: TOY
REVIEW
Name: Jake, Marco and Cassie are - TRI REX
Allegiance: Human (I guess)
Morph: Tyrannosaurus Rex gestalt
Average Price: 80 AUD
Toy review written by Wayne Bickley.
BEAST MODE
Tri-Rex is a large black, red and mustard yellow Tyrannosaurus Rex, about 38 cm from nose to tail, and standing approximately 18 cm high at its highest point. It compares in size roughly with BW Ultra Megatron, being about 2 cm taller, and perhaps half as long again. The bodily proportions and general detailing of this toy are fair more realistic (as far as we are able to gauge realism for an animal that’s been extinct for 65 million years!) than BW Megatron, and a slightly more ambitious colour scheme.
The main body colour is mustard yellow, with the red and black stripes moving down along the back. The claws on the feet and forelimbs are black, and the fingers and toes are red. They make good use of black and red stripes on the snout especially. There is realistic pebbling and veins along the skin, and horny ridges running along the head and back.
There are 13 points of articulation in this mode, including the jaw.
The beast mode also has a number of action features; it is electronic, and when the button on the back is depressed, it roars, and it also makes a crashing sound when the feet are stomped against the ground. The tail is flexible too, and when pulled to one side will flick back to defeat whatever evil Yeerks happen to be around!
TRANSFORMATION TO HUMAN MODES
Firstly, separate the beast into its three component sections. The head, neck and forelimbs will become Jake, the back and legs will become Marco, and the underbelly and tail become Cassie. To remove the head section, simply pull forward. To remove the tail section, slide downward and then backward. You are now ready to begin the actual transformations.
To transform the head into Jake, pull out the panels next to the forelimbs, and swing the forelimbs down and to the back; these will become Jake’s legs. Pull panels behind the beast’s head outward. Pull down lower jaw and separate down the centre, these will form Jake’s arms. Swivel arms outward and then up, clicking them into shoulder position. Position panels on legs and arms behind the limbs, then flip the top of the beast head down to form Jake’s chest. Inside the lower jaw section on each arm is a jawbone weapon with protruding teeth that can be swung out to give Jake weapons; they are not removable.
Marco’s transformation from the centre section is the easiest of the three. Simply unfold Marco’s legs, turn them around to face forward, and flip down the feet. Rotate the beast’s feet at the ankle 180º, and fold the toes inward to become Marco’s fingers. Flip up the panels at the top of Marco’s arms, and you’re done
Cassie’s transformation from the rear section of the beast is perhaps the fiddliest. Unfold panels on side of tail, and pull tail outward to form left arm. Pull belly panels outward and unfold legs and feet. Extend right arm, then rotate torso 90º. Bring waist around and up, and clip into torso. Rotate and position arms.
All three have 17 points of articulation.
HUMAN (??) MODES
One of the problems to my mind of most of the deluxe Animorphs toys is the effort by the designers to incorporate three modes; Human, Mutant (or intermediate), and Beast. Of course, the human modes on these toys look much the same as the mutant modes. With Tri-Rex, however, the designers have obviated this problem by avoiding the attempt to give the figures true human modes at all. All three figures have mutant modes only. Their extremities are all scaly, their eyes are slitted and both fluoro green or orange and their foreheads are ridged, and I’ll refer to these modes as their human modes. All three figures stand at about 12 cm tall; similar to Beast Wars Deluxe sized figures.
Jake’s human mode contains the fewest concessions to his humanity. At the top of his arms are details the torn remnants of his sleeves, but aside from that, only his head really alludes to his humanness. The top of the beast mode head forms his chest, and his legs are formed by the two-fingered forelimbs of the t-rex, both of which distort his human proportions somewhat. His arms and hands are human enough, despite being scaly, and the weapons on the end of his arms are a nice touch. Precisely because they haven’t tried too hard to make Jake human, the problem of t-rex kibble which would otherwise be intolerable is quite okay, and actually quite interesting.
Marco’s human mode is probably my favourite. The majority of his body is essentially human, with the sound box and batteries on his back. He has the remnant of a brown shirt (the collar and shoulders are still visible), which fades to yellow where the torn remainder can be seen. The same applies for the remainder of his blue jean; they are torn and disappear completely before they reach his knees. His legs are scaled beneath this, and his feet have three toes like the t-rex. The most striking feature is the improbably large arms, formed from the t-rex legs. While they have no thumbs, only the three toes of the t-rex, they can be thrust out in front of him with no worries about him falling over, as he has the weight of the sound box to counterbalance him. And another thing; if you lift the panels covering the tops of his arms, underneath you can see the upper part of his torn shirtsleeves. This is a nice transitional feature, and one that could easily have been neglected.
Cassie’s human mode is curious. It is the only asymmetrical mode of the three, and while having the most and best human proportions overall of the three, has one glaring problem. The t-rex’s tail forms her left arm, which is so incredibly unwieldy and cumbersome that the figure WILL NOT stand unless it is resting on the ground. It is presumably intended to serve as some form off clubbing or whipping weapon. However, it is just so enormous (just the tail section of her arm is 18 cm long, and 6.5 cm at its widest point, and the figure only stands 12 cm high) as to simply appear bizarre. Making the tail removable, or allowing it to transform into some form of grasping device like Megatron’s might have been a good touch. Despite this rather glaring problem, the rest of her human mode is quite good. The remnant of her torn green overalls cover her chest, leaving her midriff and lower legs exposed. Like Marco, she has the reptilian lower legs, and her right arm is scaled and her right hand has long elegant fingers with sharp talons at the end. One of the underbelly panels can be folded behind her back, and the other can go to the right of her arm, forming a shield.
INSIGNIA LOCATION
In beast mode, there is a logo embossed on the left side of the neck. Cassie’s is embossed on her chest, as is Marco’s. Jake’s is embossed on the inside of his upper left arm.
OVERALL
Quite a good toy, with price taken into account as a factor. All Animorphs were originally too expensive by about a factor of 2, in my opinion. When reduced to about half price, in order to clear them as we are seeing now, they actually become a lot more worthwhile. Tri-Rex is a good example of such a toy. Fun to transform and easy to pose.
It has a poseable and very realistic beast mode, coupled with the fact that you then get 3 very different and interesting action figures, as well as electronics thrown into the deal. I feel that for the AUD40 I paid (I would certainly have baulked at paying the AUD80 it was originally ticketed at!), I got a damn good toy!
BEAST TRIVIA
The Tyrannosaurus Rex is the best known species a very large carnivorous genus of dinosaurs known as Tyrannosaurus. Tyrannosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous Period (beginning 136,000,000 years ago). Fully grown, Tyrannosaurus was possibly the largest land carnivore of all time. Tyrannosaurus was over 14 metres long and the skull alone was more than 1.2 metres long. Tyrannosaurus was a biped, walking about on its powerful hind legs. If the animal stood upright, it was over 6.4 metres tall, but the more conventional pose was stooped with the body carried forward. It has been estimated that Tyrannosaurus would have weighed in excess of eight tonnes. The body was massive and the neck was short and thick. The skull was very large in relation to the body and was armed with large, pointed teeth, 15 centimetres long. These teeth were serrated and were effective at cutting and slicing. The forelimbs were small and useless, except perhaps for grasping at close range. The long tail served as a counterbalance to the body. The musculature was very well developed, especially those muscles used for biting and chewing and for support and mobility.
Tyrannosaurus was probably a rather rare animal with possibly only one individual per 160 square kilometres.
Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Brittanica
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