T. rex Hatchling (Dino Discoveries by Safari)

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Review by Patrick Krol

Since I started collecting dinosaur figures I wanted to have dinosaur eggs in my collection, but couldn’t find a good one anywhere. Then, when I discovered about the foreign museum lines through internet, I found out that Safari had done some hatchling dinosaurs and they were soon in my “things to buy” list. This is the first review I’m doing for DTB, so I just choose one of these hatchling dinosaurs to write about, since it seems appropriate to start with the start of a new life… too poetic?? And because I like the figure a lot and no one reviewed it so far of course.

First of all, I should mention that the species is Tyrannosaurus rex, which I don’t need to introduce to you, do I? This toy was made by Safari as part of their line called “Dino Discoveries, as far as I know. It measures about 10 centimeters in length, from back of the egg to the tip of the dinosaur’s snout and about 8 centimeters high at the top of the head. As for the figure’s scale I can’t say anything and will leave that up to the ones who want to calculate that. The figure’s bottom has some text, which reads “T-rex Hatchling © 2006 Safari Ltd. Miami, Fl. Made in China… just the usual stuff.

I need to say that despite the lack of detail in the eggshell (it’s almost totally smooth), the dinosaur itself is pretty detailed and I must admit, cute to look at. The figure was designed as if the dinosaur is just hatchling, hence the name, and breaking the eggshell, to leave the egg. It’s arms are holding the border of the eggshell, which is a nice touch but makes me think if that is even possible to do, because, as we know, theropod hands had their palms facing each other and the figure is doing just the opposite.

I don’t mind an inaccurate figure if it’s cool and this is the case here. The color of the model is nice, a light green with black marks on the head and neck, also on the arms. The big puppy eyes are painted in a blood red color, with a single black dot as pupil. The teeth are, fortunately, separately sculpted and painted white. The whole mouth and tongue wear a light pink color. The dinosaur skin is very scaly (sorry guys, no feathers of any sort…) and the fingers have black sharp claws. The eggshell around the dinosaur’s neck is all broken, some pieces are raised other are just cracked a lot, otherwise the eggshell is smooth and I think a little texturing in the egg wouldn’t be bad. To make the figure stand on its own, the sculptor did some broken pieces of eggshell on the bottom of the egg, so it wouldn’t roll to the sides. The egg I assume was painted in a creamy white grayish color, but I my figure was bought in a lot on EBay, used and a little dirty, so the egg color may not be the original.

I’m not an expert in dinosaur anatomy and couldn’t say if it’s an accurate baby T. rex, mainly because it’s half hidden in the eggshell, so we can’t see anything other than head, arms and frontal part of the body. I must say it looks like a baby to me, has that puppy aspect. This is a very nice model in my opinion and I highly recommend you to get it, if you’re into this kind of figure. It’s easily found online for sale for less than 6 USD, and I assume it can be bought in any store that sells Safari line.