TLW Baby T. Rex Custom Project Part 3: Finishing Touches

     Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the third and final blog entry in Coffee With The Cynic's Custom Baby T. Rex project based on The Lost World: Jurassic Park.  It's been awhile since I did one of these and I've covered a LOT of ground behind the scenes so let's get to it.

     First thing's first, once the clay has been removed from the oven and cooled, it needs to be fitted back onto the dog bowl and primed.  To fit it back on, I just used a lot of super glue on the underside of the clay and the top of the dog bowl.  Nothing terribly fancy here.  Once the primer had cured, I sprayed it with a Krylon clear coat so that the primer wouldn't feel so tacky when handling the item.

     Okay, so after applying a coat of Tan paint (mixing 1 drop of water per drop of paint or 1:1 as it'll be displayed for the rest of the blog), I noticed that the underside of the bowl had some gaps between the plastic and the clay.  I had some Milliput 2 part epoxy handy so I focused on filling in those gaps.

     Much better.  I let the Milliput cure for 24 hours and then once that was finished, I added another coat of 1:1 Tan paint.  The Tan didn't seem like enough though so I mixed 1:1 Cinnamon Brown and Raw Umber, then mixed that with a 1:5 paint/water ratio and applied it all over the Tan.
 

     Better.  Now, onto the bones!

     The lighting is different in this picture because I had to bring up the nest from my work station downstairs so that I could use the previous pictures I had taken of the nest on the computer to make sure I put the bones in the right spot.  I think I got most of them right.  I just used super glue to hold these guys in place.  Again, nothing super fancy.

     So now that we have the bones down where they need to be, we're going to add some dirt on top of the mud.  I had a bowl of dirt that I scooped up from a construction site in town a couple years back hiding away so I grabbed our cullender and sifted through what I had... 

    ...and voila.  Nice fine dirt to sprinkle onto the nest.

     So now we have to get the nest ready for the dirt.  What I did was grab an old plastic bristle brush as well as some glue.  This is the kind of glue that you have to let it get sticky first before you can do anything with it so I just ran some onto the nest...

     ...and then brushed the stuff around before it got too tacky and gummed up the bristles.  After letting it sit for a few minutes, I sprinkled the dirt all around...

     ...and now we have dirt on our nest.

     While walking with my kids the other day and talking about this project, we noticed a lot of dry vegetation laying about from all the snow finally melting away.  My son suggested that I put twigs and leaves and whatnot onto the nest for further decoration.  Honestly, pretty solid idea so I brushed on some more of that tacky glue, sprinkled on leaves and twigs...

     ...and this was the end result.  Some of the bigger pieces I used regular super glue to fasten them in place but most of the vegetation is sticking on because of the tacky stuff.  The color of the mud and dirt didn't look quite right to me so I mixed 1:1:1:1 of Caramel Candy, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Cinnamon Brown, mixed that 1:4 with water and dabbed it over the exposed soil area.

     Honestly, it doesn't look like much of a difference in the pictures but in hand, it did add a bit more personality to the piece.  I did end up having to add a drop of Black paint to the mix just to darken it up enough but here we are.  Although speaking of personality, those bones are looking a little too plain, don't you think?

 

     If this is a Tyrannosaurus Rex nest, those bones laying about should be bloody.  Not super crimson, fresh bloody.  No, I wanted to give the bones a more dried blood look, like the bones have been in this nest for quite some time.  So I mixed 1:1:2 Cinnamon Brown, Burnt Umber and Deep Red, then mixed that 1:4 with water...

 

     ...and dabbed it onto the bones.  Now, onto the Baby Rex!

     Okay, I know that in Part 2, I said that I was going to go over how to paint the Baby Rex but I got caught up doing another figure with the same color scheme for the Etsy store that I did this one at the same time.  Sorry about that, guys.  However, if you want to see a speed run video of how to do this color scheme, I've included Ted Brother's video on how he did his Juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex figure from The Lost World.  I tried to follow this video as closely as I possibly could and I've learned so much from watching his stuff.

