75918 T.rex Tracker: LEGO Jurassic World has two flagship sets, like with many Themes the two largest sets are meant to stand out as the must have sets from the theme, with the Indominous Rex being given the largest set and the Rex being given a set that takes a lot of liberties with screen accuracy. That being said it’s still an impressive looking set, let’s discuss everything and go over the finer points before drawing the conclusions on this set.

Box/Instructions

Box: The second largest set in the Theme includes even greater eye catching imagery in the design. And shows off the contents with the Rex itself front and foremost on the box ensuring that everyone will want to buy this set.

The back shows off the features very well and includes a fun little scene of the Rex being recaptured by the Minifigures. Overall a great looking box, much like all the rest from this theme.

Instructions: This set is a bit of an unusual one, you have four numbered bags for the total number of pieces in the set broken up between two numbered manuals of a rather large size. There is no cardboard protection for this either so you may find yourself with bent or curled manuals due to the nature of this storage practice. The same can be said for the sticker sheet included for the detail working.

Manual 1 includes the Minifigure checklist, a checklist on all the Dinosaurs and a nifty looking map of Isla Nublar indicating where each set fits in on the various habitats of the island. Manual 2 only includes the parts list so you know how many pieces are included. Both are well designed and the cross-promotional images look great, including the back cover on manual 2 which gives us an ad for the LEGO Jurassic World video game.

The sticker sheet is your standard sticker sheet, not much more to say about it.

Parts

The majority of parts included in this set focus on blues and greys or bleys if you prefer. There are a large number of pieces, very few of them being rare, the biggest draw for MOC hunters would probably be the dark blue motorcycle chassis which uses the standard LEGO Dirt Bike design in a nice Jurassic World dark blue. This piece has no printing, the detailing comes from stickers, so it can be useful for anywhere, not just Isla Nublar.

The standard long pressure style missile is also modified, with an extra piece of black plastic included on the piece to represent a large tranquilizer or non-lethal capture projectile. It’s designed to use a bit of string to ensnare animals.

Minifigures

ACU: Jurassic World brought back the SWAT vests from The LEGO Movie for these characters. This figure is the lone female member of the Asset Containment Unit, however her torso and legs are both the same print as the male members of the group, which is a little weird, but it works.

The printing on the torso and legs is very impressive looking. It’s a nice dark blue colour for the torso and the print has a nice pattern on it that I think is meant to be DNA or something. It’s on the front and the back of the outfit.

She has a double-sided facial print as well with a nice neutral expression and an angry/determined expression on the opposite. She is wearing a black helmet with visor and doesn’t come with an alternate hair piece which is unfortunate. Her accessories include the SWAT vest and a tranquilizer gun with lime green syringes. The vest also includes printing on the back and front with ACU logo.

Hoskins: If there were any antagonists in this film Hoskins would be the lead, human at any rate, and he’s one of only a few named characters in Minifigure form. This character has a nice double-sided torso with a scruffy looking shirt and a gun strapped over his chest. His double-sided facial expressions include a scowling angry look and a teeth gritting angry look, definitely captures the look of his character.

His hair is Bruce Wayne’s standard slick-backed do in grey, and he includes a black suitcase for an accessory. Bit of a weaker accessory, however he rarely had anything in the film so I guess giving him a suitcase works just as well as anything else.

Vet: This is a Stormtrooper, or at least his head is pretty much the same angry looking expression that most Stormtroopers and I believe even Lex Luthor uses. He has a nice double-sided torso print though with a jacket over a shirt and some nice specific printed elements, such as an ID tag on his left breast pocket and the Jurassic World logo on the back.

His accessories include a flaming torch and a non-lethal capture stick, or a tazer in other words. His hat is the wide brimmed brown one from I believe Western/Lone Ranger figures, it doesn’t match Indy’s hat at any rate. There is no printing on his legs.

T-Rex: Not really a Minifigure, but we discuss it here as it is included on the box as such. Not having owned this before from the LEGO Dino theme, this wonderfully sculpted LEGO animal looks great. The big boxy head of the Rex is captured nicely and it can open and close the jaws as well as hold a Minifigure inside of it loosely to pretend eating them.

The patterns on his torso, legs and tail looks really nice and the facial print is awesome with deeply expressive eyes and the same pattern seen on the torso on the top. Overall this dinosaur is a real must have and a huge draw for this set because of just how great he looks, there’s a lot of play you can have with this figure alone, he’s really fun to mess around with and pose next to the Minifigures to threaten them.

