Review: 76968 Dinosaur Fossils - Tyrannosaurus rex from LEGO® Jurassic World

We're going to build old bones! Massive Tyrannosaurus rex fossil bones from LEGO® bricks, to be exact. First though, we're going to dig into the new parts buried in LEGO® Jurassic World 76968 Dinosaur Fossils.

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
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76968 Dinosaur Fossils: Tyrannosaurus rex

• Release date: 15 March 2025
• Pieces: 3145

Price: 

• US$ 249.99 on LEGO.com US
• CA$ 329.99 on LEGO.com Canada
• GB£ 219.99 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 399.99 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 449.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 249,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
• NL€ 249,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
• FR€ ,99 on LEGO.com France
• PLN 1099.99 on LEGO.com Polska
• NOK 3099,90 on LEGO.com Norge
• DKK 1949.95 on LEGO.com Danmark

Other countries click here

 

New moulds

• 2x XXL Joint - Clutch Joint Click Gear in Tan (6525546 | 69787)
• 1x XXL Joint - Clutch Joint Pin in Light Bluish Gray (6525547 | 69789)
• 1x XXL Joint - Clutch Joint Click Ring in Light Bluish Gray (6525548 | 69788)
• 1x XXL Joint - Clutch Joint Gear in Light Bluish Gray (6525545 | 69790)

The names above might sound a little odd, but the instructions specifically mention that this is the first appearance of the new “XXL joint”. So these are the official LEGO names; only time will tell what other websites might call them. The New Elementary team felt that they had a "differential" quality, and there is also something in their design that the new joint shares with LEGO® Technic rotation joints.

The new joint, designed by Janko Grujic, is certainly sturdy and very firm, and is utilised appropriately to help support the weight of the head. Although the parts were not designed specifically for the T. rex, they were developed for just this sort of implementation in larger creatures.

Recoloured elements

• 1x Plant / Creature Body Part, Vine / Tail / Tentacle / Bionicle Spine, Spiky in Tan (6540543 | 55236)
• 20x Technic Axle and Pin Connector Angled #6 - 90° in Tan (6536042 | 32014, 42155)
• 2x Plate Special 1 x 1 with Handle on 2 Ends in Tan (6533760 | 78257)
• 8x Brick Round Corner 4 x 4 x 1 with Bottom Cut Outs [No Studs Flat Top][1/4 Arch] in Tan (6533758 | 5649)

• 14x Animal Body Part / Plant, Tail / Neck / Branch / Trunk, Middle Section with Pin, Square Pin Hole in Tan (6533754 | 51274)
• 2x Plate Round 4 x 6 in Tan (6536080 | 3766)
• 4x Plate Special 2 x 6 x 2/3 with 4 Studs on Side, 3 Support Walls on Bottom in Tan (6533753 | 72132)
• 1x Plate Special 1 x 2 with Angular Extension and Flexible Tip Tan in Tan (6533757 | 61406)
• 1x Brick Curved 10 x 1 [Symmetric Inside Ridges] in Tan (6533756 | 13731)

• 2x Technic Axle and Pin Connector Angled #3 - 157.5° in Dark Tan (6485347 | 32016, 42128)
• 3x Technic Axle and Pin Connector Perpendicular 3L with Centre Pin Hole in Dark Tan (6536082 | 32184, 42142)
• 8x Geode with Trans-Orange crystals in Dark Bluish Gray (6533761 | 49656)

Rare

• 6x Plate Angled 2 x 2 with Step and Hole in Center in Black (6469080 | 79846) in two other sets
• 2x 98989 Technic Axle and Pin Connector Perpendicular Double 4L in Black (6428363 | 49491) in two other sets
• 2x Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole and Dual Beam Extensions in Black (6517676 | 85943, 49132) in two other sets

• 2x Slope 33° 2 x 2 Double / Inverted in Tan (6507817 | 1762) only in 76964 Dinosaur Fossils: T. rex Skull
• 7x Slope Inverted 45° 4 x 1 Double with 1 x 2 Recessed in Tan (6388033 | 32802) only in 43226 Disney Duos from 2023
• 6x  Wedge Curved 3 x 4 x 2/3 Cutout in Tan (6443063 | 11291, 31584) in two other sets
• 4x Wedge Plate 6 x 3 Left in Tan (6469249 | 54384) in two other sets
• 4x Wedge Plate 6 x 3 Right in Tan (6469247 | 54383) in two other sets

• 6x Plate 2 x 10 in Dark Tan (6522352 | 3832) astoundingly, this regular tan plate is in just two other sets, from 2014 and 2025
• 13x Slope Curved 2 x 2 with Stud Notches in Dark Tan (6472086 | 66956), just in the two other fossil sets 76964 & 76969
• 2x Wedge Plate 2 x 4 27° Left in Dark Tan (6480358 | 65429) in three sets
• 2x  Wedge Plate 2 x 4 27° Right in Dark Tan (6480359 | 65426) in three sets

