The PNSO produce everything from tiny miniature toys to giant life-sized museum sculptures, but this review is something in between – a sizeable 1:35 scale statue of Tyrannosaurus rex, dubbed ‘Wilson’. We previously unboxed him on our Youtube channel, now it’s time to take a closer look.
With his menacing gait and devilish red eyes, Wilson has a lot of character. The dappled colour and detailed texture of his skin are both convincingly natural and, as far as accuracy goes, Wilson is basically faultless. The base is also excellent, adding to the realism of the scene. To be honest, the pictures will speak for themselves – this is an awesome model. The lower jaw articulates, so you can choose whether you prefer a roaring maw, or a slightly less dramatic pose. The articulation is completely invisible.
The PNSO’s decision to omit plumage was intentional and is outlined in the accompanying book “The Making of Tyrannosaurus Wilson”. Not many (if any?) dinosaur models come with a book, let alone a glossy 75 page volume, lavishly illustrated – a collectors’ item itself. The book outlines the entire creative design process for Wilson, which was undertaken in consultation with palaeontologist Mark Norell.
A painting of Wilson in the book portrays him with feathers on his neck and tail, and another shows a juvenile with much more fuzz. However, after considering all the evidence, the PNSO summarise: “For our reconstruction of Wilson, we did not cover the body with a complete covering of feathers. Rather, Wilson’s entire body is covered with scales”. The book also indicates that Wilson is based on a specific skeleton of T. rex called ‘Stan’, and provides justifications for other design considerations, such as refraining from sculpting fleshy lips, and the amount of hornage (yes, I’ve invented a word) above the eyes. In addition to the book, the high quality box also contains an envelope of postcards featuring photographs and artwork of Wilson.
The statue is composed of solid PVC. I’m used to statues being made of more brittle materials (e.g. resin) so I unpacked Wilson with great care, as anyone who watched the youtube unboxing can attest to. However, such care really wasn’t necessary – the PVC is durable, strong, and slightly flexible, so only the most serious accident will cause it any damage. This claim is backed up with evidence because I came home one day to find my beloved Wilson on the floor of my Kitchen. Perhaps dizzied by the height, he had taken a a tumble and fallen more than two metres (6.5 feet) from his perch above the cupboards. The fall may have been ‘cushioned’ by the kitchen work top but, miraculously, Wilson survived without a scratch.
The actual reason for this accident is the only issue I found with the model – stability. Wilson’s feet have holes on the underside that slot into circular pegs located in footprints on the base. In my statue, the feet don’t align completely. One of the legs must be slightly distorted, so he leans slightly over to the right. You can see this in the photos. It seemed stable enough, so I didn’t anticipate it falling over, but obviously the pegs were not long enough to stop him tumbling eventually. Perhaps this is just my figure but it is important to mention in a review like this. I fixed the issue by raising one side of the base up, so the dinosaur itself is in a more balanced position. It would also be possible to glue him into place to be certain.
All in all, this is an excellent piece, which demands attentions. Wilson shows that PNSO are painstakingly serious when it comes to accuracy, but maybe they can review stability/production issues. At the moment, their figures are difficult to get hold of outside of China. They used to be for sale on Amazon but have been unavailable for several months. I undertsand that PNSO are going though a change in personnel, which might account for them being unavailable, but hopefully they’ll be in full force again soon and back up on Amazon.
Thanks to PNSO for sending us ‘Wilson’ for review. I should also note that PNSO provided me with two versions of the book, identical in every way except for the different language. So, make sure you order your preferred language version.
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Acabo de recibirlo y a pesar que en comienzo no me gustaba por encontrarlo muy arrugado, en persona es otra cosa, una figura excelente, los dientes individuales, las pupilas rojas y muy bien pintadas como calculando para morder para ves que lo admiro…lo único es que cuesta colocarlo en la base, los pies no encajan 100%, pero no es problema ya que se equilibra perfecto en esos pies bien proporcionados y esa cola robusta. Para todo aquel que como yo no es fans de jurasicc park o está aburrido de ver todos esos t-rex siempre enojados es una excelente adquisición
Just received mine today. My favorite non-feathered T-Rex for sure. Sculpt, detail, pose, painting all top notch.
I noticed a small inaccuracy: the JP-like “cutout” sections of the lower jaw that they fit into.
I wish they would sell this model without the Base.
I agree completely with the review. This is the finest TRex in my collection. One suggestion regarding the falling over issue – I think it may be due to the PVC not being strong enough, and the figure’s center of gravity leaning right front due to the wide stride forward with the left foot. Hence, left alone for prolonged periods, it will start leaning slightly right.
Mine did not fall over, but after a couple of weeks away I noticed a definite “list to starboard”.
The fix was really easy. A hot hairdryer, reposed legs and then dipped into ice water froze the position back to its original. Then, a 1/8″ thick clear plastic rod (available on ebay from myriad sellers for very cheap prices) was cut to the correct length and gently placed between Wilson’s midsection and the base. No glue, no messing with the figure. I just let gravity do its magic and it held the rod firmly in place from the first day.
Its been several months now, and Wilson is as erect as when he first came out of the box. A simple, unobtrusive fix that does not damage the figure and visually does not deter from the figure’s appeal one iota.
On a different note, though, I do like the sculpting done on this model.
I don’t believe that T. rex, or for that matter any large theropod dinosaur living in warmer climates, was “enfluffled”, so to speak, but its ancestors had feathers so it seems quite likely to me that it had some. I think it’s possible that juveniles had feathers covering their upper bodies and scales covering their tales, like Juravenator and Kulindadromeus, but that by the time they reached adulthood the formally feathered regions of their bodies would mostly, though perhaps not entirely, be featherless bare skin, not scales as this model portrays and as popular belief holds. This would be backed up by impressions of what is believed to be bare skin from Tyrannosaurus’s rib region and by impressions of what are believed to be scales from the tail region. One thing that seems a bit strange to me, though, is that the evidence of tyrannosaurs having scaly tails comes from, to my knowledge, two later tyrannosaurs, Tyrannosaurus and Gorgosaurus, while earlier tyrannosaurs such as Dilong and Yutyrannus appear to have had feathered tails. This jives with the hypothesis that feathered dinosaurs having scaly tails represents a primitive stage in the evolution of feathers, a hypothesis which otherwise seems to make sense to me.
Hi, i’m new in this Blog…i live in Barcelona and my 2 questions are: i can buy it with euros
and what would be the price?
Thanks. PD: very good review, Plesiosauria.
“devilish red eyes”
“decision to omit plumage”
“refraining from sculpting fleshy lips”
“amount of hornage”
“The book… provides justifications…”
Looking at certain shapes of the head and mouth also, can the book’s justifications be summed up as ‘we just wanted to keep as close to a Jurassic Park monstersaur as possible’?
Those reasons, along with what I see as extreme sagging of the skin, put me off it. It’s very finely detailed, I just don’t really like their decisions for the fine details they went with.
I do not know if they noticed, but Wilson would be the “surname” of this T-rex. And his full name Stan Wilson.
I still think it looks like a zombie…
The base could also benefit from more blending on the rocks. But overall a very nice piece aesthetically.
Hi. Does anyone know if this book is available in Spanish? Greetings.
With the recent outstanding additions to the T-Rex pack from CollectA, Wild Safari and now PNSO, among others, it may soon be time for a new top 10 T-Rex poll. However, perhaps this one, as a “statue”, wouldn’t qualify?
This really has been an exciting year for collectors.
I prefer my tyrants feathered, but I really do like this beast.