The build

Bag 1: Your first build is relatively minor in piece count, I’d say it’s just shy of fifty pieces, though I can’t be 100% sure on that. The point of this bag is to make the motorcycle, the Vet and ACU Minifigures and the semi-sturdy framework for the main vehicle build. I say semi-sturdy because until you solidify all of the connection points it can be a bit flimsy in the build.

It involves many Technic pins, axles, bricks and a few rectangular plates. All in all it isn’t a difficult portion to build, but it doesn’t look like much at this stage, no detail work is incorporated here aside from the large axles for the wheels.

Bag 2: Now we get to see a bit more detailing being incorporated, you’ll be building further onto the framework of the vehicle and adding some much needed details, Vic Hoskins is also in the bag. The main human antagonist who meets a gruesome fate for ignoring the wise words of those who understand these animals greater than him.

This build is also fairly straight forward, you start to use the stickers for detailing in this series of steps and you bulk up the frame of the vehicle considerably. The best part of this build in my opinion is the work done for the front section where the headlights go, this portion of the model looks pretty interesting and is fun to build up as you near the end of the contents of the bag. Considering how blocky this vehicle looks it’s a fairly unusual design choice.

Bag 3: In this bag you’ll finish up the bulk of the vehicle driver’s section and attach the wheels finally. Honestly each step of the build so far hasn’t been that difficult, however it also hasn’t been that parts intensive. You’ll find yourself adding more plates and similar pieces, the internal areas are a bit of a mess too due to the odd mixture of colours used for the interior workings. The blue and grey parts are more outer detailing and such.

The mudflaps really bulk up the look of the vehicle overall, and you get to build them here. They are an interesting step, and look pretty impressive honestly. There are some storage containers attached to the back as well. Stickers are added to flesh out the detailing on those mudflaps as well, with some metal meshwork and dino damage scratches. The front of the vehicle with added engine detailing looks good too once finally built.

Bag 4: This entire bag is used to build the dino transport cage trap thingy, plus the firing missile weapon that fits on the other side of the vehicle. It incorporates a lot of Technic axles and beams as the build is designed to hold larger predatory dinosaurs. You can fit the Rex or the Indominous inside. There’s a lot of repetitive steps in this area of the build since both sides are symmetrical. Overall nothing too terribly difficult in this final step of the build, the trickiest part I found was just sliding the finished cage into place on the flatbed section of the monster vehicle.

The completed model

Behold, a model that was never seen or even hinted at in the movie. LEGO made a conscious choice not to give us anything that could be considered part of the film, honestly though I don’t find that to be too terrible. It’s not great, but it isn’t the end of the world.

The model is a large tracking and trapping all-terrain vehicle with four massive tires and a Jurassic World uniform colour scheme. It’s mostly blue, just like every other vehicle from this Theme, which means it could be a vehicle Ingen would be using. They had to transport the Rex somehow.

Play features are the watchword of the day here, the front driver’s section is rather bland, and also quite massive. There’s enough room to fit two Minifigures, however there is still quite a bit of empty space after that. The rear transport can be removed easily and the two separate armatures unfold to make a trap for the Rex. Lure it into the center and slam the armatures shut, one trapped T-Rex.

One side also has a launching weapon with a projectile for you to use in helping trap the Rex. The other side has a Technic axle joint being used to store the small motorcycle that is included with the set. All-in-all the model has a bit of charm, unfortunately it’s not accurate to the source material. I can understand why though, I suspect this was done to avoid any movie spoilers, had they made a set piece with a bit of the Visitor’s Centre area of the Park they’d inevitably spoil the climax of the film and LEGO has mostly avoided this when designing sets based on Films. Considering the amount of screen time in the movie the Rex gets it’s actually rather nice to see this massive vehicle here for play and display.

Use of stickers for detailing is a bit of a let-down though, however this too is to be expected.

Overall opinion

This is really the one set that is a bit of a headscratcher when it comes to the film and the model involved with it. None of this set is accurate to anything that happens in the movie, however if you want the rex you’re going to have to pick this one up. It’s a really impressive set with a fairly large scaled vehicle that looks great next to the larger dinosaurs.

However the price is a big of a problem as well, because of the size of the set and the inclusion of the T-Rex piece however that it makes sense for such a high priced set. Overall I’d recommend this one if you’re looking for some fun stuff to play with, and especially if you want the Rex from this Theme, however if you only want one set from this Theme I think you’d be better off with the Indominus set.

Being that this set showed up on my doorstep tonight, I figured I should jump right in and build it. Anyone who knows me knows that I love dinosaurs and their prehistoric friends, and this set was an automatic purchase, and other sets in the Jurassic World theme will be soon to follow. These sets fit comfortably in with the other Dinosaur themes that Lego has released in previous years. This set in particular is pretty neat but it does have its slight flaws (in my opinion), which I will get to later in the review.

