Tyrannosaurus rex (Breakout Rex by Chronicle Collectibles)

5 (22 votes)

Review and photographs by Sammy Allouba (aka JurassicGeek09), edited by Suspsy

Continuing on with Chronicle Collectibles’ offering of high-end JP items, today I have the highly anticipated Breakout Rex, which obviously is a reenactment of Rexy breaking out of her paddock in the first Jurassic Park. For those of you who have been following the development of this piece via social media, you may recall there was some controversy regarding the final product in terms of its paint job, with some people claiming Chronicle pulled a bait-and-switch on them because the final product was a complete 180 from what the promo shots advertised. I’ll touch on all that in this review. This statue is approximately two feet long and when assembled, weighs around 30 pounds.

I know the packaging may seem like a pointless part of discussion, but given how much a collectible of this nature sells for, I think it’s important to highlight the respectable and tightly packed nature of the shipment. Let’s be honest, when you buy something from eBay for instance, you rate the seller based on how well they packaged an item amongst other things. This one here is snug and tight. If you’re wondering where the fence cables are, they are located in a separate compartment located on the reverse of the styrofoam. It’s easy to miss and almost made me think I was missing pieces until a friend of mine who also bought one pointed this out to me.

Well, there she is, in all her glory! Please do note that the photos you are seeing here are not filtered and as such, are presented in natural lighting. This is important because, as I said at the beginning, the paint job was a point of contention for a lot of people, so let’s talk about that. But by all means, do take in her glory before we start an analysis. She stands proudly, free of her constraints, ready to take on the world. Even if you’re not entirely sold on her, it’s hard to take your eyes off her. She fits squarely into the base via pegs on the underside of her feet.

So, the paint job. I hate to admit it, but it is a tad underwhelming. It’s more leopard-y than I’d like and based on shots of Rexy in the film, she wasn’t quite so spotted. When I compared the shots of my model to the ones featured on Chronicle’s product page, I saw where the difference lay. Those images featured a slightly darker underbelly and fewer spots.

On to the head. This is really where people started freaking out when the retail images began to surface. Again, same story as the underbelly. In the promo shots, it was darker around the neck with fewer visible stripes. The eyes were also darker. Both of them, in the final release, look like they were painted brighter. For me, this isn’t a deal breaker, but it makes one wonder what the heck happened during production. The teeth are painted, but beyond that, there isn’t much detail to them. They’re pointed, but serrations aren’t noticeable on them, like the Lost World Rex Bust.

This is what the base looks like when fully assembled. It’s very easy to put together. You just need to slide the wire poles into their respective holes, and (I only discovered this after the fact) the middle pole with the lighting fixtures (which do not light up) has small circlets in which you insert the wires from the pole on the left and twist them accordingly. The wires do not feel flimsy, but loose enough that you can twist and turn them to your heart’s content. I had a lot of fun with this part. I tried to make it as “screen accurate” as possible.

And there she is, fully assembled! The night falls, the power fails, and the Queen will once again mark her mark on this primordial world. Overall, I say it’s an impressive piece to look at and can certainly be a conversation starter but the paint job could’ve been better. From what I understand, Chronicle outsourced the final phase of production to a company called Toynami and after the complaints started to come out, Chronicle took matters into their own hands and pulled most of the figures back prior to shipment to touch them up. That said, it’s not nearly as bad as some people claimed it to be. Lord knows some people were ready to tear Chronicle apart, calling them scam artists and such (can you imagine?). A few more touch ups would have been nice, but I would still recommend this piece for any Jurassic Park lover. I look forward to the next one!

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Comments 6

  • Maybe its just me, but the design of this looks awful, the head looks ridiculously exaggerated to the point of cartooniness, it almost looks like a ‘super-deformed’ version of the movie rex. Was the sculptor not aware that perspective is an optical illusion, and not indicative of actual proportion?

  • To my eye the sculpt looks different to the T. rex in the film (not just the colour). The head and neck looks too big. Maybe it is just the perspective of the photos. Or, could the sculptor have referenced the movie still where Rexy breaks out and roars, without accounting for perspective distortion in that scene. Look at the movie T. rex from another angle and the head looks much smaller: https://i.redd.it/g9yhrzzdy9cx.png One would hope they based the model on measurements rather that eyeballing a movie still. Anybody want to measure it and check?

  • I love Sideshow Dinosauria, Chronicle Collectibles and Papo because of their high quality, brand, paint job, and lifelike, realistic and detailed figures.
    I watched a youtuber unboxing it and when he was assembling the fence, he broke it, despite myself I do not find it that hard to assemble. Anyways, Rexy is the cherry on the cake on this masterpiece, claiming glory and hail. All hail to the immortal queen Rexy!
    I have to admit, I am a great fan of the JP series and I hope one day I will get it, Lucky you!

  • Well I am not really sold on any JP products anyway, but I have to admit this one looks great. I understand people like those replicas as close to the original as possible, but I find the paint job much more intriguing than the boring uniform grey/brownish green of the one shown in the movie.
    For the serrations: Can’t blame a model that size for not showing them, even on an original size tooth they can easily be missed by the untrained eye and their tiny size renders their reconstruction on the 1/5 bust greatly exaggerated.
    Nevertheless a nice review and very naturally colored photos.

  • Sculpt-wise, I think this is one of the best JP T. rex so far. Too bad about the subpar the paint job though.

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