T-Rex (Tyrannosaurus rex)
Pegasus Hobbies
1/24 scale
Kit review Hello everyone and welcome to the kit review the T-Rex by Pegasus Hobbies in 1/24 scale. Again we can see how diverse our hobby actually is. It is not only about building models of cars, tanks and aircraft, there are also kits of prehistoric animals around. I think i don´t have to say much about the T-Rex at all, every child knows it. The history behind the first discoveries of this animal is much more interesting though.
In the year 1874 Arthur Lakes found some big teeth fossils, but those saw no further description, got stored somewhere and were almost forgotten. In the year 2002 they resurfaced and were properly examined. It turned out that these teeth once belonged to a Tyrannosaurus rex. These teeth were the earliest palaeontologic findings of this animal. In 1892 Edward Drinker Cope describes some fossilized vertebra fragments and establishes the name "Manospondylus Gigas" for this new ancient animal. As it turned out later those were also fossils of a Tyrannosaurus. In the years 1900 and 1902 Barnum Brown finds two partial sceletons of a big carnivorous dinosaur and those fossils are described by Henry Fairfield Osborn as two different species.
One sceleton was named "Dynamosaurus imperiosus", the other one was named "Tyrannosaurus rex". That was the moment when the name of this famous animal was coined. Some years later Osborn realizes that he made a mistake. The remains were not two species, but the same. He merges it all into one and stays with the name "Tyrannosaurus rex". That is the name that became well established also in the scientific field, although in a strictly academic sense the animal should be "Manospondylus Gigas", as that was the first name the animal received.
At least that would be the usual scientific convention to follow, but the Tyrannosaurus rex is the exception here. The term had been used for decades already and it was never changed. That is also the name everyone in the world is familiar with. So far, so good. Let´s have a look inside the box. It is pretty big and heavy. I was surprised by that when i received the kit. The cardboard box is thin. As you can see here the parts tend to poke holes into it. It is certainly not optimal, but at least we don´t have to deal with any fragile parts here. There is a small instruction sheet included. The parts for the animals are all sitting on one big bag, a base and a name plate are bagged separately. Let´s have a quick look at the instructions. It is fairly small, but that should do. On the front page we get some minimal information on the T-Rex. Very shallow information though, maybe you are interested in learning more about the animal? The assembly starts with the juvenile Triceratops, which is also included in this kit. That is lovely and allows us to build a dramatic scene.
There are not many parts involved here as you can see, even beginners can handle this for sure. Finally we get a painting guide at the back. It is quite simple as well. We don´t know at all how those animals looked like. There are some speculations regarding the feathers, which might have covered the big dinosaurs as well. As we don´t know that for sure at the moment it is mostly pure speculation, so you can paint up those figures any way you like. At the bottom there is a little paint chart. It is just a generic one and doesn´t refer to any specific paint brand.
The text on top provides some useful information. It tells us that the parts are made out of vinyl, so we should use either superglue or epoxy glue to assemble the figures. The usual plastic cement won´t work. Let´s have a look at the parts now. As you might be able to tell already this will be a big figure. I think that is just right, as the real beast wasn´t small either. The surface texture, mostly made out of scales looks very crisp in my opinion. As i have pointed out already we don´t know exactly how the skin looked like.
Was the Tyrannosaurus covered by feathers or did it have bigger or smaller scales? It is unknown. I am afraid we have to life with this enigma for the time being. Along the spine and the belly there is a very faint seam. I don´t know how to get rid of that. Sanding it off is not an option, due to the scale texture. It is a very faint seamline though. Maybe it is enough to cover it up with an application of Mr. Surfacer liquid filler. This could be a simple solution. The mouth looks good. The teeth are crisp, there is nothing to clean up in between them. First impression is very good.
I can´t find any serious flaws here. This is the tail. It makes up half the length of the T-Rex. Again we get a fine seamline along the spine and the bottom. I guess it is barely visible for you. The material is quite solid, so it should take paint very well. It is vinyl i know, but i don´t see that as an issue. Nice texture details, i like it. Next we have the two hind limbs. Very nicely sculpted. They remind me a bit of chicken legs. That is probably not far off, as far as i know the closest living relative of the T-Rex is indeed the chicken. There is one spot here with a little bit of flash, which requires some cleaning, but that doesn´t count as extra work.
There are details all around, even the soles, which are not going to be visible in the end, are fully detailed anyway. I am impressed by this. To be honest, i did not have very high expectations when i bought the kit, but it turns out that the guys of Pegasus Hobbies did a good job here. Then we have the two little arms with the two clawed fingers, which are typical for Tyrannosaurus. I think that is the feature that even allows children in the pre-school to accurately name this dinosaur. Nothing to complain here either. Just lovely. What i like about this in particular is the arm posture, which matches the current scientific understanding of the matter. They probably followed the contour of the chest and belly a bit and pointed inwards, they most likely did not point straight forward. Looks like the proper amount of research was done for this figure.
