SOMETHING HAS SURVIVED; T. REX RETURNS TO SIMI SCARE-FEST.

Byline: Douglas Clark Daily News Staff Writer

An animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex - a 25-foot-tall and 42-foot-long dinosaur that tilts, stretches and roars - has come to Holiday Farms in Simi Valley for a return engagement.

A highlight of last year's Halloween offerings at the fruit and vegetable market at the corner of Madera Road and Los Angeles Avenue, the monster attraction will cost market owner Jimmy Erhardt $10,000 for its monthlong stay.

Erhardt said he leased the tyrannosaur from Dinamation of Irvine because Halloween has become such big business he needs to do everything possible to draw a crowd.

The dinosaur and other attractions, such as a 10,000-square-foot haunted house, will be open from Wednesday to Nov. 1, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.

``You've got to outdo the competition. Every year you've got to try something new,'' he said.

Christine Hindley, director of marketing for Dinamation, which formed in 1982, said the dinosaur on display was built long before the movies ``Jurassic Park'' and ``The Lost World'' were made.

``We were around before the movies, and we'll be around after the movies go away. Kids just love these dinosaurs,'' she said.

Dinamation has built 700 creatures that are exhibited worldwide. Hindley said part of the purpose of creating the larger-than-life animatronics is educational.

``We use fossil evidence to reconstruct how the muscle would form on the bone. And we work (with) paleontologists on how the skin would look,'' she said.

Erhardt said he learned of Dinamation after running a concession site at Universal Studios. That shop closed last year, but the contacts he made led him to the tyrannosaur, which was installed Saturday.

Visitors to Holiday Farms may have their picture taken near the mouth of the now-extinct creature at a cost of $3.

Though the prehistoric beast isn't new this year, Erhardt's Halloween costume shop, featuring an assortment of scary get-ups for children and adults, definitely is. Rubber claws, masks and devilish attire are displayed in the bins usually reserved for produce.

But Holiday Farms also will offer a wide selection of a less-threatening aspect of Halloween. This week, Erhardt and some of the 30 workers he employees unloaded over 1 million pounds of pumpkins in all sizes.

Customers can harvest their own potential jack-o'-lanterns from Erhardt's 10-acre parcel, where he has operated for 13 years.

The large corner lot allows Erhardt to offer what he calls haunted hayrides. While taking a short trip through the pumpkin patch, riders are visited by actors dressed as ghouls.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1--color) A pumpkin would be barely a mouthful for Holiday Farms' animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex, part of a monthlong Halloween production.

(2) The namesake from the ``Predator'' films is one of the creatures set to haunt the Halloween attraction at Holiday Farms.

(3) A costume shop is new this year to the production in Simi.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News