So on to today’s review!

Tyrannosaurus Rex is my favourite dinosaur, hands down. Sure, I love plenty of other dinosaurs too, but gun to my head, T-Rex will always trump all other contenders. So I was pretty excited when I discovered that there would be a T-Rex as part of Funko’s Jurassic Park line. Awesome! It inspired some amazing toys back when the original movie was released – there’s no way it could be anything but awesome. And surely it would be a 6” POP, right?

Sadly, the final product is not quite what it could be.

The first issue is the size of this guy. He’s much too small! Funko seems to have slowed right down on the 6” POPs in general, and I suspect this guy is just a victim of circumstance. I can understand that, given that they seem to shelfwarm a lot harder than most other figures, but it’s still disappointing. How many other T-Rexes are we likely to get in this format? Surely this was a shoe-in for success.

Second is the fact that he can’t stand on his own – his gigantic head is solid, which makes the whole thing far too bulky. A stand is provided but it only plugs into one foot...the softer plastic of the leg has already warped and caused him to fall over once on a hot day, so I am not super-optimistic about long-term display prospects.

The pricing bugs me too. It’s the same price as regular POPs – $19AUD – but it feels like more of a rip-off. Now I didn’t mention this in my Dilophosaurus review; I’m prepared to pay a premium for a Dilophosaurus because there aren’t a lot of Dilophosaurus toys around, and you need to take what you can get. But for a T-Rex…if you’re going to charge $19AUD, it had better be something pretty amazing. Your average dollar store will offer a far better T-Rex toy, at a mere fraction of the cost. This really lacks the necessary x-factor and feels like it’s coasting on the back of the license.   

Finally, a word about the paint. The teeth are incredibly sloppy, and there’s a big mark across the tongue – neither of which was visible while in the box. This time it’s annoyed me enough that I am actually going to take steps to fix it. I know I say this a lot in my POP reviews, but I think this one is bad enough that it’s actually warranted.

While this POP isn’t a total write-off, I don’t think I would have bought Rexy here if I had my time again. But in the absence of a time machine, I’ll have to live with my decision; hopefully he eventually grows on me. Or at least stays standing up. 

POP! Movies – Dilophosaurus (Jurassic Park)

Because everything under the sun is currently getting turned into a POP, Funko have seen fit to release a series of Jurassic Park POPs. Coinciding with the movie’s 25^th anniversary, there’s a good selection of human and dino characters alike – so today, we take a look at the regular version of Dilophosaurus.  

Unlike T-Rex or Triceratops, Dilophosaurus was a relatively obscure dinosaur before it was included in the novel and film versions of Jurassic Park. This obscurity allowed both Crichton and Spielberg to take a bit of creative license to turn the Dilophosaurus into a better villain for both page and screen; she got shrunk down, given a frill and the ability to spit poison.

It was an unusual departure for Crichton; those who have read the book will be aware that he poured a ton of research into the book, making considerable effort to keep his dinosaurs in line with then-current scientific findings. That said, Crichton wasn’t totally talking out of his ass when they took this piece of creative license. Given the weak jaws of Dilophosaurus, it has been speculated that it was primarily a scavenger – or that it had a poisonous bite, similar to modern Komodo Dragons. Probably no spitting venom or frill, though. 

Nonetheless, the film had a huge influence on the way the public perceives dinosaurs, and the frill looks set to stay in pop culture images of these beasts. There are worse falsehoods that have done the rounds, I suppose. Interestingly, it was one of the few dinosaurs in the book or movie that actually did live during the Jurassic Period. 

The sculpt of the figure is great, with the face being a particular standout. I'm generally ambivalent about Funko's move away from stylised looks to greater "realism" but this is one instance where I really think it works. 

I do have some gripes, though. From the back I feel like there’s a few too many ugly join lines. Such is the nature of moulding, but we’ve seen Funko do more complex sculpts in fewer pieces in the past. Likewise, the paint is disappointingly sloppy. If you’re in a generous mood I suppose you could palm it off as “unique markings” for each different animal.

Now, there is a 1:6 Chase for the Dilophosaurus – not glow in the dark, sadly. Indeed, many won’t see the value in it as doesn’t feature the distinctive frill. Not so iconic by film standards, but technically it’s more accurate to how a real Dilophosaurus looked. I'd love to get my hands on one, but can't see myself spending big money for it. 

The Dilophosarus is a fun, if imperfect collectible. Those who enjoy repainting their POPs will enjoy the challenge, while the rest of us will simply tolerate it as we always do. And Jurassic Park or no, Dilophosaurus toys are relatively unusual, so it's always nice to have another one out there. Sure to be a strong seller over the next few months, particularly as the real anniversary grows closer.