Kenner

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER BATMAN RETURNS – THE PENGUIN

Posted by Mighty Mike on August 11, 2026
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

Kenner’s line of toys based on the Batman Returns movie consisted of numerous versions of the same Batman figure, with a plethora of various accessories, some reused from other lines and a few of the main villains from the film, as well as vehicles and play sets. Kenner took its usual creative license with a number of their Batman toys, including the Penguin toy, which looks nothing like Danny Devito from the movie.


Name: Penguin
Line: Batman Returns
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: $5.99 Now: $60 – $115 USD MOC
Scale: 4-5 inches in height
Accessories: Blast off Umbrella launcher

This particular Penguin toy is notorious for not looking like anything even remotely close to how Danny Devito looked when playing the Penguin in Batman Returns.

However, once we move beyond that major issue, it’s still a very nice repaint of the Kenner Super Powers Penguin toy.

Even if this toy probably gets a lot of flak for not being a better representation of the movie version of the Penguin.

SCULPTING

Well, let’s start with the biggest issue people had back in the day and probably still have with it now – this toy looks nothing like the Penguin from the Batman Returns movie. It’s one of those baffling, head-scratching decisions. You could have at least released a second version later. Besides that, the sculpting is very good, and it’s a great general representation of the Penguin. He’s got a very large belly and long nose.

PAINT

I think paint application is where this toy really shines! The black, red and white colour scheme really pops. It’s overall very clean and crisp. And really makes this toy look sharp.

ARTICULATION

Kenner removed some articulation for these toys, being the bendable knees. You have a swivel head, arms and legs. That’s it. Your classic five POA toy from Kenner. it’s still nice to be able to move the toys arms and legs there’s something intuitive about it that makes it fun even if it’s limited articulation.

ACCESSORIES

The Penguin comes with his “blast off” Umbrella Launcher. It’s a pretty neat accessory, it can be plugged into his back for a quick escape or placed on his arm as a gun. What he really needed was a folded-up umbrella he could hold normally, or the option to hold the umbrella normally.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

Not too many problems with this Penguin toy. Just watch out for paint rub and missing the accessories.

PRICE

I bought mine years ago, MOSC. But I don’t recall paying too much for this unloved toy. Nowadays he might be a little bit harder to get for a good price.

OVERALL

This is not the Penguin toy people wanted from Batman Returns. It is, however, a really nice Penguin toy in general, and I’m glad to have him in my collection. He feels like a nice upgrade from the Super Powers version – and that’s enough for me.

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER JURASSIC PARK DINO SCREAMS VELOCIRAPTOR

Posted by Mighty Mike on June 23, 2026
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

The Dino Screams Velociraptor was one of the many dinosaurs released in the first wave for Kenner’s original Jurassic Park line of toys, based on the hit movie. The velociraptors are technically some of the main antagonists in the latter half of the movie after escaping their enclosure.

Name: Velociraptor
Line: Jurassic Park (Dino Screams)
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1993
Price: First released – $12.99. Now – varies $200-$250MOC
Scale: About 4 Inches in height
Accessories: JP Collector card #12.

My brother and I, like most kids our age, watched the original Jurassic Park in the cinema when it was first released. We had a choice of that or The Lion King, and obviously, hands down, Jurassic Park was winning that battle. 

I vividly remember other kids at school talking about the movie as they had seen it before us, but that didn’t matter because we didn’t have to wait too long to see it and loved it upon first watching it. Truly one of Steven Spielberg’s greatest movies and excellent dinosaur creations from Stan Winston Studios that helped bring the creatures to life.

And what felt like a common practice, it was a trip to the toy store to buy some toys after watching said movie. This particular version of the Velociraptor I didn’t have as a kid, my brother had this one. I had the brown slightly smaller one instead. 

However, I always liked the look of this one as it seemed to imply it was the leader of the escaped Raptors, being it had a different paint job and was slightly bigger overall compared to the other version.

So, later in life, I managed to pick one up from eBay MOC while reclaiming my childhood toys and figures.

SCULPTING
As like the majority of Kenner’s Jurassic Park line the sculpting on this toy is absolutely excellent and a highlight of the toy. Whoever worked on the sculpting for all the Dinosaurs really did an amazing effort and I thank them for not only making the Dinosaurs look realistic, but matching how they looked in the movie very closely too. This Velociraptor is an excellent representation of the ones seen in the movie.

