Spinosaurus (Jurassic Park 3 Spinosaurus Attack by LEGO Studios)

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Review and Photographs by MonkeyRascal, edited by Suspsy

For a very long time, LEGO dinosaur collectors have lemented the lack of a Spinosaurus. That is, before the release of Jurassic World: Rebirth. However, many of them are not aware, (or rather, choose to forget) that LEGO has actually produced not one, but three Spinosaurus, and the first two were both released in 2001. Somehow, despite the fact that I have only been collecting LEGO Dinosaurs for about three and a half years, I already have both of them (these things are seriously easier to find than you think).

Anyway, let’s get the elephant out of the room. This is a Spinosaurus that was produced in 2001 as part of a Jurassic Park III set in the LEGO Studios series. The very best “scientifically accurate” Spinosaurus can’t stay scientifically accurate for a few months, let alone a two and a half decades. Not only that, this is a JP figure, which are almost never all that accurate to begin with. Lastly, this figure isn’t even accurate to either of the Spinosaurus depictions seen throughout the JP/JW films (albeit sporadically). Needless to say, I will not be nitpicking the accuracy on this figure (for the most part). It’s a large theropod with a sail on its back, and that makes it just as recognizable as any other LEGO animal from the same time.

With the four primary figures of the “Dinosaurs” line outside of this series. The JPIII *Spinosaurus* was the last dinosaur to use this system.

This figure consists of 20 pieces and has a total of 11 points of articulation. The jaw, tongue, hips, and both shoulders move. Additionally, the neck has two separate points of articulation, and the tail has four. Compared to modern figures standard of 8 or less pieces, and maybe 7 points of articulation, this is a huge improvement.

Additionally, the print quality is fantastic. This figure has three main colors and at least two accent colors, and it doesn’t look very noisy at all. Being an old JP toy, the classic JPIII logo is annoyingly slapped on its leg, but at least there’s no “Dino Damage.”

With all of Lego’s other spinosaurids, minus the Rebirth figure, which I do not yet own.

The only areas where the print is lacking are the teeth, claws, eyes, and the entire tail which comprises half of the figure’s length. However, this was the standard at the time, and for such magnificent scale work, it is a sacrifice I am willing to make. The Rebirth figure on the other hand gets zero points for print quality, as LEGO put all of their effort on that one into the mold. Hopefully when they recolor it for a JPIII legacy set, they can combine the best of both.

Unfortunately, due to the age of the figure, the sculpt is rather crude. I think the most common complaint I’ve heard about this figure is that the head is reused from a Tyrannosaurus. Personally, this doesn’t bother me that much. JPIII’s Spinosaurus already has a boxier head than it should. Additionally, this problem can be remedied with a bit of mix and match with a Baryonyx, and you even get a Scorpius Rex thrown in as a bonus.

As for functionality, this figure is a bit of a mixed bag. The joints are flimsy and the pieces fly apart upon impact. The total size of the figure is comparable to the LEGO Indoraptor, so unless your kid only has old Lego Dinosaurs, it won’t be “sounding bigger” than much more than a raptor. The strongest point of this toy is the system. If you have several of these sets, they suddenly become highly customizable. No piece only works for one species, and pretty much everything outside of Thyreophora is doable with just a little creativity. I really wish LEGO would revisit this idea at some point. Maybe a bit more similar to the Hero Factory system, but if the “skeletons” were a highly involved build that resembled actual dinosaur skeletons. Snap some molded skin onto the exterior and you’ve just created the “Hammond Collection” of LEGO.

The *Spinosaurus* encounters an adolescent Rex from the 2000 Dino Island series.

For display, this figure really only works if you’re a completionist like me, or just really like the old figures. That said, I feel a bit more artistic quality was put into this figure that the newer version. It looks better than the LEGO dinosaurs made in previous years. Whereas nowadays, they seem to cut more corners every year. I personally really like this figure, and nostalgia has nothing to do with it. I hadn’t even seen Jurassic Park until just before Dominion released!