Jurassic Park Series 1: Electronic Command Compound

Year of release: 1993

Accessories:

-Compound building with four pieces of dino damage (including catwalk door), roof, catwalk, crow’s nest, hatchery with four eggs and electronic talking computer with computer probe

-Six pieces of fencing

-Main gate with two pieces of dino damage

-Two pieces of equipment

-Tranq missile launcher with two missiles

-Net Launcher with net

Description/Analysis/Playability:

(For convenience’s sake I will describe these three categories together to decrease repetition and redundancy, as well as to make this review as short as it needs to be.)

-Compound building: the Compound building itself sports a largely circular design save for the window sticking out of the wall. It measures some 60 centimetres in height. It features grey walls constructed on a dark green platform and includes a beige roof (removable, though only for assembly purposes). Some parts of the walls are decorated with sculpts showing dinosaur skulls and bones. On the front part there are two protrusions: the fences can be hooked to these so they’re attached to the building.

The Compound consists of three levels: first, the ground level which stores the computer and the hatchery and is basically the command centre of the play set. On the left wall (from the inside that is) it features a removable dino damage wall piece, allowing a ferocious dinosaur to burst through the wall to attack the puny humans inside. It’s randomly patterned and looks quite convincing, but it’s not always easy to put back in place. On the other side of the room there is another piece of dino damage, the window. The entire window can be removed, again looking random and chaotic, like some large carnivore just took a chunk out of the building. The window is easier to replace. The hatchery, basically a large round dark grey device with storage room for the four blue eggs it comes with, is located directly beneath the dino damage window, so when suffering a dinosaur attack the first thing to be knocked over when the window has been chewed off is the hatchery. Interesting detail: two of the four eggs sport a small Ceratopsian crawling out on top of the egg. The other two eggs show cracks only, like the eggs are about to hatch. In the middle of the room the electronic computer is located (see below).

The second level is the catwalk, which runs from one side of the building to the other, in about a 250 degree angle, giving the humans a wide vista of the environment outside. It too features dino damage, in two different places. Most obvious is the actual catwalk damage as described on the play set’s box, on the front part of the catwalk directly above the computer. A large enough dinosaur (say, the Red Rex) attacking the building is able to break off a piece of the catwalk in order to grab any human figures unlucky enough to stand there between its jaws. Fortunately for them there’s a door (dark grey with a round top sporting a JP logo sticker) directly behind them providing them with a means of escape. This door itself can also be called a piece of dino damage, though it’s not labelled as such. Since the back side of the Compound is entirely open (so kids can play with the building’s inside sections) dinosaurs can also attack human figures from the other side, thus allowing a big dinosaur to burst through the catwalk door unexpectedly and demolish both the door and the catwalk at the same time. Fortunately, the catwalk need not be totally defenceless, since it provides ample space for the missile launcher (see below).

The third level is the crow’s nest, right under the straw roof. It’s basically a lookout station, allowing the human figures to see dinosaurs coming from afar (though it’s also an obvious target for an aerial attack). It has no actual options and provides room for only a few figures.

-Electronic talking Computer: this large dark grey computer module is adorned with various computer screen stickers to make it look like the computer is keeping track of the dinosaurs in the park. The computer itself features four red buttons, the one which is located near the screens activates the computer (at which point a voice is heard stating ‘Jurassic Park Compound: secure!’). Pressing this button always causes the same sentence to be heard, while the other three buttons provide a multitude of different sentences, voices and sounds (including various dinosaurs roars and damage sounds). On the back of the computer there’s a hole: when the computer is put in its proper place inside the Compound building it allows for one of the fences to be attached to the computer. When this fence is moved (as in, attacked by a dinosaur) it also causes sounds and voices to be produced by the computer. The same applies to the computer probe (which can be placed on a small blue arm sticking out of he dark green base of the Compound) which is attached to the computer: pressing the front part of the probe (which is actually a button) activates additional phrases. The box states that the computer is capable of producing over a 100 phrases, though I for one never kept track of this. However, there’s sure a lot of them, so it might very well be true. Apart from the sounds in some instances pressing a button will activate the red light on top of the computer, which flashes three times in a row, usually paired with a somewhat annoying alarm sound. The light is quite strong and looks damn cool in the dark. When no button has been pressed for ten minutes or so, the computer says ‘Operator, please log in’, along with the red light flashing without the alarm. If no buttons are pressed, the computer shuts itself down some minutes later. Be careful playing with this computer, you wouldn’t want to ruin it as it’s one of the coolest components of this play set.