PAINT
The paint is probably the only questionable aspect of the toy, not because it’s bad, it’s done very well. But, because like some of the other dinosaurs from this line it doesn’t match the source material as well as it could. But, I understand that it’s more “toyetic” this way and I definitely agree that it is and these are aimed at kids, not collectors. 

It’s still a pretty iconic colour scheme for this toy and the combination of colours really makes the toy stand out but still look somewhat realistic when with other toys from the same line. The red/brown stripes and white underbelly work well with the orange/tan base colour, and the green eyes really stand out. The black claws and talons and off-white teeth round out the colour scheme nicely.

ARTICULATION
The Velociraptor has a small amount of articulation; you can move the arms and legs. They swivel pretty well and aren’t too loose. The head and tail are stuck in place. For this particular figure, the articulation works fine. It’s just enough to add play value and still a lot more than the average dinosaur toy would have.

It’s also worth mentioning that this particular toy’s gimmick was that when you pushed down the torso from the tail end while supporting the legs, the arms would stretch outwards in a grabbing motion and the Dinosaur would make noise, hence “Dino Screams” This is a pretty neat feature and made playing with this toy very fun.

The batteries needed changing in mine, and it was very tricky to get them out, so I couldn’t be bothered putting new ones in to check if the electronics still worked or not, as I didn’t want to damage the toy trying to get the new batteries out later. But seeing the old original batteries hadn’t leaked, I’m pretty confident the electronics would still work if tested.

ACCESSORIES
None. Unless you are counting that collector card, and I wouldn’t count that.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
There isn’t too much to watch out for here, besides paint rub and it’s somewhat tricky to get the batteries out of their compartment if you want to replace them.

PRICE
I paid what I felt was a good price for one, new mint on card, because I wanted my copy to be in the best condition possible. It’s still fairly readily available on the secondary market, and the price is not too outrageous.

OVERALL
This is one of the classic and iconic toys from Kenner’s original Jurassic Park line of toys. It’s an excellent sculpt. Great paint scheme and fun play feature make it a really great toy. If you are looking to start a vintage Jurassic Park toy collection, you need to make sure you have this toy in your collection, it’s great!

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER LAVA PLANET PREDATOR

Posted by Mighty Mike on May 28, 2026
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

The Kenner Predator series was released during the 1990s and is loosely based on the designs of the Predator movies – and I do mean loosely!  There were at least two series of predators released:  a version more faithful to the film for series one, followed by one far more creative or crazy, depending on your opinion, series two. The Lava Planet Predator was released in series two.

Name: Lava Planet Predator
Line: Alien Vs. Predator
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1994
Price: Then: $5 -$7, now: $30-$40 MOC
Scale: 14cm in height.
Accessories: Blazing rocket launcher

When I was a kid, my brother and I had Kenner’s line of Aliens and Space Marine toys, and then one day, after my mother and brother had gone out shopping, he brought home with him Cracked Tusk and Scavage Predator toys. I picked Scavage Predator for myself. Later on, I clearly remember getting the Lava Planet Predator from Toys R Us in Parramatta. I was instantly drawn to the figure because of the red translucent plastic. I really enjoyed playing with him as a kid, and I thought the design looked really cool, even if it didn’t make sense based on the first series of Predator figures released looked so much more realistic.

SCULPTING

This is the same sculpt as the Cracked Tusk Predator. So, if you own that one, you have it. Now, this time it’s in clear red plastic. Even though there’s not a lot of paint to bring out the details, Kenner still did an excellent job sculpting these toys. There’s a lot of detail on the skin and armour, and I feel they really tried to give each Predator a unique look with the armour and Predator itself.    

PAINT

Mainly being cast in red plastic, there’s not a lot of paint on this figure to speak of. Just a little bit of black spray on the head and some paint on the chest. The yellow eyes really stand out against the black, and the design on the chest looks cool too.  

ARTICULATION

The articulation is identical to the rest of the Kenner Predator line, with moveable head, arms and legs. All articulation points are cut/swivel joints, and there is generally a good range of motion from each. However, there is still some restriction, allowing for only a handful of decent poses. This is mainly from the lack of articulation, and sometimes from the sculpt itself. If only Kenner threw in some hinge joints, then we would be talking!

ACCESSORIES

This Predator figure comes with the same shoulder cannon as Cracked Tusk. Only now it’s been cast in mostly metallic red. Some parts are grey as well, which kinda ruins the overall look though. The Lava Planet Predator also comes with a red mask, the same one again that came with Cracked Tusk. Both mask and cannon look great, and the firing feature is quite strong even to this day.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

I don’t really see too many issues with this toy. He’s pretty rock solid.