The parts seem to fit okay, the friction in there seems to be quite high though. Oh dear, now i have to struggle to remove the arm again. There we go. Maybe it is good to sand down those pins a little bit, so it slides in better. Then we have the lower jaw and the tongue. I like the way they sculpted the soft tissue on the jaw. Teeth look good. Nothing to clean up here. There is the tongue. Not much to say here, it is a tongue. It will sit in there like this. We had a little demonstration on the fit of the parts already. I´ll take it a bit further. The parts fit in fairly well. We will have to fill the gaps and probably even sculpt some scales, using products like Greenstuff or MagicSculpt.
That will be impossible to avoid i´m afraid. However, the basic assembly is so easy that everyone can do it. I would probably use superglue, but for big parts like this one some epoxy glue might be a good choice. As we have seen already there is a little bit to fill or to sculpt, but that should be doable. Nowe we have a look at the juvenile Triceratops, which got run over. The foot imprint of the Tyrannosaurus can be seen on the belly. Looks neat. Details all around, even on the side we can´t see in the end. Very pretty indeed. I appreciate it that we get a proper prey animal in this kit, because it allows us to build a lovely scene right away. Those are the remaining parts of the Triceratops. Two legs and two horns. There is nothing to complain here.
Sometimes you find a spot that requires some minimal clean-up. Nothing dramatic for sure. Everything is in applie pie order i would say. A great component for a pre-historic diorama. Speaking of that, we get a small base with the kit, as well as a name plate. That is a nice addition to the kit and the way it is sculpted is quite nice. One could use it. Personally i tend to build my own base. However, there are people who are not fond of doing that or are uncertain about the procedure or they simply like the look of this. Those might just use this and be happy. It is a good base to start with and you can improve it by adding some plants or other features. Painting that can also be a lot of fun. It is nice that the base is included in the kit. I don´t need it really, but it has a good use for others. I quickly assembled the figures for you guys, so you get a better picture of how this actually looks like alltogether.
I think it is very impressive. Keep in mind, this figure of a human is in the same scale. Damn, those were some serious beasts. Looks very dramatic and dynamic. Simply cool. As i had mentioned before some parts require some extra work to make them fit better and some filling and sculpting is required around the joints. Some parts don´t have the best fit, like the legs of the Triceratops. They barely fit into their openings. This requires some work to make it fit. The lower jaw of the T-Rex has a poor fit in particular, it somehow doesn´t quite fit in there. Some more work is needed to get a better fit here. Anyway, i think this can be a nice in-between project. One does not have to be too careful here, since we don´t know how those animals actually looked like.
You can be very creative when it comes to painting the figures in particular. Building and decorating the base should be a ton of fun as well. I see this as a quick and relaxing project. Pegasus Hobbies did a good job here, i am very impressed by the T-Rex. There is not much to clean up, the assembly is easy, but there is some filling and sculpting required to fill some gaps between the parts. It should be doable and the gaps are mostly located in places where you can work on them without much hassle. The kit comes with a prey as well, which is a great addition.
Good package all around. Pegasus Hobbies also put enough effort into the resarch bit. Of course there are a lot of unknown factors about the Dinosaurs. The question whether or not the T-Rex had feathers is a big deal here, but science can not yet give us a definitive answer. I would assume that feathers were not a feature of the big Dinosaurs, like a T-Rex. We can see the big mammals, like Elephants or Rhinos, as examples. They don´t have much fur on them either. Big animals have usually a problem with staying cool, as they produce and absorb more warmth than is good for them. For small animals it is the opposite, they have to put more effort into staying warm. Thats where feathers would come into play even for dinosaurs. Seen under this light the T-Rex by Pegasus Hobbies matches more or less the current state of our scientific knowledge. The arm posture is a sign of that, it was most likely the way it is shown here.
Anything else is pure speculation anyway. I like it in particular that the T-Rex doesn´t look too skinny. They put a little bit more soft tissue on him than usual. That looks more realistic to me. Some reconstructions make the animal look like a sceleton where they just put a skin on top of it. Although this kit was only released in 2014 it is not easy to find here. There are only few vendors who sell it and you have to pay between 50 and 70€ for it. It can also be found on eBay, but it is mostly offered by vendors outside of Germany. They come mostly from North America, USA and Canada to be precise, in Europe it seems to be common in the UK. I think it is a good alternative to the dinosaur kits by Tamiya. To be honest, those do not really attract me. Those by Pegasus are more my thing. If all goes well this won´t be my last dinosaur kit by Pegasus. I am looking forward to building and painting it. The painting process is the challenge here in particular.
Alright, thats it for this kit review, i hope you enjoyed it. See you again in the next video, your Hamilkar Barkas..
