Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Omega T-Rex

Year of release: 1998

Accessories:

-Survival Pod

Description: this dinosaur is a repaint of the largest of all JP dinosaur toys ever produced, namely the TLWS1 Bull T-Rex. The sculpt has not been changed in any way. It still measures a good 70 centimetres in length and stands about 20 centimetres tall. This Rex stands in an active pose, with its left leg moved forward and its right leg backward, as if walking. Its head is quite large, almost as big as its belly, to accommodate its action feature, which is to swallow figures. About every human figure and most smaller dinosaurs can fit in its mouth and through the throat, like it appears the monster is eating them. Afterwards such figures can be retrieved via a slit in its belly. Most of this Rex sculpt is composed of a thick flexible material, to give it a hint of realistic dinosaur skin. Omega Rex also features the same three electronic sounds as its TLWS1 predecessor: a roar, a snarl and chomping sounds. There’s a button, located under the skin on its back just at the base of the legs: pressing it produces either one of these sounds, always in the same order, though when the button is pressed only briefly just the roar is heard.

The Omega T-Rex sports an unmistakably Chaos Effect paint job, making it easy to distinguish from the Bull Rex. Its predominant and most notable colour is bright orange: most of the creature’s body and tail is painted in this colour, as well as all of the legs and on two places on its back. The huge claws on the legs are also orange. Most of the head and neck/throat is black with large black spots, including triangular stripes running out of these, on the back and tail. The last seven centimetres of the tail is entirely black. The neck is adorned with additional blue colouring which continues on lines starting above the arms (also blue, including claws) and running along the edges of the black spots on its back and tail in a largely symmetrical pattern. The upper jaw features pink spots and stripes, especially around the eyes. Also, on its back a pink spot is found, with the button hidden underneath the skin right under it, so you know where to push to make the figure roar. Omega has huge white teeth and the same eyes as the Bull Rex, not painted like other figures, but small transparent spheres, green on the inside with black pupils. A blue JP Chaos Effect logo is located on the upper right leg, along with the number .28 (the same number as the Bull T-Rex interestingly enough).

This Tyrannosaurus comes with a survival pod, a repaint of the same accessory the Bull Rex came with. It’s basically a sort of cage, though not to lock vicious creatures up, but to provide shelter for a single person. Inside, there’s a human figure (not removable), with a look of horror on his face. He wears a purple shirt, along with short black pants, purple socks and black boots. He also has blond hair. The pod itself sports a silvery metallic paint job. On the back there’s a pair of purple “wings”, which can fold out, to prevent the Bull Rex from swallowing it. As with the Omega Rex itself, no changes have been made to the survival pod.

Analysis: this stupendously huge Rex sculpt is still very impressive. It towers over human figures, and dwarfs most other dinosaurs of this toy line (except for its mate, the Thrasher T-Rex). Its ability to “eat” figures makes it the undisputed Chaos King of Dinosaurs. The standard Rex act of eating stuff is carried on in this repaint with its gulp-down-prey feature. Almost all human figures of the various Kenner toy lines fit through its mouth. The same goes for a lot of the smaller dinosaur figures, though not the new Chaos Effect sculpts with their abundance of protrusions. The figures can be retrieved through the slit in its belly. It’s a bit of a shame this slit can’t be closed, since now this Rex basically walks around with a huge hole in its belly. However, it’s designed pretty tightly, so it’s not noticeable in an overly annoying way. It might as well be a black stripe running across its stomach.

The Rex has three different electronic sounds at its disposal. The button is hidden under the skin on its back, but is easy to press. This Rex roars, growls and makes chomping noises (like it’s chewing on metal, which in the case of the survival pod is true). The roar and growl are somewhat similar, adding consistency. One thing that is a bit of a nuisance: the battery holder of this animal is located right under the back, and is only accessible through the slit in its belly. However, it’s not easy to reach, making it real difficult to replace the batteries. It may be the quality of my Bull T-Rex, but the sounds on my Omega are very loud and imposing, as if their quality has been enhanced somehow.

The paint job this T-Rex features is very odd, and on first sight, quite ugly (though one gets used to it over time). Black and blue don’t really mix with bright orange (and I do mean bright, as in colour blindness causing bright). It’s a real shame the claws on the arms and especially the legs aren’t painted in different colours. The paint job of the head is quite good though, the pink mixes well with the black. The pink spot on the back indicating where the button can be pushed may serve a useful function, but it does look very out of place. The paint job may not be very appealing, but that’s largely the Chaos Effect way. Another thing which makes this otherwise great sculpt look a bit funny is the disproportionably big head. Granted, this was done to accommodate the swallowing, but it would have been preferable to make the Rex’s body even bigger by comparison. Though it’s quite large already, so it would probably get too big to play with then.

The survival pod looks a bit like a coffin, which isn’t far off, since it fits perfectly through the Rex’s mouth, most likely killing the poor soul trapped inside. However, the “wings” on the back create a method of rescue, since the Rex can’t swallow the pod when these are folded out. The pod can be opened, but sadly the figure inside can’t be removed, so you can’t put other figures in. 

 

Playability: disappointing, unfortunately. The only poseable parts of this Rex are its arms. It also doesn’t stand in a neutral pose, which combined with its size makes it hard to handle, especially for kids. Though the eating option is a great and imaginative action feature, it’s probably the only additional playability option. It’s a good thing this Rex comes with no less than three different sounds and a survival pod as extra accessory, stimulating overall possibilities. However, it would have been cooler if the figure in the survival pod could be taken out, so that other figures could take its place. Another negative point: once taken out of its box, the legs of this figure have a habit of slowly shifting inwards, making it hard for this figure to stand up straight (though its enormous feet are helpful in that matter). Since this Rex is electronic, you can’t go around playing too rough with it if you want to keep it in working order. Basically, it comes down to this: for playability, get the Thrasher T-Rex; for sheer impressiveness, sounds and eating figures, get this Omega T-Rex.

Realism: this figure is recognizable as a Tyrannosaurus, mostly because of the two fingered claws and the fact it’s a huge bipedal predator. However, the disproportionate head and feet make it a bit unrealistic. Of course, for a Chaos Effect creature realism isn’t a priority, which also explains the… unusual colour scheme. Still, this creature can eat figures, just like the Rexes in the JP movies did on a regular basis. Additionally, the sounds (particularly the roar), are more or less movie accurate.

Repaint: yes. This Rex is a repaint of the TLWS1 Bull T-Rex (including the survival pod), which in itself was a repaint of the unreleased JPS2 Gulper T-Rex. It has not been repainted again.

Overall rating: 7/10. Okay, so it’s not really original, lacks playability and has a very dubious paint job to say the least. It’s still a great and awe inspiring sculpt, with good sounds and a fun action feature, making it a must have for any serious JP collector and a good alternative for people lacking a Bull Rex. It’s one of the rarest Chaos Effect figures though and not very easy to find. Ebay is usually your best bet, though not at low cost. Also, because of the size of this monster, shipping costs tend to be high.