King Kong vs T. Rex (1933) model kit – kit bash

King Kong vs T. Rex

Kit Bash (n) – when a kit builder takes parts of two or more unrelated model kits to create a completely different subject, theme, and model kit diorama.

Long story short. I only recently saw the Mountain Gorilla kit from Revell. As soon as I saw a pic on a web-site I got the idea to use it in a King Kong diorama. I found the Airfix Tyrannosaurus to be the perfect size to simulate the big battle scene from King Kong (1933). Although both of these models are discontinued, I was able to find them on eBay at decent prices.

I built and compiled items for the base myself. I asked fellow kit builder, Murray Wakeman to make the long leaf palm tree (on the left hand side of the diorama). I had seen the tree in one of his creations and knew it would fit well with the scene. (Thanks Murray).

 

model kits and items:

Revell – Endangered Animals -Mountain Gorilla (1974)

Airfix – Tyrannosaurus Rex – (1977)

Murray’s Long Leaf Palm Tree (2015)

Ann Darrow self- sculpted (and the tree where she sits)

Scene-it trees and plants

Custom base – self made

Coming soon, Building a Custom Base – check it out at: Mike K’s Youtube channel (Mike K. is me)

Planet of Dinosaurs (1977) – movie review

Planet of Dinosaurs (1977)

Directed By James Shea
Written by Jim Aupperle and Ralph Lucas

This is an important film for the dinosaur movie fan because it is the last full-length *dinosaur world film to feature stop-motion animation dinosaurs. The film was a labor of love by the (at the time) up-and-coming special effects artists and animators. Most of the animation was handled by Doug Beswick and the effects photography was done by Jim Aupperle who was a knowledgeable special effects camerman. The models were built by Stephen Czerkas and Jim Danforth did some of the matte paintings.

The dinosaurs strive to equal the quality of the men’s mentor and hero, Ray Harryhausen and they even pay tribute with a Rhedosaurus-type dino in the film. The numerous dinosaurs have a unique lizard texture, scaly and knobby and are each marvelous creations for their stop-motion format. The dinosaurs engage in some violent scenes pushing the envelope of the past, such as when the Ceratopsian impales one of the crew with his forward horn. This film has a large amount of dinosaur action and scenes, as they are the main reason for the film being made. In fact, Aupperle designated most of the limited budget for the film to go into the special effects. Dinosaurs include, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Rhedosaurus, Ceratopsian, Brontosaurus, Tyranosaurus, Kentrosaurus, Allosaurus, and Struthiomimus.

The story is a fairly lame hodge-podge of old ideas and is only outdone by a terrible script and hokey dialogue. A spacecraft veers off course and lands in a lake on a distant planet. The crew get out alive but all their equipment is lost. (Sound Familiar anyone?) They find the planet to be populated with savage dinosaurs that attack them relentlessly. The ships captain wants to take a passive path through the land, avoiding the dinos and finding a secure place to hide until help comes. The older experienced macho-man, Jim, wants to show these dinos who’s boss and kill the biggest one in town, the T Rex. At one point the Captain yells at Luke Skywalker dude for giving an hysterical woman a weapon. This was 1977, the year of Charlie’s Angels, didn’t they know women had the power by then?

There’s some weird dialogue about being a vegetarian and a meat eater and how only the meat-eaters survive. To prove the point, all the ‘vegetarians’ die first. The remaining crew sets out to kill the T. Rex. They first kill a Kentrosaurus, stuff it with poison berries and bring it to Rex’ s cave. Well, old T. Bone skips right over the Kentro and grabs Luke Skywalker dude in his teeth. Ouch! Another team member gone. They come up with a new, more aggressive plan to kill Rex and it works. And they live happily ever after on their new planet.

Realizing early on that the actors are not going to carry the film, the filmmakers take lots of footage of them walking. Up mountains, down hillsides, across deserts, there’s just too much walking. The hokey dialogue is funny at times but wears thin as the film continues. The only saving grace is the last 45 minutes of the film has a lot of dinosaur scenes

If you’re looking for a good story, interesting sci-fi themes or any tense character drama, your ship is way off course with this film. But if you just want to see some impressive stop-motion dinos, and some humans get gobbled up by them, you will find this film enjoyable.

Check out more dinosaur film reviews at my master page: Dinosaur films

* other films beyond this point did feature stop-motion animation dinos, most notably The Crater Lake Monster and Q: The Winged Serpent, but POD was the last to show a full dinosaur world with many species of dinosaurs using this form of animation.