     If the video goes a little too fast for you, I will be repeating this color scheme on my Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Super Colossal Tyrannosaurus Rex figure for an upcoming convention and I will be doing a step by step walkthrough on how I do it (so excited to work on that one).

     And there is the finished project (with a couple of works in progress in the background).  I did not glue the Baby Rex down as I figured that any potential buyers may want to take out and hold the dinosaur for closer inspection.  I'm pretty happy overall with how this project turned out and if you are interested in maybe purchasing this item, it is now for sale here.

     So the Baby Rex nest project is finally complete.  Let me know down in the comments what you think of this or if there are any other repaint schemes you'd like to see me document and tackle as I will be working on more figures for the Etsy store.  As always folks, thank you so much for reading and if you like what you see on this blog, you be sure to nudge that "Follow" button and stay cynical!

     -The Cynic

Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Funko Reviews: Tyrannosaurus Rex

     Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!  Welcome back to another entry in the Coffee With The Cynic blog and we are continuing our look at the Funko Pop Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary line.  Tonight, we are looking at the star attraction herself, the Tyrannosaurus Rex!  Now the packaging is in more of a landscape format rather than a portrait format the way the other Funkos have been (Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here, respectively).  Why they went this route, I do not know.  If the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a little bit larger than the other figures, I would understand but that is not the case.  However, there will be a 10" Tyrannosaurus Funko figure as part of the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Funko line coming later this year.  Enough blabbing!  Let's get this girl out of the packaging!

     Well, holy shit!  She stands without the display base!  I'm legitimately shocked at this because the Tyrannosaurus figure looks like it has a bigger head than the Velociraptor figure and thus, I assumed would be more top heavy.  Well, I'm glad that I'm wrong though.  Let's take a a closer look at her.

     While the top of the head may have a smooth surface, most of the head sculpt has this lovely pebbling texture throughout to give a great deal of detail and definition to the T. Rex.  The seam lines are still pretty abrasive but maybe I'm just getting more used to them by this point because they don't seem to be standing out to me as much as the other two dinosaurs we've looked at (although once you give the figures a new paint job, it is much less noticeable, in my opinion).

     As for any paint goofs, the only ones I can honestly find are some smudges on a couple of the teeth and some of the claws on the right hand and foot aren't fully painted.  I'm not too bothered by this because the tips of the feet claws rub up against the inside of the packaging and getting those two little claws on the hand fully painted looks like it'd be pretty awkward to do.  I'm not sure if anyone else's Tyrannosaurus Funko does this but the farthest right toe seems to elevate itself higher than the others.  Not sure why but it doesn't seem to be any worse for wear as a result.  Now, let's see how it works with the display base.

     Seems to be working just fine.  I had to put a little bit of muscle into it to get its foot completely down on the base but that's the only issue I had with it.  I've heard of some people's Rexes not fitting on the base properly and then tipping over but I'm not having those experiences here.

     Alright, I'd say this was an investment well made!  I'm very happy with Funko's Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Tyrannosaurus Rex figure and actually wouldn't mind getting more to repaint in the Etsy shop.  Imagine what this thing would look like with more movie accurate colors...or even as the Bull Rex from The Lost World!  I like the sounds of that!  So folks, let me know in the comments what you think of this Funko figure.  Do you have it?  Thinking about getting it?  Let me know.  As always, thank you so much for reading and if you like what you see on this blog, you be sure to nudge that "Follow" button and stay cynical!

     -The Cynic

Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Funko Reviews: Dr. Ian Malcolm & Dilophosaurus

 

Hey, everyone!  We’re back with another look at some of the Jurassic Park 25^th Anniversary Funko Pop figures.  Today, we’re going to look at the Dr. Ian Malcolm and Dilophosaurus figures.  I’ve already looked at the Dr. Alan Grant, John Hammond and Velociraptor Funkos, which you can read here.  There was a couple of quality issues with those ones so I’m eager to see how these ones turn out.

                First, Dr. Malcolm.  Right off the get-go, it’s kind of a shame that Dr. Malcolm’s glasses aren’t tinted the same way they are on the box.  They do have a high gloss sheen to look more plastic so that evens things out.  Looking along the hairline, there isn’t as much color bleeding onto the skin as there was with the Hammond Funko.  I also really like the glossy sheen applied to his coat and shoes, given them that nice leathery look.

