Custom Jurassic Park 3 Style CollectA Spinosaurus by paintingdinos

When I was a kid, I stayed at my grandparents’ house a lot. My brother and I would stay in a small guest room where was a small TV and a DVD VCR. The TV didn’t have cable and we were used to falling to sleep with the TV on, so we would watch the few DVDs they had over and over again. Two movies I remember watching all the time were the Jim Carrey Grinch and Jurassic Park 3.

The result of a mostly fruitless Google search for the a picture of both the Grinch and Jurassic Park. Figures made by Jaime Follis
Source: Laughing Squid

I was a particularly Dinosaur obsessed kid (things haven’t changed much), but strangely, I wasn’t too familiar with the other Jurassic Park movies. I knew about them and saw clips of them in dinosaur shows on Animal Planet, but for a long time this was the only movie in the franchise I had any real contact with. That’s fine, because I loved it. I remember obsessing over the movie. This was also a time when I could just go through the special features on a DVD for hours. I remember my dad having a portable DVD player in his car (the height of cool for a kid in the early 2000s) and watching these turnarounds of the 3D dinosaur models over and over and over... I watched this movie so much that I can probably quote it more than any other film in the series. It's just so ingrained into my memory that I can’t help but enjoy it. I still watch it every time it's on TV. The JP3 toys were also some of my favorites as a kid. I had the electronic Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor. Despite their, in hindsight, awkward poses, I remember playing with them like crazy. I also had this cool raptor that could walk around. I found them all in my garage a few years back and should really dig them up again.

This is the T.rex toy I have from when I was a kid. Source: Jurassic Toys

Jurassic Park 3 marked one of the first times I remember being really scared as a kid, aside from a potentially fake memory of my dad saving me from a murderer on Halloween. For years, I would be afraid to open my backyard door at night because I thought there were Velociraptors outside and if I want quick enough they’d get me. Oh, and that scene with the Pteranodon on the bridge! That scared me almost much as Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin (which was the height of terror for kid me). The Spinosaurus was just as scary, but also a figure to be emulated. When I was “it” in games of tag at school, I would act like the Spinosaurus in the reunion scene by the fence. I would walk away, pretending I wasn’t interested in chasing my friends, then turn around and start running after them. Knowing myself at that age, I most likely roared like a dinosaur.


Given that history, it should be no shock that I chose to have the CollectA Spinosaurus repainted in honor of my love for this movie.



This is the work Dinosaur Toy Forum member, paintingdinos. She has honestly done an astonishing job here. Even though this model represents a modern, less generic-theropod look for Spinosaurus, the way she’s captured the colors makes it clear what this is supposed to be. Most notably, the main color of the Spinosaurus’ skin. I think modern media and toys have simplified this too much to a basic grey, but I always thought of the animal as having a more complex skin color with grey, but also reddish-brown.
Something about it always reminded me of leaves in the fall, but covered in blood for some reason (might want to talk to someone about that). Anyway, she captured those complex colors so well here.

With Mattel's Legacy Collection Spinosaurus. This figure is connected to another fond memory, as I bought an extra when it came out and sold it to local collector, Nick, who became a close friend (we actually just saw Dominion together)

Another cool feature of her repaint is the incorporation of more crocodile-like patterns. The big cubic scales along the figures belly and tail are ripe for pebbled look of crocodile scales, but CollectA didn’t hone in on this. I’m in love with how these turned out, especially on the underside; it elevates this to another level.



Paintingdinos also did a great job bringing that sail to life. The sail’s coloration is another one of those things that’s a little hard to notice in the movie, but there is a surprising vibrancy. Honestly, the dinosaurs in JP3 might have the best colors in the whole franchise. The blue puts me in mind of an early idea I thought about suggesting to her, where the animal would have sunlight patterns covering its body to really give off the idea that this animal was underwater.



"Bonitas"
"Something must've spooked them"

The Spinosaurus’ head is also beautiful. I’ve always been a big fan of the red along the neck and snout. It’s a subtle way to give this animal a meaner look without resorting to angry eyebrow crests or gnarly scars and exposed teeth. I remember the scene where the Spinosaurus breaks off the front of the plan so vividly; I was just in case when the amazing animatronic stuck it’s head up and roared.

While we’re talking about the head, the eyes were a real sticking point for me. As a kid and for a long time into adulthood, I had thought the Spinosaurus had solid green eyes with no pupils. It does have pupils, but they’re slit like a crocodile, so it’s hard to see them. The memory was still too strong to ignore, so I wanted to homage it somehow. I had thought about asking paintingdinos to add these, but I’m not sure about slit pupils on dinosaurs. I think what she came up with is a great compromise between more likely round pupils and the small pupils of the movie creature.

Again, I just cannot thank paintingdinos enough for her work here. I think it’s clear this figure with these colors hits me in a way few others have. Please, make sure to check out her Dinosaur Toy Forum thread. I also hope you weren’t completely bored by my rambling about some dumb movie from 21 years ago and my fond memories of it.

Funnily enough, I just watched JP3 on Thursday. I can't remember which JP movie I saw first, but I certainly saw the third one the most for some reason. I too watched the movie at my grandparent's house when I was little (to my parent's horror)

I really love this movie and it made spinosaurus my favorite dinosaur. I remember playing nonstop with Papo's famous model.

This CollectA repaint is so gorgeous. The artist really did an outstanding job. I love how she painted the underbelly to resemble that of a croc. I'm not really a fan of CollectA's dinos, but her paintwork really shows the detail in the scales on this model! And that sail... wow

Thank you for sharing images of this beautiful new addition in your collection! I can imagine your excitement when opening it. Figures from our favorite/childhood franchises are always the most exciting.

I myself am eagerly awaiting Nanmu's upcoming JP3 spino 2.0

@Joliezac it's funny how similar your story is to mine. I'm sure my parents weren't happy with me watching that movie either, but my grandpa at least was so lax with what we watched.

That new Nanmu figure looks good. I want to see some in hand pictures, since I'm not sold on it quite yet. It seems a bit softer in detail than the original, but that's probably just the pictures.