The fearsome hybrid Indominus Rex is terrifying and unpredictable. Born in captivity, she on the loose stalking her prey. Watch out! She’s rampaging across Jurassic World!
Hasbro’s Jurassic World ‘Hybrid Rampage’ Indominus Rex is now appearing in stores and online, retailing at $34.99. This is a brand new sculpt, and was first shown off at Toy Fair 2016. Measuring 22 inches long, she is actually about 2 inches larger than the 2015 ‘Bad Boy’ Indominus Rex. She features articulated legs, left arm lever activated ‘Chomping Jaws’ & ‘Fang Reveal’, button activated ‘Spike Reveal’, and a free to move articulated right arm. Plus, she’s electronic and features numerous different roaring sounds! What’s not to love?
The first thing that stands out about this toy to me is its clean, crisp white coloration. While it has a tendency to wash out in photos a bit, it really pops and looks fantastic on the toy. The color scheme shines with the addition of the clearly defined reddish orange striping patterns running the length of her head and body, applied with a mildly metallic sheen. Her underbelly, hands, and feet are painted with an incredibly metallic gold paint – it looks really good in my opinion, but could have used better blending work. The orbital and fenstra sockets are filled with a dark, brownish purple paint which gives her face a sinister and skull like appearance. The eyes are nicely detailed, conveying a mean look, and featuring four different colors. The inside of the mouth is painted a solid, flat dark purple, and the teeth a cream color – sadly the claws are unpainted.
The detail work on the sculpt is really great, and captures the Indominus Rex fantastically – albeit with larger, more stylized spikes. The teeth, claws, scutes, spikes and other finer details are all shaped very nicely, while still lending themselves to safe play. The skin detail feels very hand crafted, with each scale and scute inter-playing with the muscle and skeletal structure – something most Jurassic World toys were severely lacking. Unfortunately, the right flank of the toy features six visible screw holes, however these are far less offensive than those seen in prior releases. The biggest issue with the sculpt is the feet. While they look great, they are not proportioned for the weight of the toy, leading to major balance issues (surely to frustrate both kids and collectors).
The toy is made out of hard plastic which is fairly lightweight. It doesn’t feel as cheap as generic toys offered by competitors, though its lightness does feel quite strange for a Jurassic Park toy and gives a sense of added fragility. The sound quality sits at a nice middle ground, neither too loud nor too quiet. The sounds can accidentally activate in play, as the jaw hinge is loose and can open and close from momentum rather easily. Otherwise, the sounds are activated by the spike reveal button on her left flank, and the ‘chomping jaw’ activation via her left arm.
The spike reveal works rather nicely – one firm push of the button, and they pop out and stay in place. Another push, and they recede back into the neutral pose. The chomping mechanism is a lot of fun – when it works. It has a tendency to get stuck, and not complete its activation without further nudging of the arm. Ideally, the arm is pulled back, and upon release it resets and activates a randomized amount of chomping motions (up to 14), plus different roars. It’s quite cool when it works, but I worry that so many reports of it being faulty straight out of the package may lead to complete brokenness via casual play.
The toy sizes nicely compared to the rest of the Jurassic World lineup, and Jurassic Park toys of the past. This toy has notably more size to it (helped by better proportions) than other large offerings from the 2015 range, and is quite eye catching. Not only is it longer that the previous large Indominus Rex, it stands taller at the hips, and is wider overall. Its head and arms are lightly smaller, and legs slightly larger, but all look more natural. Honestly, this is the perfect sized toy.
Overall, this is easily my favorite toy from the Jurassic World lineup, and is the first that looks at home next to past Jurassic Park items. I really dig the sculpt, colors, play features and sounds – but am certainly bummed by the quality control issues on the chomping mechanism, plus item balance. For a collector it’s frustrating, but for a parent it’s a nightmare and for a child, a letdown. However, overall this toy skews positive in my eyes – and it’s important not to forget that target audience:
(Used with permission)
If that adorable video doesn’t prove this toy is a must buy, I don’t know what will. Should future releases have the chomping gimmick fixed, and feature better balance it’s a near perfect toy. Hopefully the QA issues are short lived, as this overall is something special (in fact, it also may be the last big Dinosaur from Hasbro as Mattel is taking ownership in late 2017). If those issues did not exist, I would note the room for improvement in the gold paint blending, and perhaps continuation of the red stripes to the tail.
6~8 / 10
(Based upon variable balance & chomping activation experiences) – Recommended for collectors and parents/kids, but we wary of bad balance and faulty chomping features! Want more? Check out the additional photos below!!