                There are a couple of goofs.  If you look on the back of his coat by his right arm, you can see a bit of a snarl in the plastic.  What’s more noticeable (for me, anyway) are the unpainted bits under some of his licks of hair.  How hard would it be to just tilt the figure a bit and spray some black paint under those locks?  The only really other nitpicky spots I can find on mine are some of the paint from his left hand bleeds onto the cuff of his sleeve and some of the silver for his zippers don’t line up.  Overall, I’d put this one in second place in terms of favorite human Funko, behind Grant but above Hammond.

                Next up, the Dilophosaurus!  I actually bought two of these so that I could keep one but repaint the other for the Etsy shop so why don’t we compare both of them?

                Well, spit in my face and call me Nedry, they actually stand without any help!  These creatures aren’t nearly as top heavy as the Velociraptor and the colorations are much more vibrant, even if not film accurate (the other side of the frill should be the same color as the body).  There’s a little bit of excess glue on the throat to keep the frill on since there is a frill-less variant but it’s hardly noticeable unless you look really closely.

                As for any chips or smudges, there’s a little bit of smudging in some of the teeth but not enough to stick out like a sore thumb.  There’s also a couple of spots on the skull where the plastic seems to have been chipped or something as there are white snarls in the sculpt that stick out a bit.  Again, not super noticeable but they are there.  Do the display bases work better than the Velociraptor’s?

                Holy Hell!  No drills, no effort, just *WHOOP* and it fits!  Well, on the first one.  Second?

 

                Yep, both of them fit perfectly on the pegs.  Awesome!  It’s so nice to not have to take a drill to the damn things just to get them to work properly.  Good on you, Funko!  This is my favorite dinosaur figure from the line thus far for this reason alone.  It also helps that the Spitter looks adorable.

                Alright, so this batch of Funko figures fared a lot better than the first.  I just need to get the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Nedry, injured Malcolm and Ellie with the Jeep ones and then that’s the whole set (I’m not looking for the variants of the Dilophosaurus or Nedry, I’m fine with what I have).  Let me know down below what you folks think of this figures and if you have them or are thinking of picking them up.  As always folks, thank you so much for reading and if you like what you see on this blog, you be sure to nudge that "Follow" button and stay cynical!

     -The Cynic

Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Funko Reviews: Grant, Hammond, Raptor

     Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another entry of Coffee With The Cynic's blog and yes, I finally got my hands on some of the Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Funko POPs.  I was able to get these through EB Games.ca, which was surprising since I was not able to pre-order them through their site or store (long story short, it sounds like scalpers were involved).  However, these three appeared in stock online so I grabbed them up as quickly as I could.  I do have a couple of Dilophosaurus coming from a third party retailer on Amazon and I pre-ordered the sexy Malcolm through EB Games and he'll be shipping sometime in May.  Originally I had filmed this bit as an Unboxing video that I was going to put on the YouTube channel but then Scholar noticed things on the figures I didn't after I had filmed so I went to film again but at that point, it was really late and I couldn't stop yawning (long week).  So instead I've decided to do this as a Blog post for you to read at your own leisure and speed.  Let's take a look at these things!

      Let's start with Dr. Alan Grant.  Here's a quick shot of him in the box, pretty standard fare from the Funko Pop packaging, really.  Only this time it's Jurassic Park!  I do like how they have Grant holding the Velociraptor claw for a distinguishing pose.

      I absolutely love the look of the hat, here.  It really does look like it is made of suede and not the hard plastic its actually made out of.

     I also really like the level of detail put into the rest of Grant's attire.  The metallic sheen on the watch, the folds and creases in his shirt where its been tucked in behind his belt.  I keep taking for granted the level of detail that goes into these things for when you see them on the shelf, it may not look like much but holding them in hand is an entirely different story.

     As for any sort of flubs or errors on this figure, the only ones I could really find were the flesh tone of his hand bleeds onto the Raptor claw a bit and some of the blue from his shirt dabbed onto the red bandana around his neck.  There's also a couple of spots where the hair color doesn't come straight down to the scalp but I'm not too upset though because they aren't really noticeable unless you look closely and as someone who has painted small areas like that before, it gets a little tricky.  I totally get it.