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Note about the dvd release:
In a homage to stop-motion effects animation, the dvd special features also include the silent Willis O’Brien shorts, The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1919) and Dinosaur and the Missing Link (1915)

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Notes about the effects crew:

Jim Danforth – worked on films as an animator and/or matte artist quite often uncredited. He made contributions to titles such as: Jack The Giant Killer (1962), The Outer Limits (1963-64), Equinox (1970, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) (the Wonkanator), Diamonds are Forever (1971) (Submarine models animation), Flesh Gordon (1974), The Crater Lake Monster (1977), Clash of the Titans (1980), Creepshow (1981), and many more…

Doug Beswick
Worked on notable films such as The Terminator (1984) (stop motion terminator skeleton), Aliens (1986) (Mechanical armature design), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Flesh Gordon (1974), Beetle juice (1988), Evil Dead II (1987), episodes of Xena Warrior Princess (1998 – 2000), to name a few.

Jim Aupperle
Worked on some mega hits as well including, Ghost Busters (1984), The Thing (1982), Hellboy (2004), Creepshow, Flesh Gordon (1974), Troll (1986), Dinosaur (2000), Harry Potter (part 2), and Ted (2011), to name a few.

Stephen Czerkas

And a special note about Stephen Czerkas who passed away January 22, 2015.

Stephen provided modeling and effects work early in his career to films such as, Dreamscape, Flesh Gordon and Planet of Dinosaurs. In 1981 he was commissioned to do some life-sized models of dinosaurs for museums. In the years following he released several books on the subject of paleontology including, Dinosaurs: A Global View, My life with Dinosaurs and Feathered Dinosaurs. In 1992 he opened The Dinosaur Museum in Utah which will continue to astound, inform and educate visitors on the subject of prehistoric beasts.

So that’s what happened to my 8-Track Tape player

I’m just like Luke Skywalker!

Gets the party started for the guys…

Spring Break, 2069

One horny dino

Impaled!

best scene of the film 🙂

Just when they are about to kiss, in walks T. Rex

A Midnight Snack!

Here’s one for the ladies 😉 …No?

How bout this guy and his 70’s hair and ferret face ‘stache, ladies? I hear he’s single…

Rock climbing 101, let the girls carry all the heavy equipment 🙂

Best looking bronto in a movie!

Lunch!

what big teeth you have grandma

T Rex vs Stegosaurus!

Stephen Czerkas sauropod from Planet of dinos

Stephen Czerkas with Carnotaurus Dinosaur Statue

From left to right, Jim Aupperle, Steve Czerkas, and Doug Beswick

Jim Aupperle

Retro Dinosaur Model Kit Diorama

Retro Dinosaur Model Kit Diorama

T Rex vs. Dimetrodon

This is my retro dino diorama. Not only are these vintage kits, but I built the base using retro ideas about dinosaur environment. Because fossils were often found in rocky desert areas like Colorado and Wyoming, scientists thought Dinosaur environment resembled the areas in their current form. You would see many dinosaur depictions in these rocky desert landscapes. So, I gave this diorama the retro landscape feel, kinda’ like Land of the Lost TV show from the 1970’s. I also put dinosaurs that hadn’t lived in the same time period into the kit to do battle.

The kits:

Tamiya – Tyrannosaurus Rex (old style)
Lindberg – Dimetrodon (1979 Pyro Models re-issue)
Tamiya – Mesozoic Creatures – Oviraptor (small dino)

 
The base construction. I used a piece of foam board to cut out a base. I shaped the edges with a plaster-based clay to get a nice look and texture.

 

I built the background mountains with larger pieces of styrofoam, also using plaster and clay for the details. I shaped little rock formations to position around the base. I used Scene-it palm trees and shrubbery to add a touch of desert plant life.
 

I used some desert photos to help guide the look of the base. Roadrunner and Coyote cartoon images provided much needed design detail, lol!

 

Let the battle begin!

this little guy is getting out of here!

