Review and photos by Takama, edited by Suspsy
With all the Jurassic World toys being released this year, it was very easy for me to forget about the other brands of dinosaur toys that I do not normally collect. One of these brands is Mojo Fun, and the reason I did not collect their models is simply because they don’t have a great selection of species, and most were pretty old school in posture. However, in 2017, the company surprised me with two new theropods that were in more modern postures, and I thought they were the best dinosaurs they ever made to date. These were the Allosaurus and the Hunting Tyrannosaurus, which was released in two color schemes. Another thing that made me cement my decision to start collecting Mojo is their new 2018 line consisting of classics like Diplodocus and Deinonychus as well as modern day favorites like Giganotosaurus and Baryonyx.
The Hunting Tyrannosaurus rex is easily Mojo’s best attempt at one to date, but please bare in mind that this is not praising it for its accuracy. That’s because what they created is a somewhat exaggerated T. rex that really is awesome (in my opinion). But this is a place were we critique the accuracy of extinct animal models, and this one has many accuracy issues that are shared by almost a majority of T. rex toys on the market. To start things off, I will talk about the head. It is obviously inspired by the one from Jurassic Park, complete with angry brow ridges. What makes this a little different, however, is that those brows are taken to the extreme. The head also has exposed fenestrae and eyes that look like they have sunken into the sockets. The mouth is wide open, giving the T. rex a roaring pose with its tongue sticking up from the bottom jaw. I also see that it does not quite have binocular vision. If you look at this model from the front, you can see that the eyes are situated more along the sides of the skull.
Moving on from the head, you can see from the photos that the feet on this figure are ridiculously oversized. Obviously, this is to help it stand up. However, this figure is not made out of PVC. No, instead, it is made out of TPR, which is a much more flexible rubber like plastic that can handle rough play. But it cannot support a bipedal model for quite a long time (I will get back to this later). As for other issues, the model has arms that are too big in proportion to the animal’s giant size, and the tail is curved in a manner that may be painful for the real deal. As far as integument is concerned, this is obviously a ccaly version of T. rex, but in this day and age, it’s still up for debate as to rather not if tyrannosaurids had feathers as extensive as those on the Wild Safari Or CollectA models. If you insist on your models to be feathered, you can pretend that the feathers are too small to see on the figure, just like the many fine hairs on an elephant figure.
While my model is standing perfectly in these photos, it will topple forwards in time due to the weight of the material which is made out of TPR. I know this because I had it standing on my photography stand before bed one night, and when I woke up the next morning, I found it lying on its back, which means that no matter what, it will eventually fall over if you set it up without some sort of support. From what I understand, the Allosaurus suffers from the same issues.
Based on the size of this model, I think it is in the 1:40 Scale range, unlike a lot of T. rex models released nowadays. It measures 9 and a half inches long from the head to the curve of the tail, and I unfortunately cannot stretch the tail out to get the total length. The colors are a mostly a medium dark orange with a dark tan as the base. There are scutes sculpted along the back, sort of like those found on a crocodilian, which are painted in black, along with the claws and the top of its head. The colors in the mouth are your basic pink with some black elements to make it look a little more realistic, and the teeth are your basic white. As I mentioned earlier, the model also comes in a green paint scheme as well, which makes me think Mojo was trying to emulate the tyrannosaur parents from The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Overall, I think the Hunting T. rex is a good toy for kids, but a potentially problematic display piece due to the material’s inability to keep the model standing for extended periods of time. From what I have heard on the Dinosaur Toy Forum, Mojo’s 2018 models will be made out of traditional PVC as opposed to TPR due to the complaints about this figure and the Allosaurus. Whether or not this is really the case remains to be seen as of the time of this writing, but we will find out in due course.
If you want to buy either version of this model, you can them on Amazon here and here.
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I had this toy on my “maybe” list, but I reckon I’m gonna pass now. Don’t like toys that can’t stand up properly. Another argument in favour of bases.
Mine has fared rather better. It’s remained standing for the last three months, during the hottest part of the year.
On another positive note, the arms are noticeably smaller than this past year’s Schleich T-Rex or the Papo T- Rexes too.
I display it on an aquarium mat with 1/2 -1 inch high plastic vegetation, so the over-sized feet are hidden, solving that issue.
I sincerely like the TPR material more. My Moran tyrannosaurus red version (the one shown) like the green version and the allosaurus are correctly kept standing without any problem and that I bought these figures more than a year ago.
In my case I have no complaint with the tyrannosaurus Mojo made of TPR sincerely I have not had any problems with that figure and the times that accidentally has fallen off the shelves (and it has not been due to its sustainability failure) has not suffered any Abrasion the figure.
Although as it is commented it is not a scientific figure (since it is based on JP / JW) it is a very detailed figure and is perhaps the best theropod made by the Mojo brand, independently that I have hopes that it will be surpassed by the baryonyx , deinonychus and giganotosaurus from Mojo from 2018.
The figures of PVC by any fall suffer abrasions that spoil the paint and cause deformations by the blows. That is why, as I have repeated in this document twice, I prefer the more malleable material TPR. In my case it has not suffered sustainability problems on two legs and not even falls because of that reason. I attest to what I say is true and my house suffers sudden temperature changes during the year.