First thing's first: the box. The box is standard licensed adventure theme fare, big and glossy, and full of action shots and playability "demos". I love the design of these boxes, the colors are very rich and yet not overpowering. Upon opening the box, I was surprised to see how tightly packed all of the bags, tires, and instruction books were inside the box, not a lot of room to shift around, which was nice because there was minimal destruction to the instruction books.

The instructions were split into two nice big books. The one thing you can really count on is the instructions being solid. I had no issues with not being able to tell colors apart, or not being able to tell where parts go, which is to be expected with a set of this caliber.

Now, I'll be honest, I'm not a parts connoisseur. I don't buy sets for or because of specific or "rare" parts, so I obviously won't talk about that because I'd be talking out of my elbow. I will say, however, that I was very pleased with the colors of the parts. I know a lot of people don't like the color choice, but I really feel that the blue and white are very striking, and is very appropriate to the movie. I like the color scheme a lot more than the yellow and black of previous dinosaur-themed sets.

Though I guess there are minifigures that are exclusive to this set, the minifigures feel pretty generic. I like that there's a female ACU team member because as a female I'm tired of every set seeming like a sausage party and having no lady figures to round out MOCs. So I'm glad to see some feminine representation-- women do cool stuff too, like round up dinosaurs with tranq guns. I do wish there were two ACU figures however, just to ease the sting of the price (though let's be honest, at a $70 price point, a chunk of it is going toward the king lizard himself). The other dudes, glad they're there, but they are relatively unremarkable, even though they're characters. I can't remember their names, and am struggling not to refer to them as "Outback Hat Guy" and "Eddie Munster Hair Guy". So I won't. I'll probably just call them dudes. The star of the show is the big figure-- the T-Rex. Pretty sweet, but we all knew that, right? Not much variation from previous models of the T-Rex, but who cares? He's awesome.

The build was not at all complicated. It went very quickly and came together nicely. I do not see anyone having a hard time assembling this model, to be honest. It was one of those nice, breezy, low pressure, stress relief builds-- I put on music and had a nice cool drink, and before I knew it I was looking at the last page of book 2.

The completed model is insane, in a way. The vehicle is ginormous to the point where I almost don't want to keep it and I'm pretty sure it will be disassembled because it's just that big. I would gladly (and will) have dinosaurs rampaging down my modular main street and be ok with the scale issues, but that vehicle just would not belong. There are a few things about the vehicle that I also do not like or did not enjoy. I dislike anything spring loaded and shooty, and I especially dislike string when it's included in a model. Combine the two into one side attachment harpoony thing, and it's my worst nightmare. Okay, not my worst nightmare, that involves emus, but... it's just not a "feature" I'm thrilled about. But I'm not a kid, and I get why a kid would be into it, it's just not my thing. The side add on is also not a favorite feature, it's clunky and does not properly fold into the side of the vehicle for streamline purposes. I'm ok with the motorcycle being attached to the side, that's pretty neat, and I appreciate having spaces to attach accessories... which is sorely lacking for other bits and bobs on this build.

The roof over the cab of the vehicle is really tricky and does not like to go back on at all, which makes placing people inside a pain. Ghost driver in the car, anyone? I also don't like how the interior of the thing is open, so the one minifigure's briefcase has no where to be tucked away and falls out. I'm the kind of builder who likes to keep all accessories with the model and likes there to be spots for things. The hat guy's blue torch/taser/beacon of awesome thing also has no home, and if you make him drive, it doesn't fit inside the cab. It's the little details that make or break it for me.

All in all, I'm pleased with this set. There are a lot of things that I really do appreciate and like about it, and I love all things dinosaur, so I'm easy to please in that respect. (That said, can I get a Stegosaurus or Apatosaurus up in here?!) While there are little things I did not enjoy about the vehicle, they are petty complaints and do not detract from the overall build experience or finished product. Any fan of the Jurassic World movie or person into the prehistoric-meets-modern theme will certainly enjoy their experience with this set.

And the T-Rex. (T-Rex, T-Rex... T-REX!!!)

Run your finger along the bottom of the T-Rex's torso and you'll soon discover some telltale information: "(c) 2010" is what you will feel and see, which should not come as a surprise for amateur LEGO historians, for behold, the LEGO theme cycle has once again come around! For those who missed the 2012 Dino theme, here's another chance for you to get your hands on some ultra-cool pre-moulded dinosaurs (and for the benefit of all involved, I'm not going to get into the moulded vs brick-built debate, mostly because I have nothing constructive to add to it anyway. Get it? Constructive? I'll see myself out).