• 1x Plate 3 x 3 Corner in Olive Green (6473445 | 77844) only in 10326 Natural History Museum
• 1x Plate Round 6 x 6 with Hole in Dark Orange (6495165 | 11213) only in 75683 Glinda & Elphaba's Dormitory
• 3x Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole and Dual Beam Extensions in Reddish Brown (6534905 | 85943, 49132) only in 10363 Leonardo da Vinci's Flying Machine
• 4x Plate Round Corner 3 x 3 with 2 x 2 Round Cutout in Dark Bluish Gray (6506037 | 68568) only in 10338 Bumblebee
• 1x Wedge Sloped 45° 2 x 2 Corner in Medium Nougat (6452538 | 13548) in three other sets

New prints

Predictably, this fossil set doesn't actually contain any stickers. Prints are limited to just two, but these are really great designs!

• 1x Tile 8 x 16 with Bottom Tubes with Jurassic Park logo and information print in Reddish Brown (6558851 | 90498)
• 1x Tile 4 x 4 with T.rex skull print in Light Bluish Gray (6540296 | 1751)

A neat little bit of attention to detail in the graphic design of the information plaque has left the central injection mould point clear. This means there aren't any problems printing across areas that aren't flat enough to allow the pad printing, which can result in blank areas.

Minifigures

• 1x Legs with print in Dark Tan (6540295 | 970pr)
• 1x Torso with print in Dark Red (6541305 | 973pr)
• 1x Torso with print in Bright Light Blue (6541538 | 973pr)
• 1x Minifig Head with print in Light Nougat (6523606 | 28621pr)
• 1x Minifig Head with print in Light Nougat (6541283 | 28621pr)

These are new versions of Dr. Ellie Satler & Dr. Alan Grant. I think Alan really needs his hat to look like him, even if he wasn't wearing it in the scene. Irrespective of that, it would have made a welcome addition to this minifigure. 

I appreciate how detailed these two figures are. In a set of this price, it is good that a little effort has been made here to make something special that might not have been produced otherwise.

Elements in quantity

Perhaps some of these parts might not be what we would normally term noteworthy or even very rare. As they are in reasonable quantities, I thought it worth mentioning them. 

• 41x Slope 30° 1 x 1 x 2/3 (Cheese Slope) in Tan (4516055 | 54200)
• 44x Plate Special 1 x 2 Rounded with 2 Open Studs in Dark Tan (6231386 | 35480)
• 45x Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 in Tan (6374192 | 36841)
• 46x Plate 1 x 1 in Tan or (4159553 | 3024)
• 50x Slope Curved 3 x 1 No Studs in Tan (4624088 | 50950)

• 54 x Wedge Plate 2 x 2 Cut Corner in Dark Tan (6228921 | 26601)
• 56 x Plate Special 1 x 2 with 1 Stud with Groove and Inside Stud Holder (Jumper) in Tan (6092587 | 15573)
• 57 x Slope Curved 2 x 2 x 2/3 in Tan (6046924 | 15068)
• 59 x Slope 30° 1 x 1 x 2/3 (Cheese Slope) in Dark Tan (6040126 | 54200)
• 62 x Slope Curved 2 x 1 No Studs [1/2 Bow] in Tan (6046922 | 11477)

These are just the start though: there are quite a few more parts with a quantity numbering in the 20s and 30s too! The lists and photographs of parts were already getting a little long in the tooth so I limited the featured parts to above 40 in quantity. 

Also... I was really excited and ready to get building the T. rex skeleton with my son.

 

Build

The impressively hefty box contains 25 "paper-based" bags, all packed pretty tightly in there too. Immediately there is the sense that this is a lot of LEGO bricks.

It's all reasonably straightforward stuff from the outset. I was at various points building with either my son and daughter, as it was school holidays. My daughter is far less experienced with (or interested in) LEGO play than my son, and I noticed that she found it harder to identify some parts in the pile of elements with only the picture in the instructions to help. I think my son and I both take for granted that we have a kind of mental lexicon of three-dimensional images of almost all the parts in the LEGO production line. The result of which is being able to very quickly see an upside-down 1x2 baby bow in a mess of similar coloured plastic bits! 

I think the point here is that this might seem straightforward to many of our readers, but with over 3,000 pieces, it shouldn't be underestimated that a novice might not find this an easy build.

Hidden in the base (shown below) is that lovely 4x4 printed tile with the T. rex fossil skull. It's another Easter egg, and refers to the 76964 Dinosaur Fossils: T. rex Skull set (see our review of set 76974 by Kevin J. Walter).

