Jurassic Park Series 1: Young Tyrannosaurus Rex

(named Tyrannosaurus Rex Junior in European versions)

Year of release: 1993

Accessories:

-Removable Dino Damage wound patch

-Collector’s Card #1 (alternate card (#61) for 1994 re-release)

Description: the smallest of the two large Rex sculpts of the JPS1 toy line (but still about 25 centimetres in length), the Young T-Rex stands in a fully neutral posture. Unlike most smaller dinosaur figures it features “realistic” dinosaur skin (though there is no such thing of course, since we’ll never know for sure what dinosaur skin felt like), made of a more flexible and softer material than the regular hard plastic. The figure’s arms, lower legs and inside of the mouth are not composed of this rubbery material. On its right flank a piece of his skin can be removed, revealing a dino damage wound underneath, showing white ribs and red blood and muscle tissue. The wound patch itself is largely symmetrical in shape. The Rex’s small two fingered arms are the only moveable body parts. This sculpt’s action feature consists of its jaws, which can be opened by squeezing the creature’s neck.

The Young Tyrannosaurus Rex is largely painted in a light brown earthy colour tone with small darker brown stripes running over its back from the back of the head all the way to near the end of the tail, and additional dark brown spots found on the upper legs, feet and snout. Its belly and underside of the tail are coloured beige. The claws on its feet are also dark brown, but the small claws on the hands are not painted. Tiny yellow eyes with black irises and white pupils are embedded in dark brown eye sockets. The creature’s mouth is adorned with nasty white teeth, a dark pink tongue and additional dark pink mouth detailing. This Young Rex sports a large purplish JP logo with the number .06 on its right lower leg.

Analysis: one of the most fondly remembered carnivore figures of the first toy line comes in the shape of this Young Tyrannosaurus Rex. For many, including myself, this was the first JP figure we owned: such nostalgia combined with a great detailed figure with a neat (though slightly monochromatic) paint job and a fantastic dinosaur skin feel makes for an instant classic figure.

This figure comes with two action features. The first is the typical dino damage wound patch, which was found on most larger non electronic dinosaur figures of the first JP toy lines. Removing the Rex’s wound patch reveals a nasty wound, which makes one wonder what creature would dare attack a T-Rex. The wound looks gory, but the shape of the wound patch is too perfect and artificial: it looks like someone just cut an almost symmetrical hole in little Rex, instead of him suffering from a vicious attack by a rival carnivore.

The second option applied to this figure is a biting action. However, these biting jaws are a bit of a cheap action feature though, since it’s only because of the soft material the dinosaur’s skin is composed of that this biting action is produced. The larger Electronic T-Rex of this toy line also features moveable jaws, but in that figure’s case the designers actually put a system inside the sculpt so the jaws open by squeezing the belly, thus pressing a button underneath. That Rex’s skin is made of the same material though, so it can also open its jaws by just simply squeezing the neck. That would be too cheap for such a large expensive toy, but this Young T-Rex apparently needed no ‘real’ action feature. Squeezing the neck does open its jaws decently though, while it can also be used adequately to trap unfortunate figures’ body parts between them. It may not look very appealing, but at least it works.

Playability: decent enough. Though only the arms are really moveable, the flexible material allows for additional poseability to some extent (including the jaw motion). The dino damage wound patch is easily removable and can also be put back with little difficulty, but when applied to the figure it’s stuck strong enough so it doesn’t fall off on its own accord. Though usually the figure stands well balanced, more worn out Rexes occasionally have trouble standing up straight. A note of caution: because of the soft dinosaur skin this figure is more susceptible to paint wear, so if you want to keep it looking pristine you shouldn’t play too rough with it. Still, it’s the only bigger Rex feature of the first two lines that allows for wilder playing, since the large Red Rex with its fragile electronics is easily broken when getting all rowdy with it.

Realism: this figure is an interesting addition to the first toy line. Though no Young Rex was seen in the movie, a juvenile Rex much like this one played a minor role in Crichton’s original novel. This figure seems to be based off the book instead of the movie, though its paint job is not very different from the Rex seen in the film. The small two fingered arms make it distinguishable as a Tyrannosaurus or at least a close relative, but its head is somewhat oversized compared to the rest of its body.

Repaint: as a part of the very first JP toy line this figure is not a repaint. However, it’s one of the more frequently repainted larger dinosaurs produced by Kenner. It was first repainted for the JPS2 toy line in a very different dark colour scheme, and also featured capture gear. Later on, it was repainted as a TLW exclusive figure and included the same capture gear as its JPS2 predecessor. It was again repainted with the same capture gear for the first JP Dinosaurs line. A second JPD repaint, for the second JPD line, may have been planned but was eventually scrapped: details on this supposed repaint are still somewhat sketchy though.

Overall rating: 8/10. Featuring a decent paint job, detailed flexible skin and a dirty dino damage wound, this classic Rex figure is quite a blast. Though it comes with a bit of a lame action feature it’s well worth getting your hands on. Fortunately it’s not rare at all and can be found for good prices easily, even MIB.