The SRG Tyrannosaurus Rex Had an Odd Secret in Plain View

The SRG Tyrannosaurus Rex came in two flavors, large and small. As a six-year-old at the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century I had no idea what was in store for me in the coming decades. What I did know was that this was a Dinosaur that I had to have. Once again faced with the choice of which one to get I chose the large. He had a much fiercer look on his face and he was, well, bigger too. While the small simply looked even more, somehow, less "finished". As you will soon see it just couldn't hunt like the 'big dog' the T-Rex was. The large has his head with that dangerous looking "S" curved neck while the small's neck is simply bent forward. Finally the casting of the small simply has less details (such as they are) than the larger has.


The small, however, is the only SRG T-Rex that I have left and he weighs in at just over three (3) ounces, stands about two inches (2") tall (see top photo) and measures three & three-quarter inches (3.75") from snout to tail. The only advantage the small figure has/had over the large is that it is solid and slightly less breakable. That is probably why this one has survived my mass extinction.

Now you may wonder what a day in the life of the SRG Tyrannosaurus Rex is like. So come with me now and let's follow this little fella's adventures....

Getting up in the morning makes a body hungry... but how the heck do you get to the protein? Tyrannosaurs aren't into technology and that's what it would take to get at whatever's in this can. So it's heading out into the heavy brush to shake out what's to eat....

A pair of SRG Triceratops come with their own toothpicks but may be a bit on the sharp side. A "shishka-tops" would be too tough to make and a "shishka-rex" just isn't on his menu....

Moving right along.

THIS is where being a Large SRG Tyrannosaurus Rex would come in handy.

Even though the small SRG Stegosaurus comes with its own plate(s) the spiked tail makes it an unpalatable dish.

Luckily for our little fellow an even smaller (tuskless) SRG Mammoth blunders past on his way to the Pleistocene and gets caught in a Cretaceous scene he would have preferred to have avoided.

Now you may have noticed something odd about the SRG Tyrannosaurus Rex. There is no doubt that it is a T-Rex because all the SRG Dinosaur toys came with their own (1.5" x 4") fold-over information card that had a line-drawing of the figure and the Dinosaur name and when you opened it up a few stirring Dino-fact such as "meat eater, 50 feet long, 7 tons, lived in the Cretaceous Period 65-70,000,000 years ago..." So we KNOW it is supposed to be a T-Rex.

SO where in the heck did those three-fingered hands come from? Huh? Even in the dark ages of 1947 they knew that the T-Rex had only two fingers. AND these were sold in MUSEUMS for gosh sakes!

and Of course the T-Rex's arms were much shorter than on the SRG figure. This is much more of an Allosaurus than it is a Tyrannosaurus. Not that there is anything wrong with that....

The SRG Tyrannosaurus Rex was part of a series of extinct animals that were sold in museum gift shops in the late 1940s and early 50s. They were the first Dinosaur toys I ever had and they remain a cherished (if fragile) part of my collection. They don't come out to play very often and this was a thrill for all those who are participating in this Dinosaur toy adventure.


If you are interested in other Dino-toy companies or Tyrannosaurus Rex, information on both can be readily accessed on this site.

If you are looking for more information on other Dinosaur toys (in general, go to The) Collectors Guide Home Page. I think you know where to look.

So it's "bye bye" for now and be seeing you on another page