  

One of my favourite parts of the build was the little Easter egg joke of a frog sitting on a little seat in front of a steering wheel. The frog is driving the T-rex! This was really funny to me. Frogs are often put into LEGO sets like this; in Jurassic Park the scientists used frog DNA to complete missing sections of the dinosaurs’ genetic code, so the frog really is controlling the T. rex!

 

In the early stages of construction, to my eyes at least, the spine resembled something from another franchise.

This is probably the closest we will get to an official LEGO xenomorph, and maybe that is a good thing? 

I don't really relish the thought of bricks bursting out of my chest but it has to be noted that a LEGO Facehugger would be entirely possible to build from the parts included in this set. There is definitely a H.R. Giger quality to this entire phase of the build!

Once the legs are added and the rib cage is attached, much of that impression is lost and the T. rex begins to take shape - albeit at the scale of a small dog.

While building them, the legs initially seemed quite chunky, maybe even overly 'blocky' but when fixed into place, I thought some of that blockiness didn't matter so much. In fact, they really look well proportioned. The fact they are both different, creating a more dynamic pose and still remain within LEGO System is very skilful!

Once the main body was finished, it struck me just how large this model is. Already over 90cm, this was pushing the limits of my building/photography area. Ensuring the tail stays straight is a bit of an engineering feat!

The skull is pretty much a duplicate of the 76964 T. rex skull set, and I will compare the two later in the review. 

What I did notice at this point was the slightly random distribution of the two shades of tan used. In some places that aids the aesthetics, helping to create a more realistic look, in other places it seems a little awkward and made the some areas of the fossil look less convincing to me. Once I'd noticed it in the skull, there were other instances that bothered me, most noticeably in the legs. That feels slightly like nit-picking though, as if this were all tan it would also be quite boring and possibly more challenging to build.

That colour placement issue aside, the finished dinosaur skeleton looks really great. 

It's mostly a solid construction too; the odd rib does move here and there if you nudge it – but then, they are ribs, and are pretty secure. That movement can be mostly avoided by holding the model as shown in the instructions: holding the side pillars of the stand, one in each hand, to bear the whole weight. 

The new click joint feels like a necessary development to support the head and it does the job very well. I'd like side-to-side movement as well, for some more dynamic pose options, but perhaps that would have come at the expense of stability.

The click joint is quite firm and takes some effort to move. Initially I felt it was a little too stiff and an individual "click" was significantly harder to control because of the necessary forces involved. I was also concerned with what that would mean in terms of fatigue over time. Will this strong, firm joint succumb to a similar loosening that are experienced with some other LEGO joints?

With the skeleton finished, there is one final model to build: the information plaque. It comes with a nice little vignette of Ellie and Alan that reflects the first scene in Jurassic Park that they appear in; at a dig in the Montana Badlands. I prefer this approach, for the information plaque in a big display set, where often it feels like a bunch of black parts have been added to bump up the parts count.

The plaque mentions that this LEGO T. rex has the specimen number LIH23-5987. I attended a designer roundtable interview where it was revealed that the number literally refers to where and when this particular T. rex specimen was discovered: The first part of that number stands for 'LEGO Innovation House 2023'. 

©2000 The LEGO Group

The second part comes from the LEGO® Adventurers set 5987 Dino Research Compound from 2000, which was itself a kind of tribute to dinosaurs and palaeontology, as well as being the first appearance of the classic green T. rex animal mould (trex07 - 30457, 30459, 30456, 6128 & 6127).

The finished model is something to behold, much like I imagine seeing a real T. rex skeleton would feel.

Accuracy of LEGO set 76968 compared to real skeletons

Barnum Brown discovered the first fragments of what became known as Tyrannosaurus rex over 120 years ago. Since then, palaeontologists have discovered more about this late Cretaceous apex predator lizard, and our ideas of exactly what it looked like have changed to reflect each new discovery. 

'Sue' - by Evolutionnumber9 on wikipedia

The fossils for full sized adults that we have access to aren't complete. One of the most complete that can be visited is 'Sue', housed at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

When compared to Sue, we can see that the LEGO skeleton is missing a group of bones known as gastralia, and I'm sure some people will bemoan their absence. I am struggling to see how those could have been accurately depicted in LEGO form at this scale though. Furthermore, many existing fossils are without their gastralia and so I feel that their omission is not a big deal.

There are only a small number of nearly complete T. rex specimens. Their price tags are in the millions; the most expensive to date, 'Stan', sold at auction in 2020 for US$31.8 million. At circa $250, the LEGO version seems much better value to me!

Overall, at scale, I am surprised by how closely the designer Benjamin Liboriussen managed to get so much resemblance to a real example. There are some inaccuracies of course; LEGO construction is very versatile these days but still has its limitations. However, I think this model has the feel of something you might see exhibited in a museum. 