-Main Gate: the gate stands some 30 centimetres tall and sports an all black paint job. It basically consists of a small platform with two large pillars on it, each holding a door and sporting protrusions on one side so the fences can be connected to the gate, which are attached on the top side by a large plate adorned with the JP logo. It’s decorated with two small red flames on top as well as a large Jurassic Park sticker on the plate (much like in the movie). On either side of the top of the gate there’s a small platform with room for a figure or small weaponry like the missile launcher. The gate is also equipped with dino damage: it can be locked by closing it with a large black bar (sporting ridges on the front giving it a wooden look). However, when trying hard enough dinosaurs can split the bar and break through the gate. The bar can be made whole again by simply attaching the two pieces together.

-Fences: this set comes with a total of six identical dark grey fences. Each fence is made of a small platform with two large bars on each side and rods and “wires” in-between. The fences can be linked together (as well as to the Main Gate and the Compound building) via the protrusions on each side. Each fence measures some 30 centimetres wide and 20 centimetres tall. Some of them can be adorned with a small sticker which can be wrapped around a wire on the fence, thus forming a sign saying ‘Danger! 10,000 Volts’, like in the film. The fences have no actual action features of their own.

-Net Launcher: the net launcher consists of a small black platform standing on three large black legs, thus forming a tripod. On top of the platform a large grey contraption is located, with a red button on the back and a huge black arm sticking out on top. Pushing this arm down and placing the net on top of it springs the mechanism with which to fire the launcher. Pressing the button launches the net, in distances of up to half a metre. The net itself (black, with a small grey weight on each end) is quite small, and since the launching pattern is hard to predict it often misses its target (which makes hitting the target all the more worthwhile). Thanks to the tripod the net can easily be launched over the fences, and as such it’s a useful tool (though not very accurate) for capturing dinosaurs on the other side of the fence and guarding the Compound.

-Missile Launcher: the missile launcher is coloured dark grey and is placed on a blue arm (thus adding consistency with the two pieces of equipment and the computer probe, which sport a similar design). It can be rotated up and down. It comes with two different blue missiles, one with a round design and one with a star like design. It can hold one missile at a time, so the other is kept as a reserve, and is fired by pressing the red button on top of the launcher. It has a good range (up to 70 centimetres) and a decent impact force, enough to knock over most smaller dinosaur figures.

-Equipment: additionally this play set comes with two different large blue pieces of equipment. Neither has an action feature, they both serve as extra detailing of the set as a whole. One of them looks like huge syringe, while the other is labelled a diagnostic screen. Apparently these items can be used as aides in processing a captured tranquillised dinosaur.

Realism: the whole design of the building and it’s paint job make it a good toy version of various constructions seen in the JP movie, i.e. the Visitor’s Center (which is of course too big to make a more accurate toy model of), the Jurassic Park main gate and the fences found all over the park. The grey paint job with the sculpts on the walls and the beige straw roof is an obvious nod to the look of the Visitor’s Center as seen in the film, while the inside of the Compound consists of both a control room and hatchery, so two locations of this building have been joined together in this toy model for convenience. The main gate with the flames on top and the large doors is also a fine approximation of the gate seen in the film, but smaller in size (the JPS1 cars only barely fit through the gate) and with less detail (only two flames instead of the multitude seen in the film) and a darker paint job. The fences are quite different from their movie counterparts, smaller and more open (allowing smaller dinosaurs to fit through and escape!), though still recognizable as based on the fences seen in the film (the little ‘Danger! 10,000 Volts’ signs are a dead giveaway). The various pieces of weaponry and equipment this play set comes with are made up to add more playability to the set.

Overall, the design of the Command Compound seems based on the design of the Raptor Pit as seen in the film: a single building as a watchtower to keep dinosaurs locked up inside the fencing in check, with a gate for removing and adding dinosaurs to this prison and weaponry to make people feel secure while dealing with potentially dangerous dinosaurs.

Repaint: as part of the first JP toy line the Command Compound is obviously not a repaint. Some parts of it, namely five of the six fences, the main gate, the missile launcher with both missiles and the net launcher, would be repainted for Hasbro’s JP III Raptor Attack Playset, adding some much needed Kenner feel to the disappointing JP III toy line. The rest of the Command Compound play set would never be repainted for later toy lines.

Overall rating: 10/10. This play set is an absolute brilliant piece of work on Kenner’s part, sporting a great design and numerous interesting functions (though most of them not very original), loading it with enough playability to keep you busy for hours, especially when you add some human and dinosaur figures to the mix. As such, the Command Compound is a real must have for any JP fan; fortunately it’s not rare, though complete or MIB sets aren’t always easy to find. Costs may vary, but this play set is definitely worth your money.