As an illustration of how far the Carnegie line has advanced in 20 years, you can’t do much better than the original Tyrannosaurus. Many people in their early 20s will remember owning one of these as a child. They’ll probably also remember it gathering dust in a dark corner of the cupboard under the stairs when the Jurassic Park toyline came along and made everything else seem a bit rubbish. It’s crude, it’s chunky, it’s a little bit adorable.
I have a pet theory related to the Carnegie line – that it started off as a line aimed squarely at kids, but matured alongside its consumer base. I’ll cite this toy and its ‘Tenth Anniversary’ descendant as evidence. What we have here is Tyrannosaurus with the edges taken off – no breakable teeth, a rather rotund body and blunted claws on the feet (although admittedly the fingers could still give you a nasty poke). It’s clearly designed to endure a bit of rough-and-tumble play the likes of which would probably knock the finely-sculpted teeth out of the jaws of the ‘Tenth Anniversary’ model.
Anatomically this old beast veers away from reality and into the realms of old fashioned dino-toy overweight chunkiness (see also UKRD). There’s barely a hint of Tyrannosaurus‘ huge pelvis, while the legs merge into the body with the scarcest indication of the enormo-muscles that were surely present on the living creature. The head is essentially reduced to two rectangular blocks, with the admittedly very finely painted eyes facing defiantly sideways.
However – and bearing in mind the date of this figure’s genesis (ie. 1988) – there are some definite plus points. The overall proportions, unduly long tail aside, aren’t too far off. The rearing pose remains largely passable and has been reused for many theropod figures since – the raised tail (bent down only at the tip for support) put it ahead of many other figures at the time. The hanging tag, if you’re lucky enough to acquire one with it intact, is good for a giggle too – apparently Tyrannosaurus reached 15 metres in length (versus 14 metres stamped on the toy) and lived in “Western North America, Argentina (???), Mongolia (fine if you consider Tarbosaurus bataar to be a species of Tyrannosaurus, but the toy’s stamped “Tyrannosaurus rex“), India (????) and China”. Riiight. Seems T. rex went globetrotting in the 1980s.
This ‘blockhead’ version of the Carnegie Tyrannosaurus may be long gone, but amazingly its legacy lives on. It’s been the recipient of a couple of new heads and other improved details over the years, but the rather out-of-shape creature you see here has ultimately survived to this day alongside its ‘Tenth Anniversary’ counterpart, presumably in the name of providing a durable combat toy for the kids. Definitely not recommended for collectors (apart from sad old nostalgics like me/completists), except those with dinosaur mad children – throw them a version of this thing to keep them away from your Anniversary Tyrannosaurus! Oh, and finally if you want this version specifically, it’s pretty common on eBay.
Disclaimer: links to Ebay and Amazon on the DinoToyBlog are affiliate links, so we make a small commission if you use them. Thanks for supporting us!
I just bought this figure on eBay. I have to say because of the pose and the colouring it is my favorite rendition of T. Rex. It reminds me of the Tyrannosaurus from DK’s computer game Dinosaur Hunter 2.0. I hate it when someone on here takes a great figure and slaughters it, but I have to say I think the writer of this review did a great job of summing up the pros and the cons fairly.
[…] what distinguishes this toy from the original version, aside from the dark green on the back? Well, just take a look at that completely different head. […]
[…] Just as the Carnegie collection’s 10 year milestone was celebrated with the release of an updated Tyrannosaurus sculpt, so this year’s 25th anniversary sees the release of an all-new T. rex figure, one better suited to the line’s current aesthetic. This latest generation T. rex is an obvious improvement still further on the old version, and shows a commendable level of background research, even if it’s still not quite the ‘definitive T. rex‘ figure that some might have wanted it to be. Still, if nothing else, we’ve certainly come a long way from the chunky blockhead with painted-on teeth. […]
You can see this model with another painting here: http://www.ceratosaurus.blogspot.com/2011/06/carcharodontosaurus.html
=)
The geographic ranges printed for the early Carnegie figures tend to be based on the entire family, not the species. In this case, the Indian occurrence is based on Indosuchus and the Argentine occurrence is based on Genyodectes (of course, we now know that neither was related to tyrannosaurs).
I think t-rex hand is small.
Fue el tiranosaurus rex de Carnegie junto con las demás figuras contemporáneas de la serie un precursor de lo que iba a venir en la figura del dinosaurios del juguete. Tiene un gran mérito que haya sido uno de los pocos junto al Brachiosaurus y Apatosaurus que hasta ahora no se haya retirado.
My first Carnegie figure (my dad bought it in ’89… Sigh, good ol’ times!), and sure as hell one of my favorite and most loved dino models EVER up to now.
How much times i played with this green Rex, how much times i bring it with me when i was a kid…
Sigh! :,)
First paragraph, third sentence. I lol’d. Quality review for sure.