Is not surprise to anyone that Hasbro made a horrendous job with their Jurassic World toys. For a movie that was massively succesful finantially, being on the fourth spot of the highest grossing films of all time and being considered generally as a fun monster blockbuster by most people (myself included), the toyline made by Hasbro doesn't live up to the success of the film.
Screw holes, poor paint jobs, balancing issues, weak springs and weird proportions make most of the toys of the toyline be an absolute joke when compared to the glory days of the Kenner in the 90's. There are some redeaming toys in the toyline that are worth purchasing, such as the bad boy Indominus and most of the toys in the growler line, but the mayority of the others are pretty underwhelming to say the least. And one of those toys is the chomping t rex.
The chomping t rex has lots of flaws. It doesn't resemble the t rex we all know and love barely at all, it has a poor paint job, a weird looking jaw and feet as well as odd proportions in general. It also had a pretty weak jaw at the moment of it's release, but a couple of months ago, hasbro secretly released a new reiteration with a stronger jaw spring, basically saying "Haha! Fuck you!" to the people who bought the toy at first. The way to see if the toy has a strong spring is to test it in store.
Today, I'm going to show you how you can improove this toy and fix some of it's flaws. In this ocation, I'm going to customize it as the bull tyrannosaurus from The lost world: Jurassic park. You can go other ways, painting it as the female tyrannosaurus, the subadult from Jurassic Park 3, rexy from the first movie or rexy from Jurassic World.
1) Gathering the materials.
The things you will need for the custom are
- A chomping rex (hopefuly, the stronger springed one).
-Acrylic paint.
-Molding paste.
-Different sized brushes.
-Sissors or a small knife.
-Hot silicone or any other material that glues and dries fast.
-A plastic sqare so you can mix colours.
-Toilet paper.
-A bucket of water (you can also use a glass of water).
2) Unboxing the toy.
Carefully unbox the dinosaur using the sissors. Try as much as possible not to scratch the toy, but if it happens anyway you can cover it with paint. DO NOT attach the tail to the body yet.
3) Plastic surgery!
Next, you are going to take the molding paste and you are going to use it to improove the toy's look. This process can't take too long, otherwise the molding paste, drying with air, is going to get hard and any work that needs to be made will then become impossible. I strongly reccomend aplying molding paste to the body and tail separatedly as it will be easier to work with.
The places you will need to use molding paste are in the jaw, the back, the belly and the tail. In case one of the pieces doesn't stick to the figure, use hot silicone or any fast glue. If you are going to customize the t rex like the bull t rex, you will also put a piece of molding paste in the throaght and the top of the snout. The male tyrannosaurus of the JP universe has a larger throaght pouch than the female, as well as more bumps on the face and more pronounced ridges on the top of the snout. Use pictures of the tyrannosaurus from the film to get as much accuracy as possible.
4) Now the paint.
This is probably the most difficult part about the customing process. After you selected the colours for your custom, is paint time. I reccomend not painting the complete body of the animal inmediately. Instead, paint the animal by sections. That way you get a pretty good idea what the rest of the body should go like. If you need to blur or blend the colours, use your finger to mix the colours or give a faithing effect. Again, sculptures and models are the best way to get as much accuracy with films as possible. Look for the animatronics that Stan Winston Studios made, or very faithful sculptures.
Repeat the process for all the body and your chomping should look a bit more decent of a toy.
I hope this tutorial serves you well, and hopefuly your chomping now looks like a t rex. Thank you and have a great day.
