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! Heroes: Firestorm

You have to feel a bit sorry for the B- and C-list members of the Justice League. Sometimes it feels like you’re totally expendable, and that at a moment’s notice you could be killed and/or your superhero name taken by the next random old mate showing up. Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Supergirl – even the A-listers aren’t immune to it, with Wonder Woman and Batman having been (temporarily) replaced for varying reasons over the years. 

Of course, order is usually restored, but it can take an awfully long time. Just ask Barry Allen, who died as The Flash in Crisis on Infinite Earths and proceeded to stay dead for the next 23 years of real-world time. 

Firestorm hasn’t had it quite that bad, but there still been several different iterations of the character taking over the years. Add to this that his secret identity is typically two people, not just one, and I was left with my head spinning after reading through his Wikipedia article.

I’ve only ever read a handful of comics featuring the character, but I’ve always liked his design. He’s a very visually distinct character among his JLA companions, reminding me of Jack Kirby’s drawing style, with the weirdly baggy unitard, puffy sleeves and the “could be a scientific diagram, could be made up” chest emblem. And of course, his head was literally on fire. It’s a design that should irritate me immensely, but for some reason it all kind of clicks here. Not as immediately as say, Ghost Rider, of course – but he has a very cool 60s vibe nonetheless.  

There are two other versions of Firestorm that utilise this mold – White Lantern Firestorm and the glow-in-the-dark version of White Lantern Firestorm. A few years ago I would have picked the glow version up almost without question, but I’m really trying to cut back these days. Horror stuff, and some DC – that’s about it. I mostly picked him because he was on sale for a good price, but he’s a nice addition to the mix overall. Much the like the character, he’s solid but not outstanding.