CU on Dimetrodon skin colors

Dinos watch as base is built

desert rock formations

base before paint

Dinosaurus (1960) – movie review

Rare and Obscure Dinosaur films

Dinosaurus (1960)

Produced by Jack K. Harris (The Blob, 4D Man, Equinox), this 1960 B- movie is more likely fun for kids but adults might enjoy the campy humor, especially associated with the caveman (Gregg Martell). Construction crews building a port on a Caribbean Island accidentally dredge up two long buried dinosaurs from the ocean floor. They have been preserved by the cold deep waters. The Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus are pulled onto the beach and the foreman, Bart, calls a scientist to come investigate their find. Little do they know, but they have also beached a Neanderthal Man tangled in the seaweed. Overnight there is a violent thunder storm and the dinosaurs are struck by lightning, bringing them back to life (ala ‘Frankenstein’ science). An orphan boy, Julio, befriends the Brontosaurus, knowing he is a herbivore. The T. Rex is soon on the hunt putting Julio in jeopardy but Julio is saved by the caveman. The caveman falls in love with Betty. Later in the film Julio, Bart and Betty, are stuck in a cave as the T. Rex tries to gain entry. As the walls collapse, the caveman saves Julio again, along with Bart and Betty. The climax of the film has the foreman fighting the T. Rex in a steam shovel from the construction site. Filmed partly on the island of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, the film is campy entertainment for all ages.

B-movie fans will also be entertained by the trivia and correlations to other films:

Marcel Delgado (maker of King Kong) had only 2 weeks to design the dinosaur models used for the film.

During filming, the special effects crew also filmed a sequence for The Twilight Zone using the miniature set and the Brontosaurus. The footage can be seen in the TZ episode “The Odyssey of Flight 33.”

The steam shovel vs. T.Rex climax is reminiscent to Ripley fighting the Alien in the ‘pay-loader machine’ in the film Alien. It is also clearly ‘hijacked’ for the scene at the end of Carnosaur (1993).

In one scene, a bus full of tourists is confronted by the T. Rex who bends down low and peers into the bus windows at the screaming people. (see photo above) He then bangs the bus with the side of his head and eventually crushes the bus. The similarities between this scene and the scene in 1993’s Jurassic Park with the ‘tour jeeps’ are more than a coincidence and thought to be Spielberg’s homage to the earlier film.

Psuedo science:
By now most of you know, there was no actual Brontosaurus that ever walked the earth. The Brontosaurus was a mistake of having the wrong head on the body of an Apatosaurus. Through the 1980’s, most museums began removing the ‘Brontosaurus’ heads from their skeleton displays and replacing them with the proper, smaller heads. And naturally, millions of years passed between the time that Dinosaurs lived and Cavemen arrived on earth.

Related Articles:
The Legend of Dinosuars and Monster Birds
Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

Chick magnet!

I always attract the wrong type of guys

Caveman think… brain hurt.

Anyone got a can opener?

My dates always end like this – maybe I should quit drinking

Marcel Delgado

Twilight Zone episode

The Odyssey of Flight 33

Dinosaur Model Kit project

Dinosaur Model Kit project – Jan. 2013 – March 2013

Ok, here is where my complete nerd-iness shines through. Let my geek flag fly! When I was young there was a hobby store in my town that would have model-kit building contests every year. I had won trophies for my kit building skills.

Recently, having a little time on my hands, I decided to revisit the days of my youth and build some model-kits. The 1960’s and 1970’s Aurora Prehistoric Scenes Kits were too hard to find at a decent price but I found these Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops model-kits that I believe were released in the 1990’s. As the diorama grew I added other dino’s to build a complete scene, with trees, shrubbery, rock formations and a mountain background.

Diorama elements:

‘Aurora/ Playing Mantis’ model kit – Tyrannosaurus – 1990’s

‘Aurora/ Playing Mantis’ model kit – Triceratops – 1990’s

‘Lindberg’ Ankylosaurus model kit -1990’s

‘Tamiya’ – Creatures of the Mesozoic model kit (baby T. Rex and Parasaurolophus) – 1990’s

Base: 2.5 x 2.5 plywood base

‘Scene-A-Rama’ grass, trees, and rock sculpting kit

‘Testors’ brand model kit paint

The total diorama took me about 2 months to build. I used the plastic base of the Tyrannosaurus but not the one from the Triceratops. I incorporated the T. Rex base into the mountain and rock formations I had built for the scene. The other kits did not include bases.

With the Tyrannosaurus, I followed the color scheme recommended in the kit, but decided to make the eyes orange/red for contrast. For all other kits I deviated from the recommended colors and came up with my own color combinations – mostly because I did not like the recommended colors.