The LEGO Group digs deep and unearths a future classic in
When
76968 Dinosaur Fossils: Tyrannosaurus rex
Release: March 12, 2025
Retiring: December 31, 2026
Price: £219.99 / $249.99 / €249.99
Pieces: 3,145
Minifigures: 2
Buy now at LEGO
It’s genuinely worth considering just how quickly this subtheme has progressed from an affordable, displayable concept to something for which you’ll need to save up and also for which you’ll struggle to find space.
If you’re looking at this feeling just a little bit intimidated by the build, well, nobody could blame you. Not in the sense that it’s going to be beyond you, but in the sense that it could be repetitive, frustrating, cumbersome, tiresome, tedious – you name it. Don’t ask me what black magic the LEGO Group has put to work here, but very few of those adjectives actually apply to the build, and only in fleeting moments.
Look: I’ve put together my fair share of repetitive LEGO sets. The Globe almost broke me, the Taj Mahal really did (twice over), and it took me 18 months to open the Daily Bugle box because I was dreading all those windows. (They weren’t that bad really.) And so it was with gritted teeth that I cracked open the seals on
But… that didn’t really happen. There are a couple of moments in this build where you’re doing the same repetitive motion, and playing around in such a samey colour palette isn’t quite as fun as piecing together something like 10350 Tudor Corner (especially with so few internal pieces to blow the palette open), but by and large this skeleton actually serves up a build that’s engaging from beginning to end.
Even where things occasionally risk feeling repetitive, the instructions force you to pay attention by making small changes. The bones along the ribcage are extended by a Technic cylinder first, then a candle, then another cylinder, and so on. And as those 3,145 pieces come together across 25 numbered bags, building up first the stand, then the spine, then the legs, tail and finally the head, you’ll be grinning away at just how big your brand new T. rex fossil is.
Because it’s massive, standing an incredible 105cm long from tip to tail. You’ll probably flex the tail a bit to bring that length down ever so slightly, but
“Okay, but does it actually look like a real T. rex skeleton?” I’m glad you asked. LEGO sets do not need to be accurate, one-for-one depictions of their source material. This is an artistic medium and we should make considerations for that. But from the tips of its tiny fingers to the sweeping chevrons of its articulated tail, this really is a convincing recreation of the Google image search results for ‘T. rex skeleton’. (We aren’t all fortunate enough to have seen one in person, sadly.)
It's absent the gastralia (the bones along the ventral body wall that supported the T. rex’s abdomen), which you’ll probably have seen on the world’s most famous T. rex fossil Sue, but which are also missing from maybe the second-most-famous skeleton Stan. The truth of these bones is that scientists only really discovered their existence and purpose as recently as 2018, so it’s no surprise that the T. rex fossil featured in Jurassic Park (to which this set is attached) doesn’t have gastralia.
Perhaps the only other point of contention is how straight the dino’s spine is, which feels like a slight (but possibly necessary) compromise to ensure its structural integrity. It does resemble certain T. rex skeletons in reality, but not the posture of the full-bodied dinosaur in
All this is to say that for the most part,
LEGO Jurassic Park 76968 Dinosaur Fossils: Tyrannosaurus rex and 76964 Dinosaur Fossils: T. rex Skull comparison
It probably shouldn’t be surprising that the LEGO Jurassic designers have so successfully pulled off a big old T. rex skeleton, because the foundations were already in place with
It's the best of both worlds, the LEGO designers smartly reusing a concept that worked previously while taking the opportunity to refine it that little bit further a year and change later. The skull is then hoisted on to the rest of the body as a kind of crowning achievement that finishes the build, connected using a brand new ‘XXL’ hinge joint (as it’s branded in the instructions) that offers articulation along horizontal and vertical planes.
The footprint build of the smaller skull is a neat addition you obviously won’t find in this larger skeleton, but there otherwise seems little point in owning both of these. If you already have the first one, consider selling up and putting the cash towards
Our honest opinion:
This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.
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