MOC - Tarbosaurus bataar

Tyrannosaurs were among the most successful groups of dinosaurs on the planet.  Confirmed to have feathers, and having spread influence throughout much of the northern hemisphere, no group of dinosaurs their size could outcompete them, forcing the long-established Carnosaurs to either go extinct or follow their traditional prey south into continents like Africa and South America.  Their kind had their early beginnings in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous as small coelurosaurs in Asia, but began to grow in size quickly, and before long they became one of the most profound dinosaurs to date.

Tarbosaurus Bataar is T.Rex's Mongolian cousin.  Both lived roughly around the same time, and appeared so similar many thought that they were the exact same animal.  Despite this, Tarbosaurus is just different from Tyrannosaurus that they are considered different species, albeit Tarbosaurus only has one species under its genus; Bataar.  In terms of size, Tarbosaurus comes just under Tyrannosaurus, between 10-12 meters in length (33-39 feet), but they were still formidable enough to become the dominant predators in their region in the Gobi Desert, likely hunting the local ornithischian cuisine; the Saurolophus; which traveled to and from the desert in migrating herds.  Despite how big it was, most of the Gobi was safe from these monsters due to the fact that most creatures that lived there were too small to be worth chasing, such as the local Velociraptor and their favorite food the Protoceratops.

Like all Tyrannosaurs, Tarbosaurus likely had a very powerful bite; everything lay within its massive skull, a trait that made the Tyrannosaurs unique and deadly killers.  Unlike Carnosaurs, whose focus was to tear big holes in their prey and make them bleed to death, Tyrannosaurs could actually crush bone, leading for some paleontologists to assume that they could have been glorified turkey vultures instead of hunters.  Regardless of how they ate, it is known fact that wherever a Tyrannosaur fossil showed up in the Cretaceous rock, very few predators it size would be in the area for long, as nothing could compete with that giant eating machine.

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This model took way too long to make, and there's good reason why; that headpiece right there.  Lego's notorious for either making really good technic pieces for Bionicle/Hero Factory/etc models that are iconic and last forever, or singular pieces that are so out of the way or require such a weird piece that they are almost impossible to reuse.  Dragon Bolt's headgear is a primary example.  He's probably one of the coolest villains to be released by the Hero Factory IP for a while, yet his head, which looks almost exactly like the front end of a Rex skull, needs one of those dumb brain bugs to complete itself, as the nose is just a mask piece that ends at the eyes.  So I had to improvise to try and get it to work.  Luckily I had some spare parts from the old Bionicle Days (Nuhvok, we miss you) and it acted as a perfect head crest and skull finisher.  Granted, it's not perfect, but it's better than having a wacky brain bug on the back of his head.

I also took the liberty of adding "feathers" in a sense, just to make the feather lovers happy.  That's what the discolored pieces on the model are meant to represent, though I wish I had more.  It may not look like much, but it's damn near impossible to pose these guys with extra hardware, and some of us like to actually stop-motion their MOCs, meaning function always comes before form.  This is also why the tail looks way too thin, because without the right parts I didn't dare try to thicken it up without it threatening to topple the whole model over.

Still, he looks pretty good.  I'm satisfied with how he turned out.  Now to just get a green-screen so that he doesn't disappear in front of my blue posterboard...


Bionicle, Hero Factory, and Legends of Chima (c) Lego
Models made by Kerian-halcyon

-Kerian