PRICE

I paid a reasonable price for mine. But not a lot of money. If you hunt around (no pun intended), you can find yourself a deal for one. It’s not the type of toy you should be paying an arm and a leg for.

OVERALL

I think the Lava Planet Predator is a good use of a mold as a repaint. Even if it might look a little bit silly to most Predator fans. On its own, it’s a pretty cool looking figure, and to me, it always will be cool because of the red translucent plastic it’s cast in, but, if you know me, I’m a sucker for toys in translucent colours. If you are a Predator fan, I don’t think it’s worth chasing this one down, unless you are a completest.

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER SGT. APONE

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 26, 2026
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

Please note: Originally posted back in August 2014, but I’ve gone back and retaken the photos so it matches the most recent Kenner Aliens figures photo sets and just in time for Alien Day too!

Kenner’s line of ‘Aliens’ Space Marine toys were fairly short lived. After only 1 & 1/2 series of figures the Marines were dumped in favour of Predators instead to do battle with the Aliens. What marines we did get however were quite cool and in most cases had action features to add more play value. Apone, a character that appeared in the Aliens film franchise, also received a figure in this toyline.

Name: SGT. Apone
Line: Aliens
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: Then: $10-$16.  Now: $10 – $26 MOSC or less if loose
Scale: 4 -5 Inches in height
Accessories: Machine gun, two grenades

I really can’t remember why my brother and I decided to collect the Kenner Aliens toys when we were kids – being a toyline based off an MA 15+ series of movies – but they did look cool. The Alien designs were nice and there were a variety of figures. But you can’t just have Aliens… You need Marines as well! Regardless of what collectors at the time and collectors now think of this toyline, I still like what Kenner did with about 90% of the figures they made. Now on to the review!

SCULPTING

Kenner has taken a lot of liberties with their interpretation of each space marine character; they sure do not look like how they appeared in the movie. However, to me, what they have come up with, is still in its own way charming. The sculpting overall is pretty solid there are a lot of nice details on the figure, like the robotic arm or the harness or even the leg armour. I also like the head sculpt too. It may not be the best likeness of Al Mathews, but it still provokes the character of SGT. Apone to me. Like Ripley he has been sculpted in a set pose with articulation added later.

PAINT

The paint on Apone, isn’t too bad, there is the occasional slop here and there, like on the silver shoulder pad on the chest. However, the bulk of the paint is quite good – which is another thing I enjoyed about Kenner’s toys, they were always well painted and well made. The colour scheme is a bit funky too: bright yellow shirt with teal pants and a red cap to top it off. The colours really didn’t bother me too much as a child and I still have a soft spot for Apone even now; but I can understand to some collectors this is one of the main deal breakers for this figure.

ARTICULATION

Apone sports a whopping six points of articulation, swivel head, arms and legs. The waist does swivel too, but it’s only to help with the action feature so it will snap back into its normal position once moved. Apone’s action feature is that he “throws” the gold grenades he comes with, which involves placing a grenade in his hand, raising his robot arm up and then turning his waist and letting it snap back, theoretically throwing the grenade away.

He may have a robotic arm enhancement, but it doesn’t help him throw grenades very well at all. Apone should just stick to using his machine gun and that’s it.

ACCESSORIES

Apone comes with a couple of accessories, his machine gun and two grenades. Besides holding each item in his hands, he can also store them on his back or store the machine gun on his leg too. This is pretty neat as he doesn’t always have to be carrying all his weapons in his hands all the time.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

None that I can think of; Apone is rock solid. What would you expect from a early 1990’s toy? Just make sure your one has a good paint job before you buy it.

PRICE

I was happy with the $10 + shipping costs; however, I wouldn’t pay too much for this figure, as he is not worth any large amount of money.

OVERALL

Apone has a couple of faults and short comings; he’s not a very good representation of how the character appears in the movie and his action feature is a bit weak. But like Ripley I think he really captures the idea of the character well, which is a battle hardened space marine sergeant. The toy’s colours may be a bit funky for collectors these days, so I really think he’s only worthwhile if you are buying him to reclaim your childhood or if you really want a set of retro Aliens marines in your collection.

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This post was originally published on August 18, 2014.

RETRO REVIEW – KENNER LT. RIPLEY

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 18, 2026
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

Please note: Originally posted back in April 2014, but I’ve gone back and retaken the photos so it matches the most recent Kenner Aliens figures photo sets!