     Up next is John Hammond!  Look at how cute he is!

      Again: wow.  Check out that texture in his hat, it looks just like a real straw hat.

     This was one of the things that I didn't notice in my initial unboxing filming and I'm disappointed to see this snarl in the mold of Mr. Hammond.  For the sake of everyone collecting these figures, I hope that this is just an anomaly in the figure I happened to get and not something in every Hammond figure.

     You know how I said there's some parts where Grant's hair color didn't go all the way to the skin?  Well, Mr. Hammond appears to have the opposite problem where his hair color bleeds onto the skin.  Its most noticeable in this profile shot but there's more of the same on his beard.  You probably wouldn't even notice it there unless you really looked.

     Riddle me this: if the bottoms of his shoes are supposed to be black, why do they look like they were painted by a spray can that didn't entirely hit its target?  I mean, its not hard to get solid black on a figure, right?  I'm not trying to sound like I'm demanding to speak to Funko's manager or anything like that, I'm just saying that I'm a little let down at this.  I get that these are made and sold for cheap but this just screams "lazy."

     While upon closer inspection, Hammond doesn't fare as well in quality as Grant did, I want to try and close out our look at InGen's CEO on positives.  The glasses, watch and rings all have a nice metallic sheen to them for extra detail and the amber at the top of the cane does have a bit of a gleam to it as well.  This was the best shot I could get of it but it is there.

     Last but certainly not least, we have the Velociraptor!  I was really excited about opening this one but I ran into some issues upon initially opening it.

     As you can see, they're a little top heavy.  I'm not surprised since the heads are far weightier than the human Funkos.  Scholar said that these stand better on their heads than the Hasbro figures did on their feet.  Fortunately, the Velociraptor (and from what I've heard, the other dinosaurs as well) come with a stand to display them on.

     However, the display base's peg didn't really fit.  I looked at the bottom of the Raptor's foot and found that the peg hole was still mostly filled in with plastic.  I wound up having to take a drill to the hole just to get the peg to fit, so much so that there's a pale spot on top of the foot where the drill almost went through.  And even then...

     ...it's not completely flat.  I found this rather frustrating because the only other Funkos I have are the 2016 Ghostbusters set (I had fun with that movie, don't @ me) came with display bases but they were much smaller and I'm pretty sure the pegs were smaller as well.  Why not just use those for these?  I'm sorry but if I have to take a drill to a $12 figurine just to get it to stand properly, someone in quality control goofed.  I've talked with other people in JP groups on Facebook who have encountered the same problem with their Velociraptor Funkos so I'm hoping that by the time the Blue Funko for Fallen Kingdom hits shelves, this issue has been corrected.

     Aside from the whole issue with the peg, the figure itself is still pretty cool.  There's a surprising amount of detail and texture in the sculpt and the claws and teeth are well painted for the most part.  The coloration is a little pale but I can forgive that.  The only other issues I may have with it are the seam lines on the back of the head and around the limbs and tail.  I wish these had been filled in to look like one solid figure instead of an assembled model kit.  Again, hoping that the Blue Funko (or any future dinosaurs from this line) isn't as problematic.

     So in the end, am I sorry I bought these?  No, I've been saying for years that there needs to be Jurassic Park Funkos and I'm happy that they exist.  That being said, I just wish that there was some better quality control.  Any spots and bleeding with the paint I can forgive but the chip in Hammond's beard and the peg hole issue with the Velociraptor disappointed me.  Again, maybe I just got a couple of duds with those two but I'm hoping that the rest of the figures in this line fare better.  I am aiming to get some doubles of the dinosaurs so I can repaint them for my Etsy shop because it'll be fun to try and replicate the screen colors on figures with such odd proportions and fill in those seam lines.

     So are you planning on picking up the Jurassic Park Funkos or are you skipping these?  Let me know in the comments below.  As always folks, thank you so much for reading and if you like what you see on this blog, you be sure to nudge that "Follow" button and stay cynical!

     -The Cynic