Dinosaurs are an evergreen field for toys, and LEGO itself is no stranger to the notion, dating all the way back to Johnny Thunder's hijinx on Dino Island back in 2000. With the Jurassic Park franchise receiving a shiny new big budget sequel (reboot?), the time is ripe for more prehistoric fun, and there's probably no dinosaur that comes being as close to iconic as the king himself, the T-Rex, with the first Jurassic Park film undoubtedly going a long way in terms of cementing the dinosaur's image into the public consciousness. I love dinosaurs as much as the nerd next to me, and I am one of those sad sacks who missed out on the 2012 dinosaurs, probably because I eventually discovered that I couldn't pay off the electricity bill with LEGO bricks or something. Anyway, point is that I was pretty excited to get a chance to get my hands on some sweet, sweet dinosaurs - and yes, as stated in the opening paragraph, they are indeed the same as the ones that were seen three years back.

And T-Rex does not disappoint. It's got all the articulation that we've come to expect from modern big moulds, and the 2x4 set of studs along its back does allow for at least some modicum of LEGO compatibility, especially if you're the sort who likes to strap missiles to the back of dinosaurs or something. Mr. Rex is certainly pretty impressive, and he ought to be, since there's no doubt that his presence accounts for much of the hefty US$70 price tag attached to this bad boy.

But what of the rest of the set? If T-Rex is monstrous to behold, then the vehicle in which he is to be transported in is even more monstrous still, a 16 stud wide diesel-guzzling abomination that would strike fear into the heart of any environmentalists. If you thought the 10 stud wide trucks from the Ultra Agents HQ (70165) and the Fairground Mixer (10244) were extreme, you ain't seen nothing yet.

In spite of its size, though, the build is not terribly complicated and is surprisingly lacking in play features. It has a prerequisite removable cover to place minifigs, and Technic pins at the side allow for the connection of a harpoon of sorts for taking Mr. Rex down - a spring-loaded launcher with a modified "missile" - and an extremely simply axle for attaching a motorcycle. There are a couple of simple accessories - a computer, a lamp, and a safe - that are stored at the back of the truck, and they, too, are very simply but serve their purpose well enough.

The cage for Mr. Rex rests in the tracker vehicle by gravity only, and it goes without saying that the vehicle looks incredibly naked when the cage is removed from it. The cage is suitably industrial-looking, of course, and the Technic pieces go a long way to contributing to that look, though it's sort of strangely ironic (maybe even Spielbergian) that it doesn't really have a locking mechanism to speak of. The bars won't part when the cage is resting in the vehicle due to interference from the vehicle itself, but once removed, there is little to stop the T-Rex from wriggling free and causing havoc, which is possibly the point, though I'm not sure. I feel that a few simple modifications could produce a rudimentary "locking" mechanism, and I guess I'm left to ponder as to whether or not this freedom of movement was intentional or not.

The one thing that I do like about this set is the colours, which are positively cheerful compared to what we see in most other licensed sets, which are generally necessarily restricted to "gritty" colours - specifically, grey and black. The white and blue aesthetic (undoubtedly inspired by the movie) make for a very pleasant change, and I find that blue is surprisingly very infrequently used, even in City sets. I thought the yellow used in the 2012 Dino sets was a bit off-putting, so I really do prefer having some nice primary colours to offset the dinosaurs. Another thing that's nice is that while this set does have a sizeable sticker sheet, you can very easily get away with using nearly none of them; the only "unavoidable" one is probably the computer screen. I did apply the Jurassic Park logo stickers to the truck just because, but the other detail stickers are very easily ignored and the model does not suffer at all for lack of them.

I usually talk about minifigs first when I review licensed sets, but I'm not exactly certain that Jurassic Park is really known for its human characters (save for Samuel L. Jackson, of course). You get three minifigs in here whose names I've already forgotten - well, one of them is generic island security personnel, and it's a girl, so hey, plus one for gender equality. Actually she's probably the coolest looking of the bunch, although the other two have sufficiently generic torsos that I can easily seeing them being useful for MOCs.

This is a pretty impressive set, though I have to say that the price tag is steep, if not entirely unexpected. The model is decently attractive and the T-Rex is cool, so if you're a fan of Jurassic World and/or dinosaurs in general, you'll probably find the US$70 worth swallowing; another generic ACU dude might have made the price a little easier going down. Otherwise you're probably better off keeping your fingers crossed for a price drop in a couple of months or so.

And on a final, more personal, note, this set somehow reminded me of 1993's Dragon Wagon (6056), and I found that 2013's dragon from Dragon Mountain (70403) fits quite comfortably in the cage with no fuss. Sadly I don't have Smaug but I'm sure he'll fit in there in a pinch too!