Tyrannosaurus rex (Tamiya)

Review by GiganotosaurusFan, edited by Suspsy

It was 1993. 

*AAGUH!*

“It’s . . . it’s a dinosaur!”

“We have a T. rex.”

*ROARRR!*

“Life . . . uh . . . finds a way.”

“AAAAHHH!”

“Gosh darn it!”

*ROOOOOOOAARRRR!*

“Heeeeelp!!”

*CHOMP!*

“You have a T. rex?”

All of this sound and dialogue happened in Jurassic Park, the film that made dinosaurs even more famous. And the most famous of all of them was Tyrannosaurus rex, or T. rex. A year after this historic landmark, Tamiya would decide to start a line of scientifically accurate dinosaurs, with consultation from skilled paleontologists in Japan. There was also another line that was supposed to represent retro versions of dinosaurs, but it wasn’t as popular, mainly due to poorer sculpting. Among the modern line, there was a T. rex. You would think that a T. rex would have the attention, while all the other models would sit there fuming. Instead, it stood there fuming with the others while all of them got overshadowed by the Tamiya Brachiosaurus, which was huge and imposing, even more so than the T. rex. Humph! And so it got ignored. Horizon also produced a figure two years earlier, which is, in my eyes, pretty lackluster. How does this one match up to its contemporary by Horizon? In a few words, it’s more believable. 

You need a cutting tool (scissors work, but an X-ACTO knife is preferred) and a gluing agent (shoe glue in my case, but superglue preferred). You also might need some putty for filling some of the seams and gaps. The model arrives in the form of two sprues off which you need to cut the parts. They are made of a type of plastic; might be vinyl or might be PVC. The model is also accompanied with a base. I chose not to assemble it, mainly because I cut the peg off the left foot that attaches it to the base by accident, and being a person who doesn’t like bases, I simply chose not to assemble it (also, because I had some other things to do).

The detail work is very good. In fact,”crazy good.” It matches that of modern models (remember, this was made back in 1994) and possibly even surpasses some of them. Accuracy is okay, having pronated hands, no lips, and an iffy head shape, but otherwise, no mistakes: pretty good for a 28 year old model. The teeth are appropriately long, and the pose is a fluid running one. However, the true charm lies in the variety. You can have a total of four poses: a grounded one with the mouth open, a grounded one with the mouth closed, a running one with a mouth closed, or a running one with the mouth open. I chose the one with a grounded pose, mouth open, chasing prey. I like it. But my eyes are for the model’s eyes. Those chibi eyes just always seem to get the better of me. I just can’t get my eyes off them.

Now for measurements. This T. rex seems to weigh around 100-200 grams (around half as heavy as the Eofauna Giganotosaurus) due to being hollow. It’s surprisingly large at 41 cm long and 16 cm tall, which would place this model at around 1/32 to 1/30 scale. However, using their outdated 50 feet estimate, this would be around 1/36.

Overall, I like this T. rex. I think it has withstood the test of time just as well, and maybe better than the Brachiosaurus, and is equally deserving of recognition. It has better detail work than some other T. rex figures that I know, is scientifically accurate for its time, and again, those eyes! 5/5!