20 April 2018

LEGO® Jurassic World 2018: Elementosaurus Part 1

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Elspeth De Montes goes dino-crazy today with LEGO® sets from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which are now available.

The LEGO Group have released a series of tie-in sets ahead of this year’s summer blockbuster. In total there are 12 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom sets being released and, in addition to these, 75932 Jurassic Park Velociraptor Chase allows you to re-enact the iconic ‘velociraptor in the kitchen’ scene from the original movie. We have been able to review the parts and dinosaurs from the eight main sets (the other five being two Juniors sets, two Duplo sets and a BrickHeadz set). We will be taking a look at all the new elements included at a later date, but first let’s take a look at the return of the LEGO Jurassic beasts.


There are seven distinct dinosaurs within the sets (from largest down): T-Rex, Carnotaurus, Indoraptor, Dipliphosaurus, Stygimoloch, Velociraptor, Pteranodon and ‘Baby Dino’. Three new full size dinosaurs are introduced in the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom sets and two new Baby Dinos.


The others are recoloured versions of dinosaurs that have appeared in previous LEGO sets, so let's look at the three apparent newcomers; Carnotaurus, Indoraptor and Stygimoloch.


Carnotaurus

From largest down, the first is the Carnotaurus that appears in 75929 Carnotaurus Gyrosphere Escape; US$79.99 for 577 pieces. The Carnotaurus is a T-Rex-sized dinosaur and, upon closer inspection of its component parts, is not a completely new dinosaur.


The legs of the LEGO Carnotaurus have the same mould as all the LEGO T-Rex; Animal No 5, Hind Leg Right in Medium Nougat [TLG]/Medium Dark Flesh [BL] (Element ID 6228392 | Design ID 98061) and Left (6228412 | 98062). The Dark Brown and Reddish Brown strips with Bright Orange spots differ from the T-Rex legs from the 2015 set 75918 T-Rex Tracker, although the base colours of both are Medium Nougat.

Carnosaurus’ body element is a recolour - Animal No.23 Body Ass. “No1” in Reddish Brown (6228446 | 21146) with a Medium Nougat belly. Both the body and Animal No.23 Body Ass. “No1” Tail (6228506 | 21144) are recolours of the White elements used for Indominous Rex.



Carnotaurus has a completely new head element in Medium Nougat comprising Animal Carnotaurus, Head (6228294 | 36684)  and Animal Carnotaurus, Mandible  (6228233 | 36687). The awesome horn-like prominences above the eyes and a double trail of spikes along the top of its head give Carnotaurus a fiercely aggressive appearance.



Interestingly, Carnotaurus shares his impressively diminutive upper limbs with another of the new dinosaurs for 2018, Stygimoloch. Carnotaurus, Upper Limb Left in Medium Nougat (Element ID 6224841) and Right (6224842) have an elbow joint and 3 digits, but these elements have no connections other than the insertion pin at the shoulder joint. The comedic size of these upper limbs is best seen by placing them onto the T-Rex from 75918 who is otherwise of a similar size - the Donald Trump of the dino-world!



Indoraptor

Next we have Indoraptor, a fictional hybrid dinosaur that appeared in the trailer and seems to be a successor to the hybrid monster-saurus Indominous Rex. The LEGO Indoraptor makes his appearance in 75930 Indoraptor Rampage at Lockwood Estate, the largest and most expensive set at US$129.99 for 1,019 pieces.


Given the name,  I assume that there may be a genetic combination of Indominus Rex and Velociraptor,  and this fits with the LEGO elements that make up the model. Indoraptor is almost entirely Black in colour with an Olive Green stripe with Bright Orange markings along each side of its body and tail. Rather than listing each one separately, the Element IDs and Design IDs are shown on this parts image.





The lower limbs are very similar in shape to those of the velociraptors but larger in size and are completely new moulds.

I am sure that the upper limbs and ‘hands’ are the same as those previously used for Indominus Rex, although the Design IDs have changed. Sadly I do not own this dinosaur to compare directly but I examined online images and I could not see any differences other than colour of course.

The ‘hands’ are the same on each side and have three digits with a 1 module width cutout to allow a tight connection with any element of this width (e.g. a 1x tile, a minifigure leg, a telephone in a Dino Call Centre…)




Like Carnosaurus, Indoraptor has spiked spines that run along the back of its Velociraptor-esque head and down its body, but Indoraptor’s tail is spike free.


Stygimoloch

The final full-size new dinosaur is Stygimoloch, which only comes in 75927 Stygimoloch Breakout, US$29.99 for 222 pieces. This new dinosaur is between the smaller Velociraptor and larger Dilophosaurus in size and has a Medium Nougat base colour with Dark Orange and Dark Brown patterns.



Stygimoloch shares the same Medium Nougat body and hind legs as any of the LEGO Dilophosaurus. Below you can compare Stygimoloch with the Dilophosaurus from this year’s set (75931 Dilophosaurus Outpost Attack).



However once the upper limbs have been added, Stygimoloch and Dilophosaurus start to go along different genetic and LEGO pathways.  As mentioned, Stygimoloch shares the same Medium Nougat upper limbs as Carnotaurus.


