Tyrannosaurus rex (Killer Queens by Rebor)

Review and photos by Dino Scream3232, edited by Suspsy

There isn’t a single more recognizable in this day and age as Tyrannosaurus rex. When Jurassic Park came out in 1993, the JP-style Rex image was permanently ingrained into the general public’s brains from that point on. Love or hate the JP Rex, there’s no denying it’s a iconic look. Many companies have tried to emulate that iconic look: Papo, ReSaurus, W Dragon, and I-Toy with varying degrees of success. Now Rebor has thrown their hat into the “unofficial” JP toy ring with their Killer Queens. And boy did they deliver!

Rebor first announced the Queens in April of 2018. One year later, we have the finished product in hand. There are two versions of the Queens. The ‘Plain’ version which is supposed to be Rexy from Jurassic Park and the ‘Jungle’ version which is the Bull/Buck from The Lost World. Both figures are the same mold, but because of the vastly different paint schemes, they feel like two totally different figures. 

There’s no need to talk about scientific accuracy since these are based on movie monster designs. So those of you looking for scientifically accurate Tyrannosauruses will need to look elsewhere. But if you’re a fan of the movies THESE are the Rexes you’ve been looking for. They are good-sized ones too. They are 16 inches long and 5 inches high at the head, and there is some nice heft to them as well. The paint on both models is superb. The Plain Queen perfectly captures the brown and black markings we saw on Rexy once she was shown in full daylight hunting the Gallimimus herd.

The Jungle Buck is painted in various shades of green. There is a bone-colored scale on the corners of the jaw just below each eye. At first these seemed out of place to me. But after looking at the animatronic from TLW, it is film accurate, so kudos to Rebor for doing their homework. Both have the iconic black orbits. On both versions, the eyes are painted painted gold with black pupils. The only flaw I could find paint-wise on the figures is that the gold paint bleeds ever so slightly onto the scales around the eyes. It’s not too bad on my copies, but I’ve seen worse on others. 

Moving on now to those gorgeous head sculpts. This is where these figures really shine. On most dinosaur models, the teeth are painted white. Sometimes this leads to the paint looking sloppy and really detracts from the sculpt. Rebor has opted to use a translucent plastic for the teeth instead (their raptor series also did this). The results are phenomenal! Using this plastic, the teeth have a wet enamel appearance to them. I wish more companies would use this technique. The inside of the mouths are also very well done. The palates, tongues, and back of the throats are beautifully sculpted and textured with a nice wet look. You also get that classic Rex death stare.

The arms are poseable and are surprisingly, the wrists aren’t pronated. The body is well textured with lots of folds and wrinkles as well as different size scales. These figures are just a pleasure to hold and run your finger up and down the surfaces.

The tail needs to be attached to the body. Rebor has started doing this since the release of their ‘War Pig’ Ankylosaurus. This makes the box smaller and probably helps with shipping costs. The tails are also bendable, another trend carried over from War Pig. Posing the tail really helps make the two versions look different from each other. 

This review was written shortly after these figures were released. Something that I have noticed in the almost two months of having them is they do begin to lean. Mine are displayed in my basement where it rarely gets above 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and I’ve had both models fall over due to this leaning issue. Seems there’s a lot of weight on the left foot which causes it to warp, thus causing the model to fall over. I can see this issue accelerating faster with warmer temperatures. A simple ‘hot and cold’ treatment to the foot has remedied the problem, but I don’t think it’s a permanent fix. |The best advice is to display these figures somewhere where they will not fall to the floor and be damaged. 

The original Papo Standing Rex has been my JP style-Rex since it was released all those years ago. It’s finally been dethroned by the Killer Queens. The Papo one will always be near and dear to my heart, though.

So in closing, if you’re a JP fan, these figures are a must-have. They retail for about $40 US each and I got mine from EverythingDinosaur.com. The quality is astounding for the price. There are other JP-style Rexes out there for a lot more which aren’t nearly as good. Rebor seems to have really found their niche making “unofficial” JP merchandise. Their raptor series was fantastic and their upcoming Dilophosaurus figures look promising as well.