Kenner’s line of ‘Aliens’ Space Marine toys were fairly short-lived. After only 1 & 1/2 series of figures, the Marines were dumped in favor of Predators instead to do battle with the Aliens. What marines we did get, however, were quite cool and in most cases had action features to add more play value. Ripley, the main character in the Aliens film franchise, also received a figure in this toyline.

Name: Ripley
Line: Aliens
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: Then: $10-$15.  Now: $15-$25  mint on card,  less if loose
Scale: 4 -5  Inches in height
Accessories: Flamethrower, Small gun, set of stickers and comic

I really can’t remember why my brother and I decided to collect the Kenner Aliens toys when we were kids – being a toyline based off an MA 15+ series of movies – but they did look cool. The Alien designs were nice, and there was a variety of figures. But you can’t just have Aliens… You need Marines as well! Regardless of what collectors at the time and collectors now think of this toy line, I still like what Kenner did with about 90% of the figures they made.

SCULPTING

Kenner’s sculpting has always been pretty solid. There other lines of figures like Jurassic Park or Star Wars featured good, if not great, sculpting. The Aliens line and Ripley figure is no different. What I like the most about this sculpt is that, even though it’s not a very good likeness to actress Sigourney Weaver, I believe it still captures the feel of the character. Also, this is one of my favourite female head sculpts for a small-sized figure.  The rest of the figure is also well done, albeit that she’s stuck in the one pose. But this is mainly due to the action feature the toy has.

PAINT

Not too much paint here. It’s mainly used for detailing on the figure, and that’s about it. The paint application is fairly crisp; minimal to no slop on this figure. One thing to look out for is the placement of the eyes. They seem to be a bit of hit and miss, and in some cases, really aren’t applied very well at all.

ARTICULATION

Here, we have fairly standard Kenner – and to an extent, most 1990s articulation – swivel head, arms, waist and legs. Due to the figure needing to hold a two-handed weapon, most of the articulation suffers due to the need to cater for this function. The action feature is quite neat and works well. On the flamethrower there is a small red peg, which is placed into the yellow pouch on Ripley’s leg, when you turn Ripley’s upper body, the flame “shoots” out of the end of the flamethrower. I always liked the action feature. It does its job flawlessly by adding more than enough extra play value to this figure.  Below is a scan of the instructions that came with the figure, showing you how to use the action feature.

ACCESSORIES

Ripley comes with a small number of accessories. The big ticket item is of course, the flamethrower. It’s slightly oversized and not really a good representation from the movie. But, It looks great in its own right. The other accessories are a small gun and a comic (the comics weren’t very good, but did help establish the characters a little bit as there was no TV show tie-in for these toys). There are also stickers included, but my problem with these are they don’t tend to stick very well.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

I can’t see there being too many problems with this figure, beyond getting one with a bad paint application. It’s well-made and durable, nothing really too fragile here.

PRICE

I was happy with $10 + shipping costs; however, I wouldn’t pay too much for this figure, as she is not worth a large amount of money.

OVERALL

I have fond memories of playing with this figure and the other marines/aliens/predators from this line. I feel the figure itself, although limited in some aspects, still stands up fairly well today for children’s toy standards. From a collector’s point of view, this is only worth picking up if you want to reclaim your childhood or like having a variety of Aliens collectibles, both old and new, in your collection.

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This post was originally published on April 24, 2014.

RETRO REVIEW – KENNER CORP. HICKS

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 12, 2020
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

Kenner’s line of ‘Aliens’ Space Marine toys was fairly short-lived. After only 1 & 1/2 series of figures, the Marines were dumped in favour of Predators instead to do battle with the Aliens. What marines we did get, however, were quite cool and in most cases had action features to add more play value. Corporal Hicks, a fan favourite character that appeared in the Aliens film franchise, also received a figure in this toy line.

Name: Corporal Hicks
Line: Aliens
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: Then: $10-$16.  Now: $10 – $26 MOSC or less if loose
Scale: 4 -5 Inches in height
Accessories: Rocket Launcher, Claw, Two Alienator Missiles  

I really can’t remember why my brother and I decided to collect the Kenner Aliens toys when we were kids – being a toyline based off an MA 15+ series of movies – but they did look cool. The Alien designs were nice and there were a variety of figures.

But you can’t just have Aliens… You need Marines as well! Regardless of what collectors at the time and collectors now think of this toyline, I still like what Kenner did with about 90% of the figures they made.

Hicks was the one figure we would never see at the store, besides the Panther Alien, maybe they were short-packed? So neither I nor my brother owned him when the toyline was originally released.