Stygimoloch has a new element head,  Stygimoloch Head in Medium Nougat (Element ID 6224838 | Design ID 36696) with Dark Orange and Dark Brown patterning. It seems to have a more beak-shaped mouth, which does not open. There are four 3.18mm holes on the back of his head.


These are used to attach four of the Dark Tan Horn W. Shaft Ø 3.2 (6022717 | 88513)…


…but should you want to personalise your Stygimoloch with something more exotic or with a little more bling, anything with a 3.18mm end will fit.



So overall, the fictional hybrid dinosaur Indoraptor is ironically the LEGO dinosaur with the most unique elements, while the two new unique dinosaurs utilise body parts from other LEGO dinosaurs. Jurassic World warned us all about messing with nature but The LEGO Group seem quite happy to recycle dinosaur body parts to create new species.


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Products mentioned in this post were kindly supplied by the LEGO Group. All content represents the opinions of New Elementary authors and not the LEGO Group. All text and images are © New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.

15 comments:

  1. How do the large legs connect to the bodies? Would it be possible to mix these pieces with the old buildable dinosaur bodies? How about the legs from the Star Wars luggabeast / Black Panther rhino? Also are the Indo hands the same type used on the recent Killer Croc Bigfig?

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    1. https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=S&catString=183&itemBrand=1000

      If you check any of the inventories for 6719-6722, you can see what the legs look like. The bodies were quartered, with two elements. After you built the core body, the legs would snap on around it. They didn't use pins at all, but rather had buttons that would grip the pin holes, and relied on the fact that each leg set worked as a single element that would grip the body like a minifig hand grips a bar. The ratchet system was really wide, around 3 studs in diameter. Now, the holes that these buttons interfaced with _were_ Technic holes. The Mosasaur had fins that only connected by pins, and any bipedal dinosaurs had the old dragon forelegs that also connected by pins. So, the holes had to be proper Technic pin holes for those to work. The necks (where needed) and tails connect with a ball-shaped terminus that fits into a neck sleeve.

      For the modern dinosaurs, you can see the mating halves in the parts pic for the Indoraptor. It uses a much more compact ratchet system that always uses a Technic pin connection. There's a sleeve that's part of the ratchet system that sticks out a bit from the surface of the body. The limb has the mating section of the ratchet system, but it's set in flush with the connecting surface of the limb. So, there is no way you're going to get the modern bodies to work with the old limbs, but the modern limbs _should_ be able to plug into the old bodies. Just remember that the old body style has seen limited use over the years. The Dinosaur theme had two prints each on sand-green and sand-blue. There was a print on old light-grey for a JP3 Spinosaurus.

      For unprinted parts, Orient Expedition used them in plain old light-grey and old dark-grey for elephants. Alpha Team had them in black for one of Ogel's monsters. Star Wars had them in dark-green for the lizard Obi-Wan rides when chasing Grievous, and sand-green for the original Dewback.

      There's a related body half that was used in printed sand-green for the HP basilisk, and in plain black for two helicopters and two Bionicle minifig-scale sets. It doesn't have any connections to accept legs, but if it's possible to extend the body you could always add some Technic bricks to the side so you can use legs with them. No guarantees that it won't look like garbage, though.

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  2. The large legs connect with a pin and notches that hold it at various angles. They should interchange with the legs from the luggabeast and rhino. I'd have to check my older buildable dinosaurs but I suspect since those required a specific distance between the hips and a different indentation method, they are not interchangeable.

    Killer Croc from 70907 reuses the molds from the Rancor. The fingers have some articulation.

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  3. The Indoraptor looks like the raptor from Dino 2010/Dino Attack...

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    1. That's an interesting comment as I also noticed the gangly limbed Indoraptor was similar to the Dino 2010 raptor - although in reality they are made from entirely different elements.

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    2. That's what I thought when I first saw the Indoraptor! It's also probably cheaper to buy! Just needs a new paint scheme. Part 54125 could also be used for anyone looking to make a microscale Indoraptor.

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  4. It would be nice to see all the dinos of the newer style together, from jw1, jw2 ,jp and the dino line from 2012.

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  5. Nice review of some very cool dinos. It's interesting that the ratcheting system Galidor introduced is still in use and is fully backwards compatible.

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    1. That is a pretty intriguing observation. Its neat when builders take these heads and use them on Mechs and stuff like that. Even if a lego theme is a flop, they've always been good about being able to gleam at least something useful out of the ordeal. I guess the ratcheting socket joint is Galidor's contributions to the Lego pantheon.

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    2. Hmmmm that comment inspired me to get my Galidor out for a bit of experimentation.

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  6. I totally want to see a Dino call center now. LOL

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    1. Haha....can you imagine the potential drama of a Dino Call Centre!

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  7. So what you're saying is we could turn the Stygimoloch into a dinosword!

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  8. Aren't the small forearms pretty realistic? At least I remember T-Rex was pretty infamous for its small forearms, and scientists still haven't come up with any good explanation or practical use for them.

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