No Budget Films
Props
What sort of props and practical effects do we use at No Budget Films?
The Puppetoys T-Rex
This T-Rex puppet is my most commonly used puppet, and undoubtedly the best one. It comes in two colors: Green, and "brown" (more of a pinkish-orange). It's a full body hand puppet measuring 30" from nose to tail, so this is a pretty good sized prop. The head, neck, arms, and tail are made of a soft rubbery substance which makes it easy to manuever around like a real creature. My only gripe is the fact that they chose to make the torso and legs out of a harder plastic, which means the softer rubbery bits do have a tendency to break off over time. My green T-Rex, which I purchased in 2010, has had to have numerous repairs. But overall, a very high quality and realistic looking puppet. Sadly, if you're looking to get one of these yourself, you won't be able to since Puppetoys Inc. seems to have gone out of business.
New Canna Animal Kingdom Puppets
I got these guys in 2015, and since then they've appeared in a handful of films (some more than others). The Allosaurus has fought in Dino Duels, and was glimpsed in Top Predators (2016), while the T-Rex (center) hasn't yet appeared at all. The Spinosaurus (far right), however, has had a lot of exposure not only in Dino Duels, but also in Top Predators, where it was featured as the main antagonist. The Allosaurus and T-Rex are extremely similar to the Puppetoys T-Rex, so much so that I'm inclined to believe that these puppets are knock-offs. Oh well. What can you do, when Puppetoys is out of business? Interestingly, whenever I try searching online for "New Canna Animal Kingdom" I'm unable to find much of anything. But because their tags read "New Canna Animal Kingdom", that's what I'll keep calling them. These puppets are pretty good, although they do have some drawbacks. They aren't full body puppets (head, neck, and arms only), and the Spinosaurus is nigh impossible to fit your hand in. In fact, every time I use that thing, I need to splash my hand with water for lubrication...
McDonald's Carnotaurus Puppet
This Carnotaurus puppet originally came as a McDonald's Happy Meal toy in 2000, as a tie-in to Disney's Dinosaur. I had this toy as a small child, lost it, and purchased a new one in around 2009 or so. As far as dinosaur puppets go, this one isn't amazing, but it's passable. The texture and detailing is very good for a children's toy, but the inside of the mouth sadly has no paint or coloration in it at all. It's also pretty small, and only includes the head and neck. This puppet is very limited, but probably the best Carnotaurus puppet you can find. This guy has been featured very prominently in my T-Rex vs Carnotaurus series.
Jurassic World Tie-In Puppets
These two puppets were released by Hasbro as Jurassic World merchandise. They're larger than the Carnotaurus puppet, at about 10" in length, but unfortunately they're far more limited. For one thing, all that is included is the head. No body, no arms, not even a neck- Just the head. As if that weren't bad enough, the detail on these things is almost atrociously bad. The raptor looks okay at a distance, but the T-Rex is just flat out garbage. The seams are very visible, the coloration is dull and fake looking, and the sculpt of the T-Rex's head looks nothing like what was seen in the movie. If you want a fun toy for your little kids, go ahead and buy these since they're easy to find. But if you're looking for something a little more realistic, skip these. Again, the raptor is bearable, but the T-Rex is an absolute insult to Jurassic Park and dinosaurs in general. Even so, I tried using these guys in one film- Dino Woods- As an experiment to see what I could do with them in a film, if anything at all. I had mixed results.
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