The last time I was this excited for a movie premiere was Jurassic Park. After several rumors that fizzled out, the first remake of King Kong (let's forget about the '76 De Laurentiis flop; a Kong without dinosaurs isn't Kong!) is finally being released, a good 70 years after the original. (Though as I write this, it's still in the future, and I'm just building up my excitement and fantasies.)
To celebrate the return of King Kong, I'd love to unveil a trove of rare Kong merchandise from the museum, but Kong, after all, is just a big ape. He's outside my collecting purview, so the only item I have is a Sofubi Kong (Photo 1: Universal Studios, 1983) that I can't even remember when I bought. It's actually quite well-made, though.
Unfortunately, the dinosaur antagonists that I do collect—for dinosaur fans, aren't they the real stars? Dinosaur enthusiasts consider the 1933 film a masterpiece of dinosaur cinema—were rarely modeled (though I do recall a resin kit that recreated the iconic scene of Kong vs. Pteranodon…).

So, I had no choice but to create this (Photo 2). I modified the X-Plus 1933 Tyrannosaurus, released to coincide with the new movie, into the famous jaw-scratching pose.
What is the jaw (or behind the ear?) scratching pose?

It's a gesture the Tyrannosaurus makes right after its first appearance on screen in the 1933 Kong. For some reason, it became a trope for carnivorous dinosaurs appearing in subsequent stop-motion dinosaur films. In Ray Harryhausen's "The Valley of Gwangi" (1969), it's likely an homage to O'Brien, his mentor, who animated the 1933 Kong. But by "Planet of Dinosaurs" (1978) (a rather lame movie where unmotivated men and women just wander around, but it has lots of dinosaurs, so it gets a pass) and "Dinosaur Wars" (1996) (it's a Carnotaurus scratching! Is that why its arms are longer?), it's probably just a gag. Similarly, in the playful "Dinosaur Panic" (terrible Japanese title!) made by the world's strongest dinosaur enthusiast Don Glut in 1996, they twist it, and the Hadrosaur that gets eaten does the scratching. In a rare instance, Phil Tippett, the modern animation master, made the model-animated T-Rex, the prototype for the CG in the main feature, do it in the test footage for "Jurassic Park."

Will the V-Rex scratch its jaw? I'm excited to find out. Next time, it's Kong again! I want to focus on the dinosaurs that appear in the film.

Bonus: I also found this. It's a Christmas ornament. Merry Christmas!