Review and photos by Takama, edited by Suspsy
When I was young, there were a lot of dinosaur toys that my parents spoiled me with. These toys ranged from Imperials to Definitely Dinosaurs, to Jurassic Park toys, and eventually the Carnegie Collection. Out of all of these toys, only the Carnegies, the DDs, and another line have remained in my possession to this day. This fourth line stood out to me because no other sub-museum dinosaur toy line produced today comes close to matching its quality. I’m talking about the UKRD Models. More specifically, the small figurines that came on cards. Unlike today’s sub-museum lines, they were made out of a rubber-like material and can withstand the test of time while still retaining their shape. In the small line, there were 12 different models and two of them were not dinosaurs. In my youth, I had 11 of them, but some were lost to the sands of time in my home. One of the figures that I lost was the only Tyrannosaurus rex I had for this line. I found it buried in the backyard a good 20 years after I first acquired it. Since it took so long to find this figure, I decided to make it my first UKRD review for the DTB, and I promise I will get to the other figures I have from this line in due course.
If you take a look at my figure, you will notice that some of the paint has been wiped clean off, revealing the white vinyl that the figure is made from. This is due to it being exposed to the elements for so many years, and yet it’s nice to see that the entire figure has not completely lost its colour.
The UKRD small T. rex is made in a tripod pose with its tail dragging on the ground. This in turn makes it a very vintage replica of everyone’s favourite meat-eating dinosaur. This toy was released in 1992, the year I was born, and the year before Ms. Angry Eyes the T. rex made her big screen debut in Jurassic Park. When it comes to accuracy, this model has almost none to speak of. Its arms are too long and the fingers are stubby. The model does have eyes that can be viewed from the front, but I am not sure if they’re accurate enough to give this figure binocular vision. When viewed from the side, the skull looks a little more faithful to that of the real animal, and is unmistakably that of a T. rex. The tail might be too short and it ends bluntly.
If there’s one thing that I have to praise this model for, then it would be the insane attention to detail. The body is covered in various wrinkles and looks almost alive, as if it’s walking forwards with its tail swinging side to side. The figure is also made out of hard rubber like the AAA models and some of the early Carnegies. The colours on this figure are dark, but they work in my opinion. The back of the figure is burnt sienna while the middle of the figure is blue and the bottom is grey.
Overall, this figure has its charms, and I’m sure those who like vintage models will be willing to shell out the cash for it. I’m not sure how rare this figure is, so I can’t say how much you should be willing to pay should you decide to add it to your collection.
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I lost a few of these from my childhood but I still have a few which my kids now play with. I have 2 trex, allosaurus, pteranodon, ankylosauras, diplodocus, parasaurolophus and dimetrodon and maybe a couple of others.
Funny enough, I recognized that T-rex from the pic – I found one recently in a box full of old dino toys that belonged to my wife when she was a kid. 🙂 Can’t say I dig those as much as my Papo collection but they’re still nice. Especially this T-rex which, unlike the others, is soft and slightly bendable (makes it more “alive” to play with, methinks).
Sort of a fossil in more than one way!
This guy brings back some memories.
Well, since you re-established “contact” with this specimen in such an unique way, I guess that it was ordained for you to write this review!
What a beautiful fig! …Wouldn’t it be great to have a figure like this that was 2ft tall? …It’s beautifully primitive.