Prehistoric Giant Gets the Spotlight at IAAPA Expo 2021
Dino Don Inc. (Booth #1931) is exhibiting on the trade show floor for the first time for IAAPA Expo 2021. The company attended the Expo once before, but this felt like the year to exhibit, according to Robby Gilbert, vice president of exhibits and product development.
“We took into account that the industry itself is coming back, and its really starting to thrive,” Gilbert said. “We do a lot of work with zoos and museums, and we’re branching into the entertainment and theme park industry. Knowing that it’s coming back strong, we wanted to be here, and we wanted to come with a big presence.”
And big, it was.
Owned by Don Lessem, Dino Don Inc. works firsthand with professional paleontologists to create full, adult-size, animatronic creatures, specializing in, of course, dinosaurs. The team has also created saber-toothed tigers, giant insects, and dragons. For IAAPA Expo 2021, however, the company brought a 40-foot-long,15- to 18-foot-high, adult-size T. rex. The animatronic is modeled after “SUE,” the famous, fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex from the Field Museum in Chicago, and shows what she might have looked like in the flesh.
When asked if Dino Don Inc. would be returning next year, Gilbert said, “Of course.”
“Absolutely, 100%, we’ll be back every year that we can come,” he said. “The question then becomes, which animal do we bring that tops our T. rex? Hard to do. So, maybe we’ll bring two.”
