Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Thrasher T-Rex

Year of release: 1998

Description: being one of the largest dinosaur figures of all toy lines (though not as stupendously huge as the other big Rex of this line, the Omega T-Rex) this toy measures a good 50 centimetres in length. It stands in a totally neutral pose, though its tail may be bent somewhat due to the way this figure is packaged in its box. Like the good old large JPS1/2 dinosaur figures, this animal has soft skin, giving it a more realistic feel (at least, insofar as there is realism to the Chaos Effect line). This dinosaur has two different attack options. First, a thrashing action: moving the tail left and right makes the head move in the same directions. Second, a biting action: when the mouth is opened wide, pressing the tongue makes the jaws close in a snapping way, as if biting down on an unfortunate victim.

The Chaos Effect Thrasher T-Rex has a very intricate and colourful paint job, even more so that some of the outrageous schemes seen on other dinosaur figures of this toy line. “Chaos” not withstanding, this paint job is actually largely symmetrical. The underside of this monster (lower jaw, throat, belly, lower part of the tail, inner part of both upper legs), as well as the very upper part of the legs, is bright green, which gradually shifts into bright yellow, which is found on the rest of the legs, the arms, the middle part of the tail, the flanks and the sides of the neck, and also on its head near the eyes. The upper parts of this animal (most of the upper jaw, the neck, back, and upper part of the tail) is black, while various black stripes run out of it, mostly in edgy triangular patterns, most notably on the neck and tail. Additionally, a large black stripe runs from the lower jaw via the throat and flanks all the way to the end of the tail, on both sides of the creature. A trio of black stripes is found on both upper legs. As if the combination of black, yellow and green wasn't striking enough, the dinosaur was adorned with a row of blue spots running from the back of the head (and including the eye sockets) over the neck and back to the end of the tail. Like the black stripes, these spots too are much too neatly and edgily shaped, giving them an unnatural design. Furthermore, the head sports a big red stripe running from the snout to half way across the neck, while various spots, most of them small and triangularly shaped, are found on the sides of the upper jaw. The insides of the mouth and coloured pink, with white teeth, and most notably a big purple tongue. The creature’s eyes are yellow with cat like black pupils, while the beast has black claws on both hands and feet (including the small claws at the back of the feet, which are usually not painted). On its right upper leg, a big blue JP Chaos Effect logo is found (the regular JP logo with a stylized DNA string symbol under it), with the number .29 next to it.

Analysis: 'you can't keep a good Rex down', is undoubtedly the thought that went through the minds of the designers of the Chaos Effect line. Therefore, both of the big and awesome TLWS1 T-Rexes got a makeover for this new toy line, though it mostly consisted of a new paint job to match the style of the new sculpts made for this line. In the case of the Bull T-Rex, the new paint job wasn't very appealing, not to mention hideous because of the outrageous colour scheme, which consisted mostly of bright orange causing instantaneous colour-blindness. The Thrasher T-Rex also got a very colourful new paint job, which is elaborate and daring to say the least, but not actually all that bad. The combination of black and yellow clearly signals the danger behind this brute carnivore with its genetically enhanced predatory senses, like an overly large wasp. The green on the underside is of lesser quality, but hidden well enough under the black and yellow to not be a hugely disturbing factor. The red ornamentation on the head works well, giving this creature a sort of 'blood-lust' feel, though the blue spots are a bit overkill, but not really annoying. Fortunately the claws of this Rex are painted, unlike those of the Omega Rex: it's good to see they didn't forget the small claws on the back of the feet this time. The only thing about this figure's paint job which is really too bizarre is its purple tongue, which looks just goofy.

Aside from the paint job, nothing has changed about this T-Rex sculpt. It still comes with two sweet action features, the first being the thrashing action, which of course gave this figure it’s nickname ‘Thrasher’. Gripping the tail and moving it back and right makes the upper body, particularly the head, move as well, as if the animal is violently shaking its ferocious body about.

The second action feature concerns the head. Opening the mouth while pressing the back of the head causes a spring to be set and the tongue to raise itself somewhat. The mouth is now opened wider, making the monster look pretty butch (mostly because of the great design of the head and even the inner part of the mouth). Pressing the tongue makes the jaws close with a snap. The general idea is the Rex can clamp figures between its jaws and bite them. Even though there’s not that much room between the jaws, it fits most human figures, as well as parts of smaller dinosaur figures (like tails or limbs).

Apart from these two fun action options, this Rex also has other positive aspects which remain intact on this repaint. Most of its skin, except for the arms and legs, is composed of a soft and flexible material, giving the creature a more realistic feeling skin. This is the only dinosaur sculpt in the Chaos Effect line that can boast this particular feature, bringing up fond memories of the large dinosaurs in the original JP lines which also featured skin like this. Another positive attribute is the poseability of the legs, which is something Kenner usually ignored on big sculpts like this, but gives this creature extra playability.

Despite this being a brilliant sculpt, it too has some minor problems. First of all, due to the material of which the skin is made, this figure is more susceptible to paint wear (even more so that the TLWS1 Thrasher T-Rex), which is a real shame because damage to the paint job is all too easily noticed on a colourful figure like this. So even though it’s supposed to be a more playable Rex, you better keep this in mind if you want to go tough on it. Second, the Rex is often out of balance: the front part of the creature is just too heavy and the tail isn’t enough to keep it standing up straight. It usually falls over, unless supported by something or standing up with its head high in the air. These downsides are a shame, but not enough to spoil the great fun this fantastic dinosaur delivers.

Playability: quite high, especially for a large Rex. This big sculpt doesn’t have poseable arms only, but legs as well, despite the softer material used for the skin of the creature (the legs are made out of hard plastic instead). Additionally, the neutral position, the biting feature and the thrashing action provide for more options, making this Rex undoubtedly the most playable large figure around. However, it's quite sensitive to paint wear. Also, both the thrashing and biting action get damaged quite easily sometimes (this tends to vary), so even though this toy is designed for rougher play, it still has its limits in this regard.

Realism: it's a Chaos Effect figure, so it surely isn't the most realistic figure around. Though the overall shape and size of this Rex are quite close to the real deal, as well as the look of the Rexes seen in the movies, the paint job is totally absurd. A paint scheme like this would surely make it stand out in a natural environment, making it easy to spot for its prey, and thus harder for the Rex itself to catch its prey, even with genetically enhanced senses. However, this colour scheme fits right into the rest of the Chaos Effect line, where realism is replaced by... well, chaos.

Repaint: yes. This is a repaint of the TLWS1 Thrasher T-Rex figure. It does not come with the capture gear that came with that particular figure though (since it doesn't come with any capture gear at all). This sculpt would not be repainted again.

Overall rating: 8/10. Still one of the best Tyrannosaurus sculpts ever made, this Chaos Effect Rex doesn't suffer much from its colourful new paint job. It's nothing like the original paint job, nor is it realistic, but it's nowhere near bad, it's just different. This Rex is well worth getting, but it's quite rare and usually fetches high prices, both loose and MIB. If you can find it for a decent price (or if you can afford spending a lot of cash on it) be sure to get it for yourself, but otherwise you might want to stick to the TLWS1 Thrasher T-Rex (which also isn't that easy to get, not because it's rare, but because it's popular).