It wasn’t until later in life where my brother finally picked one up. (He is the bigger fan of Corporal Hicks out of the two of us, even if I think he’s pretty cool in general, I always preferred Hudson over Hicks.)

SCULPTING

For the most part, I’d like to think Kenner did a good job of taking the source material and putting their own spin on it. Apparently, there was going to be a cartoon to tie in with the toys so that would make sense changing the characters a bit. I think Corporal Hicks looks pretty good, It’s a passing likeness and he’s not an accurate match to the Aliens movie, but ticks a lot of the boxes of what you’d expect from a Corporal Hicks figure in my opinion for the time period.

PAINT

Generally, the paint on Kenner’s products was always to a fairly high standard. The paint application on this particular Hicks is quite good, no bleed, no slop. The quality of the older toys sometimes puts a lot of newer companies to shame. Plenty of greens and blacks make up Hick’s uniform the tan looks a little out of place but the gold/silver mixture looks excellent.

ARTICULATION

Hicks has the typical amount of articulation for a toy of this time period, Swivel everything! Swivel head, swivel shoulders, swivel waist, and swivel hips. You can move his joints but you can’t really do a lot with him besides simple poses. It’s decent articulation, but nothing to write home about.

ACCESSORIES

Hicks comes with a rocket launcher, Some kind of Claw/gun arm weapon and two missiles for the rocket launcher. The firing action on the rocket launcher is quite good the claw/gun arm is a bit miss-placed it just clips on his arm and that’s it. It would have been cooler if he came with a Pulse Rifle like Vazquez did, as I think that would be a more appropriate weapon for the character.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

None that I can think of;  Corporal Hicks is rock solid. What would you expect from an early 1990’s toy?  Just make sure your one has a good paint job before you buy it.

PRICE

I was happy with the $10 + shipping costs; however, I wouldn’t pay too much for this figure, as he is not worth any large amount of money.

OVERALL

The Corporal Hicks figure lacks the fun action feature many of the other Aliens Space Marines have, but it’s made up for with a missile-firing rocket launcher, this doesn’t make the figure as great to play with as Ripley or Drake, for example. Hicks is still an important character in the Aliens universe and this is his first real toy/collectible figure made of him, it’s worth picking him up, if you are a Kenner completist of their Aliens line or if you like Corporal Hicks in general.

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER SGT. DRAKE

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 5, 2020
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

Kenner’s line of ‘Aliens’ Space Marine toys was fairly short-lived. After only 1 & 1/2 series of figures, the Marines were dumped in favor of Predators instead to do battle with the Aliens. What marines we did get, however, were quite cool and in most cases had action features to add more play value. Drake, a character that appeared in the Aliens film franchise, also received a figure in this toy line.

Name: Drake
Line: Aliens
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: Then: $10-$16.  Now: $10 – $26 MOSC or less if loose
Scale: 4 -5 Inches in height
Accessories: Smart Gun, Bayonet

I really can’t remember why my brother and I decided to collect the Kenner Aliens toys when we were kids – being a toyline based off an MA 15+ series of movies – but they did look cool. The Alien designs were nice and there were a variety of figures.

But you can’t just have Aliens… You need Marines as well! Regardless of what collectors at the time and collectors now think of this toyline, I still like what Kenner did with about 90% of the figures they made.

When my brother and I first saw these figures, normally each one of us would choose which ones we liked best, my brother owned Drake so from a nostalgia point of view, I don’t really have that same connection as say Ripley or Hudson figures which I personally owned.

SCULPTING

For the most part, I’d like to think Kenner did a good job of taking the source material and putting their own spin on it. Apparently, there was going to be a cartoon to tie in with the toys so that would make sense changing the characters a bit. Drake has all the key elements: blonde hair, tank top and camo pants. All things the character had in the movie, even if it looks nothing like actor Mark Rolston. Still, overall I think it’s a great looking figure.

PAINT

The paint on most of Kenner’s toys and figures tend to be quite neat. Drake is a pretty good example of this, but there is a little slop around his hairline. Otherwise, it’s all very neat and expertly applied, as always, if you are able to get a good look at what you are buying you can pick one with a good paint job.

ARTICULATION

Drake technically has about six points of articulation, swivel head, arms, legs and waist, however besides the arms and legs the rest will all move when using Drake’s action feature, where you rotate his waist, it moves his upper torso with the head staying in place, so it looks like he’s maneuvering his Smart Gun around at different targets. (You can still move his head independently if desired.)

