Re: Horizon's Chris Darga T-Rex

[Larry Dunn <recalcitrant_hen@yahoo.com>]

--- Steve Smith <Toby2003_53@msn.com> wrote:

> This has to be one of the best T-Rex kit's ever
> produced. I won this item about a year ago on Ebay
> and it was a lucky find on my part. I was always
> searching for a real good T-Rex kit and this is it.
> Its just too bad Horizon Original is no longer in
> buisness because they made some very good Dinosaur
> kits. 

This kit was actually first released by an L.A.
modeling store/model company called, I think, Kitcraft
(?) as a resin model is the mid 1990's.  Darga
sculpted it for them, as well as many other dinosaurs.
 

It is indeed huge.  The resin version came with a
friend -- a _Styracosaurus_ as well as the _T. rex_. 
They are swirling around each other in mortal combat,
clearly inspired by Gurche's cover painting for The
Dinosaur Heresies.

So I like to think of the _T. rex_ as
_Daspletosaurus_.  :)

The neat thing about the Kitcraft model was that each
dinosaur tooth was separately cast, so you could paint
them and then insert them into the mouth.  This made
the teeth look very authentic.  I don't know if the
same applies to the vinyl kit.

Then Horizon got a hold of it and made it into a vinyl
kit, which makes it much lighter.  Some of you may
remember Horizon as the company that made those
popular vinyl model kits of the Jurassic Park
dinosaurs cast directly from Stan Winston's critters.

I've got the old Kitcraft model with the
Styracosaurus.  I never built it up.  It's probably
worth a fortune now.  It better be, as it cost one
back then.  :)

> The detail is very good
> and when its finished its my vision of what T-Rex
> looked like in real life. 

It is pretty much the _Tyrannosaurus spielbergus_ we
all know and kind of love from "Jurassic Park."  It's
a very neat design indeed, but it's not how I imagine
T. rex looking.  No scales, not much of a public boot,
the shape is a little off.  No feathers.  :)

Whee!  Something I know a little something about.

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