The Adventures of T-Rex was a 1992 animated series set in Rep City, which looked a whole lot like 1940's Los Angeles, but populated by anthropomorphic dinosaurs.
The Brothers are an entertainment troupe playing to the crowds at the Dragon Company night club. When crime strikes, they become a quintet of armor-clad heroes collectively named T-Rex. Bruno, Bernie, Bubba, Buck and Bugsy fight crime with body-part-specific powers (Super-Strength in the arms, legs, tail, and jaws, respectively, while Bugsy had a telekinetic gaze).
Their opposition usually comes from Boss Graves, who ran a rival club called the Plantation, but secretly also the head of an organized crime group called the Corporation.
It ran for 52 episodes, but has never seen a modern release.
The Adventures of T-Rex provides examples of:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: With the dinosaur motif, it's not really surprising every few episodes, there'd be a giant monster. Such as Hot Shot, Really Big Foot (a.k.a. Murray), who just wanted an audience for his jokes, and a giant living bagel.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: All the dinosaur-people would go shoeless by default.
- Berserk Button: Big Boss absolutely hated when Little Boss called him "B.B." Which was all the time.
- Big Bad: Big Boss Graves, a gremlin-ish saurian, who most of the other villains took their orders from.
- The Brute: Several members of the Corporation count, but the most seen was Axe, named after his trademark weapon. It didn't matter much that he wasn't that smart, because the cops were even dumber.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: The final episode, "Super T-Rex", had the group getting modified armor with attachments that made their specific power stronger. Its ultimate feature was that now they could combine into a vehicle.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the brothers wore a specific color on their clothes, armor, and even their boxer shorts to make it easier to tell them apart. Bugsy was purple, Bruno was pink, Bernie was blue, Buck was yellow, and Bubba was green.
- Cool Car: The team's battle van, dubbed the Rexmobile. Besides whatever weaponry the writers could dream up, it could be summoned to the brothers' location so they could transform in the field.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: One villain was a giant fire-breathing "colossosaur" named Hot Shot.
- The Dragon: Boss Graves had Little Boss, his sister's son, who was seemingly only there as a favor to her. His real right-hand-man was a relatively competent crook named Shooter, though.
- Dress-O-Matic: Most episodes used a recurring Transformation Sequence where their regular clothes got exchanged for their armor. Instead of being the same thing every time, though, it would be modified if someone wasn't there for plot reasons.
- Extreme Omnivore: Buck usually disarmed enemies by eating their guns.
- Freeze Ray: All the guns in the show ("coolers") are these. The ammo they used was an element specifically called "freeze".
- Glass-Shattering Sound: The singing voice of the brothers' baby sister, Ginger.
- High-Powered Career Woman: Myrna, owner of the Dragon Company, who didn't take crap from anybody.
- Howard Hughes Homage: Transportation magnate Howard Huge is named after him.
- Institutional Apparel: Arrested bad guys were usually seen in jail, wearing prison uniforms with blue and yellow stripes instead of black and white.
- The Juggernaut: Cuddles, a dinosaur whose face is covered in spikes. Meaning his favorite attack was charging at his target face-first.
- Nepotism: Little Boss, who only has a job with the Corporation as a favor to the boss's sister, his mom.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- News commentator Waldo Winch was a parody of Walter Winchell.
- Edgar J. Vissel, the nebulous law enforcement official who gave T-Rex their orders, was of course a saurian pastiche of J. Edgar Hoover.
- Off on a Technicality: Episode "Crime Takes a Holiday" had every member of the Corporation thrown in jail because Flo was secretly feeding information to Myrna. By the end of the episode it's said by the mayor they were all released on a technicality. It's said with relief, because everybody from the mayor to the chief of police to the show's main radio commentator were on the verge of losing their jobs with a crime-free city.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The villains' scientific advisor is only known as "The Doctor".
- Police Are Useless: It isn't that the police are up against a breed of criminal that's way out of their league, that only T-Rex can handle. The Rep City PD are so inept it's a source of humor.
- Random Species Offspring: It's a little hard to tell exactly what Ginger's supposed to be, but she looks nothing like the tyrannosaurs her brothers are.
- Running Gag:
- Whenever the brothers were about to transform, they'd tap a statue in the middle of their chairs, saying "T-Rex is the name, and crime busting's...", with each one supplying a supposedly amusing observation before the Transformation Sequence started.
- When the Rexmobile emerged from its garage, it would devastate a newstand on the corner next to it, leaving the proprietor shaking his fist in rage at the heroes as they sped off. Some episodes had a bit where he would try some outrageous (but ultimately futile) plan to stop them.
- Spike Shooter: Bad guys Sherman and Bradley could shoot the horns on their foreheads.
- Status Quo Is God: Arrested villains were usually seen in jail at the end of the episode, but back out without explanation by the next.
- Techno Babble: The scientist who came up with T-Rex's gadgets was incapable of saying anything in plain English. Fortunately, Buck could explain things for him.
- Trademark Favorite Food: The Doctor is obsessed with bagels.
- Victory Is Boring: Episode "Crime Takes a Holiday" has Myrna and Flo teaming up to secretly bring down the Corporation. After all its members are in jail, the brothers just spend all their time sitting around their apartment eating chips, not knowing what to do with themselves without crime to fight.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Episode "Play It Again", stuffed to the gills with references to Casablanca.
- WPUN: Waldo Winch reports for station KREP.
