RWBY Rex (also referred to as the Raptor[1]) is a recurring non-canon character originally featured in Monty Oum's Twitter feed photos. He has made sporadic appearances throughout the series as an in-joke and easter egg.
Starting with Volume 4 however, he stopped appearing in the show altogether with the exception of a cameo in "Cordially Invited" as a hood ornament.
Appearance[]
RWBY Rex appears as a small to large sized dromaeosaur, with a beige coloration and deep green eyes. He has a bulky body, with a light underbelly, and long, spindly fingers, each tipped with a large claw.
Much like other members of the Dromaeosaurid, or raptor, family, this dinosaur has a sickle-shaped claw. This is an iconic trait of this dinosaur family, of which the most well known genus is Velociraptor, made famous in Steven Spielberg's famous 1993 movie Jurassic Park.
Appearances[]
RWBY Rex's debut was on Monty's Twitter feed, when he posted an image of Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee riding a dinosaur, joking that he had been awake for too long.[2] RWBY Rex has subsequently appeared in several similar tongue-in-cheek scenarios:
- As a waiter serving Ruby, Weiss and Blake Belladonna at a diner (following the release of the "Black" Trailer).[3]
- As the lead singer of a band also featuring Team RWBY (following the release of the "Yellow" Trailer).[4]
- As Batman, alongside Weiss who is apparently playing the role of the Joker, in reference to the Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight.
- In a parody of the Coppertone sunscreen advertisement, pulling at Jaune Arc's pajamas.
- During the RTX premiere of "The Shining Beacon", for a single frame, where a visual effect and a sound effect were missing, along with the text "VFX Missing", as a joke by the animators.
- When Penny Polendina shoots down the two Bullheads in "Black and White", Rex can be seen falling from the right-hand Bullhead. This was brought to light after Monty mentioned that Rex was hidden in an Easter Egg in the show, and later confirmed by Gray G. Haddock.[1][5]
- In the background of some work-in-progress footage of Volume 2 featured in the first RWBY Production Diary.
- In "Extracurricular" during the fight between Pyrrha Nikos and Mercury Black, sitting in the back row.
- In "Battle of Beacon" in the fairgrounds during the attack on Beacon.
- In "Cordially Invited" as a hood ornament on Ironwood's car.
Trivia[]
- The Raptor is a default model in Poser, the program used to animate RWBY's first three volumes.
- The Raptor likely stopped being added because of Monty Oum's death as well as the show switching from Poser Pro to Maya from Volume 4 onwards.
- In the band picture, the name "RWBY Rex" is written on Yang Xiao Long's drums; this may be the official name for RWBY Rex.
- The size of RWBY Rex has varied widely between his appearances; in its first few artworks it was large enough for two of the girls to ride like a horse, but in the picture with Jaune Arc it appeared about the size of a small dog.
- Contrary to the "rex" suffix, the dinosaur's character model appears to look similar to the dromaeosaurid dinosaurs known as Utahraptor and Deinonychus, which were not related to Tyrannosaurus rex.
- In Volume 7, a new type of Grimm called a Teryx is introduced. The Grimm is a winged Velociraptor which might have been partially inspired by the RWBY Rex's design.