At the roundtable, Benjamin expressed that he had not intended to try to represent any particular museum specimen, that rather the LEGO specimen was an interpretation of the T. rex skeleton in its own right. Specimen LIH23 - 5987!

Comparisons to other LEGO T. rex

As mentioned, the skull is virtually the same as the one that was released in January 2024, 76964 Dinosaur Fossils: T. rex Skull.

With the exception of a few recolours, and the adapted structure to allow for the neck connection and the redesigned jaw, the skull is indeed very nearly the same build.

The main difference is that jaw, which is mostly an altered construction and I think those changes do make the skull much closer to the subject matter; particularly the stronger jawline that is more flush with the upper jaw, creating a bulkier, broad head for the T. rex.

I think it's fair to say there are still some differences from a Tyrannosaurus skull, and that this LEGO representation may leave some fans wanting a closer approximation. Personally, I find myself feeling that this is a perfect example of the old adage, 'If it isn't broken, don't fix it!' 

I initially suspected that Benjamin Liboriussen thought something similar. However, the truth was a lot more fun than that. After set 76964 was finished, Benjamin asked his design lead, would it be funny to build a body for the skull? The answer was yes, and so began a long process: a passion project for Benjamin, involving free time, "Fabulab Fridays" – time set out by The LEGO Group for creative development, many iterations of the skeleton, meetings with colleagues (not least of who included the legendary set designer and actual palaeontologist Niels Milan Pedersen), and then project development time after the concept was approved to become a set.

I am pleased that this larger model has been produced largely in tan. LEGO® Ideas set 21320 Dinosaur Fossils, at the time of its release, drew criticism and much discussion over the choice of white for the depiction of the three dinosaur fossils. Even if fossil specimens do appear in white, through all shades of tan, to dusty browns, and indeed even some browns that are darker than the darkest that The LEGO Group makes, this feels like the right choice to me. It continues the palette established by the previous sets in what I sincerely hope will become a permanent subtheme: LEGO Fossils.

The T. rex from the original LEGO Ideas set, shown above, couldn't hope to compete with the majesty of the new model but I wonder if any of the three currently available Dinosaur Fossils sets would exist if that set had not 'got the dig off to a good start'.

Before the reveal of this set, I think it would have been fair to assume that "Rexy" from 75936  T. rex Rampage would probably be the biggest T. rex LEGO would ever produce, but even that monstrous tyrant lizard king is dwarfed by this fossil version.

I think it is possibly an understatement to say that LEGO T. rexes are popular, and in recent years, The LEGO Group generally seems to have at least one T. rex available in their range. Currently, there are a number available. Most recently, 76967 Little Eatie was released and only six months before that, LEGO Creator 3in1 introduced 31151 T. rex. The seemingly perpetual 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs has been a constant part of the range for over eight years now, and if it closes out the year, it will be the longest-serving LEGO set ever! I would be extremely surprised if 76968 comes close to that longevity but it is a nice enough set to deserve a long run.

Conclusion

Tyrannosaurus rex was big, and this model reflects that suitably. It may not actually be the biggest LEGO model ever, it may not contain the most parts, it might not even be the most accurate but for me, this fantastically impressive model is probably the pinnacle of the currently available display sets.

I'm not someone who generally displays LEGO models, but here is a set I will gladly display. I will probably need to fight my son for the displaying rights though,  and in the unlikely event that I win that debate with my resident dinosaur expert, the only problem would then be where to display something this large.

When considering the cost or value of this set, I decided to look at what else you might buy for the same money if you were in the market for a real dinosaur fossil. When barely identifiable chunks of T. rex tooth can cost more than this LEGO set, it's clear that the real thing is beyond the finances of most of us. Because anything with similarly impressive dimensions is likely to be coprolite.

This set was intended to be a celebration of dinosaur fossils, of palaeontology, and Jurassic Park too. Benjamin wanted it to be fun, to inspire children, teenagers, young adults and AFOLs of any age to learn more about palaeontology.

I had fun building it. I was impressed by the quality of the model and the heart that has clearly gone into making it. My son and I spent a good amount of time building it and that was wonderful time spent together too. Recommendations really don't come much stronger than that.

There is undeniably a lot of LEGO bricks for the money, even if there are quite a few small parts. The finished model is a display centrepiece and one I would have vicariously coveted, pined for and eagerly anticipated as a child.

I feel like the initial demand for this set will be quite high and it may quickly go to back order on the day of release. While it will no doubt be restocked in time, the wait for a set to be replenished can feel prolonged.  

 

 

READ MORE: LEGO® BLUEY™ June 2025 sets revealed

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