This is a pretty cool action feature and really captures the action from the movie quite faithfully, however, it does limit Drake as he’s essentially stuck in the one, unchanging pose.

ACCESSORIES

Drake only comes with a bayonet which can be attached  to the end of his Smart Gun, it makes sense that you would want to keep aliens as far away from your person as possible and this would help to do that, but just the Smart Gun by itself would be enough, I’d like to think. I guess it’s just thrown in there for extra play value.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

None that I can think of;  Drake is rock solid. What would you expect from an early 1990’s toy?  Just make sure your one has a good paint job before you buy it.

PRICE

I was happy with the $10 + shipping costs; however, I wouldn’t pay too much for this figure, as he is not worth any large amount of money.

OVERALL

Drake is a pretty solid figure, even if he is sculpted in the one pose. His action feature is fun and really adds a great amount of play value to the figure. He may not be the most important character in the Aliens franchise, but memorable nonetheless. If you are looking to complete your Kenner Aliens collection, Drake definitely needs to in there.

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER JURASSIC PARK YOUNG T-REX

Posted by Mighty Mike on March 21, 2011
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

The Young T-Rex was one of the many dinosaurs released for Kenner’s original Jurassic Park line of toys, based on the hit movie. Even although the young T-Rex never appeared in the first movie, it did appear in the novel and was sort of a cheaper alternative to the full sized T-Rex from the same line, but never the less, still cool in it’s own right.

Name: Young T-Rex
Line: Jurassic Park
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1993
Price: First released – $30 AUD (guestimate). Now – varies $200-$450 MIB
Scale: 6 Inches in height
Accessories: JP Collector card #1.

I have a little bit of a long story about my original Young T-Rex (it’s not this one in the photos) that I owned as a kid (so I’ll try and keep it short). One night one of our family cats decided to have a fight with my Young T-Rex and rip up most of his face, needless to say I wasn’t very happy about this, but kept the toy anyway.

But you can bet what was at the top of my Christmas wish list that year – yes, that’s right a Jurassic Park Young T-Rex.

Unfortunately what I ended up receiving was the Triceratops from the series instead, although happy with it, it wasn’t what I wanted so badly. (The surprise of also receiving a G2 Megatron took away some of that let down, however)

Skip to years later and I decided I wanted to re-claim that part of my childhood and purchase a new Young T-Rex for myself, which is what I went and did, although this was a few years ago now. I decided I may as well review him now, in all his mid-1990s glory.


SCULPTING
This T-Rex has always had one of the more amazing sculpts out of the plethora of dinosaur toys my brother and I had as children. I’ve always loved how cool it looked and how much it evoked the look of the movie T-rex, even if on a smaller scale then the larger version (owned by my brother). There are a lot of great details here – skin folds, scales, claws, every little bit of detail looks great. Whoever sculpted this for Kenner went above and beyond in my book, kudos to them!

PAINT
The paint on the Young T-Rex is kept to a minimum, mainly skin pattern and things like the claws or the white underbelly of the dinosaur. That’s fine with me, I feel the base colour of the figure works great, it doesn’t even need a wash to bring it up either. All the paint apps are nice and neat, no problems there, just watch out for paint rub on the figure.

ARTICULATION
The Young T-Rex doesn’t have much of anything in the way of articulation, only his little arms, which are swivel joints and can be rotated 360 degrees without any problem. the T-Rex’s whole body is bendable, due to the rubber, but it doesn’t hold any poses, unfortunately.

The Young T-Rex also has a “Dino Damage” feature where a section of the side of the dinosaur can be removed to show internal organs, its cool, but never something I bothered too much with.

ACCESSORIES
None. Unless you are counting that collector card and I wouldn’t count that.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
There isn’t too much to watch out for here, besides paint rub and perhaps tears in the rubber body, discoloration maybe?

Dino Damage!

PRICE
I paid a decent price for a new mint in box, even although I can’t remember how much I know it wasn’t over $250. This figure was important to me, so I was happy to pay a bit more for one that was going to be in excellent condition and this one did not disappoint.

Don’t forget kids, if your dinosaur has the JP logo on it, then it’s a genuine Jurassic Park dinosaur!

OVERALL
I think the Young T-Rex toy is great, it has really excellent sculpting, nice paint application, even if it’s limited in actual play value. I’d still take this over anything Hasbro has put out for the most recent movie any day of the week. If you are a fan of Kenner’s Jurassic Park line (and who wouldn’t be?) or just dinosaurs in general, I’m sure you’ll be able to find a spot for this guy in your collection, if you already haven’t.

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